The Bionic Family - Bionic Six - the 1987 animated series
The bionic family, Also known as Bionic Six (バ イ オ ニ ッ ク シ ッ ク ス Baionikku Shikkusu) is a 1987 Japanese-American animated series. It was produced by Universal Television and animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (now TMS Entertainment) and distributed, via first-run syndication, by MCA TV, years before the latter company became NBC Universal Television Distribution. Famous Japanese animation director Osamu Dezaki has been involved as the director's chief supervisor and his distinctive style (as seen in Golgo 13 and Cobra) is evident throughout all of his episodes.
The characters of the title of the series are a family of human beings powered by machines, who possess unique powers after having installed bionic technology on their carpi. Each member of the family receives specific bionic powers, and thus they form a team of superheroes called the Bionic Six.
The series was started as a direct sequel to de The six million dollar man e The bionic woman and was originally supposed to be about the Austin family. This was changed at the start of pre-production for creative reasons
History
In the near future (some unspecified decades after 1999), Professor Dr. Amadeus Sharp Ph.D., head of the Special Projects Labs (SPL), will create a new form of technology to increase human performance through bionics. . His first subject was Jack Bennett, a test pilot who secretly acted as Sharp's field agent, Bionic-1. During a family ski vacation in the Himalayas, an alien spaceship sets off an avalanche that buries the entire family, exposing them to the unusual radiation of a mysterious buried object. Jack breaks free but discovers that his family is in a coma. By theorising that Jack's bionics protected him from radiation, Professor Sharp implants the bionics technology in the others, awakening them. Subsequently, the family operates undercover as a publicly lauded superhero adventurer team, the Bionic Six.
The main antagonist of the series is a mad scientist known as Doctor Scarab, along with his band of henchmen - Glove, Madam-O, Chopper, Mechanic and Klunk - accompanied by Scarab's legion of robot drones called Cyphrons. Scarab is the brother of Professor Sharp. Obsessed with achieving immortality and ruling the world, Scarab believes the key to both goals lies in the secret bionic technology invented by his brother, who always plots to possess it.
Characters
Professor Dr. Amadeus Sharp Ph.D. he is the genius scientist who infused bionics into the Bionic Six team. As in the case of Dr. Rudolph "Rudy" Wells both in The six million dollar man in that The bionic woman, all of its research is supported by the government, and Sharp's technology needs to be periodically reviewed by the government agency Q10. He lives alone in his private museum, which houses his secret Special Projects laboratory, the hidden base of the Six Bionics. Amadeus is also Scarab's brother. Sharp excels in the fields of aeronautics, animatronics, archeology, bionics, and neurology. He was voiced by Alan Oppenheimer (Oppenheimer was also the second actor to play Rudy Wells in The six million dollar man).
The Bennett family includes Patriarch Jack, Matriarch Helen, Eric, Meg, JD, and Bunji. They live in a secluded oceanfront home in the fictional town of Cypress Cove in Northern California. Each member wears a special ring and a “wristcomp” (a wired mini-computer in the wrist), which they use to activate their bionic powers. The Bionic Six can also combine their powers by joining hands, creating a "Bionic Bond" to amplify their abilities.
Jack Bennett alias Bionic-1 he is an engineer, an experienced test pilot, and the secret agent known to the world only as "Bionic-One". He likes gourmet cuisine, also participating in the Paris Gastronomic Conference. Bionic-1's powers are mostly related to its bionic eyes (including "X-ray vision", telescopic sight, bursts of energy and low-power beams that cause electronic devices to temporarily malfunction or even turn against them. their users) and improved hearing (the latter ability beyond even the powers of the other team members, who each possess superhuman levels of hearing in their own right). His family was initially unaware of his secret bionic identity until he was given powers of their own. Bionic-1 was voiced by John Stephenson.
Helen Bennett alias Mother-1 is Jack's wife. She is an oceanographer and an established marine biologist. Mother-1 possesses various ESP powers that allow her to occasionally see glimpses of the future, communicate telepathically with other sentient and non-sentient beings, determine the function and functioning of mechanical devices by mentally "tracing" their internal mechanisms, and can mentally project optical illusions similar to holograms. She is also a skilled fighter, having beaten Dr. Scarab's henchman Madame-O on occasions when the two physically fought one-on-one. She was voiced by Carol Bilger.
Eric Bennett aka Sport-1 is the blond and athletic son of Jack and Helen. At local Albert Einstein High School, Eric is the shortstop for the baseball team, the Einstein Atoms. He routinely employs the vernacular of baseball in his conversations with him. Like Sport-1, he uses electromagnetic powers to attract or repel metallic objects with tremendous force, fuse them together or even tear them apart. This force is directional and - by varying the configuration of its hands, or using one or both arms - Sport-1 can adjust the force of attraction or repulsion. He can also use objects like he would a baseball bat, including steel beams, street lamps, and other objects (including baseball bats) to redirect incoming objects and energy bursts; infused from the same field that comes from his arms, he can use those normally fragile objects to hit and deflect things they normally couldn't. In one case, he used a steel beam to hit an oncoming asteroid. He was voiced by Hal Rayle.
