While it took more than 40 years for the 1973 science-fiction film Westworld to become an HBO series, it didn’t have to be that way. Other downbeat sci-fi movies of that era, including Logan’s Run and Planet Of The Apes, got TV adaptations way sooner than that. Now, righting a historical wrong, artist and animator Tom Gosling (who also goes by the screen name MessyPandas) has created a 1980s-style TV intro for Westworld, complete with era-appropriate graphics, music, and typography. What looked futuristic then looks positively quaint now. Interestingly, Gosling has kept the wording of the credits exactly the same, right down to the “HBO Entertainment Presents.”
If you’re hungry for some of the real thing, check out a compilation called “11 Intros To Tacky ’80s Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV.” These are the shows that would have been Westworld’s competition back then: Misfits Of Science, Automan, The Powers Of Matthew Star, and much more. There’s plenty of cheesy computer graphics and burbling synthesizer music, too.