UFO Kidnapped

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.

Abducted by aliens who announce an intention to keep them as pets, two teenagers learn that the aliens might actually have other plans for them in this brisk adventure thriller from Canada. The film feels a little too cute at times (aliens that look like fuzzy bears) but there are several genuinely unsettling moments along the way, particularly a scene in which the boys wake up in what seems to be their bedroom, only without glass in the windows... or any way to get out. As it turns out, on the alien spaceship everything runs on imagination ("just think of what you want to wear") in a creative twist. Curiously enough, there is also an abducted cat burglar spends most of his time locked in a jail cell, unable to suspend disbelief and realise that he is just imagining the cell as the only place that he rationally thinks he can possibly be! Further fascinating ideas come from the aliens comparing pet human ownership to dog ownership and using the power from black holes to travel faster through space. The supporting characters are far less engaging than the teenagers though; Klea Scott plays a fellow young abductee whose only real purpose is to spell out for our protagonists how the imagination concept works, while Les Lye as the burglar is fairly one-note. This may not be high class science fiction entertainment, but is still remarkably well assembled for a low budget production. The special effects are not half-bad, the ideas at hand are often thought-provoking and two main characters are very likable as they find out in very unusual terms just how useful a good imagination can be.

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.

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.