Space Patrol (The Puppet One)
September 24, 2015 7:05 PM   Subscribe

Space Patrol was a 1962 TV series featuring puppets a la Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation. In fact, the creator, Roberta Leigh, had worked with Anderson previously. Its fans include some guy named J. Michael Straczynski. It features the first music completely realized through electronic means.

Rather than linking to individual episodes, I am linking to a playlist of most of the episodes. If you are interested in sampling them, I suggest trying The Talking Bell (episode 23) or Explosion on the Sun (episode 26), both from Season 1. (via)
posted by wittgenstein (15 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
My playlist is season 1 only. There are season 2 episodes on YouTube as well.
posted by wittgenstein at 7:07 PM on September 24, 2015


I am finding the first episode weirdly compelling, like a strange dream.

The first half of that one episode has enough "Captain Whiteguy on the bridge of a spaceship telling his humanoid-alien crew to do made-up science and technology things to save the ship from made-up science and technology dangers" to provide for a dozen Star Trek episodes.
posted by edheil at 8:08 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


OMG, that just got better. The bad guys were on Jupiter committing Muppicide to collect their warm fur pelts. The climax of the story was a marionette-to-marionette combat, which consisted mostly of puppet fists appearing from just off frame and hitting puppet heads and bodies. And I'm pretty sure that two-necked alien creature from Jupiter was hitting on Captain Dart at the end there.
posted by edheil at 8:25 PM on September 24, 2015


It features the first music completely realized through electronic means.

Quite a claim. Seems unlikely.
posted by pompomtom at 8:25 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


I think the New York of 2100 borrows a few ideas from Metropolis.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 8:40 PM on September 24, 2015


It looks like YouTube user thedamagewithin has uploaded many of the episodes from both seasons, if you're looking to see more in a convenient, if disorganized, location.

Roberta Leigh on shooting on a shoestring budget | Arthur Provis Interview - Part 1 and Part 2 | Dick Vosburgh interview | Andy Partridge (founding member of XTC) interview, a fan of the show
posted by filthy light thief at 8:56 PM on September 24, 2015


> It features the first music completely realized through electronic means.

Quite a claim. Seems unlikely.


That's true - electronic instruments date from the 1920s and 1930s, so this is a good three to four decades late for that claim, and Forbidden Planet (1956) claims to be the first film with a completely electronic score. But The Sound of Tomorrow: How Electronic Music Was Smuggled into the Mainstream by Mark Brend (Google books preview) claims that Space Patrol was the first TV program with a completely electronic score, thanks to Frederick Charles (Fred or F.C.) Judd.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:07 PM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


The hero, Commander Larry Dart, was voiced by the father of Metafilter's own w0mbat. Yeah, my dad.

He did other voices too. He told me the robot voice effect was done by the hi-tech method of putting a metal trashcan on his head.
He would often entertain me with the creepy alien voice he did by inhaling while talking. Try it, it's cool.
posted by w0mbat at 9:17 PM on September 24, 2015 [28 favorites]


Ah, now I see the style that Parker and Stone were paying tribute to in Team America: World Police. This looks pretty interesting.
posted by not_on_display at 9:19 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


There are a few people I'd like to plastiform....
posted by smidgen at 11:44 PM on September 24, 2015


Nostalgia dump!
posted by Splunge at 3:14 AM on September 25, 2015


Space Patrol, Fuck Yeah!
posted by Beholder at 6:01 AM on September 25, 2015


~It features the first music completely realized through electronic means.
~Quite a claim. Seems unlikely.


The Wikipedia entry says it's the first TV score rendered electronically, which seems more believable.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:26 AM on September 25, 2015


Surreal, wonderful, thanks!
posted by PHINC at 8:56 AM on September 25, 2015


Not sure what was best about that: the accents, the special effects, the "white imperialist knows best" philosophy, or the dialog.

OK, it was the dialog.

That and the vibragun.
posted by oheso at 2:29 AM on September 26, 2015


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