Earthfasts

Morning Everyone, it's time for another Saturday Morning Serial! This time I give you Earthfasts from 1994, starring Paul Nicholls!

The series was based on the children's book of the same name by the author William Mayne. The show focuses on two friends Keith and David, who stumble upon a weird drumming sound underneath one of the hills that they live near. The hillside opens up one day and the friends find a drummer boy inside of the hill. The drummer boy is from the 18th century and is completely confused on how he came to the 20th century. All three boys must figure out where the drummer boy came from, and how to return him to his home.

David discovers that the candle the drummer boy left behind gives off cold rather than heat and does not burn down. Other strange things are happening - standing stones are moving on the moors, the ground is shaking and all the pigs have disappeared. Obsessed by the candle, David heads underground and does not return. Keith tries to search for his friend, and during the search has a strange encounter with ghostly warriors.

 

Cow and Chicken

Mama had a chicken, Mama had a cow, Dad was proud, he didn't care how!

The program focuses on the misadventures of two unlikely yet somehow biological siblings; the sweet-natured, dim, ecstatic anthropomorphic Cow and her cynical elder brother Chicken. The series is set in an eccentric, surreal environment and humored with laughably grotesque, repulsive comedy and animation, and revolves around the surreal, strange escapades experienced by Cow and Chicken that are often triggered by their odd, naked enemy the Red Guy.
The humor and storylines depicted in the series are sometimes based around traditional childhood worries, anxieties, or phobias such as cooties or venturing into the girls' restroom, but enhanced comically. Other characters include Chicken and Cow's slightly delirious, dimwitted human parents that are only seen from their legs down (even in scenes where showing nothing more would be ridiculous), and Chicken's two best friends Flem and Earl, along with the appropriately-named cousin, Boneless Chicken.

Mega Man

Another of Nintendo's popular characters joins the BCC now in Mega Man!

Dr. Light and Dr. Wily were brilliant scientists in the field of robotics, who worked together in a laboratory trying to advance the science. One day, they finished an extremely advanced prototype, but shortly after being activated, it started destroying the laboratory. Dr. Light immediately believed that the prototype's guidance system, which Dr. Wily had personally programmed, was the source of the problem and concluded they would start over again. Angered, Dr. Wily attempted to steal the plans later that night, but Dr. Light catches him. Wily is able to steal the plans after knocking Dr. Light down, and goes off to what is apparently an abandoned area, and modifies the old robot prototype into Proto Man.
Later, Dr. Light builds Rock and Roll, advanced robots with personalities, along with Ice Man, Guts Man, and Cut Man. Dr. Wily and Proto Man go and steal the robots, reprogramming the latter three robots as henchmen. Dr. Wily attempts to reprogram Rock and Roll at his lab later, but Rock decides to trick Dr. Wily. He tells Dr. Wily that Dr. Light also built "super warrior robots", and that if Rock and Roll are let go, he'll tell him how to defeat the robots. Rock uses this lie (Dr. Wily believing robots can't lie) to cause a distraction and escape with Roll. Dr. Light decides to reprogram and reoutfit Rock into Mega Man, who from then on keeps the world safe.

The Adventures of Black Beauty

Time for a change of pace now for today's first post, with a real classic. The Adventures of Black Beauty!

A benchmark production in children's television, Black Beauty, with its mix of charm and period detail saw Dr. James Gordon moved from London to the country, taking his children Vicky and Kevin with him. The two children set out to explore Five Oaks and find an exhausted, wounded horse - Black Beauty - which they take home to their father. As they bring him back to health they get very attached and it comes as a shock when his owner comes to reclaim him.

Spiral Zone

One of the darker themed 80's kids shows now with Spiral Zone!

An evil scientist (Overlord) invents a device that emits a radiation that controls the minds of the people within its range. He gathers a sizable percentage of the Earth on his initial attack, and conventional forces cannot counter-attack as they will also come under the power of the Zone if they enter.
Earth's most powerful soldiers are united to combat the menace while wearing their Zone-resistant suits. Each Zone generator is biological in nature and grows to full size and capacity in a matter of minutes. Earth's free forces are faced with the challenge of destroying the generators while resisting the Zone-controlled forces, not to mention how easy it is to re-establish a control Zone.
The good guys consist of 5 soldiers that are dropped into special missions by a Zone-resistant plane. The bad guys consist of about 6 guys that are specially treated by Overlord to be Zone-resistant (they still show the red blemishes and retain them whether in or out of a Zone-controlled area) while maintaining free will, and are supported by 'Zone Troopers' who wear a helmet that allows them to leave Zone controlled areas while remaining under Zone control.

