5 Forgotten '70s Sci-Fi Shows That Still Hold Up Today

The '70s was a fantastic time for sci-fi television – thanks in no small part to "Star Trek" having become a belated success in syndication, proving that there was definitely an audience for the genre. It also helped immeasurably when "Star Wars" hit theaters in 1977, sending Hollywood scrambling to repeat its success on the small screen. Not every one of these shows managed to find the audience that their networks needed to keep them around for the long haul, however, resulting in short runs for these future cult classics.

These underrated sci-fi shows aren't always easy to find, but they're all well worth a watch. Whether they involve a trip to the future, another location in space and time, or just through the streets of Chicago, they all hold up remarkably well — especially when you consider how much time has passed since their debuts.

Released only a few months after "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" arrived in theaters, the debut of "Project U.F.O." on NBC's primetime schedule in February 1978 turned out to be perfectly timed for the series to find quick success. Produced and narrated by Jack Webb, the series follows a pair of U.S. Air Force airmen as they investigate UFO signings across America. Unlike a certain alien investigation series that would debut 15 years later, however, all the UFO sightings in "Project U.F.O." are left unexplained at the end of each episode.

When Webb appeared on an NBC press tour to promote the series, he assured the assembled TV critics that "Project U.F.O." would feature "the aura of believability rather than high fiction" and "high entertainment coupled with high strangeness." Although Webb's staccato narration certainly helped with the believability, the series was also produced by Col. William T. Coleman, who, for five years, had been in charge of the USAF's "Project Blue Book" UFO study. Additionally, a number of the episodes were based on actual UFO reports.

A rare item in Webb's catalog in that it wasn't produced in conjunction with Warner Brothers or Universal, "Project U.F.O." has never been released on home video or streaming — but it's out there, somewhere...

The '70s TV landscape was littered with shows based on feature films – but for every "M*A*S*H*" and "Alice," there were a handful of series that only survived for a season or two. In the case of "Logan's Run," a spin-off of the 1976 film starring Michael York, Richard Jordan, and Jenny Agutter, the run in question only lasted for a grand total of 14 episodes.

The pilot episode of "Logan's Run" offered an abbreviated version of the events of the film, which found Logan and Jessica — now played by Gregory Harrison and Heather Menzies — escaping from the City of Domes to avoid being put to death at the age of 30. Logan and Jessica find themselves teaming up with Rem (Donald Moffat), a self-programming, problem-solving android, as they attempt to evade Francis (Randolph Powell) and his Sandmen while searching for the perhaps-mythical place known as Sanctuary.

By all rights, "Logan's Run" should have been huge, given the amount of "Star Trek" alumni on the writing staff: The show's story editor was D.C. Fontana, who wrote a number of episodes of the original series and later worked on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," while the treatment for one episode was penned by Harlan Ellison ("The City on the Edge of Forever") and another featured a teleplay by David Gerrold ("The Trouble with Tribbles"). Instead, "Logan's Run" went up against "The Rockford Files" on the schedule, dying a relatively quick death as a result. "Logan's Run" is not currently streaming, but the series is available on DVD and digital release.

Not to be confused with the animal adventure tale "The Incredible Journey," this adventure series was created by Bruce Lansbury — yes, Angela's brother — and took its cue from a mystery that was particularly in vogue in the '70s: the Bermuda Triangle.

"The Fantastic Journey" begins with a boat entering into a glowing green cloud, after which two of its passengers — 13-year-old Scott Jordan (Ike Eisenmann) and freshly graduated physician Dr. Fred Walters (Carl Franklin) — find themselves stranded on an uncharted island. Stuck with them are Varian (Jared Martin), a man from the 23rd century with inhuman abilities; Liana (Katie Saylor), daughter of an Atlantean father and an alien mother; and Dr. Jonathan Willoway (Roddy McDowall), a rebellious scientist from the 1960s whose only allegiance appears to be to himself. Nonetheless, the ragtag group ventures forth into the island's mysterious space-time gateways in an effort to make their way back to their respective homes.

In the end, the journey's length was far from fantastic, as the show only lasted for a grand total of 10 episodes before NBC pulled the plug. To date, "The Fantastic Journey" has never been released on DVD, nor is it available for digital purchase. You can watch the two-hour pilot on Tubi, however, and the rest of the series is currently streaming on Fubo.

What many viewers may have forgotten about the two-hour premiere of "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" is that — like the pilot for Glen A. Larson's previous series, "Battlestar Galactica" — it was actually released in theaters in March 1979. The box office proved more than sufficient for NBC to greenlight the series, although it would be another six months before Rogers' adventures premiered on NBC, with the film having been tweaked slightly to include a few new or extended scenes.

Starring the late Gil Gerard as the titular hero, Erin Gray as Col. Wilma Deering, Tim O'Connor as Dr. Elias Huer, and Mel Blanc as the voice of Buck's robot pal, Twiki, "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" ran for two seasons and 37 episodes; the second season involved some retooling, bringing in further characters like Dr. Goodfellow (Wilfrid Hyde-White) and Hawk (Thom Christopher). The series also featured a plethora of fun guest stars, including Gary Coleman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Peter Graves, Jerry Orbach, Jack Palance, and Buster Crabbe, who had played Buck Rogers in the original 1930s film serial. 

Although "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" is well remembered by those who grew up in the '80s, its absence from streaming services has limited its present-day appreciation. It is, however, available on DVD and Blu-ray as a complete-series set.

Although there are no doubt more than a few readers currently shaking their fists at their screens and declaring, "'Kolchak: The Night Stalker' is not a forgotten series," it's one that arguably never truly climbed above cult status, owing to the fact that it only ran for 20 episodes. Granted, it found a slighter higher profile as a result of Chris Carter citing the series as a significant influence in the creation of "The X-Files," which subsequently led to Carter's "X-Files" cohort Frank Spotnitz taking a shot at rebooting the series — now simply titled "The Night Stalker" — in 2005. Given that this show was pulled after only six episodes, however, it certainly didn't do anything to raise the profile of the original series.

The adventures of Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin), an investigative reporter with a fascination with crimes that can't readily be explained, began with the 1972 TV movie "The Night Stalker," which was so successful that it spawned a second movie, 1973's "The Night Strangler." While there were originally plans for a third movie, ABC instead opted to move forward with a weekly series, one that found Kolchak dealing with a wide variety of curious characters, including vampires, aliens, a werewolf, a voodoo priestess, a Hindu demon, and a murderous android.

Chris Carter tried to get McGavin to reprise the role of Carl Kolchak on "The X-Files," and when that effort failed, he tried to get him to play Fox Mulder's father instead. In the end, McGavin finally guest starred as Arthur Dales, a retired FBI agent who was the first to have begun looking into the agency's X-Files. To investigate what he inspired, you can stream "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" on Peacock.