Super Force

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Super Force
Super Force (television series logo).svg
GenreAction
Adventure
Science fiction
Created byJames J. McNamara
Starring Ken Olandt
Larry B. Scott
Patrick Macnee
Lisa Niemi
Musetta Vander
Antoni Corone
R. Emmett Fitzsimmons
Marc Macaulay
Tom Kouchalakos
G. Gordon Liddy
Music by Kevin Kiner
Joel Goldsmith
Greg Adams
Jim McGrath
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes48
Production
Executive producersJames J. McNamara (Season 1)
Roderick Taylor (Season 2)
ProducerMichael Attanasio
Production location Orlando, Florida
CinematographyTom Jewett
Michael McGowan
EditorsGaston Santiso
Gary Blair
John Elias
Running time~30 minutes
Production companiesPremiere Limited Productions
Viacom Enterprises
Original release
Network First-run syndication
ReleaseOctober 5, 1990 (1990-10-05) 
May 26, 1992 (1992-05-26)

Super Force is an American action-adventure TV series which aired from October 1990 to May 1992.

Contents

The series is about a former astronaut turned cop who uses a highly advanced powered exoskeleton and motorcycle to fight crime in the city of Metroplex during the then future year of 2020. Among the features of the black battle suit were enhanced strength and armament and a force field that protected the wearer from virtually all known weapons, whereas the motorcycle had an array of James Bond-type gadgets and weapons.

Syndicated by Viacom, Super Force was designed to be a companion series to Superboy , [1] [2] and the second series in a proposed two-hour block of action programming that also included Lightning Force . Unusual for a series that only ran 30 minutes per episode, Super Force debuted with a two-hour TV pilot film, which was later split into four episodes for syndication purposes.

Plot summary

Ken Olandt as Zach Stone / Super Force. SuperForcePromo.jpg
Ken Olandt as Zach Stone / Super Force.

Astronaut Zachary Stone (Ken Olandt) returns from his acclaimed deep-space mission to Mars to find that his father is dead and that his police detective brother Frank (Marshall R. Teague) is missing, presumed murdered and falsely accused of being a crooked cop due to fabricated computer evidence. Frustrated at the seeming lack of concern or progress by the authorities, Zach takes it upon himself to find those responsible and bring them to justice, joining the Metroplex Police Department as a detective under precinct captain Carla Frost (Lisa Niemi).

After his first failed attempt almost leads to his death in Metroplex's aptly-named "Crime Zone", Zach meets F.X. Spinner (Larry B. Scott), a research scientist at Hungerford Industries who has developed a prototype suit of space armor that was never put into production due to lack of government funding. After the murder of Hungerford Industries founder E.B. Hungerford (Patrick Macnee), a close friend of the Stone family, Zach convinces F.X. to modify the suit for urban warfare purposes.

Combining the armor with an experimental heavily-armed, jet-propelled motorcycle, the two form the backbone of the vigilantism crime-fighting team called "Super Force", ably assisted by the Hungerford Computer (voiced by Macnee), an artificial intelligence supercomputer created from a blend of Hungerford's personal records, psychological profile and company files to convince the world that the brilliant and charming but somewhat reclusive British billionaire scientist is still alive so that his company would not fall into the wrong hands.

During Season Two, Zach added enhanced strength, intelligence, and senses, as well as a limited form of extrasensory perception to his crime-fighting repertoire, the result of a neural link with the computerized Hungerford and his near-death experience in the final episode of Season One. Also joining the Super Force team that season was Esper Division police officer Zander Tyler (Musetta Vander).

The RoboCop -inspired Super Force suit, motorcycle, and nightstick were designed and built by Robert Short, [3] the special effects expert who also created the red superhero suit worn by John Wesley Shipp in the 1990 live-action TV series The Flash .

Satori, a recurring villain in Season One, was played by G. Gordon Liddy, the man famous for planning the Watergate scandal break-in. Other guest stars with interesting pasts included LSD guru Timothy Leary and former adult film stars Traci Lords and Ginger Lynn.

Characters

Heroes

Villains

Episodes

Season One

"It is the year 2020, and the world has changed. In 2020, times are tough. This man's tougher."

