Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Space Rockers (1979–1981) watch online HD

If the episode "Space Rockers" holds true, in 500 years there's gonna be some groovalicious music in the cosmos. In this episode, Buck zooms out to "Music World", a space station run by sleazy record execs and populated by teenage kids (where the heck are their parents??), to investigate reports of strange riots occurring whenever there's a performance by the galaxy's hottest band: ANDROMEDA.

Yeah yeah, you've seen one Buck Rogers episode, you've seen em all. But what distinguishes this episode from the rest is the awesome music by Andromeda--or in real world terms: Johnny Harris, Scottish born musician/composer who has given us hits from the Diana Ross TV Special to Wonder Woman. This cat got groove.

In particular, the song highlighted here is entitled "Odyssey", a synthy disco hit that's recently been featured on the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Hearing that song & seeing it performed by spandex-wearing, space-age rockers playing instruments that look more like Christmas decorations than anything else is a total trip. If you have any appreciation at all for 70s funk, disco and old-school electronica, you must check out this episode for its sheer WTF factor.

The only real drawback of this episode is that the wonderful Wilma (Erin Gray) is only seen for a few seconds. But at least in those few seconds she's wearing her signature shiny spandex suit as only she can wear it. Homina homina.

After the emotional themes explored in the previous episode, A Dream Of Jennifer, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century gets back to its normal camp silliness with Space Rockers, in which a music impresario, Lars Mangros (Jerry Orbach), is hellbent on causing chaos throughout the galaxy: hidden in broadcasts by his (unsuspecting) best-selling rock band Andromeda, special hypnotic signals cause young music fans to riot and rebel against authority.

Buck and Twiki are sent to investigate at an orbiting space station named Musicworld, where Andromeda are due to transmit their first galaxy-wide performance.

Opening with a crazy disco-rock number by Andromeda, who sport some of the silliest rock outfits of all time (and that's coming from a KISS fan!), it's immediately obvious that this episode is going to be nothing but dumb fun. Expect lots of light-rope dancing, some pathetic riot scenes (in which the unruly youths throw a few chairs and smash a couple of vases), some way-out tunes from the 'space rockers' and Twiki doing a spot of dancing.

Erin Grey fans will probably be slightly disappointed by this episode, since the perfect opportunity to get her into some revealing disco outfits is wasted (Deering stays on Earth with Dr. Heuer), but to make up for this slightly, Karana (Nancy Frangione), the synth-guitar player in the band, isn't exactly ugly, and Judy Landers guest stars as Mangros' girl Joanna.

Buck Rogers is pure schlocky, fun, camp.

This episode has it all: cheesy disco-rock, over-the-top quasi futuristic clothes, awful dialog, pre-Law and Order Jerry Orbach and pre-Night Court Richard Moll (ala the Bull reference). It was cool to see Richard Moll with a full head of hair and a few less world-weary lines on the late Jerry Orbach's face.

I'm giving this a (10) based solely on the Buck Rogers rating system: disco (check!), rope dancing (check!), hammy acting (check!), ruthless, conniving villain with henchmen (check!), form-fitting and revealing costumes (check!) and even some decent special effects.

I'm so glad Netflix put the whole series up for instant viewing (god bless their little souls). I can now share the pain, embarrassment and nostalgia of late 70s sci-fi with the whole family.

It doesn't really work when someone tries to depict a "future" version of the youth movement. The only moment I really liked was when Buck says Andromeda's popularity sounds like that of the Beatles. Wilma says "the who?". Buck says "no, not the Who, the Beatles".

PLOT: The diabolical manager (Jerry Orbach) of popular rock group Andromeda implants their music with hypnotic signals that drives their sheeple followers berserk. Buck & Twiki are commissioned to halt the widespread manipulation. Hulking Richard Moll from Night Court fame is on hand as a heavy.

COMMENTARY: Redhead Nancy Frangione is notable as Andromeda's "guitarist," Karana. Judy Landers plays the mogul's babe, Joanna. I forgot how charming Landers was (in fact, I forgot about her altogether until seeing this episode); she has such a soothing voice. The symphonic rock ditties of Andromeda are actually kinda catchy. An exceptional short-haired blond in a yellow get-up is spotlighted in the audience several times.

Jesse D. Goins & Leonard Lightfoot are on hand as the black band members, Rambeau and Cirus.

Evil rock music impresario Lars Mangros (marvelously played with lip-licking fiendish glee by Jerry Orbach) puts hypnotic signals in the music done by his best-selling band Andromeda that incites young fans to riot and rebel against authority. Andromeda are going to perform at their first big concert which will be broadcast on a global basis. It's up to Buck (Gil Gerard, likable as usual) and Twiki to thwart Margros' dastardly plot to warp the minds of the youth all over the universe during said concert. Director Guy Magar, working from a wonderfully silly script by Chris Burch and Allan Cole, cheerfully revels in this show's customary outrageous campiness: Andromeda's gloriously ridiculous outfits, the goofy disco dancing with kids boogieing down with glowing neon ropes (even Twiki busts a few moves!), the laughable scenes depicting Andromeda's fans engaging in blithely wanton acts of violence and destruction, the shoddy (not so) special effects, and, most of all, Andromeda's insanely groovy get-down disco music all add up one uproariously inane affair that's a gut-busting treat to behold. Of course, we also have a couple of foxy ladies to further enhance your viewing pleasure: fetching redhead Nancy Frangione as keyboardist Karana and ravishing blonde bombshell Judy Landers as Margros' vapid airhead girlfriend Joanna. A pre-"Night Court" Richard Moll has a neat supporting part and sports a full head of hair as Margros' hulking henchman Yarat. An absolute hoot.

This may very well be the most ridiculous hour of television I've ever seen, and I grew up in the 80s. The basic plot has a record producer (played with a Scooby Doo villain menace by Jerry Orbach) using the "rock" group under his tutelage to send out sound waves that cause galactic youth to revolt. But that plot thumbnail really doesn't do any sort of justice to the total absurdity of this episode. If it had been done tongue-in-cheek maybe I could cut it some slack, but the approach is so serious (well, as serious as 'Buck Rogers' is capable of) all I could do was gape in a mix of horror and awe.

Gil Gerard is not one of our great thespians, but as usual he makes for a likable lunk, and one must award the beefy, hirsute actor points for managing to keep a straight face here. You can almost hear Orbach asking himself why he didn't become an accountant or architect as he dutifully hams his way through this muck. The music--a combination of disco and a morbidly obese cat running back and forth across a synthesizer--will get stuck in your head like gum in your hair.

'Buck Rogers' is a poorly made series. The sets look cheap, the special f/x chintzy, and the costumes like something you'd have found at a yard sale at Liberace's circa the late 70s. At its best, it's passable genre entertainment for the undiscriminating viewer or a nostalgic touchstone for Gen-Xers. At its worst, it's "Space Rockers.", like a 48-minute colonoscopy administered by a doctor with cacti for hands.