After errands, James was back to making breakfast burritos and when I finished with housework, I went back to the routine: the episode of Designing Women with Lewis Grizzard and the Odd Couple story where Oscar ran for city councilman (it's the one with the running Rhode Island joke). Also some funny commercials, a PM Magazine profile of John Moschitta, and a segment at the end of an NBC news broadcast about a television-watching dog.

Now I'm doing Voyagers!, the 1980s NBC kids' show about a time-travelling adventurer and former pirate, Phineas Bogg, who by accident links up with a 12-year-old boy from 1982 New York. The series was made for children, so it has the usual stupid bits network shows put in kids' shows, but it had a devoted adult following, too. I have five eps: "Merry Christmas, Bogg," which I've already dubbed off, the pilot show (which, except for its really stupid device of having the Wright brothers abandon work on the airplane because they were fighting over a girl—the brothers were already married at the time—was action-packed and fun), "Voyagers of the Titanic," "Jack's Back" (which featured the return of Voyagers! most hated villain), and the bread-and-butter show "The Trial of Phineas Bogg," which is my favorite episode of all, and probably one of the series' best remembered eps.

A "bread and butter" show is one that primarily shows clips from previous episodes; it's a budget-saver for the studio. The canny writer of this story, Jill Sherman, featured the clips in a framework that had Bogg and Jeffrey summoned back to Voyagers headquarters so that Bogg could face charges of having violated their codes. The story introduced the villanous Drake, who was trying to take over the Voyager council by manufacturing evidence against operatives he didn't like. Drake was played to perfection by Stephen Liska. He was one of those people, I always said, that Lassie would growl at the moment she saw him. :-) (Heck, Lassie would have jumped at his throat and attacked him.) Drake is the menace who returns in "Jack's Back."

There are a couple of eps I really didn't like, but several others I wish I'd kept, like the Wernher Von Braun story and the one about Mabel Hubbard (plus my copy of the pilot was from the syndication run, where they cut out Jeffrey telling Bogg what happened to his parents), so I do wish there would be a series set, despite still having my favorites.

BTW, I guess I'm thick, but it took me a while to understand why Bogg always had to romance the obligatory girl involved in the story. :-)

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:29:00 PM

Comments:

Cute blog on Voyagers! I love the show. The trial of Phineas Bogg is a great episode. Check out my website all for Voyagers. You can watch the pilot episode if you haven't gotten the chance on the youtube links. Thanks!

# posted by  Anonymous : 2:23:00 AM

 

Hi!

I found your blog when I googled the Voyagers! episode "Merry Christmas, Bogg." I've been trying to find it for sale somewhere, but I've had no luck. You see, my dad is the actor who plays Stephen Jones, and I thought he would appreciate seeing it again for the first time in over twenty years. I was going to give it to him as a silly part of his Christmas present. Where did you find that episode? I've had no luck.

You can email me at coconnell (at) slc (dot) edu. Thanks so much.

# posted by  Anonymous : 1:52:00 PM

 

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