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UFOS and the American Sitcom · UFOS & PARANORMAL WITH PRESTON DENNETT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello everyone. My name is Preston Dennett. Thank you for
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: joining me for a new episode of UFOs and the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Parent Normal. Today, I'm going to do something completely different,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: something I don't think anybody has ever done. Today's episode
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  Speaker 1: is called UFOs and the American Sitcom. I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: take a look at the situation comedy and how the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: UFO subject has been portrayed. There's a really interesting coincidence
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  Speaker 1: about situation comedies. It turns out that the American first
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: American sitcom appeared in nineteen forty seven, coinciding exactly with
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the modern age of UFOs. That's certainly an interesting synchronicity.
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  Speaker 1: But I think this is an important subject because the
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  Speaker 1: situation comedy accurately reflects how we thought, you know, what
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  Speaker 1: we wore, and everything that we do, all our activities
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: of that particular era. So I think this has some
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  Speaker 1: interesting things to say about how we view the UFO
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  Speaker 1: subjects do appear in all forms of media, including of
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  Speaker 1: course books and science fiction, but definitely movies and video
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  Speaker 1: games and advertisings and songs, I mean, you name it.
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  Speaker 1: UFOs are reflected there. That's absolutely true for situation comedies.
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  Speaker 1: What's also interesting is that situation comedies have very bravely
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  Speaker 1: portrayed many controversial issues pretty much across the board, which
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  Speaker 1: would include such things as crime and corruption, sexuality, religion, economics, poverty,
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  Speaker 1: and the unequal distribution of wealth, health, mortality, racism, drug use,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you name it, politics, all of it. These
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  Speaker 1: have all been portrayed in the situation comedy, often in
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  Speaker 1: a hilarious way. And of course this includes the UFO subject.
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  Speaker 1: And boy is it interesting to see how UFOs and
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  Speaker 1: ets have been portrayed throughout the years. So in this episode,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to be looking at the more high profile
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  Speaker 1: sitcoms because there's a lot of them. I found about
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  Speaker 1: two dozen that portrayed the UFO subject at any length.
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  Speaker 1: Many have not touched it at all, but many have
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  Speaker 1: and they have a lot to say about how we
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  Speaker 1: view this subject. So I did do a much deeper
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  Speaker 1: dive into all of this in my book Not From Here,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Volume five. I devoted a whole chapter to all of this.
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  Speaker 1: If you want to learn more about it, please check
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  Speaker 1: that out. So let's just get started. And the first
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  Speaker 1: situation coming that I'd like to cover is probably one
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  Speaker 1: of the most famous, probably one of the best as well.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan and that it is of course
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  Speaker 1: I Love Lucy. This first aired on October fifteenth, nineteen
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  Speaker 1: fifty one. It was a huge success, sort of set
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  Speaker 1: the template for all other situation comedies and it was
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  Speaker 1: really interesting when they first tackled the UFO subject. Though
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  Speaker 1: I Love Lucy was hugely successful, it only ran for
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  Speaker 1: six seasons, producing one hundred and eighty episodes, and it
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  Speaker 1: was an episode eighty nine titled Lucy Is Envious that
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  Speaker 1: they portrayed the UFO subject. In this episode, Lucian fol
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  Speaker 1: accidentally each pledged a five hundred dollars donation to their
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  Speaker 1: wealthy friends' charity that they had no way to pay,
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  Speaker 1: so to recoup their losses, Lucien fl agreed to take
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  Speaker 1: part in a scheme to make some money, and they
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  Speaker 1: were hired by an advertising executive at a movie studio
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  Speaker 1: and agreed to participate in what is essentially a UFO hoax,
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  Speaker 1: each of them dressing up as quote woman from mars
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  Speaker 1: So just to help promote a movie. So they surprised
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  Speaker 1: a group of UFO believers on the top of the
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  Speaker 1: building and pretended to speak Martian, all dressed up in
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  Speaker 1: Martian costumes. They approached the group, picking curiously at their
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  Speaker 1: clothes and studying them like ET's might study a human,
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  Speaker 1: until they pointed a paralyzing ray at one of them,
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  Speaker 1: a man, of course, who was in on the hoax,
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  Speaker 1: and they carded him away, essentially abducting the him. So
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  Speaker 1: Lucian Ethel of course did get paid their money, but
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  Speaker 1: alas the subject of UFOs was treated as a joke.
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  Speaker 1: If you've seen that episode, I'm sure you'll agree it's hilarious.
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  Speaker 1: Lucille Ball is an absolute genius when it comes to comedy.
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  Speaker 1: What I do think is interesting about that particular episode
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  Speaker 1: is UFOs as a genuine, real thing. We're not portrayed
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  Speaker 1: in that episode. It was all considered just a hoax,
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  Speaker 1: which I think is how a lot of people viewed
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  Speaker 1: that subject at that time. So that is interesting in
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  Speaker 1: and of itself. But now let's move to the next
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  Speaker 1: sitcom and again we're going in chronological order here. The
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  Speaker 1: next situation comedy i'd like to cover is My Three Sons.
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  Speaker 1: Can't say that I've watched a lot of episodes of
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  Speaker 1: this situation comedy was a little bit before my time,
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  Speaker 1: but I did track down this particular episode My Three
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  Speaker 1: Sons first aired on September twenty nine, nineteen sixty and
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  Speaker 1: again it was a huge success. It went for twelve
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  Speaker 1: seasons and they had a very interesting episode portraying the
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  Speaker 1: UFO subject. My Three Sons was very successful, running for
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  Speaker 1: twelve seasons, producing three hundred and eighty episodes. It was
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  Speaker 1: season seven episode fifteen, titled You Saw What, airing on
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  Speaker 1: January five, nineteen sixty seven, that featured the UFO subject.
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  Speaker 1: The episode begins with the youngest son, Ernie, asking his
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  Speaker 1: two brothers and father to play catch on a Saturday
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  Speaker 1: after afternoon. Fortunately, everyone's busy, so Ernie heads out into
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  Speaker 1: the woods with his dog Tramp, and he throws the ball.
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  Speaker 1: Tramp goes to fetch it, but instead starts barking at something,
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  Speaker 1: and Ernie, going to investigate, is shocked to see a
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  Speaker 1: glowing flying saucer landed in a clearing in the woods.
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  Speaker 1: You can see it here. This craft is making weird
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  Speaker 1: beeping noises. And seeing this craft, Ernie shouts out to
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  Speaker 1: his dog Tramp, come on, let's get out of here.
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  Speaker 1: So he flees immediately to a group of friends who
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  Speaker 1: ask him what's wrong, and he tells them you'd never
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  Speaker 1: believe it unless you saw it. Come on, I need witnesses.
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  Speaker 1: And he returns with the three boys to this site,
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  Speaker 1: but the disk is gone. All that is left is
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  Speaker 1: a circle of crushed and burned vegetation and broken branches
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  Speaker 1: in the trees. So these are landing traces, and it's
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  Speaker 1: an acher portrayal of landing traces. Even with this, still
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  Speaker 1: none of Ernie's friends believe him, and instead they ridicule
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  Speaker 1: him and tell him he needs to visit a quote headshrinker.
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  Speaker 1: So Ernie returns home and tells Uncle Charlie, who does
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  Speaker 1: believe him. But as Ernie says, now let's forget it.
