[Eric Paddon]

I ask because I just got introduced to this show courtesy of a grainy looking set of episodes taped from a British Sci-Fi channel. I honestly don't think this show has seen the light of day in the US since it originally aired for two half-seasons on NBC in 78-79 (totalling 26 episodes total, including one with Anne Lockhart guesting).

This was the last show produced by Jack Webb, and done to cash in on the craze of Close Encounters. The premise is a lot like X-Files as we follow Air Force investigators Jake Gatlin (replaced in Season 2 by Ben Ryan) and Sgt. Harry Fitz checking out alleged UFO sightings. Unlike X-Files though, and in the best Jack Webb tradition, there are no government conspiracies and cover-ups taking place. And in fact, most of the time, the Air Force, just like the real life Project Blue Book, discovers that much of what's reported falls in the hoax category. However, before they unveil the truth, we get to hear the descriptions of what the witnesses saw unfold in flashback which meant there was some primitive FX in the show for its time (light years behind what Galactica was being cutting edge with).

Strangely, one gets the impression that Universal, which also produced this show, was palming off some leftover elements of it on Galactica 1980 a year later. Not only did Galactica 1980 partly recycle some of Project UFO by having an Air Force officer investigate UFO sightings, but remember that bizarre credit that always flashed at the end of G80 episodes about how the Air Force stopped investigating UFOs in 1969 and said they didn't cause a threat to national security? That credit actually used to always appear at the end of Project UFO just before the familiar Jack Webb "Mark VII" credit would appear. I think someone at Universal who was responsible for putting G80 together must have thought they were still doing Project UFO at the time!

The show is not well remembered by a lot of people because it took the antithetical approach of an X-Files or Kolchak: The Night Stalker. This was a show primarily about debunking (though sometimes leaving the door open a crack for the possibility that there were things out there) and about the deceit that often lies behind many UFO reports picked up on in the tabloid press. That sort of premise isn't considered sexy enough for a lot of people, but strangely it's making it easier for me to enjoy these shows. I guess part of it stems from the fact that as a historian, I always enjoy seeing sensationalist stuff debunked, but also I have to confess that in trying to watch X-Files and Kolchak as I've done on DVD, there's something that wears thin after a while when strange aliens/monsters get discovered every week and as a result you always KNOW that there isn't going to be any room for skepticism. After one year of X-Files, why is Scully still a skeptic after all they've encountered? Just from judging one year of X-Files, I came away thinking the show would have been better if they'd mixed things up a bit and had a few weeks where there wasn't anything supernatural and that it was a hoax, and then you could create genuine suspense week to week wondering if this time it would be for real or this time it wouldn't.

Anyway, it's because Project UFO goes in the other direction, that makes it an interesting kind of alternative companion piece to the other two shows and one that can be enjoyed on that basis. At 26 episodes, that's enough to put the entire run in a single DVD set so let's hope Universal puts it out some day!