Astronauts was a comedy series on ITV-2 written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie of The Goodies. In spirit, it was a sequel to the previous series in that it depicted three characters similar to the Goodies, but set on a space station. It was first broadcast in 1986 and managed to capitalise well on the public interest in space exploration at the time, triggered by the second space race, with the result that it ran for eight series.
The first series ran for seven episodes in 1986 in the same time slot as the Goodies and is less realistic than its successors, being filmed with low production values in a studio on Earth. There was then a year-long hiatus and a second series was broadcast in 1988. It later became the flagship comedy series of ITV-2 and its budget was increased considerably. The last two series, broadcast in 1993 and 1994, were actually filmed in low-Earth orbit. A successful film was released in 1997.