Opinion: SuperTed

"Rocketing Raspberries, Look at this!"

Childhood's an interesting thing, isn't it? I remember a menagerie of programs from when I was around 3/4 years old, that hang loosely on the memory. Some were funny, others unintentionally fearful, or a creepy mixture of the two. In any case, they were completely absurd, concepts on brought together in dreams. And here, a prime example, is SuperTed.
     And now, to explain the concepts present, I give you the intro sequence (with thanks to the Youtube channel, The Cartoon Archive.)

For those who can't or won;t watch the video, it's basically about a stuffed toy brought to life by a spotty banana-shaped alien. The narration persists throughout, and it doesn't feel intrusive because usually his voice is the only thing happening. Not shown in the intro are the villians, which are perhaps the things which scared me as a child; Texas Pete, a mad cowboy (in space, of course) and then the two comic relief characters, a fat guy and a really camp skeleton. Not that this show needed comic relief.
     I think the show is admirable for the sheer nerve of having such a wild premise while really sticking up for the Sci-Fi genre. The humour that's to be derived from it is from the absurdity, and the humour never strays into either lowbrow or highbrow territory. (I've got this image now of someone with perfectly middle-distance eyebrows.)
     As for quality, the voice acting is fine enough, and the animation does well to convey the advanced settings. Characters of note? Spotty (the aforementioned Banana-shaped alien, from the planet Spot) is quite an nice character to work with, as well as being voiced by none-other-than JON PERTWEE. I also love the camp Skeleton. He's just so openly camp, something unusual for a kids show.
     If there is a criticism that I can give (and it's harsh for a kids show, and I really am nitpicking to be honest) is that it doesn't accurately portray the vaccuum of space (as in, you can breathe and speak et. al.) Other than that, it's a brilliant absurdist series produced with high production values, funny characters and a passion for the sci-fi world that makes me love it even more. Oh, and the theme tune rocks.

Thanks.