*This episode premiered Thursday, January 3, 1980, on NBC at 8:00 P.M. against The Waltons (CBS) and Mork and Mindy/Benson (ABC).
*Buck Rogers lasted only two seasons, and the second was a short one at that because of an actors' strike. The more "serious" tone and other changes (like introducing Thom Christopher as Hawk) hurt ratings from the get-go in season 2, and Buck was a goner.
*The book Mike mentions is Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: A TV Companion by Patrick Jankiewicz.
*Buck first appeared in Amazing Stories--no, not the Steven Spielberg anthology series of the 1980s, but the pulp magazine. Phillip Nowlan adapted his 1928 story into a comic strip for the John F. Dille Company in 1929.
*The 1950 TV series ran for 36 episodes in 1950, but the series is completely lost. Eva Marie Saint was one of the actresses who played Wilma in this version!
*Commander Royko in this episode is Christopher Stone, who you can see in our YouTube playlist in a clip from 1970's The Interns.
*Space Vampire is currently the highest-rated Buck episode on TV.com.
*For more info on this episode, check out John Kenneth Muir's essay. He points out parallels to Bram Stoker's original Dracula novel and also claims that the object Buck uses to ward off the Vorvon "is really just Commander Adama's collar medallion from Battlestar Galactica.
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