Originally airing on May 22, 1977, this attempt at a weekly series comes from director Paul Wendkos (The Mephisto Waltz, Secrets, Haunts of the Very Rich) and Hammer veteran Jimmy Sangster (The Legacy; Scream, Pretty Peggy; Horror of Dracula; The Revenge of Frankenstein).

I was really excited about the potential of this one, which promises from its Amazon listing that writer Andy Stuart (Dack Rambo) teams up with an exorcist named Father Kemschler (Dan O’Herlihy!) to battle Satan and a group of devil worshipers led by Mr. Rimmin (Richard Lynch!).

Seems like Rimmin has been after a girl named Jessica from the moment she was born, as her mother was drugged and attended to by nuns who took her baby away the moment it was born. Her mom was then killed by a black cat and Jessica is raised by his people, with her origins kept a secret.

When Andy and Jessica hook up and decide to get married, she’s unable to even get near the altar. That’s because she’s been promised to the demon Astaroth and must be kept a virgin until the beast comes back and puts a devil baby in her womb. Now, the cult that has been behind every moment of her life must keep her a virgin by cockblocking Andy at every turn.

I was totally prepared for pure 1970’s Satanic bliss, only to find myself in the midst of a relationship drama for much of the films first half. Sure, there was a flashback where a woman imagined a nearly nude and totally burned up Lynch — he came by those scars the hard way — attacking her. I was thinking — is this the TV movie version of Enter the Devil — only for cruel reality to make me learn differently.

That said, there are some good moments here, like a woman being killed by her own housecats under Rimmin’s command. And Elyssa Davalos as Jessica has plenty of great qualities that make her a wonderful horror heroine in distress. And while she’s top billed when you look this film up, Kim Cattrall makes a short appearance.

I wanted to love this. It has all the elements that you would think would lead to magic. Yet it can’t put them all together. Sometimes when you deal with the devil, you don’t get what you wanted.

If you’d like to see this for yourself, it’s on Amazon Prime or you can grab the Nightmare Worlds boxset from our old friends at Mill Creek Entertainment.

Believe it or not, there was once a time when Star Trek wasn’t a movie franchise and its stars had to find other projects. For Leonard Nimoy, that meant plenty of TV movies, including this pilot for a British show that wasn’t bought.

Race car driver Tom Kovack (Nimoy) begins to see psychic visions, causing him to crash. He meets up with Michelle Brent, a paranormal expert, to help him figure out what is happening. Soon, they find themselves part of an occult mystery in England.

It’s not all that great, to be honest. It’s mostly worthwhile to see Nimoy play against Spock type. Instead of being cold and emotionless, he’s a playboy. And given to wearing some natty fashion, like plenty of hats!

Before Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Nimoy would go on to scare the shit out of me repeatedly as a child by hosting In Search Of, which convinced me that all monsters were real and constantly trying to kill me.

Even better, the original specials — before the series — try to find out the truth about ancient astronauts (the 70’s!), aliens, mysteries and more. Other than the final one, which was released as Manbeast! Myth or Monster they’re narrated by Rod Serling.

Strangely enough, The History Channel is redoing this show. The host? Today’s Spock, Zachary Quinto.

Originally broadcast on January 15, 1972, this film emerged at the tail end of the superspy craze to present a truly insane idea for a weekly series that was never to be: Bette Davis as a villainous vixen who commands an army beneath the Scottish highlands to do her bidding. Imagine if Dr. Evil were the lead in his own show and you have a vague idea of how completely bonkers this movie is.

Arming her men with sonic weaponry and possessing the ability to implant memories that make people do whatever she wants, what the titular vaguely Asian spiderlady wants is to get her very own nuclear submarine.

Helping and hindering her in this plan is Anthony Lawrence (Robert Wagner), whose father was a past lover/adversary of Madame Sin. She’s helped by Malcolm De Vere (Denholm Elliot) and a huge army of sycophants, including numerous women who dress like nuns.

If it seems like I am describing a dream I had that is my best film idea ever, this is close. Imagine if Bette Davis were a villainess on The Avengers, but one that — spoiler warning — wipes out every single person who faces her and even dares to imagine kicking the British Royal Family out of Buckingham Palace.

While intended to be an ABC in the U.S. and ITC in the U.K. co-production, this film sadly wasn’t picked up. It’d be hard to see this level of quality continued week in, week out, such as shooting everything at Pinewood Studios.