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  Speaker 1: I've learned to keep quiet the hard way. So Ernie
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  Speaker 1: has already learned that there's ridicule surrounding this subject and
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  Speaker 1: doesn't want to talk about it, But his uncle Charlie
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  Speaker 1: is curious, so they return to the site and examined
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  Speaker 1: the landing traces. Thought going back home and sharing all
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  Speaker 1: of this with his family, Ernie is once again greeted
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  Speaker 1: with disbelief and ridicule. His father tells him, I don't
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  Speaker 1: believe you saw a flying saucer, But little Ernie is
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  Speaker 1: not to be dissuaded, he returns to the site with
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  Speaker 1: a camera and no one behold. The craft shows up again,
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  Speaker 1: and this time he actually captures a photograph of the
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  Speaker 1: disc ass hovering among the trees. So later, seeing this photo,
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  Speaker 1: Ernie's father and mister Douglas alerts the Air Force and
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  Speaker 1: being the photograph, Air Force General Carstares decides he's going
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  Speaker 1: to cover up the incident. But when mister Douglas refuses
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  Speaker 1: to destroy the photograph and tell his son that it
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  Speaker 1: was all just his imagination like the general wants him to,
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  Speaker 1: General karstays amidst the truth and says that the saucer
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  Speaker 1: is actually our own a top secret classified program called
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  Speaker 1: Project Moonbeam. That's interesting because I believe that is an
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  Speaker 1: actual project. So when Ernie learns all of this, he
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  Speaker 1: agrees to cooperate and keep quiet about the photographs. But
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  Speaker 1: the problem is Ernie's already agreed to go on television
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  Speaker 1: to talk about his sighting, So as he's interviewed on television,
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  Speaker 1: he goes along with the cover up, lies about the photo,
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  Speaker 1: says it shows nothing and helps to cover up the incident.
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  Speaker 1: Actually talked complete nonsense about seeing quote little Green men
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  Speaker 1: in purple suits. This, no surprise, leads to merciless ridiculing
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  Speaker 1: from his classmates at school, and ultimately Ernie's photo remains
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  Speaker 1: a secret, not even revealed to Uncle Charlie or Ernie's
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  Speaker 1: two brothers, and the sighting remains explained as a secret
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  Speaker 1: government project. How interesting is that? I thought that was
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  Speaker 1: actually a really good episode and portrayed this subject in
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  Speaker 1: a pretty well balanced way. Unfortunately, it turned out that this,
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  Speaker 1: of course was a secret government project, which is still
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  Speaker 1: really interesting because a lot of what people are seeing
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  Speaker 1: I think probably is our own craft. So that is
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  Speaker 1: an interesting episode in that regard. It didn't see an
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  Speaker 1: actual UFO, so it is a bit dismissive of the
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  Speaker 1: whole subject, but still super interesting. Now let's move to
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  Speaker 1: the next one. I almost didn't include this one because
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  Speaker 1: it's an animated sitcom, but I figured, you know what,
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  Speaker 1: let's be comprehensive here take a look at all the
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  Speaker 1: portrayals of how this subject has been put on TV.
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  Speaker 1: And the next sitcom that I'm taking a look at is,
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  Speaker 1: of course, the very popular The Flintstones. I've watched this
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  Speaker 1: episode many times, or this series, i should say, but
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  Speaker 1: UFOs were portrayed more than once on The Flintstones. This
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  Speaker 1: is a sitcom that aired from nineteen sixty to nineteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty six, and of course was so popular even was
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  Speaker 1: transformed into a feature length live action film. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: they portrayed the UFO subject in a pretty interesting way,
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  Speaker 1: as we shall see. First episode on The Flintstones to
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  Speaker 1: feature the UFO subject was on season four, episode sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: in an episode called ten Little Flintstones. It talks about
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  Speaker 1: how UFOs come around the town of Bedrock, and both
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  Speaker 1: Fred and Wilma are skeptical of the reports, but when
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  Speaker 1: Fred goes outside to dispose of the garbage, a UFO
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  Speaker 1: lands actually scans him and get This produces ten little
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  Speaker 1: clones of Fred Flintstone, which are released throughout town to
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  Speaker 1: gather information and ostensibly take over the world. Unfortunately, the
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  Speaker 1: only phrase that these et clones can utter is the
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  Speaker 1: Yabba Dabadoo. The aliens end up wreaking havoc in the
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  Speaker 1: town of Bedrock, visiting the Rubbles and Mister Slade and
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  Speaker 1: the other characters, causing endless problems for Fred before finally leaving.
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  Speaker 1: But with episode seven in season six, titled The Great
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  Speaker 1: Kazoo that actually introduced Fred and Barney to a little
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  Speaker 1: green alien named the Great Kazoo from the planet z Tox.
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  Speaker 1: He was a short, greenskinned alien a huge helmeted head
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  Speaker 1: somewhat similar to reports we have today, and he decided
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  Speaker 1: to help out the modern Stone Age family on numerous occasions,
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  Speaker 1: but his help always seemed to come at a price.
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  Speaker 1: For example, he set up a dinner at a luxury
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  Speaker 1: restaurant for the Flintstones and the Rebels, but then split
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  Speaker 1: without paying the bill. And it wasn't long after the
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  Speaker 1: Great Kazoo's appearance that The Fred Flintstone Show was canceled.
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  Speaker 1: Pretty funny portrayal of the subject, and I have to
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  Speaker 1: say it's the first sitcom to portray the ets as
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  Speaker 1: a real thing. I mean, these were in the sitcom,
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  Speaker 1: actual ets coming down to clone Fred Flintstone, which is
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  Speaker 1: a theme that still crops up in some UFO contact
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  Speaker 1: tea accounts. I don't know how accurate that is, but
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  Speaker 1: it's certainly interesting. I also find it interesting that the
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  Speaker 1: Great Gazoo appeared in The Flintstones and it was shortly
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  Speaker 1: after that that the sitcom was canceled. That's probably pure coincidence,
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  Speaker 1: but It's a very interesting portrayal of you know, how
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  Speaker 1: UFOs might invade a small town and how all people
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: react to this invasion so to speak of UFOs. So yeah,
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  Speaker 1: certainly an important episode. Now let's move to the next one.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of the Dick Van Dyke Show. Again,
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  Speaker 1: a little bit before my time, but I've certainly seen
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  Speaker 1: quite a few episodes. The Dick Van Dyke Show ran
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  Speaker 1: for six seasons from October third, nineteen sixty one to
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  Speaker 1: June one, nineteen sixty six. It was a huge success,
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  Speaker 1: made Mary Tyler Moore a huge star, gave her a
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  Speaker 1: spin off of her own situation comedy, and of course
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  Speaker 1: Dick Vandyke, I mean, he's just the greatest when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to comedy. So should come as no surprise that
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  Speaker 1: they tackled the UFO subject as well, and it was
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  Speaker 1: pretty interesting what happened in this particular episode. With a
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty eight episodes, the Dick Van Dyke
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  Speaker 1: Show was very successful, but it took him a while
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  Speaker 1: to cover the UFO subject. It was during season five,
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  Speaker 1: in episode three, in an episode titled Honey Uffs that
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  Speaker 1: featured the UFO subject Rob suffering from overwork and exhaustion.
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  Speaker 1: While working late at night on a script for The
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  Speaker 1: Alan Brady Show, he saw this flying saucer hovering outside
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  Speaker 1: the window of his office, and to his shock, it
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  Speaker 1: utters this mysterious foreign language phrase, honey uffs. Now Rob
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  Speaker 1: is absolutely convinced he had an encounter with ET's, so
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  Speaker 1: he contacts authorities who, no surprise here, do not believe
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  Speaker 1: him and ridicule him. Rob is so impressed he even
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: consults the psychiatrist. When Rob does tell his coworker Buddy
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  Speaker 1: about the flying saucer, Buddy says, all the flying saucers
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  Speaker 1: in the world, he has to get one with a
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  Speaker 1: speech impediment. So Rob is finally convinced that this was
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: all an exhaustion produced hallucination when both he and Buddy
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  Speaker 1: hear the same mysterious phrase coming from the air vent.
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  Speaker 1: So apparently that solves the mystery. It's not a UFO
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  Speaker 1: at all, just a dream prompted by weird sounds coming
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  Speaker 1: from the air vent. So kudos to the Dick Van
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  Speaker 1: Dyke Show for having the courage to portray the UFO subject,
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  Speaker 1: but shame on them for basically explaining it all away.
