Once upon a time, way back before the Nickelodeon network adopted an orange splatter as its corporate identity and their station bumps were full of pinballs, there was some pretty good television airing after the morning’s total domination by “Pinwheel” and before the 8pm changeover to an arts channel. If your tastes run to early-80’s British speculative YA, The Third Eye delivers the goods.

Filmed in 1981, “Into the Labyrinth” was one of Eye’s four miniseries, and perhaps the best known because of the cool black robes, the trips into the labyrinth, and that infamously bitchy catchphrase. This show chronicled the power struggle between a pair of time-traveling magick-flingers, Rothgo and Belor. Rothgo enlists the aid of three schoolchildren who free him from a giant styrofoam rock, sending them into various eras to find his past selves and capture the Nidus – which can only be seen in a mirror’s reflection – to restore his power from the evil clutches of Belor.

You just *know* the guy playing Rothgo has done some serious Shakespeare time, and Belor has a fabulous deep witchy Eva O laugh when she’s not raiding the Stevie Nicks discount bin. There’s a lot to like in this show: the cave sets, the sudden explosions of lightning and thunder when somebody gets pissed off, the fabulously low-budget way the magicians look when they’re flying, the dark fantasy caterwauling of the theme music, and, amid all of this, some pretty good performances. It wasn’t long before “Rothgo? Ha-ha! I am Rothgo!” made its way into our repertoire of in-jokes.

The Nidus has since gone on to open a YouTube account and upload not just all the eps from the first season, but surprise surprise, there’s also a second and third season. Enjoy!