''Captain Cosmic'' was a late-afternoon weekday TV show aired in the San Francisco

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

on KTVU-2 from September 19, 1977 to January 18, 1980. The show was created, produced, and hosted by

Bob Wilkins Bob Wilkins (born Robert Gene Wilkins; April 11, 1932 – January 7, 2009) was a Celebrity, television personality. Wilkins was the creator and host of the popular television show ''Creature Features#KTVU-Channel 2 (San Francisco), Creatu ...

in the guise of ''Captain Cosmic'', airing serials, primarily featuring Japanese superheroes.

Background

The show was forced to kick off with the original ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...

'' serials because of a delay in the shipment of '' The Space Giants'' from distributor Lakeside Television, but soon eased into its format with episodes of '' Ultraman'', '' Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot'', '' Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', ''

Spectreman is a tokusatsu science fiction superhero television series. Produced by P Productions and created by producer Souji Ushio, the series aired on Fuji TV in Japan from January 2, 1971 to March 25, 1972 with a total of 63 episodes (divided into thre ...

'', ''

Star Blazers ''Star Blazers'' is an American animated television series adaptation of the Japanese anime series . ''Star Blazers'' was first broadcast in the United States in 1979. It was the first popular English-translated anime that had an overarching plo ...

'' and ''

Star Trek: The Animated Series ''Star Trek: The Animated Series'' (''TAS''), is an American animated science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. It originally aired under the title simply as ''Star Trek'', subtitled ''Created by Gene Roddenberry'', on Satu ...

''. Programming in the first year was also supplemented by serialized versions of Japanese monster movies such as '' Dogora, the Space Monster'' and ''

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'', cut into five parts and run Monday through Friday. There was also one, two-hour Prime Time special, featuring the movie '' Godzilla vs. Megalon'' on November 8, 1978 at 8:00 pm. The show was created after Wilkins and his family vacationed in Hawaii and experienced the explosion of live action Japanese superhero television series broadcast on Honolulu's KIKU TV-13, and was further spurred onto the airwaves in the wake of ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'', capitalizing on the popularity of science fiction. The character of Captain Cosmic flew around the

galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

in his spaceship with his sidekick "Wonder Robot 2T2", and was "faster than a speeding BART train" according to the opening sequence. ''Captain Cosmic'' would feature guests on the show, from local fans and celebrities, to actors from science fiction films and television series, such as Anthony Daniels and David Prowse. "Within three weeks of going on the air, ''Captain Cosmic'' was the number one children’s program in the Bay Area."''Shock It To Me! Golden Ghouls of the Golden Gate'', page 67 (Monahan, Michael and Huber, Lon; UHF Nocturne, 2011) The show had a

fan club A fans club is an organized group of fans, generally of a celebrity. Most fans clubs are run by fans who devote considerable time and resources to support them. There are also "official" fan clubs that are run by someone associated with the per ...

with decoder cards. A weekly message would be shown that only members with decoder cards would be able to decipher (the code consisted of a three-shift alpha replacement) on upcoming events and new shows being added to the line-up. Despite its popularity, Wilkins decided to leave ''Captain Cosmic'' at the 11th Hour, instead of renewing his contract; he was transitioning out of television, in the wake of bowing out of hosting '' Creature Features'' after eight years (January 9, 1971 to February 24, 1979), and return to concentrating on his own Advertising Agency. After more than 15 years as an on-air personality, he retired from television with the final broadcast of KTXL-40's ''The Bob Wilkins Double Horror Show'' on February 14, 1981. Captain Cosmic's trusty sidekick, Wonder Robot 2T2, currently resides at the comic book emporium

Atlantis Fantasyworld Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus'' and ''Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that bes ...

in Santa Cruz, California.

References

{{Reflist 1970s American children's television series 1980s American children's television series Children's television characters Local children's television programming in the United States Television in the San Francisco Bay Area