This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2007) |
Dick Spanner, P.I. | |
---|---|
Genre | Science fiction comedy Crime comedy Detective fiction Police procedural Parody |
Created by | Terry Adlam |
Written by | Tony Barwick |
Directed by | Terry Adlam Steve Begg |
Voices of | Shane Rimmer |
Music by | Christopher Burr |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 22 (4 in alternative 24‑minute format) |
Production | |
Producers | Gerry Anderson Christopher Burr |
Cinematography | Steve Begg Paddy Seale |
Animator | Mark Woollard |
Editor | Jack Gardner |
Running time | 6 minutes |
Production company | The Anderson Burr Partnership |
Release | |
Original network | Channel 4 |
Original release | 3 May – 27 September 1987 [1] |
Dick Spanner, P.I. is a 1987 British stop-motion animated comedy series which parodied Chandleresque detective shows. [2] The title character and protagonist was Dick Spanner, voiced by Shane Rimmer, a robotic private detective who works cases in a futuristic urban setting. The show made frequent use of puns and visual gags. [2]
The series consisted of 22 six-minute episodes, covering two-story arcs of equal length: "The Case of the Human Cannonball" and "The Case of the Maltese Parrot". [3] The programme was originally broadcast in the United Kingdom as a segment of the Sunday morning show Network 7 on Channel 4, and was later repeated on the same channel in a late night spot.
Produced by Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson, the series was created and written by Terry Adlam, who had previously worked on effects for Anderson's Terrahawks . [4] It was also the basis for the Anderson-created Tennents Pilsner advertising campaign using the Lou Tennent character (voiced by Vivian Stanshall).
The series was released on VHS by the Channel 5 video label (who released many other Gerry Anderson series) towards the end of the 1980s; two cassettes were released, 'The Case of the Human Cannonball' and 'The Case of the Maltese Parrot'. Both 'cases' had their respective episodes spliced together to make up the complete story, with minor cuts. In the early 1990s, both cases were re-released on a single cassette by Polygram Video. All of the VHS releases are now hard to come by and command respectable amounts of money when sold online.
A DVD of the series was released on 15 October 2007, [5] with extras including an interview with Gerry Anderson. [6] At the request of Anderson himself, the episodes featured new acoustic background music in place of the original synthesiser theme tune/background music (which is probably the series' most famous element and is fondly remembered by many who watched the series on Network 7). The remaining soundtrack (sound effects etc.) were altered to the extent that many of the show's audio gags either no longer work, or are missing entirely. The quality of the original prints appears to have degraded somewhat since the VHS releases, as they seem a lot cleaner and have more vibrant colour. In addition, a number of white lines appear momentarily, possibly indicating that the picture was taken from a degraded video source rather than original film elements. The picture is also cropped into 16:9 format, occasionally cropping off part of a signpost or graffiti gag in the process. Finally, although the DVD release version is split into the original six-minute segments, the original end credits sequences have been replaced by a new set of credits made for the DVD.
In September 2013, the series in its original 5-minute state with original music and 4:3 aspect ratio was uploaded to YouTube by One Media. The quality was superior to that on the DVD, being much more vivid in color. Since December 2016, however, the series can no longer be found on YouTube, as the channel has been taken down. [7] This is likely due to One Media's copyright for "Dick Spanner" expiring, as two months later, Anderson Entertainment issued several takedown notices for other YouTube uploads.
A new DVD by Network was released on 4 September 2017. This featured the original music and episodes uncut and in the original aspect ratio, with the two stories presented in both episodic and compilation formats.
In October 2007, it was reported by several newspapers (including The Independent ) that Gerry Anderson was searching for the original Dick Spanner puppet, which had last been seen in the possession of "Clive", a man who had worked on the show. [8] This was later revealed to be a publicity stunt to promote the new DVD release, and the statement was made by a DVD publicist without Anderson's knowledge. [9]
Four Feather Falls is a British television programme, the third puppet TV show produced by Gerry Anderson for Granada Television. It was based on an idea by Barry Gray, who also wrote the show's music. The series was the first to use an early version of Anderson's Supermarionation puppetry. Thirty-nine 13-minute episodes were produced, broadcast by Granada from February until November 1960.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC television networks.
Gerald Alexander Anderson was an English television and film producer, director, writer and occasional voice artist. He remains famous for his futuristic television programmes, especially his 1960s productions filmed with "Supermarionation".
