Man From The 25th Century
This 1968 Irwin Allen production never got off the ground, and it’s kind of a shame.
Tomo was abducted from his 1951 Earth life and given combat and telekinesis training on a distant planet 500 years in the future by alien beings, his ultimate mission being to return to 1951 and destroy an Earth defense project named Project Delphi. Weird, right? He’s given a final review by the alien board and his skills are found wanting, but they’re out of time. They need to send him 500 years back in time right now. I can only assume that’s due to some limitation of time travel that my 21st century brain can’t comprehend.
Tomo returns to 20th century Earth as Robert Prentice, a man on his way to start working at Project Delphi. That was easy! On the way there, the Project takes control of his car and drives him the rest of the way.
He’s given a tour of the facilities and quickly tries to blow it all up. He’s captured and exposed as a traveler from the future. The aliens who sent him decide that he’s too knowledgeable to let live, so they send a spacecraft to destroy him… and a bunch of innocent people. Tomo/Prentice is shocked that he was working for the wrong team and works with the 20th century Earthlings to repel the attack.
They successfully beat the aliens back, for now. We never find out what happened after that, because the pilot never made it to series. Like I said, kind of a shame – there was something there. It’s rough and there are some gaps of logic but it’s still a lot of fun. Check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOUF8NuIK0w
Don’t Put It In Your Mouth
This 1993 Canadian PSA answers the ‘why’ of that age old command not to put just anything in your mouth – in nightmarish fashion. And then tacks on a message about not taking anything from strangers. Or putting an item taken from strangers into your mouth.
Wartime Kraft Cheese Ad
I don’t know what bugs me specifically about this wartime ad for Kraft cheeses. Maybe because I’m not sure I associate Philadelphia Cream Cheese part of a wartime-thrift diet? I still love the design and the audacity of the effort, though.
World’s Finest Victory Garden
Now THIS is a wartime effort I can get behind!
Merlin Commercial
This 1980s commercial for Parker Brothers’ Merlin electronic game doesn’t do much to sell me on it. I remember this thing being confounding and confusing even back then when we were harder up for entertainment. I wonder if anyone would have the patience for it now.
-ds