Johnny Chase, Secret Agent of Space was a space opera radio serial that was broadcast for two seasons on CBC Radio between 1978 to 1981. The show was set 700 years in the future, and was created by Royal Canadian Air Farce comedian Don Ferguson along with Henry Sobodka. The show ran a fine line between being a serious space opera and being an over-the-top spoof of them.
The main character is a secret agent (voiced by Neil Dainard), who works for Earth Empire, and traverses through space in the Aleph-9, a spaceship accompanied by his talking computer, the insufferably brilliant (and equally arrogant) Dante (voiced by Chris Wiggins). Together they battle a range of enemies of the empire, including pirates, vampires, and the Thorks, an alien race bent on the destruction of Earth Empire. Other regular cast members included Mrs. Mulligan Jones, an "ancient psychic and Head of Empire Security" (voiced by Mary Piri), and Percy (voiced by Louis Negin), who was Johnny's direct boss at Empire Security.
The first season, broadcast during 1978-1979, consisted of individual episodes detailing the life of the principal character and setting the stage for the workings of Earth Empire and its enemies.
In the second season, the sun was destroyed by the Thorks, and Johnny ends up leading a rag-tag fleet of ships to a new home, very much like Battlestar Galactica.
The show's distinctive theme music was by the Canadian progressive-rock band FM.
Famous quotes containing the words johnny, secret, agent and/or space:
“Wha lies here?
I, Johnny Doo.
Hoo, Johnny, is that you?
Ay, man, but a’m dead noo.”
—Anonymous. “Johnny Doo,” from Geoffrey Grigson’s Faber Book of Epigrams and Epitaphs, Faber & Faber (1977)
“The secret of the truly successful, I believe, is that they learned very early in life how not to be busy. They saw through that adage, repeated to me so often in childhood, that anything worth doing is worth doing well. The truth is, many things are worth doing only in the most slovenly, halfhearted fashion possible, and many other things are not worth doing at all.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“Only a fully trained Jedi knight with the Force as his ally will conquer Vader and his emperor. If you end your training now—if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did—you will become an agent of evil.”
—Leigh Brackett (1915–1978)
“This moment exhibits infinite space, but there is a space also wherein all moments are infinitely exhibited, and the everlasting duration of infinite space is another region and room of joys.”
—Thomas Traherne (1636–1674)