EarDelightBase Waste of Money.

Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

John T. Ryan BACK IN THE day, the early days of Television, that is, the notion of space Travel, not new to Science Fiction, was a hot genre for exploitation in the ever growing network and local channel schedules. There was, of course, two ways to obtain their desired "Space Operas." They could be either be culled from old theatrical movies; or they could be produced brand new, just for TV.ALTHOUGH THERE WEREN'T exactly very many old, previously released movies that dealt with space travel; there were some-even dating back to the silents. Among the backlog of oldies, as big as life and with double dosed action, was the movie serial.*ALTHOUGH THERE WERE quite a few space oriented serials available for the TV*, there are four that were the most durable and popular. They were BUCK ROGERS (Universal, 1939) and the trilogy of FLASH GORDON (Universal,1936), FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (Universal,1938) and FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (Universal,1940). These four were playing for years on local stations.**THE SECOND AVENUE of acquiring the coveted programing was to produce it just for TV. Hence, we had live & in studio classics as CAPTAIN VIDEO, BUZZ TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET and SPACE PATROL. The in studio, live production had many drawbacks and limitations. The next step surely would be filmed series; which was much more akin to the theatrical film. Well the filmed series did become a reality when ROCKY JONES, SPACE RANGER debuted in 1954.AS WE RECALL it featured diverse stories, impressive special effects and an energetic and talented cast. Richard Crane gave a credible and energetic performance in the lead; supported by Sally Mansfield, Scotty Beckett, Robert Lyden and veteran Maurice Cass. We know by way of our friends in the neighborhood that Rocky Jones was tops.IN RECENT YEARS, we've seen at least one "movie" that was constructed through a compilation of several ROCKY JONES Episodes. The acting, the special effects, costuming and stories were good enough for the big screens of the nation's movie houses. It begs the question; so why was it canceled after one season of 39 episodes? Go figure!NOTE: * There were many serials with space travel and rocket ships. some, like BRICK BRADFORD (Columbia, which never made it to the small screen in your living rooms. On the other hand, Republic Pictures opened the floodgates giving the TV Stations such titles as: KING OF THE ROCKET MEN, THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES, FLYING DISC MAN FROM MARS, ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE and others. NOTE: ** Just what is the common thread that runs through these four chapter plays? Well, other than the studio's being Universal, it is the Star Male Lead. Can you say Buster Crabbe?

Tom Huber I was a kid when these showed up on KING in 1954. They aired three times a week, Mon-Wed-Fri, so in one week, we saw an entire serial. I was disappointed when one Monday, it failed to show up at its regular time. I was admittedly hooked as a ten-year old.By today's standards, RJSP can't be fairly judged. Ships that fly through an atmosphere to streak upward and land on a jet of pure rocket power? Calculating a course using nothing more than a triangle, pencil and paper? Fights in which nobody loses their hat? A magnetic grappling system to capture and seat a ship in a space station docking port? Dodging asteroids (where have we seen that before? Oh, yeah -- Galaxy Quest).Yeah, there's a lot that is wrong with the series.But there's a lot that is right. One of the things are the wonderful alien planet paintings that serve as backdrops to alien landscapes. The idea that a flying saucer uses some kind of magnetic drive (I remember that from when it aired -- I think it is in the final series "Trial of Rocky Jones" -- Add: It wasn't. According to another post, the series was called "Blast Off" and served as the final episode to the first season -- the show was canceled in the second season for a number of reasons -- see the discussion thread for more information). Truly good versus truly bad. Espionage. Kid mistakes.This is seat-of-your-pants entertainment that looked real enough to be believable, back then. The stories are campy, but so are some of the scenes in George Pal's War of the Worlds and Forbidden Planet. They are aimed for the kids, and for a kids show, the FX were very futuristic for the time. Watch some of the other syndicated shows of the time -- many are available on Netflix or via streaming video on the internet.Television in the 1950s was very puritan. To have Rocky show a love interest toward Vena wasn't going to happen, not in 1954 when you seldom saw inside a married couples' bedroom and when you did, they each had their own bed. So a lot of the criticism toward this series is based upon today's television standards (Think Ozzie & Harriet, I Love Lucy, and other shows with married couples).7 stars is being generous, but I believe a fair assessment for the show at the time it was aired. By today's standards, it would be much, much lower. But for the TV buff who is interested in vintage television, you really can't get much better. It is too bad that most of the episodes available on DVD are from video tape. It would be really nice for someone to dig up any of the vintage copies and do a job to restore the entire series to pristine shape.

TEXICAN-2 Okay, it's been almost 50 years since I blasted off with Rocky every Saturday morning. And, even then, I can tell you the special effects weren't terrific, and the stories were probably 50's simple, but, it was good entertainment, and an exciting way to start the day. We didn't have Star Wars (etc.) back then, and this was still ahead of Forbidden Planet, so, you didn't expect much, you weren't let down. AND, most kid shows even at the theater were black and white (except maybe Disney), so the black and white TV wasn't a problem. I'm sure that if I viewed this series today, I might cringe at it, but, then again, if you make the effort to try to look at something this old the way you looked at it originally (thru the eyes of a youngster), it just might still be that fine entertainment it was then. Hopefully, someone will put all 39 episodes on DVD, that would be great.

coker-2 If it were not for COMMANDO CODY, SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE, we would consider ROCKY JONES, SPACE RANGER to be the low point of 1950s space adventure series. Unlike the other shows of the day it was filmed and syndicated; that meant far better sets, props and special effects. But the writers seemed never to have understood what science fiction, or space adventure, was all about. The actors are good and deserve better material. They also deserve better directors. The art direction is quite good, but there are very few "practical effects," far fewer than even on the live space adventure shows. (When a ray gun fired on CAPTAIN VIDEO, we saw flame and smoke... when a ray gun fires on ROCKY JONES we hear a kind of farting sound.)