Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Season 1 (1979)

In 1987 a freak accident sees a NASA space probe and its one man crew (William "Buck" Rogers, of course) snap frozen and hurled into an giant elliptical orbit that will mean 504 years will elapse before they return to Earth.  An Earth that has naturally changed quite substantially in their absence, and that is now threatened by various alien enemies.  Buck's got a lot of catching up to do.  But of course, there might be a few 500 year old tricks that have been forgotten since his time ...

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (which is quite a mouthful of a title) was produced by Glen A Larson, who also gave us Battlestar Galactica and would go on to Knight Rider and many other much less fondly remembered science fiction shows.  Also Magnum P.I., though his involvement with that was a lot less.

With the exception of the theatrically-released pilot, which features a much more grim vision of future Earth than the ongoing TV show, as well as some mild swearing and a James Bond-esque credits sequence of scantily clad women, the tone of this show is resolutely that of lightweight action-adventure.  Leading actor Gil Gerard apparently disliked this and wanted the show to feature more serious storylines, but obviously lost the fight.  Every story arc (whether one or two episodes long) ends with Buck chuckling away at some amusing anecdote or event, often involving his comedic robot sidekick Twiki.  Frankly though, I think Erin Gray has more to complain about than Gerard - she gets second billing in the credits for the show, but she's playing at best the fourth banana here, behind Buck, Twiki and a character named Doctor Huer.

A lot of Buck Rogers is frankly a bit silly and shallow, and the show leans pretty hard on PG-rated titillation (there are a lot of very attractive women in tight outfits) and the supposed witticisms of Twiki to help distract from the sometimes threadbare scripts.  Still, I found the silliness to be somehow endearing on some level, and I think I will always have a soft spot in my heart for goofiness like "Space Rockers" (if you see only one episode of the show, make it this one).