When I was a kid I was a fan of Buck Rogers. I’m talking about the TV show in which Gil Gerard jumped around in his white suit and knocked out bad guys. There was some great stuff in that show, especially for a nine-year-old Star Wars fan. Twiki was… alright, he was a little creepy, but he was short and kinda funny, which I could understand. Wilma Deering was an angel. She was probably my first real crush. She didn’t seem to do to much, but who cared? I don’t think there’s ever been a sexier person named Wilma in the history of the universe.

And then there was, of course, the galaxy’s most popular rock band, Andromeda.

Andromeda only appears in one episode. The episode is called “Space Rockers” and guest-starrs Jerry Orbach as the band’s unscrupulous manager. The story is simple. Jerry wans to cause galaxy-wide riots by embedding a freak-out code into the band’s music that causes people to beat each other up and then wander off to find something better to do. It’s up to Buck (with his savvy familiarity with 20th Century indie pop music) to stop him.

Andromeda was one of the coolest bands I’d ever heard. They had a nifty proto-trance groove that was hard for a kid to ignore. And since I’ve got a keen musical memory, I never forgot the tune that opened the episode. And thanks to the miracle of YouTube, I can show it to you:

I love the outfits, I love the crazy “futuristic” instruments, I love the calisthenics. So cool. As far as I know, they never released an album and are, as yet, without a label. I’m guessing they’re retired. I’d love to get my hands on a bootleg. If anyone has any connections, let me know.

By the way, I watched that episode at hulu.com. It’s that new service offered by NBC and News Corp that plans to stream and share full-length television episodes. This is new media. There were advertiesments. There’s going to be money. That’s why there’s a strike.