Most kids who watched TV watched it with their family during prime time. Said programs had high production values and catered to a cross generational demographic; Mom, dad, brother, sis, kid bro or sis, even the dog.
So it always amazed me that when kids turned the tube on Saturday mornings we were treated with shows that looked like they were today's YouTube Star Wars fan film equivalents; with acting and special effects that were just as good (or bad) as the "professional" productions from years back.
And that's how I feel not just about "Far Out Space Nuts" but with all of the Saturday Morning sitcoms for kids.
Well, kids don't have money to spend, and what "disposable income" they do have they tend to spend on candy, our parents bought us toys. Ergo the exceptionally cheap feel of the shows, and in particular the Syd and Marty Kroft bombs that used to saturate Saturday Morning TV.
I didn't mind a situation comedy about a couple of impromptu astronauts. I didn't mind Bob Denver cast as the small of the two. Nor did I mind Honk, nor the fact that they used a lunar lander for interstellar travel, nor even some of the stories and gags. But it's like we, the young audience, had seen real sit comes and real scifi shows, and our expectations in terms of presentation were a bit higher.
I mean, you can't fault this show for what it is. The people working on it the best they could. But it took fifteen to twenty years for these jokers to catch up to Disney and to present something respectable, like Disney, to you audiences.
Kids may not be highly sophisticated, and where Far Out Space Nuts entertained on a certain level, to me, it felt like standard fare fed at a bargain cut rate. Slightly sub-par in the joke and presentation department, Far Out Space Nuts tries to deliver on an unspoken promise. It marginally succeeds, but could have been more.
Try it once, and see what you think.
