Supercar (TV series) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Supercar |
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| Genre | |
| Created by |
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| Written by |
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| Directed by |
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| Voices of |
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| Composer(s) | Barry Gray |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 39 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Gerry Anderson |
| Cinematography | John Read |
| Editor(s) | Gordon Davie |
| Camera setup | Single |
| Running time | 25 mins approx. |
| Production company(s) | AP Films |
| Distributor | ITC Entertainment |
| Release | |
| Original network | ATV |
| Picture format |
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| Audio format | Mono |
| Original release | 28 January 1961 – 29 April 1962 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Four Feather Falls |
| Followed by | Fireball XL5 |
Supercar is a British children's TV show produced by Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis' AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment. Thirty-nine episodes were produced between 1961 and 1962, and it was Anderson's first half-hour series. In the UK it was seen on ITV, in Canada on the CBC, and in the US in syndication (the first Anderson series to be shown overseas) debuting in January 1962. The series uses Supermarionation, based on the complex and difficult Czech style of marionette puppetry. The creation of the show was credited to Gerry Anderson and Reg Hill, but it incorporates elements of Beaker's Bureau, a series proposed to the BBC by Hugh Woodhouse that was never produced. Anderson would later claim that the whole point of having a series based on a vehicle was to minimize having to show the marionettes walking, an action which he felt never looked convincing.
The plot of the show centred around Supercar, a vertical-takeoff-and-landing craft invented by Prof. Rudolph Popkiss and Dr. Horatio Beaker, and piloted by Mike Mercury. On land it rode on a cushion of air rather than wheels. Jets in the rear allowed it to fly like a jet and retractable wings were incorporated in the back of the car. Retrorockets on the side of the car slowed the vehicle. The car used "Clear-Vu", which included an inside television monitor allowing the occupant to see through fog and smoke. The vehicle was housed in a laboratory and living facility at Black Rock, Nevada, U.S.A. In the show's first episode, "Rescue", the Supercar crew's first mission is to save the passengers of a downed private plane. Two of the rescued, young Jimmy Gibson and his pet monkey, Mitch, are invited to live at the facility and share in the adventures.
The series inaugurated what became an Anderson trademark: the launch sequence. With the exception of The Secret Service, all of his series until Terrahawks included these – in Supercar's case, the charging and firing of port and starboard engines, the activation of an interlock, the opening of (overhead) hangar doors, and finally the vertical take-off.
Contents
Episodes
Cast and characters
Cast of characters
Supercar Team
- Michael "Mike" Mercury: test pilot of Supercar (voiced by Graydon Gould).
- Professor Rudolph Popkiss: co-inventor of Supercar with Dr. Beaker (voiced by George Murcell in season 1 and by Cyril Shaps in season 2).
- Dr. Horatio Beaker: co-inventor of Supercar with Professor Popkiss (voiced by David Graham).
- James "Jimmy" Gibson: a young boy who lives with his brother (voiced by Sylvia Anderson, credited as Sylvia Thamm in Season 2). After Mike and Supercar save his life, he joins the Supercar team.
- Mitch the Monkey: Jimmy's pet monkey (voiced by David Graham).
Recurring villains
- Masterspy: a foreign spy (voiced by George Murcell in season 1 and by Cyril Shaps in season 2). He is obsessed with getting his hands on Supercar. By the second episode, he is already an old adversary of Mike Mercury and team.
- Zarrin: Masterspy's henchman (voiced by David Graham).
- Mr. Harper: a posh English criminal (voiced by George Murcell).
- Ben Judd: a not so posh Cockney-speaking criminal (voiced by David Graham).
Other recurring characters
- William "Bill" Gibson: Jimmy's elder brother (voiced by David Graham). He owns his own shipping business and can pilot a plane.
- Felicity Beaker: Doctor Beaker's cousin (voiced by Sylvia Anderson). She owns her own estate in Africa, but only appears in two episodes.
Casting the characters
The cast for Supercar was put together weeks before shooting was to commence. The lines were recorded in the rushes theatre, which was transformed into a recording studio. Lines were recorded on a Sunday (once every month), because the studio was on a trading estate, meaning Sundays were the quietest days of the week. The recording sessions typically took place between 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., during which time the cast, along with the sound engineers, would try to get through at least three scripts.
Canadian actor Graydon Gould (The Forest Rangers), who voiced Mike Mercury despite never auditioning for the part, was offered it whilst doing a stage production that was shown on television. In an interview Gould recalls that, without owning a car, getting to Slough was difficult because "Sunday transport is about half of what it normally is" but because he had a wife, a two-year-old child and a three-bedroom apartment, he was grateful for the money. Sylvia Anderson directed the sessions and helped Gould with his accent; he recalls, "she would point out when my Canadian accent was slipping through".
David Graham voiced three characters for the series: Doctor Beaker, Zarin, and Mitch the Monkey. He also voiced the recurring character of Bill Gibson. He had previously worked on the series Four Feather Falls where he had shown his ability to provide a variety of different voices. Graham had based his voice for Dr. Beaker on veteran actor Felix Aylmer, while he also spent a day at London Zoo watching monkeys at the Monkey House, trying get a good interpretation as to how Mitch should sound.
George Murcell voiced Professor Popkiss and Masterspy for the first season. He had previously worked for AP Films when playing the character Diamond in the low-budget B-Movie Crossroads to Crime alongside David Graham. Graham believes that because of his voice quality, Gerry thought he would make a good Masterspy, while Gould remembers Murcell doing "all the European voices". Murcell left the series after 24 episodes, which explains why he, and Popkiss do not appear in the last two episodes of the first series.
Sylvia Anderson, then Sylvia Thamm before her marriage to Anderson, was credited as "voice direction", and voiced Jimmy Gibson and all female characters in the series; however, she was not credited for the first series. Originally Sylvia was not to voice Jimmy, but she was given the opportunity when Gerry was not happy with the original voice of Jimmy that had already been recorded. This marked Sylvia’s first involvement in voice acting.
Cyril Shaps was brought in to voice Professor Popkiss and Masterspy for the second season. David Graham was a friend of Shaps and suggested him for the part when Murcell left. At the time Shaps was performing in the West End play The Tenth Man, which Graham and the Andersons went to see.
U.S. syndication
Supercar debuted in the U.S. on WPIX, a local station in New York, on Saturday 6 January 1962 at 6:30 pm. The station's EVP and general manager, Fred M. Thrower, reported to ITC that after four weeks the show "has solidly established itself as the number one program in its time period and the number one weekend children's show in New York among all local children shows in this market" with an average ARB rating of 15.2. A year later, Supercar had been sold into 140 U.S. and 49 foreign markets for $1.9 million in total sales, guaranteeing production of a second series of shows.
Comic book
In the U.K., comics based on the series appeared in TV Comic in the years 1961–1964, running from issue #483 (18 March 1961) until issue #667 (26 September 1964). These stories were drawn by H. Watts and Bill Mevin. Further Supercar comics were published in TV Century 21, from 23 January 1965 to 8 Jan. 1966, drawn by Bruno Marraffa.
Supercar was the first Gerry Anderson series to be adapted as a comic book in America, with the Gold Key company releasing four issues between November 1962 and August 1963.
Soundtrack
In 1998, Fanderson issued a limited-edition album of Barry Gray's music from the series, paired with his work on Fireball XL5. It was the first soundtrack album produced by the society.
In 2013, the society released a second limited-edition disc, this one completely devoted to the series.
See also
In Spanish: Supercar (serie de televisión) para niños
