By Rick Brady
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was initially called the Armageddon 2419 and the first character to be starred in the series of short stories was called Anthony Rogers. With the first release of the short stories this particular character found a lot of public interest, thus paving its path to an even brighter future in the field of comic strips, radio shows and television series.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was first created and authored by Nowlan and a syndicate called John F. Dille Company, later called the National Newspaper Syndicate, contracted Nowlan to make comic strips for the newspapers. They also got Dick Calkins, one of the prominent cartoonists of this particular time to do the illustrations. Nowlan not only created the very first episode of the series but renamed the lead character from Anthony to Buck Rogers.
The Buck Rogers in the 25th Century series actually popularized space travel and advancement in technology with the American population and also paved the stepping stone to make the unknown outer space into a familiar backyard environment.
On the 7th of January 1929, the very first Buck Rogers in the 25th Century comic strip was featured. The initial frames of the comic strip showed Buck’s time travel to an Earth that was 500 years into the future. The story of Buck Rogers starts when the character was only 20 years old and just when the World War II had ended. Being out of service, Buck finds a job as a surveyor who is to survey a crumbling mine. During his visit, he notices that the air around is pungent and the rocks were aglow. Suddenly the entire setup caves in and leaves the lead character in a suspended animation state. When he wakes up, he finds himself fast forwarded to the year 2419 – right in the middle of yet another war!
In 1932 the adventures of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was taken to another level as a radio show. From 1932 to 1947, this particular show was broadcast four times each week for almost fifteen years! Carlo De Angelo was the person who took care of the production and the direction of the series over the radio. The series was also made into a live department store video that was used to promote the Buck Rogers merchandise and during The World Fair a ten minute Buck Rogers film was premiered in Chicago.
In 1939, Universal Pictures also made a twelve part serial film based on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. In this series though, it wasn’t just Rogers who was found in the mine but also his friend Buddy Wade, who together were caught in the cave-in and later found themselves in a world that had past 500 years already. On the 15th of April 1950, the very first Buck Rogers television series was premiered on ABC network which successfully ran for a year till 1951.
Then in 1979, Buck Rogers again made an appearance on television in a new series starrring Gil Gerard as Buck and Erin Gray as the beautiful but also strong female lead, Colonel Wilma Deering. That series lasted two seasons for 37 episodes and delighted both young and old fans with the swashbuckling antics for good of the hero, Buck Rogers.
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