Captain Cosmic

Captain Cosmic was a TV show aired in the San Francisco Bay Area on KTVU from 1977 to 1980. The show, hosted by Bob Wilkins in the guise of Captain Cosmic, would air serials, primarily featuring Japanese superheroes. The list of shows includes Star Blazers, Spectreman, Ultraman, Godzilla, Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and The Space Giants, as well as the original Flash Gordon Serial. The show was created after Wilkins and his family vacationed in Hawaii and experienced the explosion of live action Japanese superhero television series broadcast on Honolulu's KIKU TV-13, and was further spurred onto the airwaves in the wake of Star Wars, capitalizing on the popularity of science fiction. The character of Captain Cosmic flew around the galaxy in his spaceship with his sidekick 2T2, and was "faster than a speeding BART train" according to the opening sequence. Captain Cosmic would feature guests on the show, from local fans and celebrities, to actors from science fiction films and television series, such as Anthony Daniels and David Prowse. The show had a fan club with decoder cards. A weekly message would be shown that only members with decoder cards would be able to read. The code consisted of a 3-shift alpha replacement.