MovieChat Forums > Quark (1977) Discussion > This series wasn't given an honest chanc...

This series wasn't given an honest chance

posted 18 years ago by wmattifo
7 replies | jump to latest

NBC was tanking at that time, so this series wasn't given a real chance to succeed. Put it on ABC after "Mork and Mindy" and it would have lasted 5 years, or more.

[–] humility 18 years ago

Thanks for the kind words. Timing is everything ... in television and in life. If you or anyone ever finds a copy of the Quark episodes, I'd love to know about it.

Sincerely,

Bobby Porter
"Andy"

[–] lynnybinny 18 years ago

<Thanks for the kind words. Timing is everything ... in television and in life. If you or anyone ever finds a copy of the Quark episodes, I'd love to know about it.

Sincerely,

Bobby Porter
"Andy" >

Hi Bobby,

Your best bet is with Cool Stuff.

http://www.coolstufftoys.com/quark.html

You can also download them from the official site:

http://quark.name/

[–] wmattifo 18 years ago

Kind words? Did you work on that series? Oh, i see you did. Shame it didn't work out.

It was a great spoof of sci-fi. I was young when it was on, and I remember how ABC was dominant on certain nights, and CBS had other nights. Being on NBC in the late 1970's (other than late night) was not the way to get a good chance at survival on TV.

[–] grungy 14 years ago

Bobby,

If you're still looking for it Sony Pictures has released the complete series on DVD, including the pilot.
Saw it today at Fry's and bought it immediately.

I was 22 when it came out and loved it.

[–] dpcole7 15 years ago

Agreed.

I rewatched the episodes. The pilot is iffy, but putting in Ficus and dubbing in a voice for Jean really helped. The plots are fairly decent parodies of then-popular sci-fi; the episodes that were liberally borrowing from "Star Trek" seem to be the best ones, but I enjoyed them all.

And even then, there were plenty of jokes that worked just as well for mainstream viewers - assuming they could get used to a sci-fi premise.

The show worked.

It was, in every sense of the phrase, "ahead of its time".

In ways I prefer "Mork and Mindy", especially for general audiences, particularly season 2, but "Quark" was truer to the sci-fi genre. But it's hard to compare apples and oranges... or in this case, subatomic particles to ovulations... :D

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] richard.fuller1 9 years ago

Star Trek was slowly being rediscovered and that essentially is how Quark was seen, as a parody and regarded as a ripoff of sorts.

Yes, I liked the show and it was just a weird time then. Likewise, Star Wars was big, and things like Buck Rogers (with Gil Gerard, who I just could NOT STAND!) was cancelled, so jokes about the subject matter wasn't working either.

I think it aired over the summer, didn't it?

Scifi was still regarded as kid-stuff, not bankable as it is today.