| The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Space Western Action/Adventure |
| Format | Animated series |
| Created by | Robert Mandell |
| Voices of | Robert Bottone Alexander Marshall Maia Danziger Corinne Orr Laura Dean Jerry Orbach Earl Hammond Ray Owens Hubert Kelly Doug Preis Henry Mandell |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 65 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Abe Mandell |
| Producer(s) | Robert Mandell Bob Chrestani |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Gaylord Entertainment Company |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | first-run syndication |
| Original run | September 14, 1986 – December 11, 1989 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (broadcast between 1986 and 1989) was an American animated Space Western television series created by Robert Mandell and Gaylord Entertainment Company.
The series combined sci-fi stories with traditional wild west themes. It was one of the first anime-style shows produced mainly in the USA, although the actual animation was done by the Japanese animation studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha. At the time it aired, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers was considered a revolutionary children's show.[1]
Contents |
The show is set in the future, some time after the year 2086, when two aliens from the planets Andor and Kirwin travel to Earth to search for allies against the expansionist Crown Empire led by the Queen of the Crown. In return for the help, the two aliens gave mankind construction plans for a hyperdrive device. After this key event in human history, interstellar travel flourished and a huge number of colonies emerged in distant star-systems. Alongside the growth of human activities in space, criminal activities also grew, and the new colonies required defense against various threats, including the Crown Empire. A group known as "BETA" (Bureau for Extra-Terrestrial Affairs) was founded to cope with these tasks, with a "Ranger" division being a part of it.
Most of the colonies portrayed in the show specialized in either agriculture or mining "star stones". Many of the planets on the show have names that evoke ideas of a Western setting, Nebraska, Mesa, Ozark, and Prairie being a few.
BETA is shown to be the major military and exploratory arm of Earth. The organization's headquarters are on Earth. BETA sustains several bases on and around Earth, such as the Longshot Research Facility in the Grand Canyon and the BETA space station in Earth's orbit.
The Series-5 Brain Implant, or S5 is implied to be the closest mankind will ever get to merging with cybernetics. The S5 implant enables a dramatic boost of innate abilities due to its unique conversion of bio-electrical power generated by alpha radiation stored within the badges worn by the Galaxy Rangers.
The Crown Empire, also known as the "Crown", is ruled by the Queen of the Crown. She controls a large number of planets in a vast section of the galaxy. The Queen controls her empire using creatures called Slaverlords with whom she has a psychic link. Slaverlords derive their power from the psychic energy of other beings. After the Empire encountered humans, the Queen discovered that they were more suitable for energy extraction than any other previously encountered species.
The theme song for the show, "No Guts, No Glory", was featured in the opening credits preceded by a spoken introduction. The song was written by Phil Galdston and John Van Tongeren. It was also featured in the end credits. The song "Rangers Are Forever" was sometimes featured in the end credits. The singer on both theme songs is Steve Overland, lead singer of the AOR band FM.
Koch Entertainment currently owns the DVD distributions rights to Galaxy Rangers through Koch Vision.[2] Four Galaxy Rangers DVDs, each containing four episodes, were released in the United States.[3] Koch has released the entire series which consists of two box sets.[4] The first set was released on May 13, 2008 and the second set was released on August 19, 2008.[5]
The show has become a cult favorite and been considered innovative and ahead of its time.[6] It had a unique sense of humor and each character was well drawn and lacked clichés to sell toys, a trait which many series had at that time.[7][8][9][10]