The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
Encyclopedia
The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (broadcast between 1986 and 1989) was an American animated Space Western
Space western
Space Western is a subgenre of science fiction, primarily grounded in film and television programming, that transposes themes of American Western books and film to a backdrop of futuristic space frontiers; it is the complement of the science fiction Western, which transposes science fiction themes...
television series created by Robert Mandell
Robert Mandell
Robert Mandell is an American animated series and film writer, director and producer. He is a five-time NY Golden Apple Award winner in graphics arts and design....
and Gaylord Entertainment Company
Gaylord Entertainment Company
The Gaylord Entertainment Company operates a number of hotel, resort, and media companies that were built by Edward Gaylord. It was previously a subsidiary of the Oklahoma City-based Oklahoma Publishing Company, which is owned by the Gaylord family and publishes the Daily Oklahoman newspaper...
.
The series combined sci-fi stories with traditional wild west themes. It was one of the first anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
-style shows produced mainly in the USA, although the actual animation was done by the Japanese animation studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Tokyo Movie Shinsha
, formerly known as , is a Japanese animation studio, founded on October 1946. One of the oldest and most prominent anime studios in Japan, it has also produced numerous animated series airing in other countries such as France, the United States, and Italy. The company currently uses "TMS...
. At the time it aired, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers was considered a revolutionary children's show.
Story
The show is set in the future, some time after the year 2086, when two aliens from the planets Andor and Kirwin travel to Earth to search for allies against the expansionist Crown Empire led by the Queen of the Crown. In return for the help, the two aliens gave mankind construction plans for a hyperdriveHyperdrive
Hyperdrive is a name given to certain methods of traveling faster-than-light in science fiction. Related concepts are jump drive and warp drive....
device. After this key event in human history, interstellar travel
Interstellar travel
Interstellar space travel is manned or unmanned travel between stars. The concept of interstellar travel in starships is a staple of science fiction. Interstellar travel is much more difficult than interplanetary travel. Intergalactic travel, or travel between different galaxies, is even more...
flourished and a huge number of colonies emerged in distant star-systems. Alongside the growth of human activities in space, criminal activities also grew, and the new colonies required defense against various threats, including the Crown Empire. A group known as "BETA" (Bureau for Extra-Terrestrial Affairs) was founded to cope with these tasks, with a "Ranger" division being a part of it.
Most of the colonies portrayed in the show specialized in either agriculture or mining "star stones". Many of the planets on the show have names that evoke ideas of a Western setting, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, Mesa
Mesa
A mesa or table mountain is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape....
, Ozark, and Prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...
being a few.
BETA is shown to be the major military and exploratory arm of Earth. The organization's headquarters are on Earth. BETA sustains several bases on and around Earth, such as the Longshot Research Facility in the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
and the BETA space station in Earth's orbit.
The Series-5 Brain Implant, or S5 is implied to be the closest mankind will ever get to merging with cybernetics. The S5 implant enables a dramatic boost of innate abilities due to its unique conversion of bio-electrical power generated by alpha radiation stored within the badges worn by the Galaxy Rangers.
The Crown Empire, also known as the "Crown", is ruled by the Queen of the Crown. She controls a large number of planets in a vast section of the galaxy. The Queen controls her empire using creatures called Slaverlords with whom she has a psychic link. Slaverlords derive their power from the psychic energy of other beings. After the Empire encountered humans, the Queen discovered that they were more suitable for energy extraction than any other previously encountered species.
Theme song
The theme song for the show, "No Guts, No Glory", was featured in the opening credits preceded by a spoken introduction. The song was written by Phil Galdston and John Van Tongeren.Stations
- KSTWKSTWKSTW is a television station serving the Seattle, Washington media market. It is owned by CBS Corporation, and is a part of The CW Television Network. It broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 11...
11 - Seattle, WashingtonSeattle, WashingtonSeattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country... - WDCAWDCAWDCA, virtual channel 20, is a television station in Washington, D.C.. Owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, WDCA is a sister station to Fox network outlet WTTG , and is affiliated with the co-owned MyNetworkTV programming service...
20 - Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution.... - WNUVWNUVWNUV, digital channel 40, is an affiliate of the CW Television Network, located in Baltimore, Maryland. WNUV is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, but is operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group through a local marketing agreement with Fox affiliate WBFF . However, WNUV is effectively owned by...
54 - Baltimore, Maryland - KBHK 44 - San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
- KTVTKTVTKTVT, virtual channel 11, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas-Fort Worth designated market area. The station is co-owned with independent station KTXA , and the two stations share facilities in Dallas and Fort Worth...
11 - Dallas, TexasDallas, TexasDallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States... - KZKC-TVKSMO-TVKSMO-TV, virtual channel 62, is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Kansas City Metropolitan Area licensed to the Missouri side. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter in Independence, Missouri...
62 - Kansas City, MO - WPIXWPIXWPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
11 - New York, New York - KCOP 13 - Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
- KDNL 30 - St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
- WGNXWGCL-TVWGCL-TV, virtual channel 46.1 is the CBS-affiliated television station serving the Atlanta, Georgia area. Its city of license is Atlanta, and the station is owned by Meredith Corporation, making it the largest-market CBS station not owned by the network...
46 - Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in... - WBFSWBFS-TVWBFS-TV is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for South Florida that is licensed to Miami. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter in Miramar. Owned by the CBS Corporation, the station is sister to CBS affiliate WFOR-TV and the two share...
33 - Miami, FloridaMiami, FloridaMiami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625... - WSBKWSBK-TVWSBK-TV is a MyNetworkTV television station for eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire that is licensed to Boston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter along the Needham and Wellesley town line southwest of the MA 9 and I-95 / MA 128...
38 - Boston, Massachusetts - KHTV 39 - Houston, TexasHouston, TexasHouston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
- WUABWUABWUAB, identified on-air as "My43 The Block, WUAB", is the MyNetworkTV affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio. The station is licensed to the suburb of Lorain, and it shares a studio in downtown Cleveland with sister station WOIO, Cleveland's CBS affiliate. Its transmitter is located in Parma, Ohio...
43 - Cleveland, OhioCleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border... - WPWR 50 - Chicago, Illinois
- KUSI 51 - San Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
- WPSG 57 - Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
- WCAY 30 - Nashville, TennesseeNashville, TennesseeNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
DVD releases
Koch EntertainmentKoch Entertainment
Koch Entertainment was a music, film and television distribution company. It was purchased by E1 Entertainment in 2005 and now operates under the name E1 Entertainment.-History:The company began in 1975 as Koch International...
currently owns the DVD distributions rights to Galaxy Rangers through Koch Vision
Koch Vision
eOne Home Video a division of Entertainment One, was founded in 1999 as part of Koch Entertainment's entry into the television programming and home video market as Koch's rental and sell-through home video division...
. Four Galaxy Rangers DVDs, each containing four episodes, were released in the United States. Koch has released the entire series which consists of two box sets. The first set was released on May 13, 2008 and the second set was released on August 19, 2008.
Reception
The show has become a cult favoriteCult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...
and been considered innovative and ahead of its time. It had a unique sense of humor and each character was well drawn and lacked clichés to sell toys
Toyetic
Toyetic is the suitability of a media property, such as a movie, for merchandising spin-off lines of licensed toys, games and novelties. For example, Saturday morning cartoons in the early 1980s and 1990s were well known for this, in particular Pound Puppies; My Pet Monster; and Rude Dog and the...
, a trait which many series had at that time.
External links
- The official website
- The Hearst Animation Official Galaxy Rangers Website
- The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers at HuluHuluHulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
- Toonopedia - Galaxy Rangers Galaxy - Rangers