Hell has officially frozen over. A DVD I expected never to exist finally has. The complete series of the television show Quark is being released on DVD this coming October. This lost icon from the 1977-78 season was created by Get Smart co-creator Buck Henry and lasted a grand total of eight episodes.The show stars Richard Benjamin as the captain of a garbage-hauling spaceship who yearns to be given more important duties. The show is pretty much a satire of Star Trek and parodies the standard plot devices of sci-fi television and movies up to that time (such as the concept of "evil" parallel universes). Conrad Janis (of Mork and Mindy fame) is particularly funny as Otto Palindrome.
The show didn't last that long, but thanks to the Internet fan sites of the show have sprung up enough to likely garner the attention of some executive looking to make some easy money (note I didn't say a quick Buck. That would have been too easy). Had it been made today...well, it probably still would have been canceled (particularly if it was on Fox), but the DVD release would have happened much sooner.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-07-2008 @ 5:53PM
Franklin said...
A show lasting 8 episodes in the 70s equates to lasting about 8 minutes in today's TV-time. If we're talking about FOX it would be more like 8 seconds.
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8-07-2008 @ 7:20PM
Eric J. said...
Quark is at the top of my list for shows I'm reluctant to watch because I'll find out it sucked and ruin my memories.
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8-07-2008 @ 8:36PM
nickmagoo said...
same thing happened when i re-watched square pegs...
8-08-2008 @ 9:22AM
edgore said...
I have to agree with you here. My memories of the show are so vague and so good that I assume I will be terribly disappointed when I see it again. I will see it again though.
8-07-2008 @ 8:32PM
Karen said...
Seriously? An 8-episode show from the '70s? But we can't get more than one season of "Everwood"?
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8-08-2008 @ 5:42AM
RobynM said...
Woot! One more I can cross off the list of SF & Fantasy shows I'd like to see domestically released.
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8-08-2008 @ 9:44AM
grumpyoldman said...
Quark was awesome. Now how about the original "E/R", the sitcom version?
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8-08-2008 @ 1:11PM
King Zilch said...
MAX HEADROOM!
Max Headroom. Max Headroom. Seriously, Max Headroom already.
Oh, and, Max Headroom.
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8-09-2008 @ 4:52AM
Gary said...
Quark was ahead of it's time and it's time has come! The Barnstable twins were intergalactic beauties. They got my attention!
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8-09-2008 @ 6:22AM
Thor said...
right on
8-09-2008 @ 6:18AM
Thor said...
If Buck Henry wrote this, I'm there. The girls in the gold are babes!
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8-30-2008 @ 10:44AM
Megan Skylar said...
LOVED QUARK, Buck Henry, Richard Benjamin, and of course OTTO PALINDROME, a.k.a Conrad Janis, who was also great on MORK & MINDY. What luck to be in two such great shows. He is a natural farceur, and I look forward to owning a DVD. I will never be disappointed, how could I with all that talent? Thanks for putting it on DVD.
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8-30-2008 @ 10:45AM
Megan Skylar said...
I LOVE that show, Buck Henry, Richard Benjamin and of course, the one and only Conrad Janis---he was hysterical in this show, venal yet vulnerable, Pompous yet Perfect, a hoot---Otto Won my heart. He then was awesome in Mork and Mindy where you didn't know whether to love him for his foibles or critique his discomfort with Mork. He kept the show rooted in semi normalcy, while delivering thankless straight lines to Robin Williams who never said the lines twice the same way. (Saw a filming in the audience) Janis should have been given an award for Best Farceur in both Quark and M&M. His takes are priceless. With lines like Buck Henry wrote, and Richard Benjamin delivered this show should have had a ten year run, but the same can be said for Mork and Mindy---So who's running the show anyway. WILL BUY QUARD VIDEOS FOR SURE.
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9-26-2008 @ 1:22PM
Rebel Ed said...
Remember: "There are no good plants, there are no bad plants, there are just...plants." If only there were some way to remove the lauugh track Quark would be perfect (after all, Space:1999 proved you can do an outer space comedy without a laugh track.) "THE GALAXY...AD INFINITUM!" (Siempre e Quark!)
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