Meg Bennett alias Rock-1 she is the daughter of Jack and Helen and the younger sister of Eric. Meg is an excitable and somewhat silly teenager, a music lover. She is prone to the habitual use of the future slang phrase "So-LAR!" (comparable to "fantastic"), as well as the prefixes "Mega-!" (as befits her name) and "Ultra-!" At Albert Einstein High School, Meg is a discussion group member; in a number of episodes, she is seen dating a classmate named Bim. Like Rock-1, she can emit sonic beams from blaster units mounted on her shoulders: blaster units are only visible when she enters "bionic mode". While all Six can run at superhuman speed, Meg is the fastest among them by a large margin. She and Eric are Bennett's only children who are biologically related to each other and their parents. Meg was voiced by Bobbi Block.
James Dwight “JD” Corey alias IQ is the extraordinarily intelligent and adopted African-American son of Jack and Helen. He likes amateur boxing, even though he's not particularly skilled. As an IQ, he has super-intelligence (as befits his code name); furthermore, while all Six have superhuman strength, JD is the strongest among them by a large margin. He was the only team member whose bionic code name did not include the number "1" as a suffix. He was voiced by Norman Bernard.
Bunjiro “Bunji” Tsukahara alias Karate-1 is the Japanese adopted son of Jack and Helen. He was placed under their tutelage after his father had disappeared 10 years earlier somewhere in the East. Bunji is a keen karate enthusiast. Like Karate-1, her already formidable martial arts prowess is enhanced by his bionic prowess. He is the most agile of the Six and his super sharp reflexes are only surpassed by those of Rock-1. He was voiced by Brian Tochi.
FLUFFES is a gorilla-like robot who lives as a housekeeper with the Bennetts. He regularly demonstrates a comical craving for aluminum cans that extends to casually devouring Bennett's pots, vehicles, or other metal objects. Despite his bungling behavior, he still proves useful around the Bennett house or assisting the Bionic Six with physical tasks on the pitch. FLUFFI was voiced by Neil Ross.
The bads
The main antagonist of the series is Dr. Scarab, whose real name is Dr. Wilmer Sharp Ph.D., who is the brother of Amadeus Sharp. Scarab is a rugged, selfishly bright and occasionally comical man who longs for the secret of eternal life and world domination. His right eye was modified to a monocle equipped with a low-power scanner capable of detecting individuals with bionics, even when disguised, and a high-powered destructive beam. In rare instances throughout the series, he appears to demonstrate superhuman, bionic strength (on at least one occasion, he lifted Mother-1 effortlessly and threw her into the air; in another case, he was seen carrying so much solid gold that Fort Knox like his other bionic servants, worth several hundred pounds). He was voiced by Jim MacGeorge, who mimicked George C. Scott's voice when he provided that character voice.
Doctor Scarab has assembled a motley squad of henchmen (described below), imbued with a seemingly minor form of the same bionic powers employed by the bionic family. Another of Scarab's goals in the series is to try to understand the secrets behind her brother's superior bionic knowledge.
Glove is a purple-skinned villain named after his left-handed blaster glove that is capable of firing both beams and projectiles. He serves as a leader on the field in Scarab's evil plans (thus made a frequent target for punishment for failures) and constantly competes to replace Dr. Scarab as the leader. Though cunning and vicious, he tends to retreat at the first sign of defeat. His strength varies, as in some cases he appears to be the same as Bionic-1, while in one case he was able to physically overwhelm and dominate both Bionic-1 and Karate-1 at the same time. He was voiced by Frank Welker.
Madame-O is an enigmatic blue skinned femme fatale who wears a full face mask and uses a harp-like weapon to fire sonic blasts. She has the verbal tic to end many of her statements about her with the word "... honey". While possessing super strength, she is not as strong as many other characters; Mother-1 was able to defeat her in physical fights on various occasions. Before her transformation, she actually appeared to be an older woman. She was voiced by Jennifer Darling.
Mechanic is a dull and childish brute who uses various mechanical tools as weapons: guns for nails or rivets, throwing blades for circular saws, using a large wrench as a sledgehammer. Despite his short temper, he has a soft spot for animals and a passionate fondness for children's television (in the universe) cartoons. He was voiced by Frank Welker.
Chopper he is a thug armed with a chain who articulates sounds that mimic a moving motorcycle. He is sometimes depicted driving a three-wheeled motorcycle vehicle. He, like both Mechanic and Glove, was voiced by Frank Welker. Perhaps with an intentional design, Welker had previously voiced another character named Chopper, with exactly the same voice and "vocal mannerisms," in a 70s cartoon called Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch.
klunk it is a patchwork monstrosity that appears to be made of living glue and that rarely speaks coherently. Immediately after creating him, Scarab noted to himself that he was "using a little less power next time". Although relatively unintelligent, he is considered one of the most dangerous opponents to fight with, due to his unprecedented strength (his strength seems to surpass even that of IQ, the strongest member of the Bionic Six), high resistance to physical attacks , and his sticky body's ability to swallow his opponent - even Dr. Scarab fears him to some degree. Unlike Dr. Scarab's other minions, he is (understandably) horrified by his own transformation and longs to be human again. He, like Jack “Bionic-1” Bennett, was voiced by John Stephenson.
