Buck Rogers lived in many comic book, novel, movie, and TV renditions, but the one I grew up with was the 1979 series starring Gil Gerard, which states that he launched into space in May of the far-off year 1987. Buck Rogers had a huge influence on science fiction for the next century. He is the original man-out-of-time (first appearance 1928 ) even before Captain America (1941). (I love Cap; don't get me wrong!) Buck's stories were among the first popular ones to explore things like cryogenic freezing for space travel and post-apocalyptic worlds.
I also want to take this opportunity to give a shout-out to Star Trek: Voyager for, I think, basing Captain Proton almost directly on the Buster Crabbe black and white shorts (which were my dad's favorites--thanks, late night PBS!). Those are some of my favorite episodes, Voyager.
How to Commemorate:
- Get lost.
- Make arcane references.
- Every fifth step, say "beedy beedy."