Fantastic Four (1994)

Time for more superhero action on the BCC, this time with Marvel's first superhero team, the Fantastic Four!

When Reed Richards, Sue and Johnny Storm and pilot Ben Grimm take a premature space flight on a new shuttle, they find themselves massively bombarded with cosmic radiation. Barely managing to re-enter and land safely, the quartet find themselves forever transformed with superpowers. Deciding to use these new powers to help people, they form the Fantastic Four, a superhero team dedicated to the protection of Earth from menaces like the Latverian King Dr. Doom and Galactus, the planet consumer.

The Littles

Sometimes it's not about how big you are, but how little you can be! It's The Littles!

 

The Littles is loosely based on The Borrowers from a creative author named John Peterson. This series focuses on one particular family of Littles - Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Dinky, and the two youngest: Tom and Lucy. In their quest to become productive adults, the Littles and their 12-year old huge friend Henry face the same kinds of problems that young children face every day - issues of friendship, jealousy, honesty, prejudice, consideration for others, kindness, responsibility, risk-taking ... and more.

Greenclaws

Time to unleash your botanical side by visiting Greenclaws in his greenhouse to see what wonderful plants he is growing!

Greenclaws was a big green monster who lived in a greenhouse. Every week, his friend Iris would visit, and hey would put one of Greenclaws' fabulous seeds in a plant pot, put the plant pot inside a secret growing place in the Riddle Tree, wait for Owlma (a mechanical owl) to alert them that the plant was ready, answer three riddles/questions correctly from Owlma (which were always along the lines of "Twit twoo, twoo, twit twit twoo?" and then translated into English by Iris for her and Greenclaws to solve), then open the tree to find the plant had grown into something bearing unusual fruit. Each episode featured a song and there would also be a story told featuring relatives of Greenclaws while the plant was growing, accompanied by illustrations.

WildC.A.T.s

Time for some comic book superhero action now with Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.s!

Based upon the Image comic of the same name in the 90's, WildC.A.T.s is about the universal war between two prehistoric alien races. One of the races is the heroic Kherubim while the other is the evil Daemonites.

In the first episode, the WildCATS are introduced as they attempt to recruit the last member of their team: Reno Bryce, the computer expert and unwitting descendant of the Kherubim, while the Daemonite Helspont tries to get in their way.

VR Troopers

Another show in the same vein as Power Rangers now, as we step into the virtual reality world of the VR Troopers!

The show focused on three young adults in their late teens, Ryan Steele, Kaitlin Star, and J.B. Reese, living in the fictional West Coast town of Cross World City. They regularly attended and were teachers at "Tao's Dojo", a karate studio. Ryan was the most focused martial artist; J.B. was the computer wizard; while Kaitlin was a photographer & budding reporter for the local newspaper, the Underground Voice Daily. One day, Ryan's search for his long-missing father led him and his two friends to a strange laboratory. Inside, a digitized head of Professor Horatio Hart, a friend of Ryan's father, Tyler, explained the truth about his life's work of having developed extremely advanced virtual reality technology in secret. "VR" is a dimension existing alongside our own; within it lie mutants bent on conquering both worlds. The main ruler of these is a creature known as Grimlord, who, unbeknownst to anyone on Earth, has a human identity as billionaire industrialist Karl Ziktor. As Karl Ziktor tries to overcome the barriers of the true reality to allow his armies easy passage from virtual world, the responsibility falls to Ryan, Kaitlin, and J.B. of defending the planet on both sides of the dimensional barrier. They have assistance in the form of armored bodies having incredible firepower. This included eventual additions to their arsenal, such as a Turbo Cycle, Techno Bazooka, and a flying, laser-blasting Skybase.

Stingray

A little action for your Sunday morning to perk things up for you now with Stingray!

Gerry Anderson's third SF supermarionation saga told the adventures of the WASPs (the World Aquanaut Security Patrol) as they explored the oceans and kept the world safe from a variety of perils. The WASP's main weapon was Stingray, a super-sub under the command of Troy Tempest. Troy's copilot was Phones, and they were often joined on missions by Marina, a princess of the undersea kingdom of Pacifica. Marina could breathe under water, but was unable to speak. In charge of the WASPs was gruff Commander Shore, whose daughter Atlanta was both a member of his staff and Marina's rival for Troy's affection.