SUPERTED
‘Admittedly a cartoon like Super Ted might be
stylistically inferior to one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, but what matters is
that you find the show entertaining.’
Zoe
Griffin, Juice (The Daily Telegraph’s student magazine), issue 19
Just to clarify
A faulty teddy bear is removed from the factory line and
dumped down a chute into a cellar. Almost immediately, Spottyman, from the
planet Spot, lands his Spotty Rocket nearby, breaks into the cellar, and uses
cosmic dust to bring the teddy to life. They visit Mother Nature on her
spaceborne cloud, where she gives the teddy a potion which grants him
superpowers. Accordingly, he adopts the name SuperTed.
SuperTed splits his time between his shapely tree house, and his annular space station, waiting for video SOS messages from humans. When he is needed, SuperTed utters his secret magic word, which enables him to peel of his fur coat and reveal his superhero outfit, before he and ‘Spotty’ fly off to help. The pair journey all over the world – his debt to Mother Nature gives him an interest in conservation – as well as to alien planets. SuperTed’s arch-enemy is cowboy Texas Pete (‘Tex’), with his henchmen Bulk (obese and short of mental furniture) and Skeleton (a deeply camp skeleton).
VOICES: Peter Hawkins as Narrator; Derek Griffiths as SuperTed;
Jon Pertwee as Spottyman; Roy Kinnear as Bulk; Melvyn Hayes as Skeleton.
Episode Guide
When I first decided to set up this webpage, the internet
lacked a full SuperTed episode guide. So, here goes:
The Original Adventures Of SuperTed
Hyperlinks take you to stills from the episodes that are
kindly hosted by other SuperTed webpages.
Supersafe with SuperTed
Locations: Planet Spot, Cardiff
Award-winning road safety film. After playing a road
safety video game, SuperTed takes Spotty to Earth to teach him about the real
thing.
SuperTed And The Stolen Rocket
Locations: Rocket station, Space
Texas Pete, Bulk and Skeleton steal Earth’s fastest rocket
at its launch. SuperTed and Spotty give chase in the Spotty Rocket.
SuperTed And The Inca Treasure
Location: South America
SuperTed promises to help a museum curator recover
treasure from an Inca temple, but Texas Pete shoots down Spotty’s rocket and
gets there first…
SuperTed And The Elephants’ Graveyard
Location: Africa
Someone – you may be able to guess who – has been looting ivory tusks from a sacred graveyard of the elephants, and SuperTed comes to stop it.
SuperTed And The Train Robbers
Location: Unspecified snowy mountains
SuperTed is teaching Spotty to ski in the mountains, but
they divert when Texas Pete hijacks a nearby train.
SuperTed And The Giant Kites
Location: Wales
Texas Pete is stealing kite eggs from nests in Wales, and
SuperTed is called to help.
SuperTed And The Pearlfishers
Location: Caribbean
Texas Pete is forcing islanders to fish for pearls.
SuperTed And The Nuts In Space
Locations: Planet Polly, space
Texas Pete hijacks a brazil nut shipment on its way from
Earth to the planet Polly (inhabited by parrots). SuperTed to the rescue.
SuperTed And The City Of The Dead
Locations: Space Station, Egypt
Texas Pete sets out to raid an Ancient Egyptian tomb,
heedless of its curse…
SuperTed And The Creepy Castle
Locations: Space Station, castle
SuperTed is called in by a young girl, whose father is
missing in a haunted castle. He has been kidnapped by Texas Pete and his henchmen,
as they aim to use the secluded castle for stashing treasure.
SuperTed On Planet Spot
Locations: Space, Planet Spot
While SuperTed is staying with Spotty’s family on planet
Spot, Texas Pete heads to the planet to steal cosmic dust, hoping to use its
powers to resurrect Billy The Kid. But when his rocket crashes, Skeleton is
scattered wide and far, and Bulk kidnaps Spotty’s sister, Blotch.
SuperTed At The Fun Fair
Locations: Space Station, fun fair
Spotty is ill in bed on the space station, so it is up to
SuperTed to help reunite a mother with her son, who is lost at a funfair,
kidnapped by Texas Pete.
At the end of this episode, SuperTed takes a photo of the
villains, which later appears in a photo album in SuperTed And The
Rattlesnake.
SuperTed And The Goldmine
Locations: Tree house, Africa
Texas Pete takes over a goldmine, but an accident
interrupts the SOS message before SuperTed hears it.
Bulk’s Story
Locations: Unspecified rocky plain, unspecified prison,
marshland, graveyard
As Texas Pete, Bulk and Skeleton take time off round a
campfire, Bulk recalls the story of how the trio came together, with Bulk and
Tex as escaped cellmates, and Skeleton sleeping in a nearby graveyard.
Meanwhile, SuperTed and Spotty look set to crash-land at the campfire…
SuperTed At The Toy Shop
Locations: Tree house, unspecified American city
Checking his video monitor, SuperTed suspects a problem at
a city toyshop. As it turns out, Texas Pete and company have broken in.
