Space Sentinels
Encyclopedia
Space Sentinels is a Saturday morning animated series
produced by Filmation
which debuted on the American NBC
network on September 10, 1977 and ran for thirteen half-hour episodes. The series has been called "ahead of its time" due to its racially diverse cast of main characters.
In this series, the Roman
mythological
figures Hercules
and Mercury
are joined by Astrea
, a character created specifically for the series, to form a superhero
team to protect mankind
.
The complete series was released on Region 1 DVD
on August 22, 2006, along with the complete series of The Freedom Force
.
) released all 13 episodes of Space Sentinels on DVD in Region 1 on August 22, 2006, along with all five episodes of The Freedom Force. This series featured the character Hercules and which originally aired as part of Tarzan and the Super 7
. In addition, the digitally-remastered presentation features scripts and Spanish language
tracks for all 13 episodes, audition tapes, a gallery featuring original images, early presentation images, trivia and interviews with creators Lou Scheimer, Buzz Dixon, Darrell McNeil, Michael Reaves, Robert Kline and David Wise.
As of 2009, this release has been discontinued and is out of print as BCI Eclipse has ceased operations.
Saturday morning cartoon
A Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...
produced by Filmation
Filmation
Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live action programming for television during the latter half of the 20th century. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1963...
which debuted on the American NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
network on September 10, 1977 and ran for thirteen half-hour episodes. The series has been called "ahead of its time" due to its racially diverse cast of main characters.
In this series, the Roman
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
mythological
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
figures Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
and Mercury
Mercury (mythology)
Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...
are joined by Astrea
Filmation
Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live action programming for television during the latter half of the 20th century. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1963...
, a character created specifically for the series, to form a superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
team to protect mankind
World population
The world population is the total number of living humans on the planet Earth. As of today, it is estimated to be billion by the United States Census Bureau...
.
The complete series was released on Region 1 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on August 22, 2006, along with the complete series of The Freedom Force
The Freedom Force (TV series)
The Freedom Force is a 1978 animated television series produced by Filmation and aired on CBS as a segment of Tarzan and the Super 7. It showcased a superhero team gathered by the heroine Isis from around the world to help fight evil...
.
Characters
- Hercules: blonde-hairedBlondBlond or blonde or fair-hair is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color...
and blue-eyedEye colorEye color is a polygenic phenotypic character and is determined by two distinct factors: the pigmentation of the eye's iris and the frequency-dependence of the scattering of light by the turbid medium in the stroma of the iris....
Hercules possesses superhuman strength. He was voicedVoice actingVoice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
by George DiCenzoGeorge DiCenzoGeorge Ralph DiCenzo was an American character actor and one-time associate producer for Dark Shadows. He was in show business for more than 30 years, with extensive film, TV, stage and commercial credits.-Life and career:...
, who also voiced Sentinel One and later reprised the role of Hercules in The Freedom ForceThe Freedom Force (TV series)The Freedom Force is a 1978 animated television series produced by Filmation and aired on CBS as a segment of Tarzan and the Super 7. It showcased a superhero team gathered by the heroine Isis from around the world to help fight evil...
animated series. - Mercury: Mercury's power is the ability to run and fly at up to the speed of lightSpeed of lightThe speed of light in vacuum, usually denoted by c, is a physical constant important in many areas of physics. Its value is 299,792,458 metres per second, a figure that is exact since the length of the metre is defined from this constant and the international standard for time...
. Mercury is of AsianAsian peopleAsian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
ancestry. He was voiced by Asian AmericanAsian AmericanAsian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
actor character actorCharacter actorA character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
Evan C. KimEvan C. KimEvan C. Kim is an American actor. He is best known for playing Loo in the 1977 comedy The Kentucky Fried Movie's "A Fistful of Yen" segment, the interpreter Cowboy in the 1978 Vietnam War film Go Tell the Spartans, the erudite caveman Nook in the cult 1981 comedy Caveman, Suki in the 1982 B movie...
(who is credited here as simply "Evan Kim"). - Astrea. Astrea can morph into nearly any living animal. She, along with the Super Friends'Super FriendsSuper Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes, which ran from 1973 to 1986 on ABC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup...
Black VulcanBlack VulcanBlack Vulcan is a fictional African American superhero on the animated series Super Friends created by Hanna-Barbera. He was voiced by Buster Jones.-Fictional character biography:...
, were one of the very few African American superheroes. She was voiced by African American character actress Dee Timberlake. - Mo (Maintenance Operator), Sentinel One's robot assistant, voiced by Filmation co-founder and executive producerExecutive producerAn executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
Lou ScheimerLou ScheimerLouis Scheimer is an Emmy and Grammy Award–winning American producer, one of the original founders of Filmation, an animation company, and also an executive producer of many of its cartoons .-Career:Early in Filmation's history, Scheimer also contributed...
