Super Space Theatre Sales Kit

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In the early 1980s, ITC Entertainment took their back catalog of (mainly) Gerry Anderson TV programs and edited them into a series of Television movies for the growing Cable TV market.

Dubbed "Super Space Theatre" these 14 movies were culled together from episodes of "Space:1999", "UFO", "Thunderbirds", "Stingray", "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons" and the non Anderson property "The Champions" into new properties.

Apparently it's the year 2100 in this movie.

This package of (sometimes curiously edited) films was highly influential on yours truly, I ruined my sleep pattern trying to watch all of these as a ten year old and in turn, started to seek out merchandise based on these forgotten shows.

This site owes a great debt to the wonderful recycling of Super Space Theater, so this sales kit containing sell sheets for all the films is truly a grail for me . I've also included some photos of my collection of SST VHS tapes.

Hope you enjoy!

Check out Super Space Theater here.

And hey, if you want some more Gerry Anderson, listen to our special podcast about him!




For more Fashion Mockery and 70's toy love visit us at Plaid Stallions.com


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[Earth 2 Chris]

I'm still trying to figure out how I grew up in the late 70s/early 80s and never saw one minute of any Gerry Anderson show. The first time I saw anything he produced was when that cop show with the guy from Knots Landing came on in the early 90s. Oh, and when Fox Kids strangely re-ran Thunderbirds.

I feel like I missed out.

My friend from across the pond, Andy Leyland often mentions these compilation movies on his podcasts. The UK got a lot of our TV series as movies first, it seems.

Chris

[Mikey]

I used to have Journey Through the Black Sun, Captain Scarlet and Countdown To Disaster (Thunderbirds)

Had to order them through my local video rental store

Never could find any of the others.

[palitoy]

I ordered "thunderbirds in Outer Space" because everybody I knew raved about the Thunderbirds, it cost me nearly $50 and I absolutely loathed it. I sat there so disappointed i didn't grab a Space:1999 title from that catalog. I've never enjoyed or watched it since.

[Mikey]

I couldn't stand how good the quality was of the episodes compared to the "movie" titles and credits... which were of early 80's porn quality.

This was my first ever watch of a Captain Scarlet and I wasn't impressed ... Luckily I gave Scarlet another chance watching individual episodes on boot VHS tapes.

Yep, the prices were nuts --- Also hated the oversize boxes because they were sore thumbs on the video shelf.

BTW, the artwork above is making me laugh ... In the first picture Gabrielle Drake seems to be making Captain Scarlet wanna hurl

[palitoy]

I really hated the "Special Effects" they added to Stingray, the show was beautiful and they added these weird laser beams that even the people at "Blake's 7" would have laughed at.

All of the oversized boxed ones in my collection had been cut down to fit in a clam shell. I doubt my copy of Stingray ever got rented because it's now called "oyage of IngRay"

[Earth 2 Chris]

Were there "Super Space Theater" intros and bumpers created for stations to run? I always love that kind of stuff.

Chris

[palitoy]

Were there "Super Space Theater" intros and bumpers created for stations to run? I always love that kind of stuff.

I've seen a bunch of different ones over the years, the one i remember best is Channel 11 just showed the "Destination Moonbase Alpha" artwork with this sort of "Da-Da" type shocker, when they played "Cosmic Princess" they just kept showing the title sequence at every commercial break.

Speaking of which, Cosmic Princess was riffed on in the prehistoric MST 3K days:

[palitoy]

Alien Attack Trailer

[Werewolf]

Alien Attack Trailer

I don't remember Space 1999 having that many explosions.

[palitoy]

I don't remember Space 1999 having that many explosions.

It really did.

[Mikey]

So these were made for TV ?

Hmmm, never knew that.

I only heard about them because I asked my mom and pa video rental store about Thunderbirds so they looked it up in their massive video sales list book.

That's when I found Thunderbirds as well as the others.

Had to wait like 6 weeks after ordering them to arrive.

[palitoy]

They started making them for TV beginning with "Moonbase Alpha" around 1978 and then I think Alien Attack followed in '79. Those two did get theatrical releases in places like Mexico.

The rest of it was pure syndication with video title sequences and weird FX sometimes added. No one company released them on video, the Supermarionation stuff all got released by one label (USA?), Moonbase Alpha was released by CBS Fox and two others were sold under the Sybil Danning label. Invasion UFO was released by another label and I don't think "Cosmic Princess" or "Legend of the Champions" ever got released.