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TRW's Space Park campus was used for the Star Trek episode "Operation: Annihilate!"


One interesting aspect to life in Los Angeles is that the city has been in the background to countless movies and television shows. So, you can go driving by buildings that you have seen in the movies numerous times a day. I'm not talking about "landmark" structures that even tourists can identify, but about structures that are relatively unknown even by locals.

In this post, we'll be looking at some buildings from the Space Park campus. It used to be owned by TRW, but in 2007 the company was bought by Northrop Grumman. This location was the setting to a Star Trek episode "Operation: Annihilate!" It was selected because the architecture had a "futuristic" design by the standards of the 1960s.

The TRW Tower of Space Park

Sadly, I couldn't get really detailed photos because the site is a secure facility. But it is adjacent to Redondo Beach public space. Therefore, I was able to stroll along the boundary and take some photos from afar. ;-)

I Would Have Gotten Away With It. . .

Scooby Doo, Where Are You! episode 15 "Spooky Space Kook" (1969)


On Saturday, September 13, 1969, Scooby Doo Where Are You! debuted on CBS. As a child, I spent countless hours watching this and subsequent Scooby Doo shows, even into the horrible Scrappy Doo era. Although the simplistic plotting and horrible jokes are not to my adult tastes, I still have a warm spot in my heart for the gang of Mystery, Inc.

Wikipedia has a solid synopsis of virtually every Scooby Doo episode:

Each episode featured Scooby and the four teenaged members of the Mystery, Inc. gang: Fred, Shaggy, Daphne, and Velma, arriving to a location in the "Mystery Machine" and encountering a ghost, monster, or other supernatural creature, whom they learned was terrorizing the local populace. After looking for clues and suspects and being chased by the monster, the kids come to realize the ghost is anything but, and - often with the help of a Rube Goldberg-like trap designed by Fred - they capture the villain and unmask him. Revealed as a flesh and blood crook trying to cover up crimes by using the ghost story and costume, the criminal is arrested and taken to jail, often saying something to the effect of "...and I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!"

The formula is a classic. ;-)

"Jeepers, It's the Creeper!" Episode 21, 1970


Those meddling kids!!!

"Hassle in the Castle" Episode 3, 1969

Let's Fly Away

Billboard for ABC's Pan Am, featuring the female leads.

"It's not you. It's a promise of you."

Among the various types of ads, I find billboards to be the least interesting and least effective. Therefore, it's cool to find one that works at catching my attention and at imparting the premise of the subject. The image is simple, four attractive women dressed in a retro style that evokes Jet Age luxuries. The only words are the product name and the statement of opening date. Direct and eloquent marketing.

I'm not big on retro television shows. There is so much effort put into simulation of setting that it often feels like the production skimps on the other elements of story. For instance, the characters often aren't written as much more than period appropriate character types. That's fine if your interest is to "visit" a historic era, but, if you want deep character exploration, it can feel a bit flat.



Christina Ricci as Maggie, Pam Am stewardess


Nevertheless, I can see the charm of retro-themed entertainment. So, I'll probably check out this show. Anyways, I'm old enough to remember flying on a Pan Am flight with cute female stewardesses, not "flight attendants." But I'm not old enough to remember "air hostesses". ;-)

Grant Any Wish

I Dream of Jeannie, starring Barbara Eden, ran for five seasons (1965-70)

You may have guessed after more than 200 posts about wildly diverse topics, but scarcely a mention of a television episode, that I don't watch much tv, except for the commercials. That's kind of true. I have never been a reliable series watcher. Sure, I'll grab a show here and there, but I rarely pick up a full season of anything. My television series familiarity generally comes from reruns long after the initial broadcasts. I have better things to do during Primetime than sit in front of the television.

But that doesn't mean that I dislike the "television episode" artform. I can certainly appreciate a good twenty minute story of any type of genre. Moreover, a season presents an excellent way to create an overarching narrative arc that is comprised of the smaller episode stories. When done well, that's an impressive accomplishment.

So, in celebration of Barbara Eden's birthday, here's my first overt television post at Paideia.



Jeannie in her bottle


I Dream of Jeannie was the first television series towards which I became enthusiastic, not including cartoon shows. The concept of a wish-granting beautiful magic lady captured my youthful imagination. Major Nelson's total blockheadedness was a constant source of amazement. Asides from Barbara Eden's hotness, my main interest was that the show had an interesting and fantastic problem in each episode. In my youth, that made for good television. ;-)