. - Antagonists: The "sinister" villain Morpheus is the Sentinels' sworn enemy; he is also an Earthling given powers in the same manner as Hercules, Mercury, and Astrea, but far earlier. However, those who had given Morpheus his powers had erred by giving him a variety of powers rather than one specific power; he had rebelled and turned to evil. Secondary antagonistAntagonistAn antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
s include The Sorceress, as well as Anubis, modeled after the EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian god of the same nameAnubisAnubis is the Greek name for a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion. In the ancient Egyptian language, Anubis is known as Inpu . According to the Akkadian transcription in the Amarna letters, Anubis' name was vocalized as Anapa...
.
Episodes
- Morpheus: the Sinister Sentinel
- Space Giants
- The Time Traveler
- The Sorceress
- The Return of Anubis
- The Wizard of Od
- The Prime Sentinel
- Commander Nemo
- Voyage to the Inner World
- Loki
- Fauna
- The Jupiter Spore
- The World Ship
DVD release
BCI Eclipse LLC (under license from Entertainment RightsEntertainment Rights
Entertainment Rights Plc was a global media company. Its main role was in children and family television programming.The group was established in 1989 as Sleepykids. In 1999 it become entertainment rights and was focused on the creation and exploitation of major children's characters and brands...
) released all 13 episodes of Space Sentinels on DVD in Region 1 on August 22, 2006, along with all five episodes of The Freedom Force. This series featured the character Hercules and which originally aired as part of Tarzan and the Super 7
Tarzan and the Super 7
Tarzan and the Super 7, was a Saturday morning cartoon series, produced by Filmation and originally airing from 1978–1980 on CBS.The show consisted of separate installments featuring seven groups of adventurers;* Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle...
. In addition, the digitally-remastered presentation features scripts and Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
tracks for all 13 episodes, audition tapes, a gallery featuring original images, early presentation images, trivia and interviews with creators Lou Scheimer, Buzz Dixon, Darrell McNeil, Michael Reaves, Robert Kline and David Wise.
Show Credits
- Executive Producers: Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott
- Producer: Don Christensen
- Associate Producers and Story Editors: Len Janson, Chuck Menville
- Supervising Director: Hal Sutherland
- Animation Directors: Marsh Lamore, Rudy Larriva, Don Towsley, Gwen Wetzler, Lou Zukor
- Production Manager: Joseph Simon
- Production Designers: Alberto DeMello, Jim Fletcher, Herb Hazelton
- Key Assistant: Mike Hazy
- Layout: Kurt Connor, Frank Gonzales, George Goode, Clark Haas, Dick Hall, Ed Haney, Wes Herschensohn, Dave Hoover, Rich Hoover, Les Kaluza, Lonnie Lloyd, Carol Lundberg, Greg Nocon, John Perry, Virgil Raddatz, Joe Roman, Leo Swenson, Cliff Voorhees, David West, Jim Willoughby
- Story Director: Bob Kline
- Storyboard: John Dorman, Paul Fennell, Gary Goldstein, Hal Mason, Mario Piluso
- Color Director: Ervin L. Kaplan
- Backgrounds: Barbara Benedetto, Sheila Brown, Pat Keppler, Rolly Oliva, Tom O'Laughlin, Curtiss Perkins, Don Peters, Don Schweikert, Gary Selvaggio, Douglas Stevenson, Don Watson
- Animators: Tom Baron, Carl Bell, Becky Bristow, Jim Brummett, Emil Carle, Zion Davush, Otto Feuer, Ed Friedman, John Garling, George Jorgensen, Lou Kachivas, Walt Kubiak, Lawrence Miller, Joe Morrison, Fred Myers, Emory Myrick, Bill Nunes, Casey Onaitis, Jack Ozark, Tony Pabian, Karen Peterson, Bill Pratt, Bill Reed, Len Rogers, Don Ruch, Don Schloat, Ben Shenkman, Larry Silverman, Hank Smith, Bob Tyler, Dardo Velez, George Waiss, Ron Westlund
- Assistant Animation Supervisor: Lew Irwin
- Animation Check Supervisor: Marion Turk
- Xerography Supervisor: John Remmel
- Paint Supervisor: Betty Brooks
- Camera Supervisor: R.W. Pope
- Camera: John Aardal, Don Dinehart, Dan Larsen, David J. Link, Dean Teves, F.T. Ziegler
- Color By Technicolor
- Film Editor: Jim Blodgett
- Film Coordinator: June Gilham
- Background Music Composed By Yvette Blais, Jeff Michael
- Music Published By Shermley Music Company (ASCAP)
- Music and Sound Effects Recorded By Horta-Mahana Corporation
- Voices By George DiCenzo, Evan Kim, Dee Timberlake
- (c) Copyright 1977 Filmation Associates
- A FILMATION PRODUCTION