Project U.F.O.

Does no one else remember this show? I used to watch it when I was in 2nd grade. It lasted for one season and was about these two Air Force guys assigned to investigate UFO sightings. Sometimes they would prove it a hoax and other times it would turn out to be real. From what I can remember (and it has been awhile - I have NEVER seen this show in reruns) the acting and the scripts were not too good. And unlike the X Files, the U.S. governement in this show was truthful and honest.

The creator of X-Files credits Kolcheck: The Night Stalker for inspiration but I am wondering if he saw a few episodes of this somewhere along the way and just forgot it like the rest of the world.

When I was a kid watching this show. I always remembered it titled as "Project Blue Book" NOT "Project U.F.O." Is it just me or am I going completely mad? Maybe since they used the word "Project Blue Book" in the series so much that I just remember the show being called that. Any thoughts from anyone on this?

I remember this show, particularly one episode which ended with the two agents at the top of some observation tower with a large white UFO floating away from them. As I recall the FX were actually OK, and the whole thing had quite a cool Close Encounters-type feel to it. Certainly a predecessor to the X-Files, Sci-Fi channel or somebody could re-run this and cash in.

This series was based on Project Blue Book, and one of the former officers assigned to Blue Book was actually a technical adviser to the show.

The problem, of course, is that today, we know that Blue Book was an attempt at Public Relations by the USAF to show that they had a handle on this UFO thing when they really didn't, and that they frequently used the most ludicrous explanations for sightings they could think of. Usually, an officer who was assigned to Blue Book was someone who was at a career dead end, and the Air Force was happy to get out of the whole thing in 1969.

The problem with Jack Webb's concept is that he tried to treat it like one of his cop shows, but still create a little action. So you'd have this elaborate special effects sequence setting up the story, followed by some "prosaic explanation" (as famous UFO Debunker Phil Klass used to say) as to what they actually saw. OH, that was swamp gas? Really?

To be absolutely fair, they were right. 95% of UFO sightings can be explained as something that was misidentified by people. Still, that didn't make for very good drama. The Air Force even cooperated in this series, hoping it would be good PR, but it was anything but.

This series was called Project Bluebook when it aired back in the late 70's.