G-Force: Guardians of Space
G-Force: Guardians of Space (1986) is the second American animated television adaptation of the Japanese anime series "Science Ninja Team Gatchaman" (1972), following Sandy Frank Entertainment's initial 1978 effort "Battle of the Planets" and preceding ADV Films' 2005 attempt, known merely as "Gatchaman". With "G-Force", Sandy Frank Entertainment collaborated with Turner Broadcasting to create a newer, more faithful translation of "Science Ninja Team Gatchaman" for a new audience, and such a translation was made possible with the relaxed television standards of the 1980s, a luxury that the more "Star Wars"-themed "Battle of  the Planets" did not enjoy. In the show, five brave teenagers — Ace Goodheart, Dirk Daring, Agatha June, Pee Wee and Hoot Owl battle the aliens Galactor and Computor for the fate of the planet Earth. Overview. During the early-to-mid 1980s, Sandy Frank Entertainment's "Battle of the Planets" (or "BotP") was gradually being phased off the air after a successful number of years in syndication. Television stations began relegating the show to early morning timeslots (as typically done with programming on its way off the air) before dispensing of it altogether. During this period Ted Turner's cable  network TBS (then known as "SuperStation WTBS") also aired the show on their channel (albeit in a slightly more edited form, with cuts for time constraints), and by 1984, WTBS was more or less the exclusive home of "BotP" before they too dispensed of it around 1985, effectively ending the lengthy run of "Battle of the Planets" on U.S television. With "Battle of the Planets" having run its course, Sandy Frank, still holding the domestic rights to the first "Gatchaman" series, continued to market "BotP" wherever they could while seeking ways to continue making use of their license. Interest came  from the part of Turner Broadcasting (who was the last to air "BotP" on a wide scale on their TBS network) in creating a newer, more faithful adaptation of "Gatchaman", which would be easier to accomplish with the newly relaxed television standards of the Reagan era-1980s. (Themes such as violence, death and destruction in cartoons were heavily edited during the 1970s.) Turner executives believed that the series still had potential, and in turn acquired the rights from Sandy Frank to begin work on what would come to be known as "G-Force" (the same title given to the collective group  of protagonists in "Battle of the Planets", which in turn would be used for the same purpose on the new version). To develop this project, Turner enlisted the help of Fred Ladd, a pioneer in the field of translating and distributing Japanese animation in the U.S (with famous works such as "Astro Boy", "Gigantor" & "Kimba the White Lion", under his belt) to produce the adaptation. Ladd had previously been offered to produce "Battle of the Planets" by Sandy Frank himself a few years before, but passed on the offer due to location conflicts; Ladd was working out of New York  City at the time, while "BotP" was being produced in California. Ladd, through his production company "Sparklin' Entertainment", put together two "test" pilot episodes chosen by Turner (see ), and sent them in for approval. Within days, Ladd and his company were given the greenlight to produce the adaptation, and work on "G-Force" began in the fall of 1986. Despite it being handled by Turner & Fred Ladd, Sandy Frank ultimately held the copyrights to the show (along with international distribution rights), while Turner, through its subsidiary Turner Program Services, and King Features Entertainment (a subsidiary of Hearst Corporation; now Hearst  Entertainment) held limited distribution and syndication rights. Changes and additions in the adaptation. Content editing. For Turner's "G-Force", none of "Battle of the Planets"' original elements (such as 7-Zark-7, 1-Rover-1, the concept of space travel and space battles and all of the added American footage) were retained, preferably replaced with a more accurate translation of the original "Gatchaman" series with far fewer alterations. Most of the plot, backstories, violence and deaths remained intact, only edited or "softened" with added dialogue where it was too explicit (i.e., certain on-screen gun usage, deaths via firearms and/or overly  violent means and inter-team violence). Music. An all-new music score was composed (by composer Dean Andre) for "G-Force". The score retained some of the original, 1970s "Gatchaman" score. The silent parts of the "Gatchaman" soundtrack were filled in with additional music, also composed by Dean Andre. This was a relatively common practice, purportedly to maintain the pace of the show and prevent the audience from losing interest during a lull in action. "Battle of the Planets" had used this practice, composing