THE TELEPHEMERA YEARS: 1996, part 4

Written By:

Alan Boon

Ah, telephemera… those shows whose stay with us was tantalisingly brief, snatched away before their time, and sometimes with good cause. They hit the schedules alongside established shows, hoping for a long run, but it’s not always to be, and for every Street Hawk there’s two Manimals. But here at STARBURST we celebrate their existence and mourn their departure, drilling down into the new season’s entertainment with equal opportunities square eyes… these are The Telephemera Years!

1996-97

It was mostly business as usual at the top of the television ratings in 1996, with NBC continuing their domination, especially on Thursday nights where their Must See TV block accounted for six of the top eight shows, including debuts for the Brooke Shields-starring Suddenly Susan, The Naked Truth, Fired Up, and The Single Guy. Only ABC’s Monday Night Football spoiled a clean sweep, but there was more competition on other days, with Home Improvement and new arrival Spin City on Tuesdays giving ABC some non-sportsball success, and Sundays looking good for CBS with 60 Minutes and Touched by An Angel coming in at number eleven and twelve, respectively.

Other new shows making their bows on the Fall 1996 schedule included Cosby, Everybody Loves Raymond, Touched by An Angel spin-off Promised Land, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Early Edition and Dark Skies, two new genre shows making premiering on CBS and NBC, illustrating the impact The X-Files was having on the US TV market. The year would also see debuts for 7th Heaven, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, King of the Hill, Lexx, Millennium, and Mystery Science Theater 3000, but also see Family Matters, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Roseanne, Wings, and Renegade begin their final seasons. Those were all shows aimed at the adults in the room, though: what about their TV-hungry offspring? This is the story of 1996’s new kids offerings…

Big Bad Beetleborgs (Fox): After the success of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, it was inevitable that there would be imitators. First out of the gate were the syndicated and Tsuburaya-produced Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad and DIC’s Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills on the USA Network (which produced its own tokusatsu footage rather than repurpose Japanese stock), with Tsuburaya following up with Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero a year later. Saban themselves were quick to capitalise on the popularity of their initial hit, not only adopting Toei’ practice of reinventing the property through successive Super Sentai series, but also bringing VR Troopers (which used footage from three separate tokusatsu series – Metal Hero Series: Metalder, Spielban and Shaider) and Masked Rider (Kamen RiderBlack RX) to an eager American audience.

Although they had some slapstick comedy, all three of the Saban series had been dramatic adventure series, but the studio’s next Japanese transfer took things in a more comical direction, creating a sitcom environment, which nevertheless had the requisite fighting scenes. Big Bad Beetleborgs also used footage from the Metal Hero Series, a Toei tokusatsu that had begun on 1983 on TV Asahi and, in February 1995, morphed into Jūkō B-Fighter. That series saw three students at the Āsu Academia step up to fight the forces of the invading alien Jamahl Empire. Learning that Earth’s insects are already preparing to battle the Jamahl, the three – Takuta, Daisuku, and Rei – don suits of armour infused with the lifeforce of insects to become the B – for beetle – Fighters.

Big Bad Beetleborgs ignored most of this set-up, having three American teenagers – Drew (Wesley Barker), his younger sister Jo (Shannon Chandler), and their best friend Roland (Herbie Baez) – entering a supposedly haunted house on a dare, only to discover it is inhabited by classic movie style monsters. While trying to escape, they accidentally release a seventh dimensional phantom with magical powers named Flabber (Billy Forester, wearing prosthetics that make him look like Jay Leno cosplaying as Liberace, although he was based on Elvis Presley). As a reward, Flabber grants them their wish to become their favourite comic book superheroes – the Big Bad Beetleborgs – but this brings the Beetleborgs’ archenemies, Vexor and the Magnavores, to life as well!

A fifty-three-episode first season debuted on Fox on September 7^th 1996, airing on weekdays as part of the Fox Kids block. At the end of this run (during which Brittany Konarzewski replaced Chandler as Jo), they eventually defeated the Magnavores thanks to help from Art Fortunes, the comic book artist who created the Beetleborgs. However, Nukus – a new villain created by Fortunes for the comic – rose up to become the heroes’ main villain in a thirty-five-episode second season, which repurposed footage from the second B-Fighter show, B-Fighter Kabuto, and began on September 8^th 1997. It was retitled Beetleborgs Metallix to reflect the change of source footage, but Saban opted not to continue the series into a third season, which would have drawn on B-Robo Kabutakku, the next in the Japanese series.

