Seen on the Small Screen Podcast

There are those who say that life here, began out there...with producer Glen A. Larsen who presented a story of star colonies far beyond our own...and all without looking like they rode the coat tails of another space opera epic released a year earlier.  Don your space Egyptian helmets and frack the turbo boosters, because Becky, Jake, and Sammy the cat are going to discuss the first of the pilot movies that launched the classic 1978 series Battlestar Galactica. The story begins with a space politics truce signed between the human star colonies and a race of chrome-domed stormtroopers known as the Cylons.  But Commander  Adama of the Battlestar Galactica suspects foul play and sends a single patrol out to test the galactic waters. What the patrol gets in return is an ocean filled with enemy ships who have forgotten to entirely give up on their "destroy all humans" ways. In one swift stroke, the battlestars are destroyed and the human colonies are laid waste, leaving the Galactica at the head of a survivor fleet in search of a lost colony, a shining planet known as Earth. But, the search may be over before it begins for a lack of food and fuel. The solution to both problems is a rendezvous with the mysterious planet of Carillon, a casino world that doubles as a fuel depot in the middle of nowhere, a little like Vegas. Commander Adama's Cylon sense starts tingling and he suspects a trap despite those around him feeling they've finally found a refuge. What happens next involves the greatest cover-up of all time and a nightmare-fueled elevator ride into the depths of an alien world. Can the gallant warriors save their space folk and shoot their way out of dodge before the enemy's full hand is revealed?Tell us what you think by clicking here! We'd be happy to receive your comments or ideas for future episodes.

To begin this episode summary, we have a question: What do Disney, Karens, and being stranded on deserted islands all have in common with each other? The answer is the cinematic subject material of June's episode, a Disney vault classic remade for the small screen—Beverly Hills Family Robinson. As mentioned in the title, we meet a family with the last name of Robinson: they're an entitled family of proto-reality television stars who allow their camera crew the right to film them during a companied-sponsored vacation. But, when they wake up a day out to sea, they find their ship hijacked by a crew of three pirates, the likes of which are easy to subdue in a few hours and set adrift in a life raft. It's not piracy but foul weather and rogue waves that inevitably drive the ship onto the shores of an uncharted island without a single luxury aside from a perfectly functional hydro-electric grid that in turn powers a host of other modern conveniences. And when their castaway pirate pals show up as uninvited guests, it's up to the Robinsons to defend their new tree pad, even if they have to resort to every trick in the Home Alone playbook. Doug Robinson, the family patriarch, is an orthodontist after all.  Novocain needle traps and nitrous oxide bombs, anyone?  Tell us what you think by clicking here! We'd be happy to receive your comments or ideas for future episodes.

It's back through the wardrobe for a second round, a chance for Jake, Becky, and Sammy the Cat to prove their wit discussing the final part of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When we last left our group of youthful adventurers, they were hiding while one of their beaver guides went to investigate a disturbance, which turns out to be a visit from none other than Father Christmas, the Jolly Old Saint Brit himself, and his toy bag filled with non-plastic weaponry. Thusly armed and with winter on the thaw, the children sally forth and meet the next creature on their journey, Aslan the lion and a host of creatures ready to do battle with the White Witch and her army of XP-heavy monsters. But, for there to be a victor in this conflict, a sore battle must be waged for the fate of all. And to the victors go the thrones of Narnia, their heavenly laser crowns,  and a surprise trip in time at the end. And why must the land of Narnia be the only locale in the multiverse that has a flying lion attraction? Tell us what you think by clicking here! We'd be happy to receive your comments or ideas for future episodes.