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  Speaker 1: Is basically a hallucination a dream. So this was not
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  Speaker 1: really a serious treatment of the subject and certainly not accurate,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: but reflected how a lot of people were thinking about
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  Speaker 1: UFOs at that time. A lot of skepticism back then,
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  Speaker 1: so times are change. In the next episode or sitcom
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  Speaker 1: I'd like to talk about is a hugely popular sitcom
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  Speaker 1: called The Beverly Hillbillies that we've probably all seen an
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: episode of The Beverly Hill Billy you haven't check it out.
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  Speaker 1: It's pretty funny. I will admit it is a hilarious show.
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  Speaker 1: It's not one I watched regularly, but I've certainly seen
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  Speaker 1: many episodes of it. But I was quite shocked to
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: find out that they have portrayed the UFO subject. I
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: didn't remember that episode at all. The Beverly Hillbillies aired
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  Speaker 1: from nineteen sixty two to nineteen seventy one and was
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  Speaker 1: a huge smash hit, and their portrayal of the UFO
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  Speaker 1: subject is pretty interesting. The Beverly Hillbillies was always kind
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  Speaker 1: of known for its over the top comedy, and in
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: season five, episode sixteen, titled The Flying Saucer, they definitely
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  Speaker 1: followed this pattern. This episode centers around their neighbor and opportunist,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: a con man by the name of Melbourne Drysdale who
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: manufactures a hoax by modifying a New Year's Day balloon
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  Speaker 1: to look like a flying saucer. He then hires three
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: midgets and dresses them up in Martian costumes, secreting them
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: along with his flying saucer in the backyard, and in
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: true Beverly Hillbill's style, nosey Granny Clampet discovers the flying
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: saucer and the Little Green Men and this leads to
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: all kinds of hilarious antics, but ends up with the
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Ets eventually being invited over for dinner at the Clampits,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: and they eat so much that Granny actually goes after
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: them with her shotgun. So the episode, while filled with
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: hilarity and honestly really funny, presents the UFO subject with
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: no real seriousness and ultimately treats it all as a joke.
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  Speaker 1: But that's the Beverly Hillbillies, and yeah, they treated it
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: all as a hoax. Again, this is how people viewed
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the UFO subject at that time, so no surprise, but
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: certainly an interesting portrayal of what happens when a family
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: has a UFO encounter or what they perceive to be
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: a ufon en counter. Now let's move to the next sitcom,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: which was a very popular sitcom. I enjoyed it very much,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: thought was really cute. This is of course Green Acres
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: with Eddie Albert and Ava Gaboor. It was a really
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: funny sort of fish out of water comedy and absolutely
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: this very interesting portrayal of the UFO subject. With a
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: setting as a farm in a very rural area, Green
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Acres really was the perfect setting for a UFO visitation.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: It was a very popular show. The lasted six seasons
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: and explored the UFO subject in season two, episode twenty five,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: titled the Saucer Season. This was a term that had
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: already been coined by journalists, and it begins with their
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: goofy farm hand who's not very well educated and kind
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: of naive. His name is Ed. He claims to have
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: seen a UFO no Well. Oliver and Lee Lia, the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: main characters, are enjoying a picnic lunch. Hank Kimball played
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: by Alvi Moore, approaches them and tells them there have
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: been three saucer sightings in the last month. Oliver is skeptical,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: but Lisa believes him because Eb claims to have seen
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: an et face to face, and he tells Oliver he
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: saw a flying saucer and says, quote, it was about
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: eleven o'clock at night and I was getting ready for
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: bed when this saucer buzzed the barn. So Oliver tells
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: him to get lost until that night. At three am,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: he hears eb talking to someone outside his bedroom window.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Oliver wakes up and Ebb is there, claiming he saw
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  Speaker 1: the ets and actually had a conversation with the ets
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  Speaker 1: face to face. The next morning, Oliver tries to convince
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  Speaker 1: eb he was dreaming, but Ebb says, no, sir, it
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  Speaker 1: was a real flying saucer provided a vivid, detailed description.
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  Speaker 1: He said it circled the barn and then dropped straight down.
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  Speaker 1: There were two ets, one male one female, that they
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: had green skin, and here's where the ridicule comes in.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: The male et was wearing a purple dress. Nevertheless, Eb's
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: story catches the tension of the local news reporter and
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: gets reported in the Hooderville paper, and crowds show up
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: wanting to meet eb. Oliver gets angry when the crowds
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: begin to trample his fields of corn. This is something
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: many real UFO witnesses in real life have suffered with.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: But then Lieutenant Bennett from the United States Air Force
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: shows up, claiming to be part of the Air Force
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: UFO Investigation Department. He interviews Eb, but as Eb tries
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to provide details, he strangely lapses into a trance and
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: all he can say is bleep, bleep, bleed. Now he
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: has no memory of this. He believes the ETS are
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: blanking out his mind as they don't want the military
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: to know the truth. But Ed took a photo turned
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: out blank. When Oliver sees the photo, he decides to
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: put an end to all this UFO talk and just
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: throws the photo into the fire on the pot Belly's stove,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and this is how the episode ends. As they leave
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the room, the stove turns mysteriously green. Ultimately, that wasn't
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: really a serious portrayal of UFOs, but certainly interesting. Once
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: again we have an unreliable character as the one seeing
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the UFO or the ETS, but interesting too because it
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: does portray an accurate sort of representation of how our
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: own governments are covering this subject up, and also leaves
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the whole subject open at the very end when there's
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: that mysterious incident with the stove turning green, but really
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: unfortunate with him the main character, Eddie Albert throwing away
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the photo that could have you actually provided evidence. And
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: now we move to another really popular sitcom called I
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Dream of Genie. This made its first appearance on September eighteen,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty five, was hugely popular and I think provided
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: a really good background to present the UFO subjects in
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: that the main character, Tony Nelson, is an actual astronaut.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: How they treated the subject, well, that's a completely different story.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: As we shall see. A Dream of Genie was a
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: huge hit with audiences. It lasted for five years, and
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: it was episode eighty eight titled UFO Genie that appeared
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty eight that featured the UFO subject now Tony,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Genie's astronaut husband, and Roger, Tony's friend and also an astronaut,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: were conducting a test flight of an aircraft that, as
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: it turns out, very closely resembles a classic flying saucer.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: But in mid flight, Genie magically transports herself into this craft,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: and her added weight causes the craft to fall off
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: course and land in a rural area and This is
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: when a family of Hillbillies comes up to the scene
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: and believe that the object is an actual flying saucer
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and that Tony, Roger and Genie are actually human looking Martians,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: and they hold him at gunpoint and contact NASA hoping
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: for a reward. Of course, at the end of the
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: episode the truth is revealed. No mention is made of
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: the reality of the UFO phenomena. Interestingly, the UFO prop
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: came directly from the other show, The Beverly Hillbillies, so yes,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: they did portray the UFO subject in very much the
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: way that my three sons did, not as actual extraterrestrials,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: but rather as a government secret project. Such a shame.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I mean that is accurate, I should say, but again
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: pretty much bypassing the actual cases where people are seeing
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: genuine UFOs that cannot be explained as government secret projects
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: or what have you. But certainly interesting. Now we move
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: to the next one. The next sitcom I found that
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: portrayed the UFO subject is Bewitched. I was a huge
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: fan of Bewitched. Samantha was an amazing character who it
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: was just an interesting and fun show, actually a take
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: off from a major film. I Married a Witch. Hugely
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: successful sitcoment ran for eight years. The first episode aired
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: on September seventeen, nineteen sixty four, and lasted till nineteen
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: seventy two. Tackled many different subjects. It was a very
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: funny sitcom and of course they had a very interesting
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: UFO episode. Bewitched featured the UFO subject in season four,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: episode thirty, with the episode titled Samantha's Secret Saucer. It
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: was their first and last episode of the whole series
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: to feature UFOs. It aired on April eighteen, nineteen sixty eight,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: and the episode begins with Samantha's toddler daughter, Tabitha, playing
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: with her toy remote controlled flying saucer. But when Tabitha
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: loses her toy saucer outside, Aunt Clara, the incompetent Witch
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: casts a spell to bring the saucer back inside and
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: instead causes the tiny toy saucer to expand to a
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: full sized craft, which lands in the backyard and no