Project GeeKeR (CBS): After creating Earthworm Jim for Shiny Entertainment, and then seeing his character become the star of not only a best-selling videogame but also his own animated series on Kids WB, Doug TenNapel didn’t rest on his laurels. Instead, he teamed with Doug Lansdale – the man who’d shepherded Earthworm Jim onto TV – to create a series of new properties, including videogames The Neverhood (and its sequel, Skullmonkeys) and Boombots, but also a concept for a new cartoon, sold to Sony Pictures’ animation division, Adelaide Productions.

The titular star of Project GeeKeR – which stood for Geno-Kinetic Research – is an artificial being capable of shapeshifting, created by Moloch Industries’ Dr Maston and intended to be used as a weapon. The evil Mister Moloch already owns most of the solar system, but is intent on gaining even more power, hence the creation of being with total control over its body, capable of eliminating all opposition to his dominance. Before he can be perfected, however, GKR is stolen by streetwise thief Lady MacBeth and her dinosaur assistant Noah, who believe they are snatching something they can sell on the black market. Upon discovering GKR, who – having not finished his development – is something of a halfwit with little control over his abilities, the pair decide they have to keep him safe from Moloch, who will stop at nothing to get his creation back.

Former Animaniacs director and producer Audu Paden was put in charge of the project, with a voice cast featuring Ren & Stimpy’s Billy West as GKR, Cree Summer (Rugrats, Tiny Toon Adventures) as Lady MacBeth, and Brad Garrett (who would start a run as Robert in Everybody Loves Raymond the night before Project GeeKeR debuted) as Noah, with Mister Moloch voiced by Jim Cummings, the official voice of Winnie the Pooh since 1988. Across thirteen episodes, GKR, Lady MacBeth (who he called Becky), and Noah fought Moloch goons like Larry the Virus, the Junkers, and Sirena, finishing with a glimpse of a future where Moloch has gained control of GKR and won, steeling their resolve to undo it before it can happen.

At the end of the first season, Project GeeKeR was cancelled, along with the rest of CBS’s Saturday morning line-up. The network had been struggling in the ratings and decided to rebrand their Saturday morning output as Think CBS Kids, an all-educational line-up that satisfied a new directive from the FCC to carry three hours of children’s educational programming a week. It was hoped that Project GeeKeR might continue as part of the new block, but the FCC rejected an attempt to have the show reclassified as educational content. Think CBS Kids launched with Beakman’s World and three new shows: Judy Blume adaptation Fudge, The New Ghostwriter Mysteries, and Wheel 2000, a version of Wheel of Fortune for children. Due to low ratings, no new shows were produced after four months and from October 1998 the block was farmed out to Canadian animation studio Nelvana, who produced the CBS Kidshow.

Captain Simian & the Space Monkeys (syndication): Although it’s likely you don’t know his name, Gordon Bressack worked on some of the most beloved children’s cartoons of the late 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, winning Daytime Emmy Awards for his work on Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs. Bressack broke in on The Snorks for Hanna-Barbera, contributing to ten episodes of the underwater Smurfs clone, and also scripted episodes of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, Yogi’s Treasure Hunt, and Pound Puppies for the cartoon giants. In 1987, he secured a role as story editor on Bionic Six, a syndicated co-production between MCA TV and Japanese studio TMS Entertainment. Returning to scripting, he wrote for Duck Tales, The Smurfs, The Real Ghostbusters, and Tony Toon Adventures, he story-edited once more for season two of Mighty Max, but couldn’t let go of a concept he created in 1986.

Captain Simian & the Space Monkeys told the story of a chimpanzee named Charles, sent into space as part of the monkey-manned rocket experiments of the early 1960s, only to veer off course and be presumed lost by NASA. Charles had actually been discovered by the most intelligent race in the universe and given enhanced intelligence and technology to protect the universe from the threat of Lord Nebula. Half-human and half-black hole, Nebula’s ultimate plan was to become a full black hole and swallow up the known universe before remaking it in his image. Given the rank and name of Captain Simian, Charles assembles a team of primates from Earth to assist him on his mission, each undergoing a similar process that gives them boosted abilities alongside their natural ape and monkey skills.