SuperTed In The Arctic
Location: Arctic
Texas Pete is hunting woolly mammoths in the Arctic, and
an Eskimo boy asks SuperTed to help.
SuperTed And The Gun Smugglers
Location: Wales
While SuperTed takes a beach holiday, Texas Pete is
smuggling arms in an underwater hideout with his submarine. But how will a
stray cigar affect his plans, and his hostage?
SuperTed And The Lumberjacks
Locations: Tree house, unspecified forest, lake
A squirrel warns SuperTed of excessive logging being
carried out by Texas Pete, that is threatening wildlife habitats.
SuperTed And Mother Nature
Locations: Tree house & environs, Mother Nature’s
Cloud
Texas Pete finds Mother Nature’s magic cloud, and takes
over her weather controls, making problems for SuperTed on Earth.
SuperTed And The Pothole Rescue
Location: Wales
SuperTed and Spotty head underground to help a trapped
potholer, but Spotty himself is injured.
Uniquely, this episode does not feature the villains.
SuperTed Kicks Up The Dust
Locations: Tree house, Arabia
To SuperTed’s great concern, Spotty donates cosmic dust to
an Arabian museum. Accordingly, Texas Pete steals it.
This episode includes Bulk as a belly dancer, Bulk in a Chariots
Of Fire-style dash, and Skeleton begging for the trio to steal a tiara
instead.
SuperTed And The Gorilla
Location: Unspecified jungle
The villains have captured a gorilla as a moneymaking sideshow, but SuperTed isn’t standing for it. Not this time.
SuperTed And The Great Horrendo
Location: Unspecified British pier
Texas Pete is posing as the Great Horrendo, a seaside
magician, in order to steal children’s valuables.
Includes Skeleton as the female assistant. Also features a
tender moment when SuperTed believes that ‘Spotty! My only friend!’ has been
cut in half.
This episode won a BAFTA award in 1986/7!
SuperTed And Trouble In Space: Part One
Locations: Space Station & environs
Spotty’s family are heading for the space station in order
to visit him, and SuperTed pops out to check on a broken satellite. Due to an
unfortunate series of incidents, Spotty’s sister Blotch is lost in space, Texas
Pete takes over the space station, and SuperTed is left drifting in space, with
amnesia.
SuperTed And Trouble In Space: Part Two
Locations: Space Station & environs
Spotty’s parents rescue SuperTed, and head to the space
station. They are soon tied up by Tex and sent hurtling towards the Sun, where
Blotch is also heading. Clichéd rhetorical question: will SuperTed regain his
memory in time?
SuperTed In Chinatown
Location: Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, Texas Pete, Bulk and Skeleton attempt to
break into the bank, but instead blow a hole in a restaurant kitchen, where
Spotty and SuperTed are dining.
One of a few episodes where Spotty loses his patience with
SuperTed for constantly criticising him.
SuperTed Goes To Texas
Location: Texas
SuperTed is called to Texas, where a nostalgic Texas Pete
is cattle rustling. Unexpected help arrives in the form of Tex’s blonde
doppelganger.
SuperTed Goes Round The Bend
Location: Unspecified seaside town
In a quiet town, SuperTed has bought a car in order to
teach Spotty to drive. But the car, although leaking brake fluid, is stolen by
Texas Pete as a getaway vehicle for his bank robbery.
SuperTed And The Rattlesnake
Locations: Space Station, unspecified American city
To bring Tex out of his depression at always being foiled
by SuperTed, Bulk and Skeleton steal a rattlesnake for him – but SuperTed finds
out…
SuperTed’s Dream
Locations: Space Station, fictional Texas town
SuperTed is woken when Spotty locks himself
out of the space station. When SuperTed scolds Spotty, his friend attacks
him for his over-critical nature. Returning guiltily to sleep, SuperTed dreams
that Spotty never saved him from the scrap heap; instead, Texas Pete did.
Married to Skeleton, he gives the ordinary teddy to their son, baby Bulk to
play with…
A heavy psychological episode, with concerns over
friendship, fallibility, parenthood, abandonment… what am I talking about?
SuperTed And The Crystal Ball
Locations: Tree house, unspecified forest
Texas Pete steals a gypsy’s crystal ball, and poses as a
crooked fortune teller. SuperTed tracks him down.
Tex, in disguise, gives SuperTed a disturbing false prediction,
in which he is executed by Mother Nature for crimes against nature.
SuperTed And The Whales
Locations: Space Station, North Wales & nearby sea
SuperTed aids a beached whale in North Wales, and follows
him to his family, the target of Texas Pete’s whaling venture.
SuperTed Meets Father Christmas
Locations: Tree house, unspecified regions of the British
Isles
Texas Pete poses as Father Christmas, in order to steal
children’s presents. SuperTed is called by a victim, and looks into the
problem, meeting the real Father Christmas on the way.