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: surprise when nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz sees the craft and
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: calls the Air Force. Soon the Air Force arrives to investigate,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: and Darren Stevens, the harried husband is able to explain
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: away the life sized saucer as a prop for an
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: advertising campaign, but the quantics a real twist, and this
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: is interesting when it turns out the toy saucer is
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: in fact lost and the flying saucer in the backyard
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: is actually a real, honest to god flying saucer which
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: was summoned a La Ce five style closing part of
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the Fifth Kind by amp Clara, and this saucer is
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: occupied by two live humanoid dog like aliens. They're named
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Orvis and Alpha, and they're friendly ets, but they just
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: want to go home. And of course Nosein's Kravitz sees
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: the ets and again calls the air force and annoyed
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: by this, Orvis hits her with a gray gun, which
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: turns her sweet and kind, absolutely the opposite of our
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: normal personality. Thankfully, it ends on a positive note when
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: the ets Orbis and Alpha are able to make it home,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: and this turns out the same UFO prop that appeared
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: in both The Beverly Hillbillies and I Dream of Genie.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: You have to give kudos to Bewitched for portraying ets
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: as actual living entities. First sitcom to say that yes,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: there are ets dog like eats interestingly enough, So yeah,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I mean that's groundbreaking in and of itself. It's a
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: very funny episode, so I think it's worth taking a
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: look at. And again we're starting to see a pattern
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: here where we're moving towards this subject being portrayed a
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: little bit more accurately. Now we move to the next sitcom,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: which was a huge smash hit, and I'm sure you've
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: heard of it. The Brady Bunch. Always laughed at The
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Brady Bunch because I come from a family with six kids,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and the Brady Bunch, I mean, it was just a
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: little bit different for me my experience with having so
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: many brothers and sisters, but certainly a fun show and
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: groundbreaking of course with two divorced parents coming together and
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: forming a new family. So it was from breaking in
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: a number of different ways. And they did portray the
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: UFO subject and it was a fascinating episode. The Brady
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Bunch was definitely a mega hit. UFOs were quite popular
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: at that time, so it's no surprise that they did
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: cover the UFO subject. In season five, episode sixteen, titled
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Out of This World, Peter and Bobby are in the
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: backyard when they see what they believe is a UFO,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: a glowing disc covering above their backyard. Little do they
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: know that this is a hoax. They've become victims of
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: a hoax pulled off by their older brother Greg. It's
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: quite an elaborate hoax where Greg puts up a sheet
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: and this is a flashlight with a little filter to
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: make it shaped like a flying saucer and a little whistle,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: a whole deal to make this hoax seem very believable,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: and it absolutely fools Peter and Bob. But then Marsha,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: the oldest sister, catches Greg in the act but decides
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: to join in on the hoax. So Bobby and Peter
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: not only see the UFO, they capture a photograph. Meanwhile,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Bobby is starting to dream about meeting ET's face to face,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: and this whole hoax backfires when their father, Mike Brady,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: actually phones Carter Air Force Base to report this sighting.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Air Force Captain McCartney shows up to conduct an investigation
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: of quote things that don't exist. He says there are
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: no such things as UFO, But the whole story takes
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: a twist when the captain himself sees the hoaxed UFO
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: and falls for it, believes it to be genuine, and
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: reports it to the military himself. Then, of course, the
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: hoax is revealed. Greg and the embarrassed Air Force captain
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: agree to engage in a cover up of the entire event,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: and in the end, the episode leads the viewing public
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: with the impression that all UFOs are the result of hoaxes, hallucinations,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: and misperceptions. Here we go again, UFO being portrayed as
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: nothing but a hoax. Such a shame. I'm also starting
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: to notice another pattern. The witnesses who see the UFO
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: are usually those who are least reliable, sort of naive,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: very young, uneducated, with Bobby and Cindy falling for Greg's
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: hoax of a UFO, not a very interesting episode overall,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: and I think it's starting to show once again how
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: people feel about this subject. Moving along, here's another sitcom
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: that I certainly watched. I wasn't a regular viewer of it,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: but I've enjoyed many episodes of Barney Miller. This is
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: a very interesting sort of police department sitcom. It first
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: aired in nineteen seventy five and tackled the UFO subject
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: much deeper into its run of episodes, but I will
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: say this is probably the most accurate portrayal of a
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: UFO encounter up to this time in the situation comedy.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: The Barney Miller Show was hugely successful. It won multiple awards,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: and it featured the UFO subject in episode seventy nine,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: titled The Sighting and this follows the experience of eccentric
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: and dim witted police officer Stan Woji Howicks. Stan was
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: on his way home from work and saw a UFO
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: hovering over Stanton Island, New York. So the next day
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: he tells his coworkers and his boss that he saw quote,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: some kind of spaceship. No surprise, they do not believe
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: in Stan's credit. He sticks to his guns, saying that
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: the craft was quote a kind of silver metal color,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: and it was shaped like a cigar. So the Air
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Force arrives to interview him, they refuse to validate Stan's sighting. However,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: the next morning, Stan is fully vindicated when it's discovered
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: that the local police station received more than a half
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: dozen calls from other witnesses reporting the same object in
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the same area. So other than the fact that the
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: UFO witness, Stan is initially considered unreliable. It's a surprisingly
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: accurate and fair treatment of the subject and really the
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: first sitcom to ultimately affirm the reality of the UFO
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: phenomenon in a serious way. Yeah, I'm just gonna underline it.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: That was a good episode. It was portrayed well accurately.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: My only real complaint is that the person who saw
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: the UFO was considered again the least reliable character in
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: that sitcom. And this is a pattern that turns up
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: again and again, and I'm really concerned about it because
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: it's just not accurate. People of all educational levels, people
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: of every strata of society encounter UFOs. But a very
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: good portrayal of an important subject. Now moving along, the
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: next sitcom I'd like to cover is called Soap. This
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: is sort of a takeoff of soap operas mixed in
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: with the situation. Comedy. Was a very popular show. It
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: made its debut in nineteen seventy seven and brought Billy
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Crystal into stardom and really a very funny, funny show
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: on many levels, and also groundbreaking in some ways in
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: terms of how the UFO subject is portrayed. The sitcom
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Soap lasted only four seasons, but it was considered to
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: be very successful and did garner several Emmy awards. Was
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: On episode forty six, Bert, who is absolutely portrayed his
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: psychologically unstable, is driving along a road late at night
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: when he sees a UFO. Now his family is skeptical
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: of all of this, but Bert's driving again on that
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: same stretch of road sees the UFO again, only this
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: time he is taken on board, and inside this craft
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: he sees short aliens with huge bald heads and large eyes.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: They're wearing silver suits, a pretty accurate portrayal of what
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: many people report, but does go off the rails a
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: little bit when Bert is held captive with another man
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: from the far distant past, and eventually Bert escapes back
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: to his home only to find that he has been
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: cloned by the Ets, and there's an ET that looks
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: just like him who has taken his place for the
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: sole reason of making love to Bert's wife. So Bert,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: with great difficulty, finally convinces his wife that he is
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: the real Bert and that the alien is an impostor,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: and now that his identity is revealed, the ET departs.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: So while the storyline is admittedly preposterous UFOs are portrayed
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: as real, and it is again the first show to
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: portrays someone actually being taken on board a craft. Fascinating
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: episode comes showing that ets might be living among us.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: I thought that was interesting. It's also the first live
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: action sitcom to portray somebody actually being taken on board
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: a craft and seeing ET's face to face, so that
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: in and of itself is groundbreaking. But once again, the
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: character who sees the UFO is not the smartest guy
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: on the show. Don't know why they keep doing that,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: and I'm disappointed about it, but still they did portray
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: the subject, so I'm glad about that. Now, we moved
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: to another show which was actually a spin off of
