Joe 90

UK tv series (1968-1969). A Century 21 Production for ITC/ATV. Devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, produced by David Lane (with Reg Hill as executive producer). Script editor Tony Barwick. Directors included Peter Anderson, Leo Eaton, Alan Perry, Desmond Saunders. Writers included Barwick, Shane Rimmer, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Theme music by Ron Grainer. 30 25-minute episodes. Colour.

This was the last and one of the least popular of the sf animated-puppet series made for children in SuperMarionation by the Andersons – though Terrahawks (1983-1986), in which the puppets were electronically operated in a process Anderson called "Supermacromation", was still to come. The hero, Joe, is a nine-year-old boy whose scientist father has devised a method of transferring specialist brain patterns into his mind, armed with which (looking innocent) he becomes a test pilot, a brain surgeon and so on, working as a special agent for the World Intelligence Network. Joe 90 collapsed after one season, perhaps because it appeared more childish than most of its immediate predecessors in the SuperMarionation television shows. There were two novelizations: Joe 90 and the Raiders (1968) by Tom Sullivan and Joe 90 in Revenge (1969) by Howard Elson. [PN]

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Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 18:06 pm on 10 May 2024.
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