A violent episode, where we see a child being whacked, a
man being attacked and having his hair torn out, and SuperTed being painfully
whipped.
SuperTed And Tex’s Magic Spell
Location: Unspecified tropical island
Texas Pete steals SuperTed’s beloved spotted teddy bear,
and performs voodoo magic on it, to drain SuperTed’s powers.
SuperTed And The Magic Word: Part One
Locations: Tree house & environs, New York
In an elaborate scheme, SuperTed’s tree house is bugged while
he is out on a staged emergency, and Bulk is able to hear SuperTed’s secret
magic word.
SuperTed And The Magic Word: Part Two
Locations: Tree house & environs, New York
Texas Pete and SuperTed alike try to track down the new,
airborne ‘SuperBulk’, while Skeleton tries to get his arm back from a vicious
seagull.
Spotty And The Indians
Locations: Space, Tree house, North America
On his way to visit SuperTed, Spotty’s rocket gets ‘the staggers’ and crashes as he is sending out an SOS. Spotty comes across a spotted tribe of Native Americans, whose sacred buffalo is being hunted by Texas Pete.
Skeleton in the closet
The SuperTed cartoons feature
arguably the campest cartoon character ever! My sister and I used to be great
fans of the SuperTed cartoons, and recently watched some again for
nostalgia purposes. And it emerged that Skeleton (played by Melvyn Hayes) is
just so camp – not something we picked up on while children, as
being comic in itself. If you remember the cartoons and want to see them in a
new, pinker light, read the examples below of great Skeleton moments:
“Do you mind? Barging in here without so much
as a by-your-leave! I could’ve been doing something really personal!”
Skeleton, at his first meeting with Bulk and Texas Pete,
when they fall into his tomb, in the flashback episode Bulk’s Story. At
this time, Skeleton was wearing a nightgown; from then on, his day-to-day wear
consisted of red-pink slippers, and nothing else.
In SuperTed At The Toy Shop, the baddies break into
a toy shop. Skeleton amuses himself by bottle-feeding a doll, simultaneously
criticising Bulk.
“Oh, Bulk. you’re so uncouth.”
In SuperTed At The Creepy Castle, Skeleton gets
scared and hides in a vat of wine. When Texas Pete finds him, Skeleton conducts
a wine tasting!
“It’s got a dry, fruity taste, just like–”
In SuperTed And The Stolen Rocket, Skeleton reacts
to zero gravity in space.
TEXAS PETE: Skeleton, let
go! You’re pulling down my pants!
SKELETON: There isn’t
anything else to hold onto!
“Ooh, Tex! You’re so naughty!”
Skeleton, whilst clasping his hands in delight at Texas
Pete’s latest scheme, in SuperTed And Mother Nature.
“You’re cold? With all that blubber? I’m
positively chilled to the bone! And my mittens clash with my muffler!”
Skeleton to Bulk, on the ice planet Ondarox, in Knox,
Knox, Who’s There?, one of the newer American cartoon adventures.
“Can’t I stay here with my friend?”
Skeleton, caught by SuperTed hiding with his arm round a
fake skeleton on a ghost train ride, in SuperTed At The Fun Fair.
In Trouble in Space: Part Two, Skeleton is
reluctant to help with the washing-up, as he wants to keep his hands “soft and
gentle”.
In SuperTed And The Great Horrendo, where Texas
Pete acts as a magician, Skeleton dresses up as his female assistant, complete
with frilly dress and lipstick. His voice remains the same.
In SuperTed Kicks Up Dust, Skeleton is distracted
during a museum heist by a jewel-encrusted tiara.
“Can’t we steal it, Tex? I’d look lovely in that tiara.”
In SuperTed And The Rattlesnake, Skeleton grasps
the leg of a depressed Tex, saying, “I appreciate you,
Tex.” When Bulk thinks of a gift for Texas Pete, Skeleton hugs him and
cries, “Oh, Bulk, you’re wonderful!”
In SuperTed’s Dream, SuperTed dreams that Skeleton is his
mother! (Bearing in mind that SuperTed was thrown away by his parent-factory
for being less perfect than his brothers, and has as his only companion the
non-superpowered alien who gave him life, we can’t blame the bear for having
‘issues’.)
In SuperTed And Tex’s Magic Spell, Texas Pete finds
his henchmen attempting voodoo, and asks them what they are up to. Skeleton
replies:
“It’s magic, and it’s evil evil EVIL!”
My other observation: the strangely close similarities
between SuperTed & Spotty, and Bert & Ernie from Sesame Street…
Links
Toonhound:
Top-notch webpage from a man who understands cartoons, well-written and
detailed.
80s
Cartoons: Good collection of images and sound files.
Jedi’s
Paradise: Polished design, with images of the opening sequence and useful
episode checklists.
80sNostalgia:
Well-organised, with a generous selection of pictures.
Thank you very much to Zoe for enthusiastically supporting
the website.
SuperTed |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
||