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: sitcom Soap, and this is called Benson, starring Robert Guillome.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: It made its first appearance on September thirteen, nineteen seventy nine,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: and it was pretty successful. It ran for eight years
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: and eventually did cover the UFO subject in a pretty
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: good way. I was impressed. Running for eight years, Benson
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: was considered a very successful show, which is amazing for
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: a spinoff. They often have a real hard time, but
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Benson did tackle the UFO subject in episode eighty one
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: called close Encounters on the third whole. The scene featuring
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: the UFO, features Benson and his employer, the Governor, playing
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: golf when a UFO shows up and actually beams them
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: both with a beam of light. Now, Benson disappears, demateializes,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: while the governor starts searching frantically for him. Then the
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: UFO returns sends down a beam of light. Benson reappears,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: so he's been taken on board. However, Benson has no
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: memory of this at all, and in fact doesn't even
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: remember seeing the UFO. So here we have the first
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: portrayal of missing time. The only evidence of this encounter
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: is that Benson is missing his watch. Now, they do
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: return to the golf course later, and lo and behold,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: the UFO reappears and returns Benson's watch. Now, the governor
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: asks why didn't they land, and Benson says, well, they're
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: probably shy, But he does say that was really something.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: So this is a very interesting and somewhat accurate portrayal
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: the UFO subject. Unfortunately, the Governor is portrayed as a
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: clueless politician. He goes public with this sighting is disbelieved
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: by almost everyone. The governor really wanted to go public.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: His friends urged him not to, but he did. The
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: governor told his barber, who leaked the sighting to the press,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: and that's when he got ridiculed mercilessly. Surprisingly, perhaps someone accurately,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: the Governor's favorability ratings actually go up. Either way. The
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: episode ends with a firm conviction that the et presence
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: is real and that ets are truly visiting our planet,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: even taking people on board and leaving them with little
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: or no memory of the onboard segment. I liked that episode.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: What I liked about it is the subject was portrayed
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: as being one hundred percent real and also showed how
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: people are profoundly skeptical of the subject and get ridiculed
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: because of it. But again shows that UFOs are real
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: and actually portrays the missing time phenomena as well, with
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: someone having an encounter and having no memory of being
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: taken on board. So that's also pretty groundbreaking. It was
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: a good at episode. Now let's move to the next show,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: which is night Court. Night Court has been recently rebooted.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about the original night Court, which first aired
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: on January fourth, nineteen eighty four. It's a hilarious show
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: which at one point did cover this subject involving extraterrestrials.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: With nine seasons, Night Court was definitely a very successful sitcom,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: and it was episode thirty seven, titled The Hostage that
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: featured the UFO subject. This episode is all about this
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: gentleman who was brought before the court under charges of
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: stealing electronic parts, but the man claims that he is
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: not subject to the laws of planet Earth because he
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: is not an Earthling. He is actually an extraterrestrial from Saturn.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: He's dressed in flowing robes, and the entire court, of course,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: believes the defendant to be mentally deranged. Takes Attorney Dan
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Fielding played of course by John learacat hostage and demands
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: that the rest of the parts he needs to communicate
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: with his home planet be delivered to him. The judge
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: gets very angry, and the whole episode ends on this
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: very interesting sort of note when the defendant waves his
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: arms theastrically and disappears in a puff of smoke, leading
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: no doubt to everyone there that something very strange and
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: inexplicable just happened and that it could very well be
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: an alien walking among us. I'm going through these episodes
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: pretty quickly and summarizing them very briefly, of course, because
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: otherwise we'd be here forever. But certainly an interesting appearance
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: of an apparent extraterrestrial in front of the judge in
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: a courtroom, an et walking among us, which certainly makes
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: you wonder, because there are accounts of this that I
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: thought was an interesting episode in that regard. And now
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: we move to another which I'm a little bit ashamed
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: to say I did watch. It's probably not the best sitcom.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: I don't want to judge, because it was a funny show.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: This is, of course, Charles in Charge, starring Scott Bale.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: This first aired on October third, nineteen eighty four, and
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: it was pretty successful. It went for four years, and
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: at one point they had a pretty interesting episode featuring
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: UFOs and alleged extraterrestrials. It was the fortieth episode of
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Charles in Charge, season two, episode eighteen, titled Ufooh No,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: that they featured the UFO subject. The youngest child of
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: the family, Adam, comes running into the house one evening
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: saying he just saw UFO. He says, and I quote,
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: it was round and it had flashing lights. Now, his
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: babysitter Walter doesn't believe him, but his two older sisters
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: not only believe him, but become panicked when they see
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: an unidentified road like creature running through the house, so
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: they're screaming hysterically aliens. There are aliens in the house.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: Walter tries to convince them all that UFOs are not real. Finally,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: the grandfather comes home and he's upset, saying that UFOs
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: and aliens are quote only hallucinations and hysteria. In fact,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Adams's mother tells him to go upstairs and that she'll
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: explain about things that quote look like UFOs. Then Walter
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: looks out the window and sees the UFO himself, a
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: quote silver thing in the sky with blue flashing lights.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: He's convinced it's a genuine UFO. He reports his citing
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: the local observatory, but is not believed. He's still convinced
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: it said real ufo. And then the grandfather sees the
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: UFO himself. He's also convinced it's real, so he calls
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: the local newspaper and the reporter arrives and starts an investigation,
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: and this is when the whole story unravels. When it
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: turns out their neighbor Buddy, announces that he pulled off
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: a hoax. He faked the UFO as part of an
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: experiment to test the effects of the paranormal on the
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: American family, and it turns out the furry creature running
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: through the house is identified as nothing more than an
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: escaped guinea pig. But the whole episode ends on a
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: mysterious note when Buddy explains that he only faked two
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: of the sightings and that he can't explain what the
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: grandfather saw, which was apparently a genuine UFO. That was
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: an interesting portrayal of the subject in a number of ways.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: It kind of shows the hysteria that can follow a
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: UFO encounter. People jumping to conclusions, people conflating various phenomena.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: But I have to say I'm glad that it did
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: end on a very unequivocal note saying that UFOs are
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: in fact real, And this is a pattern we see
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: in a number of these sitcoms. What starts out as
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: an apparent hoax turns into an actual UFO incident. Very interesting.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: Now we moved to another sitcom which I never really watched.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: I'm certainly aware of it. This is, of course, mister Belvidere.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: First episode aired on March fifteen, nineteen eighty five, but
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: it wasn't until episode eighty that they tackled the UFO subject.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: But they did a good job. I have to say again,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: I was really impressed. Mister Belvidere had a really good run.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: And it was episode eighty titled Graduation, that featured the
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: UFO subject. The witness was, of course, the teenage son Kevin,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: who returned home one evening very excited, claiming he saw
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: a quote a big, round silver thing with rotating lights,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: said it was hovering in the sky. He was deeply
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: affected by this encounter, absolutely changed his outlook on everything.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Began checking out books on UFOs and discovered that the
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: subject was being taken very seriously by many researchers. He
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: decides to do a UFO stakeout in his backyard, hoping
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: to have another encounter. Unfortunately, the UFO fails to arrive
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: and Kevin becomes the subject of ridicule and disbelief, and
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: various debunking explanations are raised to explain what he saw. However,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: at the very end of the episode, a genuine UFO
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: shows up right over mister Belvidere's head. And this is
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a spoiler alert, so if you
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: don't want to know how this episode ends, skip to
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: the next segment here. But this UFO shows up to
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: mister Belvidere's speaks to him and calls him Slim. Mister Belvidere,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: who of course is not exactly slim, closes the episode
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: by acknowledging the reality of UFOs and says out loud
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: to himself, I have developed a great fondness for extraterrestrials.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Anyone who calls me slim can't be all that. So
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: while the subject of UFOs was first treated skeptically, in
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the end of the episode, the existence of UFOs was
