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PRODUCTION OVERVIEW AND HISTORY Prince Planet was originally produced in Japan by TCJ (Television Corporation of Japan) for Dentsu advertising in conjunction with K. Fujita Associates and aired on the Fuji Television network in 1965. This show was one of the first heavily merchandised shows in Japan, with simple things like shoes getting the "Planet Boy Popi" logo. An English-dubbed version was released by American International Television Productions and produced by James Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. The dubbing was performed in Miami at Copri Films International and directed by Mark Harris with dialog scripting by Reuben Guberman. MAIN CHARACTERS The main characters that appear throughout most of the series are all introduced by the fourth episode. In episode # 1 Prince Planet arrives on Earth and meets a girl, Rico or Diana Worthy in the English-dubbed version and her father, Pops Worthy who live on a large ranch. In episode # 2 a wrestler known as Dan Dynamo, billed as "The strongest man in world" joins the Prince Planet team. Episode # 3 introduces Warlock who is said to be the "Master of Martian Magic" although his "martian origins" seem to be more of a contrivance, added to the English-dub. The last major team member is a magician named Aja Baba, from the desert of the eastern hemisphere who debuts in episode # 4 as an arch enemy of Warlock. Many of the episodes involve battles with Warlock until episode # 30 when Krag from the planet Kragmire disperses Warlock and becomes Prince Planet's major nemesis until the end of the series. POWERS AND ABILITIES While on Earth, Prince Planet exists usually as Bobby, a normal appearing boy. But when the need arises he will transform into Prince Planet to fight enemies or protect his friends. He transforms similar to Captain Marvel (DC Comics) by holding his pendant with both hands and saying "Peeeeeee Pazzow!" with the "Pazzow" being added to cover the Japanese "Popi". When transformed into Prince Planet an appropriate costume comes with the transformation which resembles the apparel worn by the people of his native world including a helmet, which all male members of Radion society seem to wear. Prince Planet's main powers are not altogether unlike those of Superman , and it is interesting to note that in the original Japanese his home world is named "Planet Crifton". His pendant endowed powers include super strength, flight, and resistance to harsh environments like outer space although he can be injured in his transformed state. Prince Planet's most interesting power is using his superior intellect along with the energy of the pendant to transform material objects at will, this power is very useful to create needed weapons, transporation or other devices. A reoccuring plot element of many episodes hinges on a limitation resembling that of Green Lantern in that his pendant must be recharged, but he can't perform this himself. Replenishing of the pendant's energy is handled from Planet Radion. As his energy supply diminishes, the "P" in his pendant goes from black to white like a thermometer in dropping temperatures. On his home planet, in the "power tower" there is a person whose job is to monitor the pendant's energy level and ensure it doesn't run too low. Of course he often seems to be "asleep on the job" while Earth and Prince Planet are hanging in the balance and sends energy to the pendant at the possible last second before disaster. Even completely deprived of the pendant's power, Prince Planet can still physically put up a good fight and his high intellect makes him a cunning and formidable opponent. OTHER FACTS Two factors contributed to the hasty demise of Prince Planet as a desirable property for domestic broadcast, one being the fact that monochrome programing was becoming less desirable to television stations with the ever-growing popularity of color television. The other was negative parental reaction to cartoons containing what was perceived as excessive violence for children's television. While fighting for right, Prince Planet's opponents were oftentimes killed and this was obvious even despite some editing of the dubbed prints to remove some of the vioent scenes. Prince Planet kills Warlock and Krag in the last two episodes before returning home to Radion, and they were not the only villains he blasted away with his pendant. In addition to human violence, the Prince was not overly sensitive to Earth fauna either...for instance in one episode, he transformed a whale into transportation for his friends, effectively killing the whale. Even so, Prince Planet is known to have been televised in the U.S.A until around 1976 in the Chicago area on stations hungry for afternoon TV for children to watch after school and Prince Planet claimed many faithful adherents throughout the Sixities and those later years. ENGLISH DUB VOICE TALENT Catherine "Bobbie" Byers (voice of Prince Planet, Bobby, various female voices) Mark Harris (voice of Dan Dynamo, various voices) Kurt Nagel (voice of Ajababa, various voices) Arnie Warren (voice of Warlock, various voices) Frank Schuller (voice Of Krag, various voices) Sandy Warshaw (voice of Diana Worthy, various female voices) Jeff Gillen (voice of Pop Worthy, various voices) Other voices performed by: Reuben Guberman, Lawrence Tobin, Jerry Burke EPISODE LIST 1. A Boy From Outer Space 2. Giant on the Matters 3. The Formidable Rival 4. The Arabian Magician 5. The Flying Jelly Fish 6. Dinosaur Men 7. A Big Showdown 8. Robot Island 9. The Overgrown Lizard 10. Shaberia 11. Fancy Machine 12. S.O.S. Global 13. Gold Picker 14. Attack of the Radioactive Ants 15. The Great Space War 16. The Star in Memory 17. The Space Zoo 18. The Stolen Mount Fuji 19. Pirate Satan 20. Planet Of Terror 21. Robot 22. Good-Bye Saturnian 23. The Earth Zero Hour 24. The Ghost Space Ship 25. Battle on a Desert Island 26. Secret Under the Sea 27. The Rocket Pilot 28. Gaist the Devilfish 29. The Gift From Prince Planet 30. Gollen, the Formidable Foe 31. The Pollen Bomb 32. Operation Rico 33. Rico, the Great Detective 34. A Spy From the Necro 35. The Demon Scientist 36. The Young Spies 37. Pollo The Secret Agent 38. The Magic Glove 39. The Robot Prince 40. Rico's Adventure 41. The Lion in the Desert 42. Crisis on the Earth 43. The Horror of a Snowman 44. Revenge in the Valley 45. The Comet Missile 46. The Mystery of a Mummy 47. The Mystery of Organ 48. Horror at 10:10 PM 49. The Birdman Racket 50. Secret Path into the Earth 51. Ajababa's Grandchildren 52. The Star at Home OTHER FOREIGN RELEASES AND DUBS Prince Planet was televised in Austraia and aired in Melbourne in March 1967 on channel 9 at 5pm weekdays. It last appeared on Austrailan television in March 1972 on Daryl Somers' Cartoon Corner. In Brazil , Prince Planet aired between 1970 and 1975 ]). The characters were known by the following names: Diana Worthy - "Estrellita" Dan Dynamo - "Bruno Retti" or "Strong" Warlock - "Capirote" Krag - "Kilitrone" |
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