Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin
Encyclopedia
Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin (aka Professor Poopsnaggle and His Flying Zeppelin) was a popular Australia
n children's television series
and a spin-off from the 1984 series Secret Valley
. It was first aired 1986 in Australia and also later in Switzerland (TSI) and Finland (1987), Spain (1989), Greece (1989, ERT), Netherlands (1989, KRO), France (1993, FR3) and Vietnam (1996, VTV3). In contrast to Secret Valley, which was a commercial failure in the United Kingdom when screened there in 1985, Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin was hugely success in the UK, where it was first broadcast in 1987 on the ITV network, and proved so popular that it was also later repeated on Channel 4 in both 1990 and 1998. The series still has a strong cult following in the United Kingdom today.
have to find six golden salamanders which each contain the name of a mineral for that secret recipe, and then locate the minerals. Professor Poopsnagle, the grandfather of Peter, a resident of Secret Valley, planned a steam zeppelin
, a reconstruction of a red bus with technology of a hot air balloon
so it can fly. The children now build it and search the salamanders with the aid of an encoded document.
The powerful, wealthy, and influential local retired business magnate Count Sator is also interested in this formula, as he is himself working on a new invention that he hopes will revive the flagging fortunes of his new motoring business. He kidnaps the Professor after the zeppelin breaks down in the desert after intercepting the Professor's radio call for help and pretending that he has come to rescue the Professor and to offer him aid; he also turns one of the children (Matt - the Professor's adoptive grandson who was asleep in the zeppelin) into a spy and observes the children with his computer "Brute". His main henchman Murk (a former army sergeant with a severe stutter, now working as Sator's chief of security) would often sent Matt out to bug Secret Valley and the zeppelin, while his other henchman, the intelligent but accident-prone Willie Dingle (the caretaker at Sator's mansion), would track the movements of the Secret Valley children and report back to Sator to let him know where they were headed. While Sator and Murk were persistent in trying to steal the formula, Dingle was a more reluctant accomplice, who had only got involved when Sator threatened to lock him away in the cells with the Professor if he did not assist in their mission. Sator also owns a wild creature of unknown species named Baby Julius, who he kept in a cage and deliberately tormented to make him more vicious.
Soon after, Doctor Garcia arrives at Secret Valley having located and repaired the zeppelin and tracked Peter down to Secret Valley after learning that the Professor had disappeared; after confirming that his own disappearance was due to a bite from a poisonous snake, he continued where the Professor had left off in helping them in their search for the salamanders and minerals. At one point, Murk and Dingle kidnapped Doctor Garcia and held him hostage in a dungeon at Sator's mansion, with Sator himself trying to extract information from him. Peter and his friend Mike went ot the police for help in finding the Doctor, but their search of the mansion was futile as Dingle made a false call for the police sergeant to Murk, in which Dingle - who had been out of sight when Murk and Sator had greeted the police at the mansion entrance - managed to trick the sergeant into thinking that the Doctor was apparently sighted near the station; however, while Sator had Brute shut off the security system for the police to leave, the Professor managed to escape undetected through the back door of the mansion.
Doctor Garcia was also rescued soon after following a "commado raid" in which six of the Secret Valley children broke into Count Sator's dungeons and escaped with the help of Matt, who turned against Sator after he realised that Sator was using him for his own gain.
The series concluded when, having completed the recipe for Doctor Garcia's formula and put it to use with the zeppelin, the two scientists and the children decided to try and make peace with Sator by offering to help him with his own invention, called "Megavapor". Initially, a defeated Sator accepted their offer of help; however, Sator then decided that he did not want to share the technology with the Professor after all and would instead keep the recipe for himself and murder all of his opponents so that he could patent the invention as his own. He lured Peter into a trap that saw the Professor recaptured when he offered himself in exchange for his grandson, and Sator stole the minerals from the Professor.
In the end, Sator's greed and disregard towards the efforts of his accomplices ultimately led to his downfall, when he eventually fell victim to one of his own traps that he had laid for the Secret Valley team that came in to rescue Peter and the Professor. Dingle, fed up with his poor treatment at Sator's hands, turned against Sator and, after aiding the Doctor and the children's escape with the Professor and the minerals, he tricked Sator and Murk into thinking that Sator's plan had worked, and let both of them walk into their deaths at the hands of Sator's own wild creature Baby Julius.
Following Sator and Murk's deaths, the children and two scientists were shown flying away victoriously in the zeppelin to complete their anti-pollution work. Dingle was not shown with them at this time, and it was left unrevealed as to whether he managed to escape the mansion before Baby Julius caught up with him.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n children's television series
Children's television series
Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...
and a spin-off from the 1984 series Secret Valley
Secret Valley
Secret Valley was an Australian children's television adventure series from 1980 made by the Grundy Organisation and first shown on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
. It was first aired 1986 in Australia and also later in Switzerland (TSI) and Finland (1987), Spain (1989), Greece (1989, ERT), Netherlands (1989, KRO), France (1993, FR3) and Vietnam (1996, VTV3). In contrast to Secret Valley, which was a commercial failure in the United Kingdom when screened there in 1985, Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin was hugely success in the UK, where it was first broadcast in 1987 on the ITV network, and proved so popular that it was also later repeated on Channel 4 in both 1990 and 1998. The series still has a strong cult following in the United Kingdom today.
