Sunday, March 22, 2015

Outré Intro: Men into Space (1959)



What our country needs right now is an entertaining re-boot of the 1959 series Men into Space. 

This now-obscure series ran for three-dozen or so half-hour installments at the cusp of the sixties and focused on a "can do" near future age (the mid-70s) in which man would send ships to the Moon, build space stations, and in other ways conquer "near" space.

A reboot in 2015 could focus on the same premise, updated to the 21st century but revealing to modern audiences how we could marshal resources to visit Mars, explore the asteroid belt, and more.  
Today, of course, there would probably be some aspect of the show focusing on the personal lives of the astronauts, but that's okay too. As a country we need to start thinking about space again, and Men into Space is one vehicle that could help that process happen.

Every episode of Men into Space is currently available on Youtube at the moment, so you can see the amazing exploits of astronaut Col. McCauley in his efforts to push man into the next frontier.

As one might expect of the time in which it was produced, the introductory montage for Men into Space is extremely simple. In fact, it looks a lot like the One Step Beyond (1959 - 1961) and Star Trek (1966 - 1969) intros.  

Against a back drop of moving stars, the title screen flies toward the audience, growing larger by the second.

In this case, the title flying towards the audience suggests that the future is now; that Men into Space is carrying us -- viewers -- right into that promising, mysterious star field.  

The brief introduction notifies us of the series setting (space), and introduces us to our lead actor/character, McCauley as played by William Lundigan.  







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