UFO Kidnapped

I remember telling people for years that there was a show with the cast of You Can't Do That On Television, but they got abducted by aliens and put on a UFO. People were telling me I must have dreamed it or I was thinking of something else, and for some reason nobody else remembered this. I really don't remember much about it myself, but at least now I know I'm not crazy. :)

I'm relying on sheer willpower to remember this one, but it's all coming back to me in a Proustian rush. This made-for-Nickelodeon special used cast members from Nick's "You Can't Do That on Television," but it wasn't a comedy. A real attempt at science fiction, this short film fails in many ways but it has a lot of, what they call in the industry, "Heart." I think it was shot on the same low-grade video as YCDTOTV and the special effects looked like something you expect to see on your local cable access channel, but the story in which two kids are captured by aliens, has some interesting angles. Anybody else out there ever see this? Who's with me? It's too bad this team didn't attempt a few more oddball notions like this one, since at the time it was one of the few children's pieces that had any brains to it. And by the way, it doesn't have a particularly happy ending, which is always a hard sell in the kiddie-tv market.

OK, let me start out by saying that in 1983 I would have been four. And we all know how particular 4-year-olds are about what they watch on television (not at all). But I remember that every Saturday there was "Special Delivery" on nickelodeon I can still remember the little cartoon in the opening. It was on on Saturday afternoons and they would show original short movies. I remember the little alien's that looked like a cross between an Ewok and a polar bear. I also remember after they were kidnapped they woke up in a room that looked like where they expected to be (Allistar and Kevin woke up in a mock up of their bedroom on the space ship). I'd love to see this again. Hopefully they will release You can't do that on television on DVD and they will include this as a bonus.

The genius of this low-budget attempt at sci-fi was that it used the same actors and sets as the sketch comedy "You can't do that on Television" but was dead serious. The result resembled a nightmare in which everything starts out normal but then turns and becomes dark and untenably weird. It was like the writers and cast of "H.R Pufnstuf" decided to put on a production of Carmen.

It has been a long time since I've seen this movie, something like 19 years, but it was well wrought enough to stay with me. I think that the fact that the actors and sets were already so familiar to the the "You Can't do that on Television" viewer leant the movie a bizarre normalcy which circumvented the normal defense mechanisms.

I saw this movie on Nickelodeon when I was around 2 or 3 years old, and what I remember about it was it had four members of "YCDTOTV" and they get abducted by aliens. I really enjoyed watching it, although I don't really remember everything about it. Plus, it's practically impossible to find this on video, so I can't watch it again. But other than that, it's watchable.