It gets you with the note. Sindbad doesn't ask permission, he leaves a scrap of paper for his father and climbs aboard his uncle Captain Ali's ship, and every kid who ever wanted out of their own small world knows exactly what that feels like. The whole thing starts because a nosy brat sneaks into the royal palace to gawk at acrobats and walks out realizing Baghdad is not the entire planet, which is a better inciting incident than most modern shows manage in three episodes. Fifty-two episodes of 1975 television means the voyages breathe. Ports, wonders, and long stretches of nothing but water, paced like the Arabian Nights actually reads instead of a highlight reel. Watch it for the version of Sindbad who is still a mischief-making boy, not the swaggering legend, and for the fact that his uncle says yes.

More than twelve centuries ago in Baghdad, a curious and mischievous boy named Sindbad slips into the royal palace one night to watch the acrobats, and realizes a vast world lies beyond his city. When he hears about the voyages of his uncle, Captain Ali, he resolves to become a sailor. He leaves a note for his father, joins his uncle's ship with a myna bird called Sheila, and begins the adventure of his life. Drawn from the Thousand and One Nights, the story mixes adventure, fantasy and romance.