The Christian Astronauts

Fans of small town, grass-roots productions will delight in this wonderful outer space childrens album produced by the Fremont, Ohio-based Shoup family back in 1971. The Captain got his start as an amateur ventriloquist long before the Astronauts hit the scene. Inspired at age 8 by TV personalities such as Edgar Bergen and Jerry Mahoney and tutored by Texas-based ventriloquist Captain Hook, the father of this family act led the Christian Astronauts on a decade-long career spanning the entire 1970s. Five of those years were spent on the road touring nearly every U.S. state and gigging at local churches. The following five years were spent in Washington D.C. where the family filmed over 300 episodes of Beyond the Blue, a cable TV childrens ministry. We're told each episode was filmed inside an elaborate space ship set, custom-built by the Captain. Besides Rick and Michelle (siblings), Sister Shoup (mom), and Jerry (the space dummy), the production starred a 7 foot tall robot named Loosenut, equipped with flashing eyes and moving arms. The group released one full-length vinyl LP, custom pressed on Gospel Empire records. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.