Features Podcasts Family Video Comics Music Tech Science Books Film & TV Games ✚

Jill

Video: Crazy '60s German TV robots und dance moves

Xeni Jardin at 3:34 pm Thu, Jun 29, 2006

— FEATURED —

THE LATEST

Guatemala: Archive of documents from Rios Montt genocide trial, overturned 10 days after guilty verdict

THE LATEST

Guatemala: Nation's highest court throws out Ríos Montt genocide trial verdict and prison sentence

Feature

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

Book Review

The Twelve-Fingered Boy - mesmerizing YA horror novel

Book Review

Black Code: how spies, cops and crims are making cyberspace unfit for human habitation

— FOLLOW US —

Boing Boing is on Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe to our RSS feed or daily email.

 

— POLICIES —

Except where indicated, Boing Boing is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution

 

— FONTS —

Tweet
Kindle
Video clip from the sixties German TV show Raumpatrouille. Episode 3: The Keepers of the Law. "The computer can malfunction... the tracks are a bit mixed up. I call it a cybernetic neurosis." Link. Another vintage clip from the same TV program, mit futuristic frugging auf Deutsch: Link. (Danke schoen, Coop!)

Reader comment: Anselm Lingnau says,

The "Raumpatrouille" (Space Patrol) series is really something of a classic. The robots and dance scenes are only scratching the surface; watch for the clothes irons and shower heads as well as the special effect when the spaceship launches from its submarine base (which was produced by filming the bubbles produced by an Aspirin tablet and turning the footage upside down). The sets and special effects make the original Star Trek look downright sophisticated, but then again "Raumpatrouille" does predate ST by a couple of years.

The series has been available on DVD for some time, and a couple of years back bits from the various shows were strung together to form a feature film. Some of the original actors are also still around and occasionally seen on TV.


Michael says,
I loved that series when I was a kid. What's interesting is the unreflecting use of nuclear weaponry - but this seems a common trait to all 60ies shows. A few additional links:

Raumpatrouille on IMDB: Link
Wikipedia: Link

The main actor - Dietmar Schönherr - is working since 1984 for social and cultural projects in Nicaragua. After "Orion" he was an acclaimed game show host from 1969-1973.

The actor of the ship's engineer - Wolfgang Völz - is nowadays mostly known to be the voice of "Käptn Blaubär" (Cpt. Blue Bear) - a muppet like character for kids television.

Already 6 members of the original cast have passed away.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek