Bruce G. Marcot
From 1951 to 1953 was aired the first-ever science fiction show on TV. It was called Tales of Tomorrow.
Leslie Nielsen appeared in no less than 6 episodes during this short run. One episode was Appointment on Mars, aired in 1952, which echoed in some ways a story and role he would soon play in the more famous 1956 classic sci-fi movie Forbidden Planet.
As in Forbidden Planet, in Appointment on Mars Neilsen played a space ship captain. He and his 2-man crew were the first to land on Mars. (The crew was played by William Redfield and Robert Keith Jr., who would later bill himself as Brian Keith of TV's "Family Affair" fame.) There, they discovered uranium deposits that would make them richer beyond their dreams.
Except ... one by one, they each turn malevolent, under the spell of some unseen evil force, some weird invisible denizen of this forbidden planet. Indeed, this would become one of the themes of the later movie Forbidden Planet.
And coincidentally, Nielsen's character in Appointment on Mars was named Robbie ... perhaps foreshadowing Robbie the Robot that would later star in Forbidden Planet.
So, in several ways, Appointment on Mars was indeed a "tale of tomorrow."
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