I was hoping there would be prior art for this, but it escapes me. Something Awful must surely have tackled it.
Andy Griffith already did this show in 1979. It was called Salvage 1. Harry Broderick ran a salvage yard. He made a spaceship from salvaged parts, and then used it each week to bring back more salvage from space.
I had a friend who would â at age 9 â get seriously violent if you sad bad things about that show. I mean, I liked the show â a garbage man sticking it to the powers-that-be â but that dude was serious.
F.A.Q.
Q. Is Thermalynx the cat thing or a hot air balloon or what?
A. Both. The balloon is Thermalynx. But they have a lynx on the team to take care of bad guys in hairy situations.
No-one asked yet, but the answer is Lock and Yaw Negation Xerothermics
Thatâs the secret government program that lets a hot air balloon go 500 MPH.
Back in school, my friends and I wanted to develop a show featuring a mild-mannered history professor who fought against crime syndicates, aided by his winged flight suit and his vast knowledge of the past. We wanted to call it âCondorman.â We were crestfallen to find that Disney had already made a movie by the same name.
We had a kick-ass theme, though. Very John Williams-y. I still hum it today.
Sanford and Son in Space!!
Your idea sounds better than what I remember of that film.
Rob,
You forgot to add Donald Rumsfeld as the idiot Lieutenant always putting his troops into terrible situations with no regard for history or common sense. Dick Cheney as his bumbling kiss-ass sidekick yes-man. They could trade rolls from one episode to the next.
What about Rumsfeld as a deluded the-enemy-is-poisoning-our-precious-bodily-fluids true believer, and Cheney as a flag-wrapped greedy businessman trying to bite yet another piece of taxpayersâ money for his precious Halliburton?
I am so doing this. See you back here in [sets watch] one hour.
If Iâm not back, assume the space station exploded, the nukes were launched, and I didnât make itâŚ
Political allegory posing as science-fiction schlock. Only the secret superheroes of the Iran-Contra crowd â Casey, North, Poindexter, et. al. â stand between mankind and a terrible alien invasion.
Highly recommended.
Update: view Tribulation 99 at Vimeo.
Or the criminally underappreciated sci-fi punk crossover series âKnightcrawlerâ - where a repurposed Shuttle Crawler vehicle is used in a variety of stealthy covert urban missions - often with a clear anti-drug, anti-gang messaged tacked onâŚ
âJustice is coming⌠at 1.15 miles per hour!!!â
So, a documentary, in other words?
Some documentaries can exceed the best fiction! 
You realize, of course, that youâre going to have to badass this.
