Obviously, we have to start out "Buck Rogers Month" with the man himself, Gil Gerard. In many ways, Gil Gerard was television's replacement for Lee Majors (The Six-Million Dollar Man), as the big American bad ass with a good heart. The Six-Million Dollar Man had ended in 1978, and Star Wars fans were clamoring for more space adventure.Gerard never regained the popularity of Buck Rogers, which is highly typical for stars of popular shows. He has definitely retained a place in pop culture, notably of late in references on Family Guy. He also has appeared as Admiral Jack Sheehan in the web-based Star Trek: The New Voyages (here).
2 comments:
Yeah, you sort of nailed it there. He was a sort of "void filler", with Lee Majors off the air. But he never achieved the level, I think, that Majors had as Steve Austin. Still, I was there as a kid, watching and wishing I could be Buck Rogers!
Buck Rogers was a big deal all over, but especially in my hometown, since Gerard was a hometown boy. In the days before Clinton and (sigh) Mike Huckabee, he was pretty much the biggest name we had. :P
Beeda-beeda-beep.
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