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: unequivably confirmed. I think that's an important episode because the
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: UFOs are obviously real. I think the evidence supporting them
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: is absolutely conclusive in my mind at this point. And
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: what's interesting about this episode is again we have the
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: least reliable character seeing a UFO, and he went through
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: some good deal of skepticism and pushback and ridicule, but
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: stuck to his guns. And it's also a very interesting
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: episode because again in the end, the subject was portrayed
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: is absolutely real and I have to say that the
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: ending of this particular episode made me laugh out loud.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: It was funny. So yeah, I recommend this episode and
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: I think it's a pretty accurate portrayal of this subject.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: Now let's move to the next sitcom, which I never watched.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: Sitcom is called Small Wonder. It's about a little girl
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: who's basically a robot, a humanoid robot, and it did
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: tackle the UFO subject. It had some interesting things to
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: say about it, but again, I don't really know this
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: sitcom that well. I only watched this episode because there
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: was a UFO theme to it, and ultimately I was
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: disappointed with how it was portrayed. But still trying to
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: be comprehensive here, so I'm covering Small Wonder. Small Wonder
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: was a surprise hit, really popular among children especially, and again,
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: it's about a family whose father is a robotics engineer
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: and the creator of a human looking robotic daughter named Vicky.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: But important here is episode eighty one, titled My Favorite
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: Martian and when the ditsy neighbor sees a UFO, Vicky's father,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: slash Inventor, calls the Air Force to invent instigate, but
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: little does he know the UFO is actually a projection
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: created by his robot daughter Vicki. So who discredit their
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: neighbor and debunk this sighting they have Vicki created a
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: projection of a little green alien, and this ruse works
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: like a charm. The neighbor falls for the hoax and
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: is persuaded into believing that Earth will be taken over
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: by aliens and he will be the new world leader.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: So the whole treatment of the subject is entirely skeptical
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: and frankly ridiculous. Ultimately for me, a pretty disappointing treatment
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: of the UFO subject, which is being portrayed solely as
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: a hoax. Fine, you know, this is a lot of sitcoms,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: as far as they apparently have the courage to go
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: with it. But it's important because this is how people
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: seem to view UFOs, certainly much more so years earlier. Now,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: of course, it's getting a legitimacy that it's long deserved.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: So the times are moving forward, and I think we're
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: definitely making progress with how the subject is being portrayed
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: and perceived here in the United States and all over
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: the world. But sitcoms are playing a role here. You know,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: they do shape our beliefs to a certain extent and
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: certainly reflect them. So this is important stuff. Now we
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: move to the next sitcom, which was a huge smash hit.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: I've certainly seen a number of episodes. I was never
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: really a fan, but I do recognize this award winning sitcom,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: which is The Golden Girls. And I have to tell you,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: of all the portrayals of UFOs and the subject in
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: the sitcom, I really liked this one, except for the
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: fact that once again it's the least reliable character who
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: is having the encounter. Featuring four older women as primary characters,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: The Golden Girls was absolutely roundbreaking, was a runaway hit.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: Its all star cast really struck a chord with audiences,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: and the show remained on the air for a full
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: seven years and still remains in syndication today. It was
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: an iconic series that finally broke the UFO subject. In
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: episode seventy eight, titled The One That Got Away now Rose,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: the ditzy character played by Betty White, was sitting on
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: the porch with Dorothy played by Beatrice Arthur one evening
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: when a new, huge silver object covered with colored lights
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: appeared overhead. Did you see that, Dorothy? Now, Dorothy thinks
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: it's just a plane, but Rose's convinces to UFO. But
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: of course Rose is not exactly reliable. She's considered unintelligent, naive, gullible. However,
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: after she reports the sighting to the Air Force, they
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: all learned that this object is in fact unexplained. As
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: Dorothy says Rose, they checked out what we saw and
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: it actually was a UFO. So this inspires Rose to
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: spend more time outside waiting for the UFOs to return.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: This causes her to receive some good natured ribbing from
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: her friends, and then comes another plot twist. Turns out
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: that the object they saw wasn't a UFO at all,
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: but a secret military aircraft. However, the episode ends with
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: Dorothy and Rose sitting outside. Dorothy closes her eyes to rest,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: and at that very moment, the UFO reappears. Rose calls
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: for Dorothy to wake up, but by then the UFO
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: is gone. Rose sits back and smiles, knowing in her
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: heart UFOs are real because she saw one. I really
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: liked that episode of The Golden Girls. I thought it
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: was a pretty darn good portrayal of the UFO subject
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: because It shows two witnesses seeing a UFO, one being disbelieving,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: the other believing. Turns out that is a real UFO,
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: with the plot twist that it was not a UFO
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: as we would think of it, but a secret military craft.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: Then in the end the UFO shows up again. Rose
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: is absolutely vindicated. It's a sweet episode. I thought it
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: was really interesting. And now we move to the next
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: episode to feature UFOs, which was the hilarious smash hit
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: Married with Children, a really sort of irreverent sitcom which
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: was quite different from a lot of the other family
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: shows of the nineteen fifties, featuring parents who were not
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: exactly role model parents. And it was a pretty long
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: lasting sitcom with two hundred and fifty nine episodes. And yeah,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: they did a very hilarious featuring of the UFO subject.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: One of the longer lasting live action sitcoms on television.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: Married with Children lasted a full ten years, producing two
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty nine episodes. It's interesting because it's usually
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: in the eighties episode eighties or so that these sitcoms
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: feature the UFO subject, and that's true with Married with Children.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: In episode eighty seven, Married with Aliens, it begins with
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: Al Bundy waking up in bed to see several short,
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: silver suited aliens in his bedroom or searching for something
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: in his bedroom, and finally steal his dirty socks. He
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: tells his family, who, as you might expect, do not
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: believe him. But a few nights later it happens again.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: The aliens come into his bedroom, steal his dirty socks,
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: and again he is the only one who sees the aliens,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: and again nobody believes him. So to prove his story,
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: Al Bundy obtains a camera and bates the aliens with
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: more of his dirty socks. The aliens soon arrive again.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: They're only interested in his dirty socks. Turns out that
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: they can use then as a fuel source. Al asks
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: to take their picture, and the ets obliged with a
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: series of poses. However, in a stroke of bad luck,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: which is normal for Al All, the film is lost
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: at the film developers, so Al ends up having no
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: way to prove his story, but of course remains forever
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: convinced in the existence of ETS. It's a hilarious episode,
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: but hardly an accurate portrayal of the phenomena, but to
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: its credit, it does stick to the premise that ETS
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: are real. All the sitcom portrayals of the UFO subject.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: I have to tell you, I think that one Married
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: with Children was the funniest episode of all. I mean,
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: it's sides splittingly funny. But yeah, hardly an accurate portrayal
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: of the most subject. But ET's coming into the bedroom
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: and stealing dirty socks for fuel. Come on, that's comedy gold.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: It was funny. And now we moved to the next
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: sitcom to feature the UFO subject, which was The Robert
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: Guillome Show. Robert Gillome, of course, was originally on Benson
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: and had his own show, The Robert Gillome Show, which
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: aired on April five, nineteen eighty nine. It was quite
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: short lived, but did feature the UFO subject. So Robert Gillome,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: star of both Silp and Benson, finally did get show
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: titled The Robert Gillome Show, which didn't survive past its
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: first season, but on episode eight, titled They're Here, this
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: did feature the UFO subject. Robert Gulm's father, Henry, woke
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: up in the middle of the night saying he saw
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: another one of those UFOs that he's been seeing lately.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: Robert Yilme plays a psychiatrist on the show and doesn't
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: believe him, saying was probably just a garbage truck. Henry, however,
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: adamantly insists he saw a genuine UFO and Will will
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: not budge from his story, but neither will Gyllome, and finally,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: Henry and Gyillom's secretary decide to conduct a nighttime UFO stakeout,
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: and this is when Henry excitedly points out the moon
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: and calls it a UFO. And this is when the
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: secretary realizes that Henry is actually deluded or not mentally