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often shortened to Captain Scarlet, is a British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions for distributor ITC Entertainment. Running to thirty-two 25-minute episodes, it was first broadcast on ITV regional franchises between 1967 and 1968 and has since been transmitted in more than 40 other countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. It is one of several Anderson series that were filmed using a form of electronic marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation" combined with scale model special effects sequences.
Wacky Races is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for CBS on Saturday mornings. The series features 11 different cars racing against each other in various road rallies throughout North America, with all of the drivers hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer". The show was inspired by the 1965 comedy film The Great Race.
Joe 90 is a 1968–1969 British science-fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company, Century 21, for ITC Entertainment. It follows the exploits of nine-year-old schoolboy Joe McClaine, who becomes a spy after his adoptive father invents a device capable of recording expert knowledge and experience and transferring it to another human brain. Armed with the skills of the world's top academic and military minds, Joe is recruited by the World Intelligence Network (WIN) as its "Most Special Agent".
Gerry Anderson & Christopher Burr's Terrahawks, usually referred to simply as Terrahawks, is a 1980s British science fiction television series produced by Anderson Burr Pictures for London Weekend Television and created by the production team of Gerry Anderson and Christopher Burr. The show was Anderson's first in over a decade to use puppets for its characters, and also his last. Anderson's previous puppet-centric TV series included Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
Nanalan' is a Canadian children's television series created by Jamie Shannon and Jason Hopley. It began in 1999 as a series of three-minute shorts and later ran for a season of full-length episodes spanning 21 minutes each. It chronicles the small-scale adventures and discoveries of a three-year-old puppet girl named Mona in her grandmother Nana Bea's backyard. The title is a contraction of the phrase "Nana Land," referring to the setting.
X Bomber is a Japanese marionette tokusatsu TV series created by manga artist Go Nagai, and produced by Cosmo Productions and Jin Productions. The show aired on Fuji TV from October 4, 1980 to March 28, 1981, with a total of 25 episodes, and was billed in Japan as being filmed in "Sūpāmariorama" (スーパーマリオラマ), a puppeteering process similar to Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation works.
Captain Scarlet vs. the Mysterons is a 1981 television film based on the 1960s British puppet TV series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Produced by the New York office of the series' distributor, ITC Entertainment, the film is a compilation of the Captain Scarlet episodes "The Mysterons", "Winged Assassin", "Seek and Destroy" and "Attack on Cloudbase". It follows an earlier Captain Scarlet compilation, Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars.
Network 7 is a short-lived but influential youth music and current affairs programme screened on Channel 4 over two series in 1987 and 1988. The series was created by Jane Hewland and Janet Street-Porter, who was also editor of the first series.
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 is an animated television series. It premiered on September 8, 1990, on NBC. It is the second animated series to be based on Nintendo's Mario video game series and is loosely based on the video game Super Mario Bros. 3. The animation was provided by Sei Young Animation.
Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series is an American animated children's television series based on the original live-action version of the same name created by Jim Henson. NBC aired this spin-off program on Saturday mornings at 10:00 AM for one season during 1987. It was later shown in reruns on Disney Channel from May 5, 1990 to June 1995.
Joshua Jones is a British stop motion children's television series produced by Bumper Films in 1992.
Heathcliff is a children's animated television series that debuted on September 3, 1984. Produced by DIC Audiovisuel, it was the second animated series based on the Heathcliff comic strip. 65 half-hour episodes aired in first-run syndication in the fall of 1984, followed by a second season of 21 episodes in 1985 ran in syndication until it ended in 1988. The Catillac Cats characters were created by Jean Chalopin and Bruno Bianchi.
Madeline is an animated preschool television series produced by DIC Entertainment, L.P., part of the Madeline media franchise about the character Madeline Fogg. It began as a series of six television specials from 1988 to 1991, and then continued as Madeline and The New Adventures of Madeline from 1993 to 2001. The show is narrated by famous celebrity voice talent Christopher Plummer.
Thunderbirds is a British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) and distributed by ITC Entertainment. It was made between 1964 and 1966 using a form of electronic marionette puppetry combined with scale model special effects sequences. Two series, totalling thirty-two 50-minute episodes, were filmed; production ended with the completion of the sixth episode of the second series after Lew Grade, the Andersons' financial backer, failed in his bid to sell the programme to American network television.
Donkey Kong Country is a computer-animated musical television series based on the video game Donkey Kong Country from Nintendo and Rare. Co-produced by Nelvana, Medialab Studio L.A. and Hong Guang Animation, in association with WIC Entertainment, with the participation of Teletoon—for Season 1, it was produced in co-production with France 2, Canal+, in association with Valar 4.