Dr. Scarab has tried to create additional minions with little success, usually due to the interference envy of his existing henchmen. Some of these include:
Mrs. Scarab alias Scarabine - Dr. Scarab's attempt to clone a perfect mate for himself: a woman who possesses her own intelligence has added to Mother-1's beauty and ESP powers. Madame-O tampered with laboratory equipment while creating her, resulting in a hateful female version of Doctor Scarab who was completely devoted to him. Scarab, though rejected by her, attempted to use it to her advantage. Eventually she became aware of her manipulation and left him. She returned in a later episode, trying to win her affection for her by creating opposite-sex versions of her own henchmen to overcome the Bionic Six through numbers.
shadow boxer - saving an hapless former boxing champion from arrest and trying to give him powers, Dr. Scarab instead accidentally creates Shadow Boxer due to Glove's interference. Instead of simply becoming another super strong minion, Shadow Boxer has gained the ability to solidify his shadow and act through it at will. He lost this ability when Bionic-1 exposed his shadow of him to a bright light that vanished.
Where covert action is needed, Scarab and his gang disguise themselves via their "Bionic Masking Units". To disengage these electronically imparted disguises, they bang their fists on the chest insignia and exclaim, "Hail Scarab!" (Scarab, however, exclaims in vain: "Hail me!"). This has a secondary purpose: the activation of a temporary increase in strength.
In addition to his henchmen, Scarab also uses robots of his own design, called Cyphrons, in battles against the Bionic Six. Cyphrons are, like the rest of his minions, generally incompetent but dangerous in large numbers. Scarab's attempts to create more advanced Cyphron units prove counterproductive.
Vehicles of the bionic family
The Sky Dancer is the Bionic Six jet for long range missions. The Sky Dancer can carry Bionic sixes and all of their support vehicles. It is housed on the Bionic base and enters via an undersea runway.
The MULES Van o Mobile Utility Energizing Station, is a support vehicle capable of flying, transporting the team on short-range missions and transporting their motorcycles and Quad ATVs. At one time, the Van was equipped with crab armor.
Episodes
1. Valley of Shadows
2.Enter the Bunji
3.Eric Bats Thousand
4.Klunk in love
5. Radio Beetle
6.Family business
7.Happy birthday, Amadeus
8. Food for the brain
9.Only a small handicap
10.Bionics turned on! The first adventure
11. Back to the past (part 1)
12. Back to the past (part 2)
13.Fugitive FLUFFI
14. Little time
15. Youth or consequences
16. Extra innings
17. Return of the Bunji
18. Crown of the Beetle King
19.1001 Bionic nights
20.The earner file
21. Masterpiece
22. House rules
23.Vacation
24. Nightmare in Cypress Cove
25. Power of Music
26.The hive
27. Mental connection
28.Calculation, therefore I am
29. Pass / Fail
30.Born to be bad
31.A clean slate (part 1)
32.A clean slate (part 2)
33. Turn it out
34.The man on the moon
35 The case of Baker Street Bionics
36 Now you see me ...
37.Crystalline
38. You've come a long way, baby!
39.Su and Atom
40.Homemade Movies
41. Scarabesca
42.Caleidoscope
43 Once upon a time there was a crime
44 Mrs. Scarabeo
45.The Secret Life of Wellington Forsby
46.The mushroom among us
47 The lower part of the ninth planet
48.Triple Cross
49.I, Scarab (part 1)
50.I, Scarab (part 2)
51. Scabracadabra
52.The technical problem
53.A question of gravity
54.The Elemental
55. I am the viper
56. Shadow boxer
57.Call of the Bunji
58. A super group of kids
59 The monkey has landed
60. Ready, aim, fired
61. Note of love
62. Love of contention
63. Pile of garbage
64. The Return of Mrs. Scarab
65 That's it, folks!
Technical data
Author Ron Friedman
Written by Ron Friedman, Gordon Bressack, Craig Miller, Marco Nelson
Regia Osamu Dezaki, Toshiyuki Hiruma, William T. Hurtz, Steve Clark, Lee Mishkin, Sam Nicholson, John Walker
Creative director Bob Drinko
Music Thomas Chase, Steve Rucker
country of origin United States, Japan
Original language English
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 65 (list of episodes)
Executive Producers Yutaka Fujioka, Eiji Katayama
Manufacturers Gerald Baldwin, Sachiko Tsuneda, Shunzo Kato, Shiro Aono
Editor Sam Horta
Duration 22 minutes
Production company Universal Television, Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Distributor MCA TV
Original network USA Network & syndicated
Original release date April 19 - November 12, 1987
