Project U.F.O. (1978)

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Debuting February 19, 1978. NBC, 8/7pm Central

π‘»π’‰π’Šπ’” π’‘π’“π’π’ˆπ’“π’‚π’Ž π’Šπ’” 𝒂 π’…π’“π’‚π’Žπ’‚π’•π’Šπ’›π’‚π’•π’Šπ’π’ π’Šπ’π’”π’‘π’Šπ’“π’†π’… π’ƒπ’š π’π’‡π’‡π’Šπ’„π’Šπ’‚π’ 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 π’ˆπ’π’—π’†π’“π’π’Žπ’†π’π’•π’‚π’ π’Šπ’π’—π’†π’”π’•π’Šπ’ˆπ’‚π’•π’Šπ’π’π’” 𝒐𝒇 π’„π’π’‚π’Šπ’Žπ’” 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 π’”π’Šπ’ˆπ’‰π’•π’Šπ’π’ˆπ’” 𝒐𝒇 π‘Όπ’π’Šπ’…π’†π’π’•π’Šπ’‡π’Šπ’†π’… π‘­π’π’šπ’Šπ’π’ˆ 𝑢𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒏 π’‡π’Šπ’π’† π’Šπ’ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 π‘΅π’‚π’•π’Šπ’π’π’‚π’ π‘¨π’“π’„π’‰π’Šπ’—π’†π’” 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 π‘Όπ’π’Šπ’•π’†π’… 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔.

Created by Jack Webb, this one-hour procedural was loosely based on the real-life Project Blue Book, a U.S. Air Force investigation into UFO sightings, dramatizing cases from the declassified files. Think Dragnet meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind, fed to an audience primed by the pseudo-documentaries of Sunn Classic Pictures.

The series revolved around two U.S. Air Force investigators tasked with investigating UFO sightings. Some episodes were based on specific incidents, such as the 1952 Washington D.C. UFO incident, the Mantell UFO incident, the Lonnie Zamora incident, and the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter. Episodes also drew inspiration from the Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter, the Lubbock Lights incident, the Cisco Grove UFO Encounter, and the Sonny DesVergers UFO case. The opening credits of the first season featured flying saucer diagrams and schematics, accompanied by a Jack Webb voiceover that even seems to invoke Brad Crandall.

In the first season, William Jordan starred as Maj. Jake Gatlin, and Caskey Swaim played Staff Sgt. Harry Fitz. Gatlin’s character explained that their job was to prove whether each UFO sighting was real by disproving alternate explanations. In the second season, Edward Winter replaced Jordan as Capt. Ben Ryan. In interviews, William Jordan has expressed that he wished the show had explored the characters’ personal lives outside of their Air Force duties and felt that Webb’s adherence to the Dragnet format limited the show’s storytelling potential. This led to his departure after the first season.

26 episodes were produced over 2 seasons. The series was rerun internationally, and home recordings are easily found online.

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