Gerry Anderson 1: Supercar

Gerry Anderson’s first marionette TV series certainly wasn’t “Supercar”, but you could be forgiven for thinking that it was, for “Supercar” was the first of the classic Anderson shows which would span the 60s. Supercar was the first series he made with a recognisably sci fi slant to it, and it would be followed during the 70s by Fireball XL5, Stingray, the immortal Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, the short lived Secret Service, and Joe 90. It could be argued that Anderson lost his way as the 60s becam the 70s and he switched over to live action with firstly UFO, then Space 1999. Well, we’ll get to those when we come to them. For now, let’s take a closer look at “Supercar”

“Supercar” was Anderson’s most ambitious series to date. It was his first with a half hour format. The original idea was Anderson and Reg Hill’s, and fanderson lore has it that the idea was that using the vehicle would cut down the amount of walking that the marionettes would be needed to do, which had been a drawback with Anderson’s previous series, the wild west based Four Feather Falls.

Basically the idea was that the show was about Supercar, a vehicle that can fly, go undersea, and act like a hovercraft on land, and the adventures of its pilot, Mike Mercury. When Granada TV decided that they’d had enough of “Four Feather Falls”, Anderson approached Lew grade of ATV, the ITV company running the Midlands franchise. Grade apparently liked the idea, but wanted the budget halved. Anderson worked to reduce it by a third, and Grade commissioned the series. In the end 2 series, or 39 episodes in total were made, and the series was sold for syndication in the USA, the first Anderson show to be shown there, in 1962.

“Supercar” has the distinction of being the only Anderson series from the 60s of which I had never watched so much as a single episode. Even “Fireball XL5”, the series’ successor, which was also made before I was born, was repeated in mornings in the 80s, and also in evenings the wake of the great Thunderbirds revival of the 90s. I will admit that, for the purposes of this post, I only watched the first episode, “Rescue”. Hmm. I think that in order to be fair to the show, when you watch it you should keep reminding yourself that this was early days for Anderson. He had to go through this before he would be ready for Stingray and Thunderbirds. Bearing that in mind then, here are a few random observations: -

·       The theme song is the worst I’ve ever heard in an Anderson series. The lyrics – where it seems every other word is ‘Supercar’ – means that listening to it is rather like being beaten over the head with a blunt instrument: -

“SUPERCAR! SUPERCAR! It can go anywhere SUPERCAR! Etc. ad nauseam.” It’s a long way from the naïve charm of “Fireball” from Fireball XL5, and “Aqua Marina” from Stingray.

·       The puppets are cruder and less realistic than in the succeeding series.

·       The plot was frankly extremely rudimentary and slow moving. The rescue idea may just be a foreshadowing of Thunderbirds, but virtually nothing happens for the first 20 minutes or so of the show. A pilot, taking his kid brother and their monkey friend (!) for a spin has to ditch in the sea. It’s too foggy for the rescue plane to find them. Supercar could do it, but its inventors, Popkiss and Beaker don’t want it go until it has been tested. So only when they are actually in danger of dying can they be rescued. Kid and monkey are allowed to join the team.

·       Even in an early series such as this, certain hallmarks of the Anderson formula are in place – namely, a focus on the hardware of the show (the car) – brilliant but eccentric inventors – unusual, non-human sidekicks – success against nearly impossible odds.

Still, as I did say, we have to remember that this is where Gerry Anderson began the 60s, not where he finished it. So, having watched one, would I consider watching others? Only in the cause of the blog, certainly not for enjoyment.