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I watched this episode after going down a rabbit hole of pop culture references from Back to the Future, as this is the episode George McFly mentions missing because he's going to the school dance. The idea that Marty was almost erased from history because his father wanted to watch a show about killer termites adds some very funny context to the reference.

The episode itself is interesting enough and makes me curious about the rest of the show. The faux documentary style that the show utilizes would be ambitious if done in the modern day, but including this meta element in a TV show when the medium was so new really surprised me. However, their adherence to that format does make the storytelling come across very dry and lacking in the human drama that later shows like the Outer Limits relied on.

The story itself is fairly interesting, focusing on the daughter of a missing scientist and her newly hired assistant, an electrical engineer, attempting to locate him in Peru. I was surprised that the female lead was depicted not only as an expert interdisciplinary scientist but as the direct superior to her male co-star too. It's a role that could have easily been played by a man. Now I know the '50s are not necessarily the regressive and backwards period it is sometimes depicted as, but this is still a fairly uncommon role for a young actress during this time, and I found it refreshing.

It's a satisfying little mystery story centered around grounded, albeit speculative, science. For fans of this era's science fiction, it's worth a watch.

I remember watching this when it came out and being worried that it would devolve into crude violence and mean spirited or gross jokes with little else going on (like Drawn Together). That never happened though. The show certainly wasn't afraid of using crude humor but it expertly avoided becoming anything close to offensive. Most of its humor is actually situational, which helps it feel like a real sitcom, and the tone stays pretty light hearted.

The fantastical characters are well integrated into NYC and allows for fun set pieces and sight gags.

The art style reminds me a bit of underground comix and zines and is incredibly creative, often macabre and surreal but far from actually ugly.

It was a pretty worthwhile show. Shame it was so short lived.