A look at two episodes of Benji’s TV series, where he teams up with an alien boy and a robot!
Manic Episodes: Benji, Zax, and the Alien Prince (1983): The Locals/The Flying Lesson
A look at two episodes of Benji’s TV series, where he teams up with an alien boy and a robot!
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I like how the limbless C3PO knockoff got second billing. Fuck you, Prince Yubi!
An interesting deviation from Baywatching (which is still like Manic Episodes). Hope you’re not getting bored of the ‘Hoff, Allison.
The moral of the story: Directors, your kids/pets/houses do not make good actors. See A Talking Cat?! for another good example. OH SHIT MYSTIKAL! However, a broken leg for a horse is pretty much a death sentence, unfortunately.
That was awesome!
I hate to admit this, but if I was six years old and saw this I would have thought it was the best thing ever. As an adult I just want to stomp on Zax until it breaks.
– The bullies were pure 80s after School special rejects.
– Remember, Benji now has the soul of a middle aged detective in him, so he could learn basic flying instructions, it’s canonical!
Here’s my suggestion for another low-budget 80s short lived series with bottom of the barrel special effects: Photon
Be the first internet reviewer to bring this insane mess that could only have existed in the 80s to awareness!
Definitely a bizarre premise, yet feels like something I would have seen in the 90s, despite it coming out a decade earlier.
That Zax character does come off as quite the annoyance. And that’s just the clips. How could you stand a whole episode of it? I can see why you were telling it to fuck off.
Interesting note: I was reading the Wikipedia page for the show, and guess who was responsible for the DVD distribution? Yup, our good ol’ friends over at GoodTimes Entertainment. I’m sure Phelous will be especially happy to hear about this.
I can assure you, this has 1980’s written all over it.
Stuff like this from the 90’s were more throwbacks and holdouts that felt dated in their day. In the 80s, this kind of stuff was big, especially with the sci-fi and robot craze the decade is notorious for.
This actually kinda reminds me more of shows like Small Wonder, Twiki from Buck Rogers, or Short Circuit. Just do a google search for 80’s robots…you’ll see!
I thought my brother and I were the only people on the planet who remembered this show. I knew of it, but I don’t think I ever bothered watching anything other than the opening credits until now.
The McDonald Land comparison is pretty spot on; Zax bears a slight resemblance to a long forgotten McDonald Land character called CosMc; he was an alien whose spherical body doubled as his spaceship. he was voiced by Saturday morning staple Frank Welker.
So Yubi doesn’t have any magic powers nor is he a technological genius with amazing tech at his disposal? What a lame alien.
The show’s premise is notably similar to an NBC sci-fi/adventure airing around the same time called The Powers of Matthew Star; except there the alien was a psychic powered Peter Barton, his guardian was Louis Gosset Jr. instead of an annoying robot and there was no dog who was just there for the most part.
Not a technological genius? He’s ten and he FIXED A PLANE!
Idly, one has to wonder: when this advanced alien race created an artificially intelligent, self-aware robot capable of flight, firing laser projectiles and translating dog speech, exactly what purpose do the plastic cartoon googly eyes serve?
The only episode I remember was the one where Prince Yubi gets a love interest for an episode and wants to stay on Earth but she turns out to be a bounty hunter. For some reason, I just automatically assumed that was the first episode. But, yeah, this show is hilariously awful. I loved “For the Love of Benji” as a kid, but other Benji related stuff could be quite lame.
That’s the only episode I ever saw, too!
That’s the only episode I ever saw, too.
For a show about space aliens, this seems to be just plain boring. Nonetheless, the premise raises a few unaswered questions:
1. OK, so Yubi’s planet has been enslaved, so he flees to Earth. Fine, except that he’s a freaking prince! He must have had a number of servants or retainers. Didn’t he at least have a bodyguard? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to send Yubi to Earth with at least one adult who could have gotten a job and set them up some temporary lodgings so he wouldn’t have to live in a forest with a stray dog?
2. This advanced alien race has the technology to build a sentient robot with built in lasers, yet Yubi himself has nothing whatsoever to protect himself with?
3. If Yubi is basically homeless, how do his clothes stay so clean?
That arcade machine must have been made on the same planet that makes the Scouters in DBZ.
Ooooh! I still remember watching this one as a kid. We still had a black and white TV, so I had to take my classmate’s word for it that Zax was golden. Heh, I even drew a lot of new robot characters for the show.
Watch Benji the Hunted. That movie just melts heart and, unless you’re a heartless robot, will assuredly make you cry. There’s virtually no human actor in that movie, it relies entirely on Benji’s acting and the score to setup the mood and it works great.
There are some astounding movies from the 80’s. O.O Also, I really want to buy more Nike now. LOL.
Benji flying a WWII bomber. That is truly awesome. Look out, Snoopy, with your crummy little Sopwith Camel! Benji’s got a B-17!
Pretty sure Wall-E got its inspiration from Zax
Wow, how’d I miss this episode?
I’m glad I just looked into the archive now, I didn’t know this one had come out for some reason.
Damn, how the hell did they manage to make all of THAT crap boring? Seriously, it sounds as though it should be awesome. I guess low budget (and competence) really does damage the thing. Wait, seriously? Benji is the reincarnated spirit of a homicide detective?! I’m really not sure why anyone thought that was a good idea.
I’m AMAZED this thing actually managed to last even as long as 13 episodes, it’s ridiculous! It feels like one of those failed pilots that never got off the ground for good reason! Seriously, the first Star Trek pilot, The Cage? That pilot was actually rejected by the studio in spite of support from Lucile Ball, who believed that intelligent science fiction programming should be allowed. The second pilot, the one with Kirk, was very nearly canned too if not for Lucille Ball being so influential and once again throwing her full support behind it. Yeah, Trek almost didn’t happen, and yet THIS managed to get through with full approval until its cancellation. I really do not get executive thinking.
What’s really sad is, given a decent budget and better script writers, this concept probably could’ve actually been a decent, fun show for kid’s stuff. Like The Fugitive but with an alien prince kid instead of Richard Kimble.
Oh My God! Please tell me your the rest of the series.
I had two episodes of this on tape but for some reason it was called ‘Benji & Friends.’
Also, I would like to stick up for Benji here. Unlike most animal movies, the Benji films only used one dog. The only other time I can think of that happening was Frank the Pug in the MIB movies.