new scores as well as reusing the existing "Gatchaman" music, during silent moments such as mecha  transformations (which originally had a high-pitched warping sound effect synchronized with the light beams) and the completely musicless scenes where Katse talked with Sosai X. "G-Force: Guardians of Space" opted to use a sole, repetitive synth instrumental that would play on and off as the "Gatchaman" score faded in and out. This synth instrumental is actually a stripped-down rendition of the show's opening/ending theme and is played throughout every episode of the series. Episode order. Unlike "Battle of the Planets", which bounced around the "Gatchaman" episode order and adapted them as the producers saw fit , "G-Force" followed the original "Gatchaman" episode order for its entire run, only skipping "Gatchaman" episodes 81 (due to intense content, also skipped in "BotP") and 86 (for unknown reasons) for a total of 85 dubbed episodes (the same number of episodes adapted for "Battle of the Planets" coincidentally). The final 18 episodes of "Gatchaman" (episodes 88-105) were not adapted for "G-Force" either, which resulted in this adaptation lacking a proper conclusion. The reasons behind this decision are not exactly known; some sources claim that only 85 episodes were contracted and bought for this adaptation while others claim  that budget constraints or lack of interest in adapting the remaining episodes cut it short. Also to be taken into consideration is the fact that the "Gatchaman" series became increasingly darker and violent towards its end, which would have made adapting those last episodes difficult, given that "G-Force" was being marketed towards children. It was not until ADV Films' uncut and unedited release of the first "Gatchaman" series in 2005-2006 that all 105 episodes were adapted and available in English. Episodes 18 ("The Whale Submarine") and 87 ("Galactor's Deadly Trap") of "G-Force" served as the two  pilots for the show. They were put together by producer Fred Ladd before he had been given approval to work on the rest of the series, with the purpose being to demonstrate (to Turner Broadcasting) what his work on the show would look and sound like. The two pilots are unique amongst the rest of the episodes for having replaced all of the original "Gatchaman" music with new music composed by Dean Andre, which was part of the proposed, all-new music score for the show. Due to time constraints, the new pieces of music weren't utilized beyond the  pilots and left on the cutting room floor, with the rest of the episodes retaining most of the original "Gatchaman" score. Incidentally, most of the new music that was exclusively played in the pilots also turned out to be variations of the show's opening/ending theme. There exist earlier, unaired versions of the pilot episodes which contain a radically different music score than even the broadcast versions of the pilots. They also contain an unused opening/closing theme, which along with the aforementioned score was also left on the cutting room floor in favor of the final music selection  present in the broadcast episodes. These "pre-production" pilot episodes are only available as extras on the Region 4 (PAL) "Battle of the Planets: Collection 2" DVD set. Between the efforts of both "Battle of the Planets" and "G-Force", 99 of "Gatchaman"'s 105 episodes were adapted. Incidentally, the last six untranslated episodes were very crucial to the series' overall storyline, serving as the series's finale. They also featured some of the series' most violent, yet memorable moments. As previously mentioned, ADV Film's uncut "Gatchaman" release finally adapted all 105 episodes into English, more than 30 years  after the show first aired and almost 30 years since its first English adaptation. Character names and terms. On the creative side, the original "Gatchaman" character names and terms were once-again re-tooled and Americanized in "G-Force" for the convenience of the English-speaking market, as they first were with "Battle of the Planets" years earlier. Despite the existence of "BotP's" set of English names and terms, "G-Forces producers came up with their own set in an attempt to stray away from the previous adaptation as much as possible and avoid any potential confusion between the  two. From "Battle of the Planets" to "G-Force", the heroes' names were changed to Ace Goodheart ("Mark"), Dirk Daring ("Jason"), Agatha June ("Princess"), Pee Wee ("Keyop"), Hoot Owl ("Tiny"), and Dr. Brighthead ("Chief Anderson"), while the main villains were renamed Galactor ("Zoltar") and Computor"' ("The Great Spirit") respectively. The only terms retained from "BotP" were the name of the group as a collective ("G-Force", in order to explain the "G" on their costumes and vehicles) and the team's ship ("Phoenix"). Credits. Owned