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: stable cannot tell the difference between a UFO and the moon,
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: but not wanting to hurt the old man's feelings, she
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: says nothing. But then Henry decides to tell his story
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: to a TV program titled Weird and Wonderful, who actually
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: portrays this sighting as a genuine UFO, even though it's
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: clear to everyone in the know except Giulm's father, that
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: the story is not true. However, the whole affair ends
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: on a mysterious note when one evening shortly later, everyone
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: is seated in the living room and a mysterious, unexplained,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: eerie orange light shines in through the front door. Window.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: So ultimately, while unconfirmed, the possibility that UFOs are real
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: remains in open question. Again, the pattern we see so
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: often in these sitcoms is being laid out exactly, almost
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: in a cliche way, where what starts out with a
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: misidentification or a hoax or something along those lines turns
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: out to end on a mysterious note sort of pointing
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: towards the reality of UFOs. It was a bit ambivalent, ambiguous,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: but certainly left the idea open that UFOs are real.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: And now we move to another sitcom. I've never really
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: watched this one, and this is the animated sitcom Dennis
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: the Menace, and it portrayed had a pretty interesting portrayal
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: of the UFO subject, with a UFO landing and actual
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: et lots of interaction with the ct was pretty interesting.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: The animated series Dennis the Menace managed to produce seventy
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: eight episodes over only two years, and it was season one,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: episode two, very early on that there was an episode
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: called a Visitor from Outer Space. Little Dennis was asleep
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: in his bedroom when a miniature flying saucer enters through
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: the window, scares his dog, wakes Dennis up. As Dennis
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: flees his room in fear, the ET shoots a beam
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: of light at him, shrinking him down to miniature size.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: Dennis runs outside and the ET follows, saying that he's
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: come from millions of miles away in search of friendly
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: contact with humans. The ET then returns Dennis to normal size,
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: and Dennis gives the ET, whose name is Randaar, a
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: tour of the house. Then he brings the ET over
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: to mister Wilson, and mister Wilson wakes up to see
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: Dennis and the ET levitating floating in the air outside
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: his window and calls the police. Meanwhile, the ET levitates
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: Dennis back to his bedroom and departs. Arrived to interview
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: mister Wilson, who ends up looking like a crazy, deluded person,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: gets handcuffed by the police and hauled off to the
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: station for questioning. What I liked about that episode was, Yeah,
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: there was a landing, there was an ET, a trunk,
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: Dennis down to miniature size. Interestingly enough, I do know
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: of a few cases of that, and his poor neighbor
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: mister Wilson, of course, getting carted off by the police
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: for spotting all this nonsense about UFOs once again portrays
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: how this subject is not real in many people's minds,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: very skeptical of this subject. So that as well is
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: once again showing how difficult it is to move this
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: subject forward when there's all this skepticism. And now we
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: move to one of the most successful sitcoms of all
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: times it's still in production, and that is The Simpsons.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: And I have to tell you the Simpsons has ports
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: trade UFOs on numerous occasions. I'm only going to cover
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: a few of the incidents because you could spend literally
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: hours talking about the Simpsons portrayal of UFOs and extraterrestrials.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: Simpsons actually first aired on April nineteen, nineteen eighty seven,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: as an animated short on The Tracy Almond Show that
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: became runaway characters and got their own show and very funny.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: I watched it for years, and I think it's really
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: interesting how they portrayed the UFO subject and do it
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: in a really funny way. After appearing on The Tracy
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: Almond Show, the Simpsons got their own show on December seventeenth,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, and it still remains the longest running
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: and most award winning sitcom in American history still in production,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: which come as no surprise that the Simpsons have had
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: a few run ins with UFOs and ets. Often it's
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: in their Halloween special episodes Treehouse Horrors that this subject
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: is brought up. For example, once while fishing in a lake,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: a saucer shaped object appears over Homer's boat. A gigantic
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: pincer emerges from beneath the craft and pulls Homer on board. Homer,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: inside the craft is confronted by two enormous, one eyed,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: green skinned octopus like ET's, and Homer tells them, I
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: suppose you want to probe me, well, may as well
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: get it over with, and Homer turns around and pulls
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: down his pants. The two aliens recoil and one replies, stop,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: we have reached the limits of what rectal probing can
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: teach us. So yeah, very funny and making fun, of course,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: with this whole idea that E tees anally pro people.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: The ets ask him take me to your leader, But when
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: Homer explains that an election is about to occur and
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: that Bob Dole may replace President Clinton in the Ets
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: end up taking both candidates on board, strip them of
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: their clothes, and place them in glass tubes and transform
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: themselves into the two presidential candidates. Homer witnesses this whole procedure,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: so to discredit Homer, the ETS doubts him in rum
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: so that nobody will believe him, and they forcefully eject
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: him from the craft. So that's then covering the UFO subject.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: But they do it over and over again. In another episode,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: the entire family is taken on board by ETS and
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: treated to a sumptuous feast. It's a twist of the
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: classic Twiede episode to Serve Man, where Lisa finds an
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: ET book titled how to Cook Humans and the ETS
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: said no, no, no. They remove dust from the cover
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: and reveal the title to be how to Cook for Humans.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: But then Lisa removes more dust from the cover and
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: the titles are revealed how to Book forty Humans, and
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: the twists go on and on. It's very funny. There
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: are many more episodes featuring UFOs and aliens on The Simpsons,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: and in each of them, the various ET tropes and
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: conspiracies are explored with classic Simpson's hilarity and with the
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: given premise to their kudos that UFOs and extraterrestrials are
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: very real. Kudos to the writers of the Simpsons for
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: really diving deep into the UFO subject and covering every
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: aspect of it, from how it affects politics to people
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: being taken on board and amally probed in the whole deal.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, they really dived deep into this subject. So
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: thank you to the writers of the Simpsons for having
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: the courage to tackle the subject. Now we move to
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: another sitcom which never rose to super prominent status, but
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: it was certainly a successful sitcom, having one hundred and
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: seventy two episodes, which is definitely considered a success. And
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: this sitcom is called Wings. This first aired on April nineteenth,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety and was very successful and at one point
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: did do an episode on UFOs and it was well done.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: The sitcom Wings tells the story of a small airline
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: run by two brothers and it lands on the UFO
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: subject with episode twenty two, Plane nine from Nantucket. Joe
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: and Brian, the owners of Sandpiper Airlines, are flying over
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: Nantucket in their plane when they see a strange quote
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: blue light. As they watch it hovers, zips across the
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: sky and then shoots upward. It's absolutely a genuine UFO.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: Both of them are convinced of this. Joe, the conservative
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: and sensible brother, he wants to keep the seat sighting
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: a secret, but Brian, portrayed as impulsive and rash, decides
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: to tell everyone, and now with their encounter revealed, both
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: witnesses suffer ridicule from their co workers. Brian gets really
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: disappointed when his brother Joe refuses to admit to the
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: reality of the sighting, so Joe calls the FAA, who
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: sends over an investigator, and as might be expected, the
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: FAA investigator is profoundly skeptical, and now Brian regrets going public.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: But then the brothers are confronted by a group of
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: UFO witnesses, and under peer pressure, they admit that they
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: did in fact see a UFO. A UFO and the
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: entire group takes a flight up into the air and
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: returns to the location of the sighting. In fact, a
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: reporter joins them on the venture. Unfortunately, no UFO appears,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: and the reporter ends up writing a really nasty article
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: ridiculing the sighting. But the message at the end of
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: the episode it's very clear the UFOs are real, but
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: those who go public are likely to be ridiculed and disbelieved.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: I did like that episode because this did portray a
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: ufhone counter by two pilots. Many pilots are seeing UFOs,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: and the UFO in this episode was real. What's important
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: about this episode, I think is the witnesses did decide,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: ultimately it's probably best to keep quiet because they've got
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: so much skepticism and ridicule from people they loved and
