Quark

1 9 7 8  (USA)
1 x 60 minute episode
7 x 30 minute episodes

It is 2222 AD and Commander Adam Quark (a very 70s Richard Benjamin) is head of an interplanetary garbage crew whose mission on behalf of the United Galaxy Sanitation Patrol is to clean up the Milky Way. In order to receive his assignments he returns his patrol ship to giant space station Perma One where disembodied Secretary General 'The Head' rules the universe from a TV screen (like you do!).

Orders also come from superintendent Otto Palindrome, Perma One's woolly brained chief architect with four arms and golden braids.

Quark was in command of first officer Gene/Jean (a transmute with both male and female chromosomes who was sometimes tough and sometimes delicate), science officer Ficus (a humanoid vegetable), glamorous ex-cheerleader co-pilot Betty I and her clone Betty II, Andy the cowardly Robot (a walking junk pile), and Ergo, the ships mascot (a temperamental blob of protoplasm with one angry eye).

Whilst ridding the galaxy of superfluous litter, this motley crew met adventures with such colorful space inhabitants as the evil High Gorgon, Zoltar the Magnificent and Zorgan the Malevolent. But the series was intended first and foremost as a spoof on space adventure epics. Star Wars was it's first target (the hit feature film came out a year earlier in 1977), others included 2001: A Space Odyssey and Flash Gordon.

Quark first appeared as a pilot in 1977 (with a different cast) and debuted as a TV series in February 1978 with a one hour special. Its slick blend of in-jokes, innuendo and slapstick gained a cult following but not a mass audience and the show was soon cancelled.

Mastermind of the series was Buck Henry who earlier had more success with spoof spy show, Get Smart.