So anyway, this is a huge nod to “Back to the Future,” but with a different spin to it. I didn’t want to interacte with future persons so having the “Professor & Timmy” in 1957 seemed natural (that’s the year I was born, BTW). Also, I have an idea way down the line that might have Bud and the band end up in 1957, so having the Professor introduced makes it easier to start that storyline someday.
The second “nod” is to the show “Dinosaurs” on ABC in the early 90s. Not only was the show funny, but they had a reacurring bit where the baby dinosaur would watch a TV show with a scientist that would constantly blow up his sidekick Timmy followed by “We’re gonna need another Timmy!” Wet your pants funny everytime.
Lastly, the title of the comic is from a little seen TV show from 1966 where two Mercury astronausts break the light barrier (like that was possible!) and end up in prehistoric times. This was before we figured out that cavemen and dinosaurs NEVER existed at the same time. DOH! The show flopped but the theme song was a toe tapper. It’s on YouTube. The show was produced by the guy who did “Gilligan’s Island” and it was just as silly and stupid. Like, the Mercury space capsule had, what looked like paint cans, attached to the side of it and THIS was how the craft landed and launched itself. THREEE TINY cans lifted this craft not only into space, but faster than light. Even at age 9 I knew they were full of shit!
As I recall, “It’s About Time” co-starred Dick Van Dyck’s brother Jerry…
(years before he’d become a regular on “Coach”)
…who had just completed another sitcom classic: “My Mother The Car”
I’ll have to look that up, as I don’t recall him in that show. I was (am) a big fan of Dick Van Dyke, but Jerry never got a good break until later in life.
The earliest I recall seeing Jerry was in a guest appearance on the Dick Van Dyke (sorry about the typo in my 1st post) Show. The only thing I remember about the plot was that Jerry’s character on the show had a real skill with a musical instrument…
…but only when drunk. This was referenced in an episode of the cartoon “Family Guy”, when Peter Griffin played flawless renditions of old TV-sitcom tunes while plastered.
Actually, I think Jerry’s character had to be asleep. So they gave him a sleeping pill at a party so he could be ‘discovered’.
“two Mercury astronauts”? Gemini, no? Mercury carried one man, Gemini two, and Apollo three. And I’m pretty sure that in 1966 we knew that cavemen and dinosaurs didn’t co-exist; Sherwood Schwartz just didn’t see any reason to care.
I was also born in 1957, but all I remember about that show was the beginning of it’s theme song: “It’s about time, it’s about space, it’s about two astronauts, in the strangest space.” God, the crap that’s stuck in my brain…
I was thinking of MR. Wizard. But then I was born in the 1970’s. I remember the 80’s, but I liked the 1990’s better except for being sick.