Joe 90

Joe 90
British DVD release British DVD release British DVD release
Created by	Gerry Anderson Sylvia Anderson
Starring	Len Jones Rupert Davies
Country of origin	UK
No. of episodes	30
Production
Running time	25 min.
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	September 1, 1968 – March 23, 1969

Joe 90 is a 1968 Sylvia and Gerry Anderson television show concerning the adventures of a nine-year-old boy, Joe McClaine. A single season of thirty 25 minute episodes was completed, and it was the last show to be made exclusively using a form of puppetry called "Supermarionation". It was created by Gerry Anderson's Century 21 Productions for Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment company (Grade also owned part of Century 21), and was first broadcast on Grade's ATV.

Plot

Joe's adoptive father and computer expert, Professor Ian "Mac" McClaine, invented a large computer called BIGRAT (an acronym for Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer) that allowed skills to be copied from the minds of top experts in their fields to another person. Mac's friend, Sam Loover, a secret agent for the World Intelligence Network (WIN), persuaded Mac to let Joe use the machine to work for WIN. After the requisite skill was transferred, and provided Joe was wearing special spectacles containing hidden electrodes, he was able to fly jet airplanes, perform surgery, and so on.

Analysis

Like Anderson's previous series, the show regularly featured rescue operations, secret worldwide organizations, complicated gadgetry, terrorism, and threats to the entire world. Professor McClaine, for example, drove a bizarre flying car. Notably, the series was probably the most realistic of Anderson's Supermarionation programmes, with the puppets being the more realistic type first seen in Captain Scarlet.

Like that series, a number of episodes featured quite violent situations, for example the episode "Project 90", where Professor McClaine is kidnapped, held hostage and nearly killed with a drill. This led to criticism that the scenarios were inappropriate for a nine year old boy, although Mac's reservations are clearly explained in the pilot episode. Also, the hero being a child is far more engaging for its intended audience, as well as allowing him to infiltrate places without arousing suspicion. In this way, it also predates other espionage films featuring children, such as Spy Kids.

The series assumed that the Cold War would not continue into the 21st century (the pilot episode is merely a scenario), although the series clearly has Russian-like characters as spies and villains.

The show featured a distinctive theme tune composed by Barry Gray, who also composed music for other Anderson productions.

The character of Joe 90 was innocent and childlike without his glasses, but often quite adult sounding, and occasionally patronising when wearing his glasses, due to the expert nature of the brain patterns he was using. Thus, it was not uncommon in schools in the 1960s for a brainy (and possibly disliked) child to be referred to as "Joe 90". It was also commonly and slightly rudely used to refer to anyone wearing glasses "oi! you there, Joe 90..."

Episode list

• The Most Special Agent
• Hi-jacked
• Splashdown
• Operation McClaine
• Three's a Crowd
• International Concerto
• Big Fish
• The Unorthodox Shepherd
• Relative Danger
• Business Holiday
• King For a Day
• Double Agent
• Most Special Astronaut
• Arctic Adventure
• The Fortress
• Colonel McClaine
• Project 90
• The Race
• The Professional
• Lone Handed 90
• Attack of The Tiger
• Talkdown
• Breakout
• Mission X-41
• Test Flight
• Child of The Sun God
• Trial At Sea
• Viva Cordova
• See You Down There
• The Birthday

External links

• BIG RAT - The Joe 90 Web Site
• FANDERSON The Official Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society
• British Film Institute Screen Online