Story
Doctor Garcia had made an invention that would stop the air pollution. After he mysteriously disappears, the children of the Secret ValleySecret Valley
Secret Valley was an Australian children's television adventure series from 1980 made by the Grundy Organisation and first shown on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
have to find six golden salamanders which each contain the name of a mineral for that secret recipe, and then locate the minerals. Professor Poopsnagle, the grandfather of Peter, a resident of Secret Valley, planned a steam zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
, a reconstruction of a red bus with technology of a hot air balloon
Hot air balloon
The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. It is in a class of aircraft known as balloon aircraft. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air...
so it can fly. The children now build it and search the salamanders with the aid of an encoded document.
The powerful, wealthy, and influential local retired business magnate Count Sator is also interested in this formula, as he is himself working on a new invention that he hopes will revive the flagging fortunes of his new motoring business. He kidnaps the Professor after the zeppelin breaks down in the desert after intercepting the Professor's radio call for help and pretending that he has come to rescue the Professor and to offer him aid; he also turns one of the children (Matt - the Professor's adoptive grandson who was asleep in the zeppelin) into a spy and observes the children with his computer "Brute". His main henchman Murk (a former army sergeant with a severe stutter, now working as Sator's chief of security) would often sent Matt out to bug Secret Valley and the zeppelin, while his other henchman, the intelligent but accident-prone Willie Dingle (the caretaker at Sator's mansion), would track the movements of the Secret Valley children and report back to Sator to let him know where they were headed. While Sator and Murk were persistent in trying to steal the formula, Dingle was a more reluctant accomplice, who had only got involved when Sator threatened to lock him away in the cells with the Professor if he did not assist in their mission. Sator also owns a wild creature of unknown species named Baby Julius, who he kept in a cage and deliberately tormented to make him more vicious.
Soon after, Doctor Garcia arrives at Secret Valley having located and repaired the zeppelin and tracked Peter down to Secret Valley after learning that the Professor had disappeared; after confirming that his own disappearance was due to a bite from a poisonous snake, he continued where the Professor had left off in helping them in their search for the salamanders and minerals. At one point, Murk and Dingle kidnapped Doctor Garcia and held him hostage in a dungeon at Sator's mansion, with Sator himself trying to extract information from him. Peter and his friend Mike went ot the police for help in finding the Doctor, but their search of the mansion was futile as Dingle made a false call for the police sergeant to Murk, in which Dingle - who had been out of sight when Murk and Sator had greeted the police at the mansion entrance - managed to trick the sergeant into thinking that the Doctor was apparently sighted near the station; however, while Sator had Brute shut off the security system for the police to leave, the Professor managed to escape undetected through the back door of the mansion.
Doctor Garcia was also rescued soon after following a "commado raid" in which six of the Secret Valley children broke into Count Sator's dungeons and escaped with the help of Matt, who turned against Sator after he realised that Sator was using him for his own gain.
The series concluded when, having completed the recipe for Doctor Garcia's formula and put it to use with the zeppelin, the two scientists and the children decided to try and make peace with Sator by offering to help him with his own invention, called "Megavapor". Initially, a defeated Sator accepted their offer of help; however, Sator then decided that he did not want to share the technology with the Professor after all and would instead keep the recipe for himself and murder all of his opponents so that he could patent the invention as his own. He lured Peter into a trap that saw the Professor recaptured when he offered himself in exchange for his grandson, and Sator stole the minerals from the Professor.
In the end, Sator's greed and disregard towards the efforts of his accomplices ultimately led to his downfall, when he eventually fell victim to one of his own traps that he had laid for the Secret Valley team that came in to rescue Peter and the Professor. Dingle, fed up with his poor treatment at Sator's hands, turned against Sator and, after aiding the Doctor and the children's escape with the Professor and the minerals, he tricked Sator and Murk into thinking that Sator's plan had worked, and let both of them walk into their deaths at the hands of Sator's own wild creature Baby Julius.
Following Sator and Murk's deaths, the children and two scientists were shown flying away victoriously in the zeppelin to complete their anti-pollution work. Dingle was not shown with them at this time, and it was left unrevealed as to whether he managed to escape the mansion before Baby Julius caught up with him.
Characters
- Professor Poopsnagle (Gerry Duggan)
- Carmen (Justine ClarkeJustine ClarkeJustine Clarke is an Australian actor and singer. She has been acting since the age of seven and has appeared in some of Australia's best-known TV shows...
) - Matt (Kelan Angel)
- Peter (Philip Henville)
- Mike (Marc Gray)
- Jamie (Rory Bromhead)
- Sparks (Mark Kazuhiro Pearce)
- Robyn (Melissa KounnasMelissa KounnasMelissa Kounnas is an Australian actress and television presenter. Melissa is best known for her role in the children's television series Professor Poopsnaggle and His Flying Zeppelin as Robyn....
) - Doctor García (José María CaffarelJosé María CaffarelJosé María Caffarel was a Spanish film actor. He appeared in over 170 films between 1957 and 1998.He was born and died in Barcelona, Spain.-Selected filmography:* Fine Gold...
) - Willie Dingle (Bill Conn)
- Count Sator (Ric Hutton)
- Murk (Ron BlanchardRon BlanchardRon Blanchard is an Australian film and television actor. He is best known for his starring roles in five popular children's television series Breakfast-a-Go-Go, The Lost Islands, Alexander Bunyip's Billabong, Watch This Space and Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin...
) - Shorty (Ken TalbotKen TalbotKen Talbot was the principal shareholder and former CEO of the Macarthur Coal Ltd mining company. He was the only child of Norman and Nita Talbot...
) - Joanne (Tanya Wright)