Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad is an American TV series. It was produced by Tsuburaya Productions, Ultracom and DIC Entertainment, with distribution by All American Television (now Fremantle Media), and ran for one season from September 12, 1994 to April 11, 1995 in syndication, as well as on ABC. It was an adaptation of the Japanese tokusatsu series Denkou Choujin Gridman which was produced by Tsuburaya Productions.
Plot[]
As revealed in the first installment, "To Protect And Servo:"
High school student Sam Collins is the head of a band called Team Samurai. During a recording session, Sam is zapped by a power surge and disappears only to reappear seconds later with a strange device attached to his wrist (which is at the time unremovable). Later after his friends Amp, Sydney, and Tanker leave, one of his video game programs dubbed Servo is subject to a power surge and zaps Sam again. This time, the zap pulls him into the digital world and turns him into his creation. As Servo, he roams the digital world and fights monsters called Mega-Viruses.
Meanwhile, another student from Sam's school named Malcolm Frink is designing monsters on his home computer when Kilokahn (an escaped military Artificial Intelligence presumed dead in the power surge) visits Malcolm via computer screen. Kilokahn strikes a Faustian deal with Malcolm and turns his digital monster into a Mega-Virus Monster who is not only capable of corrupting electronics, but is also capable of affecting the real world.
Sam (now as Servo) must enter the digital world and stop Malcolm's and Kilokahn's Mega Viruses. Sometimes, when Servo was unable to handle a virus by himself, he would call on the help of his friends using his Arsenal Programs. The Arsenal Programs could fight the viruses solo, transform (with the help of other Programs) and attach to Servo as armor. Since Team Samurai consisted of only 3 people at any one time (excluding Sam), only 3 vehicles were available at any one time. When Servo linked up with these Programs as armor, he changed his name to either Phormo or Synchro (when he combined with Drago or Zenon, respectively).
Characters[]
Servo | Sam Collins |
Allies[]
- Tanker
- Sydney Forrester
- Amp Ere
- Lucky London
- Elizabeth Collins
- Jennifer Doyle
- Rimba Starky
- Principal Pratchert
- Loli Pratchert
Villains[]
Arsenal[]
Mecha[]
Production[]
The series was originally going to be named PowerBoy but was renamed Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad to avoid confusion with Saban Entertainment's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.[1]
The series development mirrored the creative construct established earlier with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The master toy licensee -- Playmates Toys—funded the series, interpolated American development via toy licensing rights, and did a commercial buy-in on the Fox Network, where Haim Saban had established a kids block of time with other programs like "Power Rangers." Playmates called upon the development team at DIC (which coincidentally was in league with Pangea Corporation, who assisted in the development of DIC's "New Kids on the Block," and Playmates earlier phenomenon, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"). DIC, Pangea and Playmates' marketing group created an ensemble of character names, traits and profiles, which were spun into a most ambiguous series offering. More than anything else, this was a quick-to-market slam dunk to capitalize on the upsurge in popularity of imported Japanese monster-robot shows which could be adapted with new, regionalized live action footage.
Elements of this series are used in the anime series adaptation of Gridman the Hyper Agent, SSSS.Gridman. The "SSSS" abbreviation in the title references Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.
Episodes[]
- To Protect and Servo
- Samurize
- Samurize, Guys!
- Amp Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!
- An Un-Helping Hand
- His Master's Voice
- Some Like it Scalding
- Mal-Kahn-Tent
- The Cold Shoulder
- Que Sera Servo
- A Break in the Food Chain
- Ashes to Ashes Disk to Disk
- Lights, Camera, Action
- Sweet and Sour Kilokahn
- To Sleep, Perchance to Scream
- Out of Sight, Out of Time
- Money for Nothin' & Bits for Free
- Water You Doing?
- Just Brown & Servo
- My Virus Ate My Homework
- Hello Darkness, My Old Friend
- Born With a Jealous Mind
- Cheater, Cheater, Megabyte Eater
- Romeo & Joule-watt
- Rock 'n' Roll Virucide
- Stiff as a Motherboard
- Pride Goeth Before a Brawl
- Starkey in Syberspace
- Hair I Stand, Head in Hand
- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Virus
- The Taunt Heard Round the World
- Tanks for the Memories
- Love Me Don't
- Syberteria Combat
- Over the River & Through the Grid
- Do Not Reboot Til Christmas
- Kilo Is Coming to Town
- Hide and Servo
- Little Ditch, Big Glitch
- Hasta la Virus, Baby!
- Give 'Til It Megahertz
- The President's a Frink!
- Beep My, Beep My Baby
- Forget You!
- Loose Lips Sink Microchips
- It's Magic
- Pratchert's Radical Departure
- Foreign Languages
- Truant False
- Lucky's Unlucky Adventure
- What Rad Universe!
- Syber-Dunk
- Take a Hike
See Also[]
- Denkou Choujin Gridman - counterpart . See comparison page.
- SSSS.Gridman - the anime series adaptation of Gridman the Hyper Agent
- SSSS.Dynazenon - the sequel to SSSS.Gridman
References[]
- ↑ DIC, Saban in 'Power' struggle. Variety (Feb. 4, 1994). Retrieved on 2009-08-18.