There were a lot of unremarkable television shows made during the seventies and eighties. But because those were my formative years, those shows have an unwarranted prominence in my memories. Tales Of The Gold Monkey… Scarecrow And Mrs. King… these and other Bruce Boxleitner crapfests were the order of the day.
I’ll never forget a programme called Salvage One:
"Once upon a time, a junkman had a dream…"
"’I’m gonna build a spaceship, go to the moon, salvage all the junk that’s up there, bring it back and sell it.’"
"So he put together a team. An ex-astronaut… a fuel expert… they built a rocketship… And they went to the moon. Who knows what they’ll do next?"
The answer to that rhetorical question turned out to be "not much". The show was cancelled after just half a season.
I think the reason why I can recall Salvage One so clearly is that the premise really appealed to my young self: ordinary people building a spaceship.
My memories of Salvage One were particularly strong today as I watched the footage of SpaceShipOne making its historic flight.
Can a Bionic Man be far behind?