Voyagers!

A lot of fans of this show were half my age in 1982-83. I was 14 and in high school. I had a terrible crush on Jon-Erik but the show was so good his beauty just enhanced a great show. I am 43 now and I never forgot it. I was reading an article on Solei Moon Frye and remembered her big brother Meeno Peluce. Then I thought about Voyagers and how I hadn't seen it in almost 30 years. I went hunting. I found several episodes...Thank You Youtube! I also thought I would look at the show with critical eyes like I do Dallas and Dynasty now. I was so wrong; I was thrust back to a simpler time, it really was a great way to learn, if we had more educational shows like that today maybe the United States children wouldn't be so "dumbed-down".

I remember this show clearly from when I was in 4th grade and was quite devastated when it was cancelled. This show helped spawn a love-affair with History and learning. I so greatly wish that more shows like it were to be made....but instead we must be flooded with cr*p like, "Making the Band" and "Full House". If anyone knows when the Sci-Fi Channel plays these episodes -- please let me know!!

"Voyagers!" was one of the best time travel shows I have ever seen. But a bad time slot up against 60 Minutes on Sundays spelled doom for Voyagers! I was about 6 or 7 years old when this show came out. No one my age even remembers this show, and I don't even bother with anyone significantly younger than me remembering Voyagers! The show centered around the adventures of 12 year old Jeffery Jones and his dimwitted 20 something adult companion Phineas Bogg. Bogg is a Voyager but is ill equiped for time travel, Jeff being a history whiz(and every other type whiz) is able to help Bogg out. Like "The Greatest American Hero", "Voyagers!" features a hook with a lost instruction book. In this case, Bogg's guide book. If Voyagers! was given a 2nd Season as it so rightly deserved, then I am certain Jon-Erik Hexum would still be with us. Tragically Hexum accidently killed himself a year after Voyagers! left the air.

There are several things to note about "Voyagers!" The first is that this was a part of a master plan by NBC Program chief Brandon Tartikoff to merge entertainment with education, and to provide kids with intelligent programming, not the usual dreck that seemed so prevalent in the 1980s.

The concept of the show was deceptively simple. There are a team of men and women who keep track of "history." These "voyagers" each have a hand-held device called an "Omni" which gives them their location, the date and a signal if history is "wrong." They all go back and forward through time to correct any "mistakes" that may have occurred in time and keep the world on track.

One voyager is named Phineas Bogg (an obvious play on Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg from "Around The World In 80 Days"). However this particular voyager didn't pass his history exam and landed on the windowsill of Jeffrey, who just happened to be a whiz kid in history. Together, they became "Voyagers!"

The serious problem the program had was in its construction. In one episode, Germany had somehow won World War I. The voyagers traveled back in time and discovered that famed flying ace Eddie Rickenbacher had nothing to do. That's because the Wright Brothers hadn't invented the airplane. So they had to travel again and discovered Orville and Wilbur were arguing over a girl in their bicycle shop instead of working on their flying machine. So the Voyagers had to set them back on track.

It had to have been extremely difficult to write such elaborate plots that both were well known enough for an audience to relate to and yet capable of making sense in the plot of the show. As brilliant as some of these episodes were, the question is how many related subplots could there be for any moment in history, before you get into material that isn't in the library? With such a limitation, with production costs being what they were for an early 1980s s/f program and with ratings being lower than desired, "Voyagers!" was not viable for more than a year. Looking at the series now, it would have made for a brilliant "Harry Potter" style string of films, since there really aren't enough historic events to have made it to the famed 100 episode level.

Voyagers! was an excellent show that could have gone far and taken us on many historical adventures, it was appealing both to children and adults. The teaming of late actor Jon-Erik Hexum and Meeno Peluce was wonderful, they had great chemistry and timing in their roles as Voyagers Phineas Bogg and Jeffrey Jones. Most of the plot lines were so fun to watch and follow, you really did learn some interesting facts along the way. This show is a great addition to the time travel genre and it even inspired another excellent show, 'Quantum Leap.' Jon-Erik was strikingly handsome, funny and charming as the confused pirate/Voyager and Meeno Peluce had a rare natural talent that only children could have, the ability to be lovable and a pain all at once! I highly recommend finding and watching this show to any sci-fi/time travel buffs!