Series History and Production
After Granada Television failed to renew Four Feather Falls, Anderson approached Lew Grade of ATV. Grade asked Anderson to reduce the budget by half. After working through the night, Anderson returned the next morning, with the budget reduced only by a third. Grade commissioned the series immediately.
The music for the series was composed and conducted by Barry Gray. The opening and closing theme song vocalist for the first season is Mike Sammes, for the second season Sammes's vocal group The Mike Sammes Singers re-recorded the theme.
There were two working models of Supercar, the larger hero model was made of light-weight wood and Plexiglass (Perspex) and measured about five feet in length. The smaller model, used in distance shots, was about nine inches in length. The vehicle was designed by art director Reg Hill. Fans such as Austin Tate have speculated Hill was inspired by the Ford FX-Atmox concept car of the 1950s.
As photography on the series was getting underway, creator Gerry Anderson wed production assistant and voice actress Sylvia Thamm. After a brief mid-day ceremony the couple returned to the studio to help complete the opening title sequence.
Many of the first 26 scripts for Supercar were written by brothers Hugh and Martin Woodhouse, at the rate of one complete 'shooting (camera-ready) script' per week, in order to fit Anderson and Grade's cost and production schedule.
Anderson always claimed that he invented a futuristic vehicle as an excuse to reduce the amount of walking the puppets had to do, which could never be made to look realistic. This was finally taken to its conclusion in Captain Scarlet, in which the puppets are almost never seen walking.
The complete series is available on DVD in the United Kingdom, Australia and North America.
The series name was used in Italy in the Eighties for the local airing of Knight Rider, as the original Supercar series was practically unknown.
Big Bang Comics paid tribute to the show with their character Mike Merlin, in honour of Supercar's leading hero, Mike Mercury.
Read more about this topic: Supercar (TV series)
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