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: trusted and the mainstream media. This is absolutely an accurate
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: portrayal of how people sometimes have to deal with having
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: their own encounter, so that makes it, I think, an
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: important episode. Now let's move to another sitcom called step
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: by Step. This is essentially a reboot of The Brady
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: Bunch in many ways, involving a very large family with
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of kids and having the regular antics and
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: machinations that go on with a very large family. Its
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: first episode was on September twenty, nineteen ninety one. Patrick
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: Duffy Suzanne Summers were the parents, and yeah, it was
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: a funny sitcom. I watched several episodes. It's never a
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: huge fan of it, but they did cover the UFO
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: subject and it was certainly an interesting portrayal. Step by
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: Step featured the UFO subject on season thirteen, episode thirteen
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: on December thirteenth, nineteen ninety one, with the episode titled
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: Getting Organized. One of the children, JT, who has portrayed
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: somewhat lacking in intelligence and I'm putting that nicely, develops
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: an interest in UFOs. Of course, he's also madly in
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: love with a young girl who apparently despises him. And
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: it's this young girl who decides to take advantage of
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: JT's interest in UFOs, and she tells him that she
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: was in found contacted by the ETS who are visiting
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: Earth for the purposes of obtaining aluminum, and she convinces
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: j T and his best friend, who turns out to
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: be her brother who's also kind of dim witted. She
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: convinces them both to wrap their bids from head to
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: toe in aluminum foil to attract the ETS and to
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: wait for them. And meanwhile, she hires a friend to
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: fly a helicopter over the boys and shine a beam
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: of light down on them. It's a cruel, expensive, and
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: elaborate UFO hoax, but everything apparently goes according to plan.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: The boys dress up and foil. They make complete fools
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: of themselves while the girls film the entire prank. The
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: helicopter arrives on schedule, beams the boys with light, and
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: convinces them both that they've been visited by ets. But
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: as fits the pattern of other sitcoms who featured this subject,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: the entire episode ends quite miss steriously, and when the
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: girl's pilot friend calls him and says that he did
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: not fly that helicopter. He was not able to get
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: the helicopter and do this whole stunt. So apparently what
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: JT and his friend saw was a genuine UFO. Once again,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: we have UFOs being portrayed as nothing but a hoax,
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: at least initially. Of course, it does, and on a
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: mysterious note, when it turns out that the witnesses seeing
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: a UFO are actually not a victim of a hoax
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: after all. Even they were though they were a victim
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: of a hoax, it turned out that this last sighting
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: was real. It's that same sort of cliche pattern we
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: see in a lot of these sitcoms. But it's encouraging
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: because the writers of the show are recognizing that this
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: is a real subject. But again I'm disappointed because it's
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: the least reliable characters who are the witnesses to this UFO?
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: Such a shame because again not accurate. Now we move
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: to the last sitcom that I'm going to portray today,
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: and that is south Park. South Park's premiere episode actually
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: featured one of the main characters being taken on board
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: and having a full on UFO experience. South Park was
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: an immediate hit. It's very irreverent, very cutting edge, very unfiltered,
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: and it's really interesting because, as we'll see, they embraced
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: the subject in a way nobody has ever done on
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: any sitcom. Hudos to South Park for having their premier
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: episode feature UFOs. It's titled Cartman Gets an Anal Probe,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: and in this episode, ET's are visiting south Park, Colorado
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: for the purpose of probing various citizens, and no surprise
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: that it's Cartman who has taken on board and probed.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: The probe is apparently accidentally left inside of him. Now,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: when the Ets abduct one of Cartman's schoolmates, they use
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: the forgotten ET probe to lure the ET's back and
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: rescue their friend. So south Park was an instant success,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: earning very high ratings, started winning all kinds of awards.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: It's been continually renewed and is now in its twenty six,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: twenty seventh season. It's made over three hundred episodes. It's
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: one of the most successful sitcoms of all times. And
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: it's so interesting because ets continue to make regular appearances,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: and at least half the episodes there's almost always this
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: little et doing a cameo in the background. I wonder
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: if the writers of South Park have had their own
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: experiences having portrayed UFOs in so many of their episodes.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, over half the episodes appearing it's little tiny cameos.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: I think that's super interesting. I really wonder why they
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: do that. It's quite a lot of talk about it
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: on the internet, so I don't know, it's just interesting overall. Well,
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: I did cover all of these episodes in much more
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: depth in my book Not from Here, So if you
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: really want to take another look at that, check that out.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: I've got a lot of other interesting chapters in the book.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: But yeah, dove deep into the subject of UFOs and
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: the American sitcom But yeah, there's two dozen sitcoms portraying
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: the UFO subject, and as you can see, our understanding
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: of this subject is accurately reflected by these sitcoms, starting
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: out with a lot of them being portrayed as absolute hoaxes, hallucinations, misperceptions,
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: mental illness, naiv ta, but moving forward more and more
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: being portrayed is absolutely real. The real disturbing pattern for
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: me was pretty much every episode the person who sees
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: the UFO again is the least reliable character, which is
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: certainly just not reflective of real life. So we still
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: have quite some work to do in having this subject
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: be portrayed accurately in the situation comedy. And I have
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: to tell you there are a lot of other sitcoms
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: that not only portrayed UFOs, but basically embraced it as
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: the complete theme of their show, such as My Favorite
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: Martian or Mork and Mindy Elf of course from nineteen
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: eighty six, Third Rock from the Sun, an Et Family
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: Living among Us more recently, People of Earth in twenty sixteen,
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: or very recently Resident Alien, just to name a few.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: And of course each of these treat this subject as
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: completely real. But I will say that a good number
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: of sitcoms absolutely did not have the curge to portray
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: this subject whatsoever. Really prominent sitcoms, It's just Friends, Seinfeld,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: Modern Family. The Cosby Show never portrayed UFOs. Roseanne did
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: not as far as I know, Cheers didn't, or Lavernon
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: Shirley or Good Times or Trees Company, All in the
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: Family Mash didn't do it either, Mary Tyler Moore leave
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: it to Beaver. None of these portrayed the UFO subject.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: Honeymooner's growing pains, Who's the Boss? Most of them, I'm
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: going to say, have not had the courage to portray
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: the subject. Family ties one day at a time, The
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: Partridge Family, The Wonder Years, and that could go on,
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: frasier facts of life, happy Days and so forth. Father
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: Knows Best Nope, Ozzie and Harriet leave it to Bever.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: Malcolm in the Middle, Nope, none of them did. How
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: I Met Your Mother Fresh off the Boat the Fresh
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: Prince of bel Air. So most people have not portrayed
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: this subject, which is really a shame. The Big Bang Theory,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite sitcoms, did mention UFOs at one point,
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: but it was in a pretty sort of dismissive way.
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: The Andy Griffith's Show almost portrayed it, but it turned
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: out that a person they all thought was an ET
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: was just somebody who was very much in love with
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: the town of Mayberry. The one thing is certain, the
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: sitcom format continues to be popular. There's going to be
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: more shows coming out. And because this subject UFOs is
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: increasing in popularity all the time, it's only a matter
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: of time before the subject is portrayed in another sitcom.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: Very interested to see how the writers will portray it.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: I'm really hoping that they are more accurate and who
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: sees the UFO and portraying this subject as absolutely real.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: But that's it for today. That's the portrait trail of
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: UFOs in the American sitcom. It has a lot to
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: say about how we view this subject. I think that
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: alone is important. It's time we take a look at,
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: you know, how this subject is being portrayed. So thank
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: you very much for watching. I truly appreciate it. The
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: show is definitely a little different than most, so I
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: hope you found it entertaining and informative. Truly appreciate you
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: guys tuning in because of you. I do this research
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: that I'm putting these episodes together. So thank you, thank you,
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: thank you, and until next time, keep searching for the truth,
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: keep asking those hard questions. The most important of all
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: keep having fun and I will see you next time.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: Bye for now.