To bring Captain Simian to TV, Bressack formed Monkeyshine Productions, working alongside Animaniacs colleague Gary Hartle and Rob Hudnut, his executive producer on Mighty Max, to develop the idea further. Hudnut, a former marketing director at Mattel, contracted UK manufacturer Bluebird – who also produced the Mighty Max toys – to produce a range of action figures, and a deal was signed with Hallmark Entertainment to finance the show. With animation and production covered by Epoch Ink and Toon Us In, Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys debuted in the UK on August 16^th 1996, and in syndication three weeks later. Twenty-six episodes were produced, introducing the team and their adversaries, including Nebula’s henchman Rhesus 2 and Apax, and the all-knowing Mandrax (who is eventually revealed to be a future Charles).

Bluebird, in association with Mattel in the US, produced nine action figures and four vehicles, but although Captain Simian was well-regarded by critics and fans alike, there was no second season and it would be Monkeyshine’s only production before Bressack, Hartle, and Hudnut went their separate ways. Bressack died in 2017 after a long battle with ill health and was mainly eulogised for his work on Pinky and the Brain. As the only show he worked on from start to finish, though, Captain Simian should not be forgotten as a prime example of his contribution to the medium.

Siegfried & Roy: Masters of the Impossible (Fox): Although Siegfried & Roy are best known now for the 2003 incident which saw Roy attacked by one of their own tigers onstage, the performers were a byword for Las Vegas glamour during a time when the Nevada resort city was trying to rebrand itself as a family destination rather than the Sin City of years gone by. Siegfried Fischbacher and Uwe “Roy” Horn met on a cruise ship where Fischbacher was performing as a magician and asked Horn – a former zoo assistant working as a waiter – to join him as his assistant. They were eventually fired for bringing a live cheetah on board but expanded their act to include big cats and became popular on the European nightclub circuit. They were brought to Las Vegas in 1967, working their way to the top of the bill at the Tropicana Hotel before being poached by the New Frontier Hotel and Casino, where they starred in the Beyond Belief variety show, which they also toured worldwide.

In 1990, the duo moved to The Mirage, and although they made occasional appearances on variety and chat shows, they never made the transfer to TV that similar acts underwent. On February 19^th 1996, though, those Fox Kids viewers who had failed to flick the switch after a re-run of the Batman: The Animated Series episode “Catwalk” were treated to the first of a four-episode series entitled Siegfried & Roy: Masters of the Impossible. Rather than translate the duo’s stage act for the small screen, however, this was an animated cartoon, set in the fantasy world of Sarmoti.

In the works for four years at DIC Entertainment, but shepherded over the line by Ron Myrick and Sean Roche, two recent arrivals at the studio (although both had considerable résumés at Hanna-Barbera and elsewhere), Masters of the Impossible cast Siegfried (voiced by newcomer Andrew Hawkes) as an illusionist and Roy (Jeff Bennett from Gargoyles, The Land Before Time, and tons more) a travelling animal trainer with a white tiger named Manticore. They meet in Sarmoti, where four demons – each personifying a deadly sin – have recently been released. Together, Siegfried and Roy must defeat the demons, one of whom has taken root in Manticore, and restore the peace and stability of the realm.

The story was told over four successive days, with our heroes travelling through the kingdom, meeting kings, evil giants, dragons, and more, and although the story is neatly wrapped up, Siegfried told the Las Vegas Sun that, “this is only the beginning.” Sadly, it was also the end as there were no more animated adventures for the magicians, who continued to be a big draw for visitors to Las Vegas, at least up until October 2003, when one of Roy’s tigers reacted badly to an ad lib, seizing him around the neck in its jaws and leaving the performer with spinal injuries that impacted him for the rest of his life. That tiger was Manticore, seemingly not totally exorcised of its demon…

Next time on The Telephemera Years: We’re zipping back to 1985, which may be the best year for pop music EVER but is also home to some forgotten TV classics!

Check out our other Telephemera articles:

The Telephemera Years: pre-1965 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1965 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1966 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1967 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1968 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1969 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1970 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1971 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1973 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1974 (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

The Telephemera Years: 1975 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)