Madame Sin was directed by David Greene, who was also behind the film version of Godspell and big TV event movies like Roots and Rich Man, Poor Man. One of its writers, Barry Shear, was the director of Wild in the Streets.

Ah the 1970’s, when spy movies like this would just show up as Movies of the Week and then disappear into the ether, only to remain in our subconsciousness or perhaps a replay on the CBS Late Movie.

You can get this from Shout! Factory.

Originally airing on January 20, 1979, the pilot called Salvage debuted to high ratings — and was brought to us by Harve Bennett, who previously gave us The Six Million Dollar Man. It was an intriguing start to a series. Harry Broderick (Andy Griffith) and his Jettison Scrap and Salvage Co. have a dream, as stated in the show’s opening words: “I want to build a spaceship, go to the moon, salvage all the junk that’s up there, bring it back and sell it.”

Along with former astronaut Addison “Skip” Carmichael and NASA fuel expert Melanie “Mel” Slozar (who have a past history), they create The Vulture, a spaceship made entirely from reclaimed salvage and powered by monohydrazine (Isaac Asimov was the science consultant for this program).

The TV movie was followed by 15 episodes (20 were produced), with the last 4 shows only running decades later. Despite the initial success, ABC put this show up against WKRP in Cincinnati and Little House on the Prarie. That explains why it died a quick death.

I remember loving the initial TV movie and this was discussed often in our home as a series that had so much potential and was stopped too quickly. Luckily, CBS Late Night would replay the original pilot and the two-part episodes “Golden Orbit” and “Hard Water” as movies. CBS Late Night was an amazing, wonderful way to spend the summer as a kid in the 1970’s and 80’s, as in the pre-digital (and even VCR era) it was the only way to see shows like Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Avengers, Return of the Saint, Thriller and The Prisoner. That said, a 60-minute show would be stretched out and padded with commercials. But we didn’t have many options back then!

The CBS Late Night movie also played some really incredible films, like The Fearless Vampire Killers, Trog, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, The World, The Flesh and the Devil, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Frankenstein Created Woman, Dracula, Prince of Darkness, THX 1138, Gargoyles, She Waits, The Bad Seed, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?, Count Yorga, The Victim, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Dr. Phibes Rises Again!, The Bat People, Frogs, edited movies of Columbo, Cannon, Kojak, McMillan and Wife and Banacek, Necromancy, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, House of 1,000 Dolls (“quite possibly the sleaziest AIP movie ever made”), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (!), Rowan and Martin’s The Maltese Bippy, Killdozer, Ruby, Beyond the Door, The Devil’s Rain!, the Dr. Strange TV movie, Mitchell, The Initiation of Sarah, Patrick, Ator: The Fighting Eagle, KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park, The Apple (!), It’s Alive, It Lives Again, Q: The Winged Serpent, Fulci’s The Psychic (!), even supposedly the legendary lost movie The Astrologer (although this list doesn’t have that). These ran on free TV, folks. Where anyone could find them. I’m still just freaked out that this was available, way into the late 1980’s.

Just watch this and try not to be sad that the world is not as perfect as it once was.

If you want to see Salvage 1, you’ll have to rely on YouTube. Or try DVD Rare, which has every episode in one set.

* Starlog-issued souvenir magazine image courtesy of Kochcomics/eBay.

Long ago, in a remote corner of the world, ancient astronauts landed from a distant planet with a gift for mankind…the Phoenix. For a thousand years, he has waited…suspended in time. Now, he’s awakened to complete his mission. He searches for his partner, Mira. For only she knows his ultimate assignment on Earth. Dependent on the sun for his trek for survival, endowed with a superior intelligence, he has fully developed the powers of the human mind. Relentlessly pursued by those who seek to control him, he must stay free. The Phoenix.

In 1981, a young Sam (Becca was just a glimmer at this point) was obsessed was science fiction, ancient aliens and television. This TV movie — and the four episodes that followed — were repeatedly discussed in the Panico household as a show that seemed to have such promise and then suddenly just disappeared.

Judson Scott (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) played Bennu, an ancient astronaut who is awakened from suspended animation within an Incan pyramid. He’s constantly on the run, as the government wants to either control or cut him up (they’re led by Richard Lynch from Bad Dreams).

In the movie, he acquires a love interest who is killed as a result of his escape. The whole movie is pretty dark, actually, setting Bennu up as someone above human emotion and morality who learns how important life on our planet is. His home planet is called Aurica in the movie, but Eidebran for the series.

He has plenty of powers, too. Physical levitation, telepathy, astral projection, precognition, clairvoyance and telekinesis, which are all helped by his Phoenix Amulet and its ability to draw use solar energy.

