Supercar

Supercar was my absolute favorite show when I was around eight or nine years of age in 1962-63. I had enough knowledge to understand even at that age, exactly what this vehicle was. It was the first anti gravity aircraft. I knew what turbines were, and I loved the sound of them, and Supercar Had them! But what made Supercar levitate was NOT jet propulsion (as a Harrier jet uses now), but you could hear another certain sound it made like a bunch of gyros all spinning in hyper-unison velocity or something along with the turbines, and in my young mind that produced this anti-gravity. And that music throughout each episode was so perfect! Every time the spacey sounding organ music started as they slowly opened the roof doors and the clouds above came into view in anticipation of another flight, my eyes were as big as saucers, and you could'nt have pulled me away from the t.v. for ANYTHING! And even to this day..true anti gravity is elusive. And there has'nt been anything like it since (Thunderbirds, Stingray, Fireball XL5 was good, but of a different caliber as was other Sci-fi's).

I had thought about Supercar at times all my life afterwards, and never got to see it again for decades until around 1998, when I found Gerry Anderson in the library book of "Who's Who", and after a little detective work, I found the first English PAL VHS video versions of the first 16 episodes, and had them converted to NTFS so they could play in U.S. VHS players, and once again even now at age 57...am still fascinated at what Supercar is, and the adventures & characters that surround it, and was stunned when the entire series of 39 episodes finally came out on DVD, and was so clear and sharp that you could see the strings on the puppets even better than before! Ha! (love it, LOVE IT!). You should hear Supercar fire up it's engines on a 200 watt 12 inch woofer tower speaker stereo system cranked up enough to rattle the windows and vibrate right through your gut! (I guess i'm a big kid at heart, ha!)

Supercar for me has been a TV program that has had to wait. Way back in the 1960's in the UK many people had TV sets that only could receive BBC programs, in other words a single TV tuner. Many of my friends could watch ITV programs which Supercar was featured on at the time. I spent part of my childhood trying to understand what my friends were on about when they mentioned Mike Mercury and Mitch the Monkey. A long time had to pass, in fact I was in my mid 50s before the thought came to me to buy the DVD box set. WOW what a surprise that was. I was expecting something quite childish and on a par with maybe Torchy the Battery Boy, but no this was of a high standard in deed. Each episode has an excellent story the best ones feature the arch villain Master Spy. Check out as the episodes progress how the special effects get better. I think that's due to the introduction of Derrick Meddings.

Supercar is among the best sci-fi TV shows ever produced, with the ability to create a lifetime impression on those fortunate enough to experience it. The characters compliment each other perfectly, and of course, Supercar is an amazing machine! The sound effects and theme music make my scalp tingle.

The first 16 episodes are available on video tape, and we at Black_Rock_1 (a Yahoo egroup dedicated to Supercar) hope that not only are DVDs in the works, but that the series will make a big-screen debut soon. Supercar has a strong, dedicated following, and would certainly be a success at the box office! Be sure to watch for the upcoming Supercar comic and T-shirt!

Rob Haeuser [-----]

I was 11 when SUPERCAR debuted on American TV. That cool car, which looked like something any kid could build out of paper and tape and gray paint, could fly and dive under water, and it even made coffee. More importantly, the opening to the theme song haunts me to this day "Supercahhhhhh..." the veddy British singer intones over and over again. I have no memory of THUNDERBIRDS, which came after. I was probably busy with girls by then. However, I do remember GIGANTOR aka the Space Age Robot. That limited animation cartoon series, from Japan, also had a heckuva catchy theme song. "Gi-gan-tor, Gi-gan-tor, Gi-gan-an-tor..." intoned the deeply baritone chorus. Gigantor looked a little like a flying version of the Tin Man from "The Wizard of Oz." Ah, those were the days.

Supercar was the first of the many Gerry Anderson puppet series and while the stories were simpler, and not as exciting compared to the later shows, it was a good series in its own right and a good start to Supermarionation as a whole.

Another of Supercar's plus points was that the stories were versatile; the title vehicle could travel on land, sea, air and space, so you had a good range of stories. And all the characters were likable, although Mitch the Monkey could be decidedly irritating at times.

Well worth watching if you are curious as to how Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation productions started.