Quark was a 1978 NBC comedy series that was supposed to capitalize on the sci-fi craze that had
launched the year before with the release of Star Wars.
Richard Benjamin played Adam Quark, captain of a United Galactic Sanitation Patrol Ship, in the sitcom from Get Smart co-creator Buck Henry. Members of his crew included Gene/Jean, a “transmute” with male and female characteristics, a plant-man named Ficus and Betty and Betty, a woman and her clone played by none other than Louisville’s Patricia and Cyb Barnstable. The pair argued regularly about who was the clone and who was the human.
The Barnstables are also known as the Doublemint Twins from the Wrigleys gum commercials and for their annual Derby Eve Gala at Patricia Barnstable Brown’s Louisville home, which attracts an all-star crowd and raises millions of dollars for diabetes research at the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville.
Well everyone can get a fresh look at the Barnstables’ past with the DVD release of Quark. All eight episodes of the short-lived series are coming out on Oct. 14. The packaging prominently features the twins in their intergalactic glory.
