Posted by Clare Cross on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/UFO-ANNUAL-1972-tp4023946p4023959.html

TRT,

No, UFO was not a 'flop' at all... however, it wasn't as popular as they would have liked and the fact that it was shown so sporadically over the ITV network meant that it never gained a huge, national audience.  Sales of the first UFO annual would have been hit by this, since some regions weren't even showing it when the annual was in the shops.  This, inevitably, led to a huge amount of excess stock.  It was a terrible shame, UFO was not treated well at all by the schedulers.  But, as you say, the UFO strip in Countdown seemed to be popular, as were the Dinky toys.  Space: 1999 fared much better, but still not as well as it could have; hence there were four annuals in the UK (albeit from a different publisher).  

It has always saddened me that UFO (hugely popular among Anderson fans) only ever had one annual, whereas most of the other series had two or more.  Thankfully this has now been rectified!