Starstuff
A 1980s TV show about a boy and a girl talking via computer.
Starstuff was a half-hour children's television program produced at WCAU-TV Studios on City Line Avenue in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, and broadcast only in the Philadelphia television market. It aired a single season of 20 episodes, debuting on Saturday, August 30, 1980, and is notable for its early depiction of computer-mediated communication between a boy in 1980 and a girl living on a space colony in 2010.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Science fiction / Children
- Writer
- Dorothy Louise / Don Matticks
- Director
- Don Matticks
- Starring
- Todd Porter / Johanna Hickey
- Voices
- Mark Ritts
- Theme Music Composer
- Gustav Holst
- Open Theme
- The Planets
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Num Seasons
- 1
- Num Episodes
- 18
- Executive Producer
- Inez Gottlieb
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Starstuff centered on Chris (Todd Porter), a 12-year-old boy living in Philadelphia in 1980 who built a computer with a video terminal in his bedroom, and Ingrid (Johanna Hickey), a 12-year-old girl living on Alpha, Earth's first space colony, in the year 2010. Ingrid, the first child born on the colony, received an Earth Study Center computer for her birthday, and the two meet when their systems establish two-way video transmission. Their secret conversations, broken up by short films such as clips from Laurel and Hardy's Laughtunes and the educational news show Kidsworld, explored topics like divorce, loneliness, and crushes.
About halfway through each episode, a 5–7 minute puppet segment titled The Edge of Space aired, featuring Krikles, Zornad, and their robot assistant Giz exploring the universe in a spaceship. Puppeteer Mark Ritts, who voiced Krikles with a light character voice and Zornad with a voice inspired by comedian Dayton Allen, taped the puppet segments separately from the main cast, often a half dozen at a time. The opening and closing music was a mélange of movements four (Jupiter) and seven (Neptune) from Gustav Holst's The Planets suite.
Reader's Guide
Starstuff holds significance as an early children's television program that presciently depicted real-time video communication between two young people across time and space, a concept that would become commonplace decades later. Its limited run of 18 episodes and exclusive Philadelphia broadcast made it a regional curiosity, but its reruns, airing as late as spring 1991 on Saturday mornings at 6:00am or 6:30am, extended its reach. The show's integration of educational segments and a puppet sub-show, The Edge Of Space, reflects the variety-show format common in children's programming of the era. While not nationally syndicated, Starstuff is remembered by local viewers and documented in fan sites and IMDb, offering a snapshot of early 1980s television production and the optimistic view of technology and space colonization.
Did You Know?
- The puppet sub-show The Edge of Space was taped separately from the main cast, often a half dozen segments at a time.
- Zornad's voice was inspired by comedian Dayton Allen, known for his line 'Whyyyyy not?!'
- Reruns of Starstuff aired until spring 1991, usually at 6:00am or 6:30am on Saturday mornings.
More in American children's science fiction television series 1-20
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