Lasting only Six episodes, this is another attempt at doing SF-Comedy. It has some funny ideas, like the cloned twins and hermaphrodite crewman, but altogether, it just isn't that funny.

I guess it was just too soon after Star Wars craze to begin satirizing it, but that is what Quark did (tho we took it more as a Star Trek parody).But unlike most parodies today, from Airplane on, you had to watch the original to appreciate (and understand!) the satire.Quark wasn't so much like that. You could watch the program and follow it and enjoy it, then if you caught one of the 'original' programs, you might understand what the joke was now from Quark.Unlike Airplane or Vampires Suck or these Teen Slasher Movie Parodies, in which you have to have seen something of the other movie. Yes.But back to Quark. We liked it to begin with. I've always thought about this show (I even remember Ficus wasn't there all the time. In the pilot, it was an elderly scientist).Rather surprised to see the pilot was half an hour, and the other episodes are an hour. I think I remember that. Actually one episode on the DVD set seems to run an hour, the episode with the Source, then the show returns to being a half hour. The Source ep isn't divided into two parts, like the other two parter is. I haven't watched all the episodes yet. Again, it does seem I recall all this mucking about with the show. I think the laugh track might vanish in a couple of episodes as well, suggesting the show wasn't certain if it wanted to be a comedy or dramedy.Still it was a good show. This was about the first place I saw Benjamin. If at that time I had seen Westworld, I didn't realize it was the same actor.He's kind of a smoothed over, serious Tony Randall, isn't he? Watching this, I couldn't help but notice similarities in Tim Thomerson to Jim Carrey and Conrad Janis to Billy Crystal.

QUARK, a sci fi spoof from the mind of Buck Henry, aired in the fall of 1977. It lasted only eight episodes, and understandably so. It wasn't good, particularly the first four episodes. Much of the humor was flat and groan-inducing. Yet there was lovely potential. With nods to both STAR WARS and STAR TREK (they used the same audio library), it was obviously a labor of love. The hero is Quark (a well-cast Richard Benjamin), the long-suffering commander of an interstellar garbage ship. His first mates are Betty and her clone Betty (Cyb and Patricia Barnstable, the Doublemint twins), both in love with him. He's in love with her too, but can never consummate because he can't figure out which one is the original (another beautiful moment lost to monogamy's insidious grasp, or just the ugly face of anti-clone prejudice?). Crewmember Gene/Jean (Tim Thomerson) is a transmute, whose personality shifts unpredictably between macho male and fey female. The snarky HQ supervisor Palindrome is well-played by Conrad Janis (MORK AND MINDY). There's a homemade robot who is (unsurprisingly) annoying. The greatest character is Vegeton crewmember Ficus (Richard Kelton), a plant-creature who looks exactly like a human. His dry debates with Quark (no slouch at dry himself) are beautiful, and he takes his place admirably in the emotionless Vulcan/android continuum. Guest stars include Henry Silva (BUCK ROGERS) in "May the Source be with You", and Joan Van Ark in "All the Emperor's Quasi-Norms", the greatest episode of a too-brief run.

I think Quark was one of the classics of comedy Sci-Fi. At the time it was unequaled Adam Quark (Richard Benjamin) as the Bumbling Captain of the garbage space scow was well acted. His antics trying to avoid the continual advances and affections of the two Betties Clones played by (Cyb Barnstable) was always a laugh. Then there was the gentle but strong Vegiton human appearance but was from a planet where vegetables had evolved as the higher life form. The brave warrior who was really a coward. The Head he was the commander at base and not to mention the robot. Looking back I would say Quark had aspects of many Sci-Fi's before and after. Lost in Space TV series not the movie, Red Dwarf, even early Star Trek. I'd love to get it on DVD to add to my collection.