The Show
A co-production between British independent film company Century Films and American TV company 20th Century Fox, it was a children's comedy adventure sitcom. The shows (without adverts) were about 21 minutes long.
The programme made its debut on 12 September 1970 at 10:30 am ET in the US on ABC, and at 4:55 pm on 1 January 1971 in Britain on BBC One. In the US, the series was rerun on Sunday mornings during the 1971-72 TV season on ABC from 12 September 1971 to 3 September 1972, in the same time slot.
Each week saw the gang in a separate adventure including episodes based around a runaway homemade hovercraft, a chocolate factory and invading 'Martians' with guns that shot out chocolate candy, a disastrous camping holiday, collecting tin foil for a guide dog, becoming pop moguls with their protégé 'The Cool Cavalier' and a haunted stately home.
The cast were unknowns apart from Melvyn Hayes, an established adult actor, and Gillian Bailey, fairly experienced for a child actor. Melvyn Hayes also wrote the episode "Man's Best Friend", co-wrote the episode "Get a Movie On!", co-wrote the series' theme song, and acted as a dialogue coach for the series. Bailey is now head of the drama department at Royal Holloway University. Peter Firth has gone on to a prominent acting career, appearing in Equus, The Hunt for Red October, Tess, Pearl Harbor, and Spooks (MI-5). Co-star Brinsley Forde later became the lead singer in Aswad.
The series was originally scheduled for 26 episodes (as well as a second series of 26 additional episodes), but production ceased after the 17th.
The entire series was released on 1 November 2010 on DVD in the UK.
Read more about this topic: Here Come The Double Deckers
Famous quotes containing the word show:
“He could walk, or rather turn about in his little garden, and feel more solid happiness from the flourishing of a cabbage or the growing of a turnip than was ever received from the most ostentatious show the vanity of man could possibly invent. He could delight himself with thinking, “Here will I set such a root, because my Camilla likes it; here, such another, because it is my little David’s favorite.””
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“When I show my grandchildren, I have a wonderful feeling of pride. I say, “See that crane way, way up there? Grandma used to run a crane like that during the war.””
—Jennette Hyman Nuttall U.S. (former)