and distributed by: Sandy Frank Entertainment (formerly marketed by Turner Program Services and King Features  Entertainment, whose rights reverted to Sandy Frank in 2003) Producer: Fred Ladd Voice Director: Fred Ladd Additional Music Composer/Music Editor: Dean Andre Post-Production: Bruce Austin Productions Videotape Editor: Kurt Tiegs Production: Sparklin' Entertainment Voice cast. Ace Goodheart: Sam Fontana Dirk Daring/Red Impulse: Cam Clarke (all episodes except 39 & 40) Agatha June/Pee Wee: Barbara Goodson Hoot-Owl/Dr.Brighthead/Computor: Jan Rabson (some episodes), Gregg Berger (others) Galactor: Bill Capizzi Opening Credits Announcer: Norm Prescott Team variations across different versions. The renaming of the various characters and terms in "G-Force" are highlighted as follows (in correspondence  to their "Gatchaman" equivalents, among others): Identity change variations across different versions. ‡The original Japanese language version of Gatchaman contains a small amount of words in English. Debut and reception. TBS run (1986). The revamped "G-Force" premiered in obscurity on Turner's WTBS network in July 1987 and ran for just a week before mysteriously disappearing afterwards. The reasons for this brief airing are still unknown. Sources indicate that the purpose behind the WTBS "test run" was to clear a contractual agreement that allowed the rights-holders to list the show as having "aired" in the United States to  aid its international syndication sales. "G-Force" was syndicated internationally in the following years, while the U.S. was left without any incarnation of "Gatchaman" for eight years. Cartoon Network run (1995–1997; 2000; 2004). During the early 1990's, Cartoon Network, another of Ted Turner's networks, was in need of newer programming. Coupled with the runaway success of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" around the same time, this provided an opportunity for "G-Force" to make its proper U.S. debut as Turner Program Services still held syndication rights to the series. "G-Force" premiered on Cartoon Network on January 2, 1995  alongside "James Bond Jr" as the newest additions to the channel's "Super Adventures" programming block. All 85 episodes of the series were finally aired on weekday and weekend rotation. "G-Force" was the first anime to air on Cartoon Network, followed later that month by "Robot Carnival", "Vampire Hunter D", "Twilight of the Cockroaches" (January 29, 1995). Along with "Speed Racer" (February 1996), these early entries paved the way for Cartoon Network's Toonami (March 1997) which popularized anime on the channel. The show performed modestly, but it most notably faced backlash from returning fans of the previous adaptation , "Battle of the Planets". The recycling of the same team name and episode content confused older fans who were unaware that a newer English translation of "Gatchaman" had been produced after "Battle of the Planets" mid-1980s hiatus. By early 1996, Cartoon Network shifted "G-Force" to late night and weekend airings, where it lingered until it re-ran its last episode on Saturday, July 12, 1997. The following weekend, the show (then airing during the last remnant of the network's "Super Adventures" block) was canceled to make way for a Saturday evening edition of Toonami. G-Force made brief  re-appearances in 2000 (on Cartoon Network's late-night "Toonami Midnight Run" block) and again in 2004 (on ADV's "The Anime Network"), never airing more than a handful of episodes after its 1995-1997 Cartoon Network run. During its short stint on the weekend "Toonami Midnight Run" block in early 2000, "G-Force" was featured in a number of on-air promotions for Cartoon Network's Toonami, which continued to air even after the show was canceled from the block. DVD releases and availability. Due to its relative obscurity, and paired with the fact that ADV's recent  uncut and unedited "Gatchaman" release has replaced it as the most accurate English adaptation, "G-Force" is unlikely to receive a full series or boxset release as its "Battle of the Planets" brethren has received (in the U.K at least). Sandy Frank Entertainment (which originally licensed both "Battle of the Planets" and "G-Force: Guardians of Space") lost their distribution and marketing rights to the original "Gatchaman" series and its adaptations sometime in 2007. They have since been re-acquired by Sentai Filmworks, which has re-released the ADV Films English dub of "Gatchaman" on Blu-ray and DVD as  well as "Battle of the Planets" on streaming platforms. While they hold the licensing rights to "G-Force", they currently have no plans to re-release the show. To date only a handful of "G-Force" episodes have been released on home video, totaling to just 13 of its 85 episodes when adding up all of the ones in the following DVD releases: