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KAMU gardening show goes national
By Cathie Feighl
Battalion Reporter
KAMU-TV is now sending plant and gardening
tips across the nation with its first nationally broad
cast show.
The locally-produced show, entitled “The Plant
Kingdom/' is now available to all U.S. public broad
casting stations in the country, said Rodger Lewis,
program director at KAMU-TV.
The half-hour home horticulture show features a
variety of ideas and information for the care of plants
and gardens.
Lewis said the first of six episodes seen via satellite
was aired Jan. 14, and the remaining shows will be
seen weekly through Feb. 18. He said his goal is for
“The Plant Kingdom" to be broadcast 52 times a year,
but this cannot be achieved until an underwriter is
found to assume part of production costs.
"The Plant Kingdom" presents information re
garding new developments in gardening and land
scaping and offers "common sense" advice on grow
ing everything from vegetables to flowers, Lewis
said.
The show is hosted by Dr. Homer Blackhurst, re
tired professor of horticulture at Texas A&M Univer
sity, who has been in horticulture all of his 69 years.
"We are concerning all phases of horticulture
everything that is needed for successful gardening,"
Blackhurst said. One of his favortie show topics is
soil preparation and fertilization, he said, because it
is neglected by most gardeners.
Blackhurst said he uses the expertise of Texas
A&M's experiment and extension staffs as a major
source in explaining to audiences how gardens
should be prepared for different kinds of weather.
Lewis said there is a need for a southern-oriented
gardening program and he is glad the show can now
be seen in other states. The four pilot episodes of
The Plant Kingdom" shown last summer received
such tremendous audience response that public
broadcasting stations in Texas and other states
agreed to air the six new episodes this spring, Lewis
said.
"We have the largest college of agriculture in the
country here at A&M, so if there is going to be a
quality home agriculture program produced any
where in the country, it should be here," Lewis said.
All the programs are produced on location with the
KAMU-TV mobile unit. "The Plant Kingdom" is
broadcast weekly Tuesday at 1 p.m., Thursday at
7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
Dr. Homer Blackhurst explains different types of soils
used in gardening, right. Soil preparation and fertilizers
are some of Blackhurst's favorite topics. Below, a KAMU-
TV cameraman films one of the episodes of "The Plant
Kingdom." The program is shot entirely on location, and is
shown three times a week on Channel 15 as well as being
available nationwide on public television.
FOCOS ON: REVIEWS
‘Hangar 18’:
By Kathleen McElroy
Battalion Staff
Remember "Chariots of the
Gods?" It's the movie that asks
whether "extraterrestrial
beings" — i.e., aliens from
another world — visited Earth
many moons ago and helped
man gain the knowledge
needed to construct roads and
stage Super Bowls.
And what about "Close En
counters of the Third Kind,"
(any edition will do) in which
the government secretly but
gracefully greeted little men
from outer space?
Somewhere in between
those two movies is "Hangar
18," which borrows themes
from both. It's not as hokey as
"Chariots of the Gods?" but be
cause of bad dialougue and
poor execution, it's not as emo
tional as "Close Encounters."
The first problem is the pro
logue which says that "Thanks
to the efforts of a few brave
eyewitnesses ... this story can
finally be told." Even the
adolescents in the theater, for
whom this movie was obvious
ly written, snickered at those
lines.
"Hangar 18" opens with a
shot of the U.S. shuttlecraft
cradling what is soon to be
man's first satellite launched
from space. Unfortunately, af
ter the likes of "The Empire
Strikes Back" and even "Flash
Gordon," the shuttlecraft looks
like a Mattel toy space rocket
suspended precariously by de
ntal floss.
Inside our shuttle are the
astronauts/heroes Bancroft and
Price, played by veteran televi
sion actors Gary Collins and
James Hampton. They are
wrongly blamed for the death
of another astronaut who is de
capitated in space when the
launched satellite rams into an
Unidentified Flying Object.
They can't understand why
the government would make
them scapegoats until they dis
cover all proof of the UFO has
been erased because an evil
alien’s
presidential advisor wants to
insure a win for his boss in the
upcoming election.
So the UFO, which by now
has fallen to Earth and is offi
cially a Known Flying Object, is
secretly but thoroughly ex-
MOVIES
amined by a group of scientists
in a secret laboratory housed in
(you guessed it) Hangar 18,
which is located on an obscure
Texas Air Force Base.
Whew.
Once past all that tomfool
ery, the movie settles down into
a good little mystery — will our
astronauts discover the truth
about the UFO, or will the pres
idential advisor keep the secret
rocky horror
sacred by sending armed FBI
heavies after them?
The most interesting ques
tion is not from where the spa
ceship has come or to whom it
belongs, but why was it hover
ing near Earth and what do all
those strange symbols in the in
terior of the vessel mean?
Unfortunately, the story,
written by Tom Chapman and
James L. Conway, seems to be a
better outline than an actual
movie. That's got to be the
reason screenwriter Steven
Thornley and director Conway
finished with such an inept pro
duct — FBI men wearing three-
piece suits "clandestinely"
drive large black Hawaii Five-O
cars when tailing suspects; the
car chases are labored rather
than thrilling; dialogue states
not only the obvious, but the
ridiculous.
All the actors (this is a male
movie) are old television stars
who, in recognizing the
movie's weakness, tried to
ovefcompensate for the dia
logue by strong characteriza
tion. The results are disastrous,
especially for Robert Vaughn as
the cunning advisor who comes
across as Dastardly Dan and
Darren McGavin who plays a
top NASA scientist who acts
like the absent-minded profes
sor. The only realistic portrayal
is achieved by Hampton, who
sounds, looks and acts like a
Texas astronaut. Gary Collins
sounds, looks and acts like a
television talk show host.
"Hangar 18" isn't a total fai
lure, because invariably its au
dience will provide the pun
chlines in some serious scenes
and still be interested in the out
come of all the subplots.
Plus it's got some great shots
of Big Spring, Texas, which is
where most of the movie was
filmed. Big Spring may not be
Hollywood, but then again,
"Hangar 18" isn't "Star Wars."
I IS
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