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This show stinks but visually it's amazing.  awesome futuristic fashion and cute girls.  1980 is gonna be sick!  The guy who did it ended up doing a show called "Thunderbirds" which was puppets in space and looked alot like "Team America" eventually did.  Yuo may have seen it real realy early on saterday mornings in the 80's, but it was a big hit in England I think.  There are UFO's and S.H.A.D.O. are our heroes trying to kill them.  it's mainly just people talking to each other about missions and sending people out on missions and waiting to see how the mission goes lotta talking and poor/ non existant plot and character devlopement. Too bad because again it is funky lookin gthat's for sure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlBTGwcEFPc

Ah, you've reminded me why I need to put that back on my wish list  :teddyr:  I vaguely remember seeing one or two episodes of it when Sci-Fi was showing it back in the early '90s.  I also had it on my old View Master when I was a little kid. 

viewmaster was sick. 

if you are into old sci fi i'd recommend the movie "the 4 d man" it'spretty awesome

To each his own, but I don't think it stinks at all.  Wish there were more shows like it made today.  I  LOVE this show.  I've commented about it on this site numerous times of the years.  True, the pacing is slow compared to the modern MTV conditioned audience, but there is some real depth in that slow pacing.

I remember watching it with my Dad when it aired in the US in '71 or '72.  I've got the DVD boxed set.

Great show - good sci fi; some real social issues explored.

Poor character development?  You obviously have not watched many episodes.  Check out "Confetti Check A-OK" or "A Question of Priorities."  You'll see why Bishop's character is as grumpy as he is.

No plot?  What's not to love about an alien possessed cat?  How about "Kill Straker!" which gets pretty intense between Ed and Paul (hint, Straker really hates traitors).

At the time, they used some FX that really pushed the envelope.  They were the first TV series ever to synch the on-screen v-retrace with those on the cameras so on-screen monitors don't flicker.  They used all models and miniatures; in this day of near constant griping about crappy CGI, I'd this would be viewed as 'classic.'

The best web site for this series that I've found is  UFO Series (http://ufoseries.com/)  His grading system of the episodes is pretty good; only one or two stinkers in the whole line-up.

It was a sort of precursor to SPACE: 1999.  I never got into that one even though it was much more popular.

And who could not LOVE Gabrielle Drake, purple wig or no?

I love all that old Gerry Anderson stuff.  I remember Supercar and Fireball XL 5 from when I was a small child.

Anderson and crew did  a lot of great model work.

Ulthar- on your recommendation i will check out some more episodes in the future.  Perhaps my initial reaction was incorrect

I loved this series as a kid: I always wanted a flat, flat car like Commander Straker and a girlfriend with purple hair like Gabrielle Drake.  :smile:

There was one episode though which chilled my blood and still does: one of the SHADO people finds out that his long missing sister's organs have been transplanted into the body of an alien. Yikes..... :buggedout: :buggedout:

UFO is not 100% gold, but it had some great episodes and a lot of really cool stuff in it and there's quite a variety of plots. So you might want to try looking over some episode guides Lester to see if there's some episodes that might fit your interests better. That UFO Series website Ulthar recommends is a good one. I'd use that as a guide.

Personally for me, Ed Bishop as Cmdr. Straker made the series for me. Cmdr. Straker is truly a hardcore, ruthless S.O.B. But he avoids being the cynical anti-hero so common today. You just don't get characters like him any more. He never flinched from doing what had to be done, no matter the cost to anyone, especially himself.

A couple of years ago I bought a sony 40" tube set (last and greatest of their CRTs) which was a monstrously large TV for the time and at about the same time Vol One of UFO showed up from Amazon. My friends were all "WOW! You've got UFO on DVD!" and completely ignored the TV...

Oh, we like Stephanie Beacham.

I actually know a guy who owns a comic book shop who has an authentic U.F.O. metal lunchbox on display.

Great series.