Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)
| Buck Rogers in the 25th Century | |
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Region 1 US DVD cover (2004)
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| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 37 (List of episodes) |
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| Running time | 60 min. (with commercials) |
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| Distributor | NBCUniversal Television Distribution |
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| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | September 20, 1979 – April 16, 1981 |
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science-fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between 1979 and 1981, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film, before the series aired. The film and series were developed by Glen A. Larson and Leslie Stevens, based on the character Buck Rogers created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan that had previously been featured in comic strips, novellas, a serial film, and on television and radio.
Inspired by the success of Star Wars, Universal began developing Buck Rogers for television, spearheaded by Glen A. Larson, who had a production deal with the studio. Production began in 1978. Initially, Larson and Universal had planned on making a series of Buck Rogers TV movies for NBC. The pilot for Larson's other science-fiction series, Battlestar Galactica (1978), had been released theatrically in some countries and in key locations in North America, and had done well at the box office. Universal then opted to release the first Buck Rogers TV movie theatrically on March 30, 1979. Good box-office returns led NBC to commission a weekly series, which began on September 20, 1979, with a slightly modified version of the theatrical release.
The production recycled many of the props, effects shots, and costumes from Battlestar Galactica, which was still in production at the time the pilot for Buck Rogers was being filmed. For example, the "landram" vehicle was made for the Galactica series, and the control sticks used in the Terran starfighters in the pilot movie were the same as those used in Galactica's Viper craft. The Terran starfighters were also concept designer Ralph McQuarrie's original vision of the Colonial Vipers.
The new series centered on Captain William Anthony "Buck" Rogers, played by Gil Gerard, a NASA/USAF pilot who commands Ranger 3, a spacecraft that is launched in May 1987. Due to a life-support malfunction, Buck is accidentally frozen for 504 years before his spacecraft is discovered adrift in the year 2491. The combination of gases that froze his body coincidentally comes close to the formula commonly used in the 25th century for cryopreservation, and his rescuers are able to revive him. He learns that civilization on Earth was rebuilt following a devastating nuclear war that occurred on November 22, 1987, and is now under the protection of the Earth Defense Directorate.
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