Joe 90
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- For other uses, see Joe 90 (disambiguation).
| Joe 90 | |
|---|---|
 British DVD release |
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| Genre | Supermarionation Action Adventure |
| Running time | 25 min. |
| Creator(s) | Gerry Anderson Sylvia Anderson |
| Starring | Len Jones Rupert Davies |
| Country of origin | UK |
| Original channel | ATV |
| Original run | September 1, 1968–March 23, 1969 |
| No. of episodes | 30 |
Joe 90 is a 1968 Sylvia and Gerry Anderson television show concerning the adventures of a nine-year-old boy, Joe McClaine. A single season of thirty 25 minute episodes was completed, and it was the last show to be made exclusively using a form of puppetry called "Supermarionation". Created for Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment by Century 21 Productions (by this time also under Grade's ownership), and was first broadcast on ATV.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Joe's adoptive father and computer expert, Professor Ian "Mac" McClaine, invented a large computer called BIGRAT (an acronym for Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer) that allowed skills to be copied from the minds of top experts in their fields to another person. Mac's friend, Sam Loover, a secret agent for the World Intelligence Network (WIN), persuaded Mac to let Joe use the machine to work for WIN. After the requisite skill was transferred, and provided Joe was wearing special spectacles containing hidden electrodes, he was able to fly jet airplanes, perform surgery, and so on.
[edit] Analysis
As in Anderson's previous series, the show regularly featured rescue operations, secret worldwide organizations, complicated gadgetry, terrorism, and threats to the entire world. Professor McClaine, for example, drove an exotic flying car. Nevertheless, the series was probably the most realistic of Anderson's Supermarionation programmes,[citation needed] with the puppets being the more accurately proportioned form first seen in Captain Scarlet. Most of the puppets from the preceding series were re-used for Joe 90,[citation needed] with the exceptions of the Captain Scarlet, Captain Blue and Lieutenant Green marionettes. Also, some new puppets were constructed, including those for Joe, Mac and Shane Weston, chief of WIN's London Headquarters. Many of the puppets also had versions with tanned complexions to portray darker-skinned people.
The darker and more violent style consciously introduced with Captain Scarlet continued into Joe 90. A typical example features Professor McClaine being kidnapped, held hostage and menaced with a drill in the episode "Project 90". This provoked criticism that the scenarios were inappropriate for a nine year old boy, although Mac's reservations are clearly explained in the pilot episode.[citation needed] The child hero is far more engaging for its intended audience, as well as allowing him to infiltrate places without arousing suspicion. In this way, it also predates other espionage films featuring children, such as Spy Kids.
To add to the realism, the voice of Joe was provided by boy actor Len Jones, rather than a young woman actress as was usually the case. Mac was voiced by Rupert Davies (best known for playing Maigret) and Sylvia Anderson voiced their long-suffering housekeeper.
The series assumed that the Cold War would not continue into the 21st century (dismissing the theft by Joe of a Russian fighter plane in the first episode as merely a speculative scenario), although the series appears to favour eastern European characters as spies and villains.[citation needed]
The show featured a theme tune composed by Barry Gray, who also composed music for other Anderson productions.
The character of Joe 90 was innocent and childlike without his glasses, but often quite adult sounding, and occasionally patronising when wearing his glasses, due to the expert nature of the brain patterns he was using. As a normal boy he would address his father as "Dad", but with his glasses the name would be "Mac".
It was not uncommon in schools in the 1960s for a brainy (and possibly disliked) child to be referred to as "Joe 90".[citation needed] It was also commonly and slightly rudely used to refer to anyone wearing glasses "oi! you there, Joe 90..." thoughout the 1970s and '80s in the U.K.[citation needed]
In May 2003 the BBC reported that a film version of the series was to be made[1][2]
[edit] Episode list
- The Most Special Agent - In his first assignment, Joe 90 steals a new Russian fighter-bomber to prevent an arms race between the East and West.
- Hi-jacked - Joe attempts to thwart the plans of a lethal arms runner.
- Splashdown - Can Joe expose the organisation reponsible for the deaths of two electronics experts before time runs out for him and his father?
- Operation McClaine - When a specialist brain surgeon is injured in an air crash, it is up to Joe to save the live of an ailing novelist.
- Three's a Crowd - Joe intervenes when it seems that there is more to Professor McClaine's new girlfriend than meets the eye.
