''Voyagers!'' is an American

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

television series about

time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

that aired on

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from October 3, 1982, to July 10, 1983, during the 1982–1983 season. The series starred Jon-Erik Hexum and Meeno Peluce.

Plot

Phineas Bogg ( Jon-Erik Hexum) is one of a society of time travelers called Voyagers, who with the help of a young boy named Jeffrey Jones (played by Meeno Peluce) from 1982, uses a hand-held device called an Omni (which looks like a large pocket watch) that flashes red when history is wrong and green when the timeline is corrected, to travel in time and ensure that history unfolds correctly. Bogg and Jeffrey first met when Bogg's Omni malfunctioned and took him to 1982 (the device was not supposed to reach any later than 1970), landing him in the skyscraper apartment of Jeffrey's aunt and uncle, who were caring for him after his parents' deaths. Bogg's guidebook, which contained a detailed description of how history was supposed to unfold, was grabbed by Jeffrey's dog Ralph, and in the struggle to retrieve it, Jeffrey accidentally fell out his bedroom window and Bogg jumped out to rescue him by activating the Omni. With his guidebook stuck in 1982, Bogg (who, being more interested in girls than in history, apparently never paid much attention in his Voyager training/history classes) had to rely on Jeffrey, whose father had been a history professor, to help him. Jeffrey's knowledge proved invaluable; for example, in the first episode, Jeffrey ensured that baby

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

' basket traveled down the

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, where it was met by the Pharaoh's daughter. Phineas is a great womanizer and manages to fall for a beautiful woman in almost every episode. Whenever Jeffrey's wisdom was paired up against Bogg's stubbornness, Jeffrey usually wins out, to which Bogg would always mutter, "Smart kids give me a pain!" Another

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

used by Bogg as an expletive was "Bat's breath!" They develop a strong relationship and become a formidable team. In the course of their adventures together, they sometimes encounter other Voyagers whose missions happened to overlap with theirs. As revealed later in the series, despite Jeffrey's age and the accidental circumstances of his first encounter with Phineas, he was always destined to become a Voyager. Over the

closing credits Closing credits, aka end credits or end titles, are a list of the cast and crew of a particular motion picture, television show, or video game. While opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear close to or at th ...

of each episode, regular cast member Meeno Peluce said in

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: "If you want to learn more about istorical element from the episode take a voyage down to your public library. It's all in books!"

Cast

* Jon-Erik Hexum as Phineas Bogg * Meeno Peluce as Jeffrey Jones

Reception

Tom Shales of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' praised the series as "a live-action version of the Mr. Peabody and Sherman cartoons on the delightful old ' Bullwinkle' show" and "largely a joy ride from start to finish." ''Voyagers!'' ran for one season of 20 episodes, broadcast opposite the top-rated ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...

''. The series averaged a 17 share. ''Voyagers!'' seemed likely to be renewed for a second season, but controversies in ''60 Minutes'' reporting led executives to believe that ''60 Minutes'' might successfully be challenged by a competing news program, instead.Snauffer and Thurm, p. 83 NBC cancelled ''Voyagers!'' and replaced it with the news magazine program ''

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,'' which averaged only a 7 share.

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poked fun at NBC's cancellation of the series by airing a sketch on his '' Late Night'' program titled "They Took My Show Away", a parody of an

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in which the host comforts a boy who was a ''Voyagers!'' fan.

U.S. television ratings

Home media

Television film

In 1985, following the death of series lead Jon-Erik Hexum, Universal re-edited several episodes of the show into a

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...

. Entitled ''Voyager from the Unknown'', the story combined the pilot episode and "Voyagers of the Titanic" into one feature-length film. This version incorporates new video special effects, some voice-over dubbing for Hexum and Peluce's characters that changed, and added dialogue and new footage to include a supercomputer directing Voyager missions. The opening begins with a narration and painted illustrations of Bogg receiving his guidebook on "Planet Voyager" by artist Jerry Gebr. "Far out in the cosmos there exists a planet known as Voyager, where the mystery of travel into space and through time has been solved. It is inhabited by a race who call themselves Voyagers. Their purpose is to keep constant surveillance on history. These people have a time machine device, the Omni, which will take them into the past, present or future. As each Voyager graduates he is given an omni and a guidebook. One such graduate Phineas Bogg, who was assigned as a field worker to operate in certain time zones."

VHS release

The re-edited telefilm was issued on VHS by MCA Home Video in 1985. It was the only official release of ''Voyagers!'' on home video in the US until the DVD release in 2007.

DVD release

On July 17, 2007, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released all 20 episodes of ''Voyagers!'' on DVD in Region 1. It was released in Region 2 on October 29, 2007.

Streaming

All 20 episodes are also available in the United States by streaming through

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

. As of September 2024, the series was available on

The Roku Channel The Roku Channel is an over-the-top video streaming service available in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the UK. The service was launched in 2017, and is owned and operated by Roku, Inc. It is the most popular free ad-supported streaming televisio ...

Episodes

References

Bibliography

External links