UFO Cover-Up? Live. Classic TV from 1988

As an antidote to the likes of Chasing UFOs here’s a blast from the past when the subject was dealt with more seriously.

It features the first appearance of “Falcon” and “Condor” – the source of the infamous “greys like strawberry ice cream” quote. Jaime Shanderra and noted UFO disinformation propagator Bill Moore endorse Falcon and Condor.

Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum speak of their frightening UFO encounter. Lots of familiar, though younger, faces on there including the ubiquitous Stan Friedman and ATSer Jim Oberg!

Though “live” the show is clearly scripted and rehearsed. The credited writers are Barry Taff (more famous for the Entity case) and Tracy Tormé, better known for the exaggerated screenplay of Fire in the Sky - the Travis Walton incident - and the TV movie Intruders based on the work of Bud Hopkins.

The show is reasonably balanced. Adamski and Meier are discredited as hoaxers and brushed aside. There is support for and against the Gulf Breeze photos.

One thing is clear, despite the intervening near-25 years we are little wiser on the subject.

A fine piece of clunky but fun UFO history well worthy of a revisit.

reply to post by torsion

One thing is clear, despite the intervening near-25 years we are little wiser on the subject.

Probably considerably less so!

Just think of all that was going off in the background of this TV show? We had Lear, Lazar, Doty and Bill Moore pumping gallons of grease into the waters. We had whatever the heck the Aviary-thing was in aid of. There was the rise of abductions claims and a determined effort to cement the 'evil aliens' meme in the UFO field. Black triangles! Black helicopters. Paranoia. The 'Dark Side of Ufology' in all its mad glory.


Ufology was really getting mashed and mangled and broken into more parts. All of which was being chattered about on the BBS like Paranet. Is it any better today? Who can say?

Originally posted by Kandinsky

Probably considerably less so!

Though one year after the program was aired we did learn that Moore was a deceiver. He confessed his misdeeds in 1989. This revelation of his should have thrown everything he had an involvement in into the trash can - Majestic 12 and Roswell being Moore’s biggest pushes on the UFO community. He also made popular the Philadelphia experiment!

I'd also dismiss all material supplied by Richard Doty and other so-called retired military whistle-blowers. These include Wendelle Stevens, Clifford Stone, Philip Corso and Robert Dean, each infecting the field with their own pollutions to this very day.

Were the identities of Falcon and Condor ever satisfactorily exposed? Falcon was at one time said to be Richard Doty and more recently Harry Rozitske. Condor was claimed to be Robert Collins but is all that just more disinformation? Is there any hard evidence that the "Aviary" pre-dates UFO Cover-Up?

The ‘Dark Side’ of ufology is thrilling and entertaining, for sure, but perhaps a tabula rasa is required to get back on track towards understanding the real UFO mystery.

Originally posted by torsion
As an antidote to the likes of Chasing UFOs here’s a blast from the past when the subject was dealt with more seriously.

It features the first appearance of “Falcon” and “Condor” – the source of the infamous “greys like strawberry ice cream” quote.

Thanks. That was indeed a blast from the past!

I had to watch it in parts but I finally got through all of it and I'm surprised I never saw that before, as i thought I'd seen most UFO shows.

The attention given to the anonymous sources like “Falcon” and “Condor” seemed out of whack to me, but the rest was pretty balanced as you said.

I wonder if Bruce Maccabee ever admitted the Walters Gulf Breeze photos were a hoax? He seems a little too easily drawn into some shady stuff for such a smart guy.

Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum speak of their frightening UFO encounter. Lots of familiar, though younger, faces on there including the ubiquitous Stan Friedman and ATSer Jim Oberg!

I still wonder what happened in the Cash-Landrum incident. Who besides the military has 12 chinook helicopters? At $30 million each they don't grow on trees, but I suppose there are over 1000. Even the Lt. Col who denied those helicopters were military said he found Cash, Landrum and the Police officer seeing 12 helicopters credible. Maybe some kind of skunk works or classified project?

And yes Stan Friedman and Jim Oberg looked younger!

Originally posted by Kandinsky
Just think of all that was going off in the background of this TV show? We had Lear, Lazar, Doty and Bill Moore pumping gallons of grease into the waters. ....
Is it any better today? Who can say?

There seems to be less going on these days. Whether that's "better" I suppose depends on who you ask. People who want to hear about more UFO stuff don't think it's better, but if there's nothing new to report, nothing is better than a bunch of hoaxes like Walters' Gulf Breeze photos.

The Cover-Up Live discussion reminds me of another film around the same time featuring some of the same players.

I'm looking for more information on a Japanese television documentary from 1989:
Kinkyû UFO tettei shuzai tokuhô! by the Nippon Television Network.
www.imdb.com...

I saw this referred to somewhere as a "Cash-Landrum documentary", and that's my primary interest in it. Cash and Landrum do not appear in the cast list, which shows instead a number of 80s "dark siders".

Any leads on getting more information, or better yet the show itself?

Originally posted by CardDown
I'm looking for more information on a Japanese television documentary from 1989:
Kinkyû UFO tettei shuzai tokuhô! by the Nippon Television Network.
www.imdb.com...

Any idea what the title translates to in English? I've managed the "UFO" part but that's about it!!

The director made a number of UFO documentaries and they'd make fascinating viewing if they still exist. Certainly some interesting rogues in the cast lists!

Originally posted by torsion
Any idea what the title translates to in English? I've managed the "UFO" part but that's about it!!

No, the closest I've been able to get is something along the lines of "Thorough coverage of UFO something".

I did find one clip online from one of Jun'ichi Yaoi's programs:
www.veoh.com...

Finding it is only half the work, I'll still need a (re)translation, since the voice overs obliterate the original English dialogue.

Originally posted by CardDown

Finding it is only half the work, I'll still need a (re)translation, since the voice overs obliterate the original English dialogue.

That music doesn't help, either!

Maybe Norio Hayakawa could help with info on the documentaries. He used to post here on ATS and is still a member but hasn't been active for a while.

I know that film exists in some form because I've seen the clip of the Dulce alien laboratory. 80s technicolour magic!

However, the IMDB page smells funny. Look at the names in brackets. It's like Peter Sellers playing a stereotype Japanese character. William Milton Cooper = Miruton Wiriamu Kûpâ (say that in a Japanese accent!) William English = Wiriamu Ingurisshu.

You'd think the only difference between English and Japanese was the accent.

@Torsion - you can contact Norio through his blog.