Ep #TitleSummary
1-4A Hero's Welcome/ Too Late the HeroAfter returning from a two-year mission to Mars, Zach Stone learns of his brother's death, and takes his place on the police force, but this is only the first in a series of events that leads to his becoming the armored vigilante Super Force.
5Battle CryA former soldier (Richard Hatch) targets the witnesses to his wife's murder who failed to come to her aid.
6As God is My WitnessIt's fire and brimstone time when a charismatic religious madman escapes from confinement and starts recruiting teenagers to his criminal crusade.
7-8U-GeneA genetically-engineered warrior (Lou Ferrigno) prowls the streets, and Zach is forced to work with a German agent to catch him, but there's more to the situation than it seems.
9Prisoners of LoveZach and Captain Frost go undercover to find beautiful women abducted by a scientist (Michael Preston) in search of genetic perfection.
10The Crime DoctorWhile on a case, Zach is brainwashed by Dr. Verona (Sarah Douglas) into trying to kill his alter ego, Super Force.
11The GauntletAfter a girl witnesses her brother being murdered, Zach tries to keep her safe from the killer.
12Come Home to DieF.X.'s old gang is behind several crimes involving a stolen super-weapon, and F.X. tries to handle it on his own.
13-14Gravity's RainbowZach learns his brother is still alive and is a pawn of Satori.
15Water ManiaThe owner of Zach's favorite childhood water park is threatened by an extortionist armed with a business-crushing monster truck.
16-17Sins of the FatherZach upholds a promise he made to protect a young fugitive from a ruthless bounty hunter (Richard Lynch).
18Of Human BondageSuper Force fights a pair of female aliens (Traci Lords and Grace Philips) to rescue students (Michael Stever) from becoming specimens in a space zoo.
19A Hundred ShareIt's journalism gone wrong when a TV reporter uses subliminal stimuli to get more viewers.
20-21Come Under the WayA love from the past shows her face when Zach investigates a powerful cult.
22Tales of Future PastForget being haunted by the past, it's the future Super Force needs to worry about when a genetically engineered assassin from the world of tomorrow (Sting) targets him for termination.
23Yo! Super Force!A carnival worker (Rex Benson) harbors a dark secret when young women begin vanishing at his park. Luckily, F.X.'s cousins (Doctor Dré, Brian D. Perry, and Tyrone J. Kelsie) have a secret of their own that may help Super Force.
24Breakfast of Champions American Gladiators has nothing on the show Zach's infiltrating, which cares more about ratings than its contestants' survival.
25Carcinoma AngelsA former girlfriend of Zach's brother seeks his help when her biker ex-husband (Don Stroud) gets out of Prisonplex.
26There's a LightZach is injured when his helmet malfunctions, and it's a race against time to save him when F.X. and Hungerford discover they can't take off the suit without killing him.

Season Two

"Out of the fire of Earth attraction. Beyond the limits of the world where man and machine and spirit unite. Born by the power of lightning into the twenty-first century. It is the end of the beginning. It is the time of Super Force."

Ep #TitleSummary
1-2At the End of the TunnelA psychic is called in to keep Zach from passing through death's door, while F.X. tries to figure out who sabotaged the suit.
3Love Slaves from Outer SpaceThe aliens from "Of Human Bondage" return and must capture Super Force or become the property of a reptilian Business Lord.
4Light Around the BodyZander begins having visions of a woman in trouble that lead her into a deadly trap, and Zach must figure out how to use his new psychic abilities to save her.
5Instant KarmaCrystal (Ginger Lynn) returns as part of another cult, this one exploiting her past-life regression into an ancient Etruscan sage.
6-7Hank's BackSuper Force protects a country musician recently released from suspended animation by mobsters seeking payment for a fifty-year-old debt.
8Ghost in the MachineZach and Zander investigate the suspicious suicide of a radio psychic and encounter a deadly computer virus that has learned how to infect human brains.
9-10Made for Each OtherZach goes back to school when a teacher uses brain implant to program female students into marrying rich men taking her "Wealth Without Guilt" course.
11Illegal AliensSuper Force must help the now-reformed aliens from "Of Human Bondage" and "Love Slaves from Outer Space" when an extraterrestrial law enforcer comes after them.
12-13The Viral StaircaseNow a radical environmentalist, a woman who Zach went through astronaut training with is out to stop a Hungerford Industries researcher – who is secretly creating a deadly biological weapon.
14The Big SpinIn this change-of-pace episode, after a blow to the head, Zach dreams of Super Force as a sitcom complete with laugh track.
15The Luddite CrusadeAn ambitious young district attorney uses computer-generated evidence, legal under the New Constitution and Amended Bill of Rights, to convince the police commissioner (Timothy Leary) to have Super Force put behind bars.
16King of the TreesA prehistoric bog body dug up by archaeologists turns out to not only still be alive, but is actually a hairy humanoid from another dimension named Iau (Kevin Nash).
17A Rainbow at MidnightThe ghost of a murdered cop haunts his now-homeless partner, and Zach, F.X., and Zander must solve the twenty year old crime to bring them both peace.
18The Monkey's BreathThe Esper Division's new commanding officer has a dark secret. She is actually an immortal monster who feeds on human cerebrospinal fluid, and she wants to put Zach and Zander on the menu.
19-20The End of EverythingArtificial humans called Plasmoids must steal a potentially world-destroying molecular machine to survive their planned obsolescence.
21The Long Journey HomeSequel to "King of the Trees". Iau returns still trying to find his way back to his native dimension, with Merkel (Antoni Corone) in pursuit. It only gets worse when the SPLAT squad accidentally injures a dying boy who has befriended the hairy giant.
22A Hundred Yards a SecondWhen a bad reaction to a virtual reality device damages his memory, Zach's friends must prevent him from slipping into a death-like coma from which he will never awaken.

Home media

Visual Entertainment Inc. released "Super Force – The Complete Series" on DVD in Region 1 on October 12, 2017. [4]

Critical response

The series holds a rating of 6.9 out of 357 reviews on IMDb. [5] On Realgood.com the show holds a score of 59%. [6]

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References

  1. "Viacom's Success A Plus For Florida". Sun Sentinel. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
  2. "Viacom's Adventure In Florida". Chicago Tribune. January 7, 1991. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
  3. Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory To Prime Time Network And Cable TV Shows: 1946 – Present, Ballantine Books, 1995 p. 998
  4. Super Force – 'The Complete Collection' DVD Set for the 1990 Series Coming out in mid-October from VEI Archived September 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Super Force (TV Series 1990–1992) - IMDb , retrieved April 25, 2023
  6. Super Force - Where to Watch Every Episode Streaming Online | Reelgood , retrieved April 25, 2023