- International Concerto - A top WIN agent finds his cover broken. Joe must take on his persona as a famous pianist if the agent is to escape his captors.
- Big Fish - A submarine has unwittingly broken down in enemy waters, and Joe must remove it if he is to prevent political carnage.
- The Unorthodox Shepherd - Joe, Professor McClaine and Sam Loover investigate the unusual disturbances surrounding a church crypt.
- Relative Danger - Joe is brained up with the skills of a top explorer to save three miners jeopardised by their own explosives test.
- Business Holiday - Strange happenings during the McClaines' holiday are bound up with the need to destroy a rogue government's new military base.
- King For a Day - Joe poses as the heir to a Middle Eastern throne as WIN try to rescue the prince from kidnappers allied with a jealous regent.
- Double Agent - Joe is unintentionally given the brain pattern of a double agent for a mission to protect top-secret WIN cipher codes.
- Most Special Astronaut - Joe ventures into space to save two astronauts stranded on a space station with a dwindling air supply.
- Arctic Adventure - A nuclear bomb must be discreetly removed from the Arctic wastes of the Eastern Sector to avert the threat of a world war.
- The Fortress - Joe is assigned to rescue a fellow WIN agent from an impregnable stronghold before his captors force him to divulge sensitive information.
- Colonel McClaine - Equipped with the knowledge and experience of an army driver and explosives expert, Joe is assigned to transport dangerous chemicals across Africa.
- Project 90 - Criminal masterminds uncover the McClaines' involvement with WIN and kidnap Joe's father for further information.
- The Race - Joe adopts his father's brain pattern and they share the same dream, revolving around a comic rally race from London to Monte Carlo.
- The Professional - Using the brain pattern of an imprisoned safe-cracker, Joe infiltrates a heavily-guarded castle to retrieve a dictator's ill-gotten eight million dollars in gold bullion.
- Lone Handed 90 - While the BIGRAT is out of action, Joe dreams of life as a sheriff in the Wild West.
- Attack of The Tiger - Joe pilots a new fighter-bomber to destroy a nuclear weapons base before a device is placed in orbit to hold the world to ransom.
- Talkdown - Joe is given a mission to investigate the crash of a revolutionary hypersonic fighter only to find himself in mortal danger.
- Breakout - Two prisoners break out of a Canadian jail and threaten to kill the country's prime minister unless they are given a hefty ransom.
- Mission X-41 - Assuming the skills of a leading virologist, Joe halts the development of a deadly virus before it can be used to attack the West.
- Test Flight - Joe tries to find out whether the crash of a prototype spaceplane was an accident or sabotage.
- Child of The Sun God - Several of the world's leading statesmen have been rendered paralysed after being hit by poison darts known to have been used only by a lost South American tribe.
- Trial At Sea - With the brain pattern of a terrorist, Joe has little time to prevent the destruction of a new transatlantic hoverliner.
- Viva Cordova - Joe must act as a bodyguard to a new, democratic president to prevent his assassination at the hands of the country's former dictator.
- See You Down There - An exploitative business entrepreneur is compelled to change his ways after he is bewildered by Joe 90's multitude of brain patterns.
- The Birthday - Joe reaches his tenth birthday, and celebrates with his friends as they reminisce over his many adventures.
[edit] References
- ^ Joe 90 'set for big screen'. BBC Entertainment News. BBC (2003-05-05). Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
- ^ Films - Review of 2003. BBC Entertainment News. BBC. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
[edit] External links
| Gerry Anderson |
|---|
| Television |
| The Adventures of Twizzle | Torchy the Battery Boy | Four Feather Falls | Supercar | Fireball XL5 | Stingray | Thunderbirds | Captain Scarlet | Joe 90 | The Secret Service | UFO | The Protectors | Space: 1999 | Terrahawks | Dick Spanner, P.I. | Space Precinct | Lavender Castle | New Captain Scarlet |
| Feature Films |
| Crossroads to Crime | Thunderbirds Are GO | Thunderbird 6 | Doppelgänger |
| Companies/Techniques |
| AP Films | Century 21 Productions | Supermarionation |
| Notable Collaborators |
| Sylvia Anderson | David Lane | Barry Gray | Reg Hill | Derek Meddings | John Read | Shane Rimmer |