Beyond Richard Lynch’s Justin Preminger antagonist, Bennu must also contend with another alien named Yago. Just like our hero uses the sun, he uses our moon. It’s hinted that Lucifer and Dracula are both fictionalized versions of this villain, who can deafen with his Bells of Thon and has a musical instrument named the Black Moonball that allows him to teleport or change his appearance. Even more interesting to me, at least, is that his original name in the show was to be Aiwaz, the angel who read The Book of the Law to Crowley!

Bennu isn’t all alone, though. He’s helped by Dr. Ward Frazier (E.G. Marshall, Creepshow) and spends the series searching for his mate, Mira (Sheila Frazier, Super Fly).

The show was created by Anthony Lawrence, who wrote several Elvis movies and created the TV series The Sixth Sense that was often syndicated along with Night Gallery. And get this, a few of the episodes were directed by Douglas Hickox (Theater of Blood)!

There’s never been an actual release of this series, but you can find it on iOffer and other grey market sites.

Before Mandy. Before The Wicker Man. Before Face/Off. Hell, before Fast Times at Ridgemont High and anything else he did, Nicholas Cage appeared in this blast of odd, a failed TV pilot from 1981 that was supposed to be the Laugh-In for the video generation.

This absolute mess was directed by Don Mischer, who today is better known for being the master of big scale appointment TV. From Motown 25 to the Emmys, the Billboard Music Awards, Superbowls, the Academy Awards, the Kennedy Center Honors and more, Mischer is the go-to guy for these glitzy events. But before that, he was directing specials for Donna Summer, Barry Manilow and Goldie Hawn. Which makes sense, as he was also trying to get Laugh-In relaunched in 1977 and was part of the Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell that kept the SNL trademark name until it went off the air in just three episodes.

In addition to the future Nick “Kinski of the West Coast” Cage, here billed as Nicholas Coppola, we have one of my favorite actors ever, Crispin Glover as the wacky host of the show. There are moments where he acts ridiculous, such as dancing to a cassette of the Talking Heads — the music being played is notably not played by the Talking Heads but instead probably some library music — but he shows none of the undercurrent of menace that would soon inform so many of his characters.

Here where this gets really odd — the teenagers on the show play themselves, with even Glover’s real-life mom playing the voice of his show mom. However, the few adults in the show, such as Mr. O’Reilly, the owner of the store where everyone gathers, who is played by Jackie “I ruined Caddyshack 2” Mason. Actually, I kid. Everything ruined Caddyshack 2.

In addition to Cage and Glover, there’s Jill Schoelen — yes, from The Stepfather and Popcorn — playing the cute girl of the bunch, plus original Facts of Life cast member Julie Piekarski, future CSI writer David Rambo, Kevin Cortes, Lisa Hope Ross and rocking guitarist Janet Robin, who was actually a student of Randy Rhodes and was Jennifer Jason Leigh’s guitar coach for The Hateful Eight.

The show starts with Glover breaking the fourth wall and speaking right to the camera, somewhat awkwardly, about the plight of the kids in 1981: “Well, we’re all teenagers and we’re all treated as faceless members of this society. Our parents bug us at home, our teachers always hassle us at school, and when we drive, the cops are always on our backs. And everyone thinks you’re on dope! Well, I just want you to know that teenagers are woven into the fabric of American life, and, without us, there’s no future.”

There are plenty of these dialogue-heavy soliloquies that break up the show, which is somewhat episodic, somewhat bursts of sketches (again, think Laugh-In), such as a moment where Cage flexes for the camera and drops a heavy dose of reality on the show:

“But you don’t think there’s gonna be a war, do ya? I wish my dad wouldn’t talk about it all the time. My mom looks at me and starts to cry! And dad says the Army’ll make a man outta me. Look at that! Huh? I thought I was a man already.”

This wildly uneven collection of material continues with a moment discussing teen runaways that goes from upsetting to jokey to, well, upsetting again and then, there are musical numbers. That’s right — you haven’t lived until you’ve seen Nick Cage wearing overalls and no shirt singing the most soulless version of “9 to 5” ever committed to video. There’s also an equally milquetoast rendition of “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” just to cement the fact that this show is going to hit you with musical choices on the level of Cop Rock.

The Best of Times is a true oddity, but it’s also a pop culture time capsule of what Hollywood thought that youth culture was before MTV even rocketed into space just three weeks after this show aired for the first and only time.