Hey, eight-year-old Caleb loved that theme song, and was wowed by the special effects. They...didn't quite age that well. Or my child-like sense of joy and wonder shriveled and dried out. One.
caleb | Email | Homepage | 11.11.08 - 9:09 pm | #

What's the deal with all the young actors having three names each?

It's funny; somehow I missed that show when it was out, when it seems like something I would have loved. Any idea what it was up against?
Rob Rogers | Email | Homepage | 11.11.08 - 9:11 pm | #

I think it was required by law for young actors on NBC to have three names...

Alas, Tim Kring's (yes, that Tim Kring) first created show aired Fridays at 8 p.m., and was up against this little CBS program about some oil family in Texas...
Aqualad | 11.11.08 - 9:43 pm | #

Additional research has unearthed a weird fact about our trio of thrice named actors...

Dean Paul Martin, son of Dino himself, died in 1987 in a National Guard plane crash, aged 35...

Kevin Peter Hall contracted HIV after a tainted blood infusion during surgery after a serious car crash in 1990...he died a year later from AIDS, aged 35...

Mark Thomas Miller was also involved in a seperate car crash, in 1991, which left him disfigured...he left acting for years, and now works as a producct engineer...

Pretty weird, no?

Meanwhile Courtney Cox married David Arquette, so I guess the curse sorta contined...
Aqualad | 11.11.08 - 9:58 pm | #

I loved that show as a kid (and had the poster), but watching that now, the theme song is COMPLETELY unintelligible. What is she singing about?
Dave Ziegler | Email | 11.11.08 - 10:42 pm | #

Oh, Young Courtney...the things teen fantasies are made of.
Sleestak | Email | Homepage | 11.11.08 - 11:22 pm | #

I miss '80s hair like Jennifer Holmes' in this clip....

The three-named actors are most likely a Screen Actors Guild thing. Under Guild rules, you're not allowed to bill yourself under another SAG member's name. With common surnames, names can get "taken" early. Obviously, there's another Dean Martin (though this one, I guess, could've been "Dean Martin Jr." if he wanted. Another example is MacGyver's "Richard Dean Anderson," whose middle name distinguishes him from The Six Million Dollar Man's "Richard Anderson."
suedenim | Email | Homepage | 11.12.08 - 4:37 am | #

You really can't go wrong with a show that has Dean Martin's kid, the guy that played the Predator, Courteney Cox, and...that other guy. Oh, and Willie from ALF.

...

Well, okay, you can go wrong. Quite easily. But I loved that show when I was a kid.
Steve | Email | 11.12.08 - 4:50 am | #

Boy you guys are not kidding about the non-intelligibility of that theme song. The last phrase in particular: the singer puts so much emphasis on it, but god if I can even hazard a guess as to what the lyrics are.
Timothy Burke | Email | Homepage | 11.12.08 - 5:16 am | #

The very last line is "Science is over -- CLASS DISMISSED."

I watched this show fanatically when it was on the air, but no one else in my family could stomach it. I remember walking to my grandparents' house one night to watch it there, because I was obviously not going to control the remote at home.
Isaac | Email | Homepage | 11.12.08 - 5:25 am | #

You joke, but if there ever was a bad TV show in need of exhaustive over-analysis, this is definitely the one.
Allan | Email | Homepage | 11.12.08 - 5:50 am | #

Oh and to continue the "curse" meme--Max Wright's (better known as the dad from ALF) career has never really been the same since the tabloids got a hold of the smoking crack/gay sex video he appeared in several years ago.

Google it, if you dare.
Allan | Email | Homepage | 11.12.08 - 5:55 am | #

Instead of watching this show when it was on, I used to watch "Shadow Chasers" ... a supernatural ghostbuster-type program. if I remember correctly, both were aired at the same time on different channels, so I couldn't watch both.
CW | 11.12.08 - 6:16 am | #

Am I imagining it, or is the guy on TV playing the piano and singing at the beginning Frankie Faison who played Ervin Burrell in The Wire?
Dom | 11.12.08 - 7:31 am | #

12 posts about Misfits of Science?

Well, THANK GOD! It's about time.
vidsaw | Email | 11.12.08 - 7:50 am | #

Gosh, Mike, you really know how to dig up the ridiculous TV shows I loved as a kid. First QUARK, and now this...

Should you ever take suggestions, I'd love to hear your thoughts on Ghostbusters (not the movie, the Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch TV show with the ape) and Monster Squad (not the movie, the "wax museum sculptures come to life to fight crime" TV show with Fred Grandy).

And then I can quit the Internets once and for all.
david z. | Email | 11.12.08 - 8:27 am | #

Okay, here's MY favorite 80s geek TV show that NOBODY remembers: Isaac Asimov's Probe, starring Parker Stevenson as science consultant to the police. Anybody? Anybody?
Matt Bird | Email | 11.12.08 - 9:29 am | #

I believe this show either preceded or followed Knight Rider. So Dallas or no, if you weren't watching this on Friday I think you missed your childhood.
Michael | 11.12.08 - 10:11 am | #

You know, Reed Richards loved this show.

It's canon!
Bret | 11.12.08 - 11:53 am | #

Matt--I watched both Misfits and Probe, and remember enjoying both of them a lot. Not sure I'd want to see an episode of either now; I think I'd rather just remember them as fun rather than actually realizing how cheesy they really were.
Jonathan Miller | Email | Homepage | 11.12.08 - 1:15 pm | #

There was a show on CBS around that time, which I can't find any evidence of. It was sort of a early-20th century period thing that involved early automobile rally racing?

Anyone remember this? I vaguely recall it being in the same period as Tales Of The Gold Monkey
Jon H | Email | 11.12.08 - 2:24 pm | #

I can't believe I missed out on this one. This looks like just the kind of thing young me would go ape over. I know I was watching Knight Rider and still missed this completely, so it must have been in a different slot.
Fnord Serious | Email | Homepage | 11.13.08 - 12:08 am | #

Jon H, I remember the show you're talking about. IIRC, it was set earlier than that, though. I think it only ran 6 episodes or something like that, and I vaguely remember the title containing the year in the date, like 1909 or something.

I'm assuming you're not referring to "Bring 'Em Back Alive", which was also around that time.
WizarDru | Email | 11.13.08 - 5:16 am | #

"I'm assuming you're not referring to "Bring 'Em Back Alive", which was also around that time."

Nope, definitely a turn-of-the century driving show, crank-up roadsters with driver/mechanic teams wearing goggles. That sort of thing.

It's good to know someone else remembers it.
Jon H | Email | 11.13.08 - 4:14 pm | #

Sounds like Wacky Races, but that was a cartoon...as was the video for "Take on Me"...
Aqualad | 11.13.08 - 7:53 pm | #

I suspect that you mean Q.E.D., a/k/a MASTERMIND, starring Sam (LAW & ORDER) Waterston as a super-genius in the early 20th century.
Lawrence Fechtenberger | Email | 11.15.08 - 10:31 am | #

"I suspect that you mean Q.E.D., a/k/a MASTERMIND, starring Sam (LAW & ORDER) Waterston as a super-genius in the early 20th century."

You know, I think you may be correct.
Jon H | Email | 11.17.08 - 7:11 am | #