Knight Rider burst
onto the scene in 1982. The series was about a lone man,
Michael Knight (
David Hasselhoff), travelling
around and doing good wherever he wound up. His partner in these endeavors was
a technologically advanced
Pontiac
Trans Am, the Knight Industries Two Thousand—or
K.I.T.T.
K.I.T.T. was nearly indestructible, could perform amazing feats at the push of
a button, and was in possession of an advanced artificial intelligence (voiced
by
William Daniels) that
could allow it to operate autonomously when needed. Critics found the concept
unbearably silly, but audiences showed up and allowed it to run for four
seasons. In the wake of its success, an imitator was inevitable.
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Promotional artwork of Brett changing into his car form. |
That came
in the form of
Ruby-Spears
Productions’
Turbo Teen. However, rather than give a character an
intelligent super car, they decided to
make the character the
intelligent super car. The series centered on teenager Brett Matthews (Michael
Mish) who was out joyriding when a lightning strike sent him barreling into a scientific
experiment. Exposed to a molecular beam invented by Dr. Chase (Pat Fraley) for
a government agent named Caldwell (Clive Revill), Brett became fused with his
car and was able to transform into it when exposed to heat. He not only
retained his full faculties as the car, but could move at will and perform an
almost limitless number of stunts far beyond the realm of physics. He could
only transform back to human form after being exposed to the cold. As this
change was involuntary, it often happened at inopportune times.
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Brett micro-sized with Alex, Rusty and Pattie. |
While Chase
and Caldwell worked to find a permanent cure, they decided to put his new
abilities to use and sent him to investigate local mysteries or put a stop to
criminal activity around the world under the codename Turbo Teen. Joining him
on his adventures was his girlfriend, freelance reporter Pattie (Pamela
Hayden), his best friend, mechanic Alex (T.K. Carter), and his dog, Rusty
(Frank Welker). A recurring villain was the unseen Dark Rider (Welker); a
master of disguise that plagued the Turbo Team in an advanced monster truck of
his own design. The Dark Rider had apparently designed a supercar that
resembled Brett’s and sought revenge for what he believed was his stolen
design. Additionally, their classmates from Hillmount High, Eddie (Fraley) and
Flip (Welker), would cause the Turbo Team some trouble by being typical
dim-witted bullies constantly looking to show up Brett and his car.
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Just a car enjoying some arcade games. |
The
Knight
Rider inspiration was very evident. Aside from being self-driving, Brett’s
car and his car form was very much modeled after a 1984 Trans Am; however
colored red instead of black. To avoid a lawsuit from
General
Motors or paying them a licensing fee, the car did have some differences: the
tail lights were reminiscent of the third generation
Chevrolet
Camaro, the pop-up headlights were removed with the turn signals serving as
the headlights, and the center roof bar that would make it a T-top was removed
(however, the
official
press photo was not shy about showing a very clearly black Trans Am).
As with K.I.T.T.,
a voice modulator was present on the dashboard that reacted to whenever Brett spoke
in car form; however, it was located in the lower center rather than over the
wheel and was represented by a horizontal line and waves instead of vertical
lines (or a flashing box, in
Knight Rider’s earlier episodes). The Dark
Rider having a connection to Brett’s vehicle form and driving his own much
larger super vehicle was similar to the character of
Garthe Knight
(Hasselhoff), the evil son of K.I.T.T.’s creator who drove a souped-up semi-truck
named
Goliath. Not
to mention that Brett just happened to be driving the exact make and model of a
super car that was already in development (before meeting K.I.T.T., Michael
Knight drove a regular black Trans Am in the series pilot). Then there was the
fact that in car form, Brett could pull of impossible stunts (more so than even
Knight Rider, since they didn’t have to worry about the expense of
replacing actual cars) and was seemingly indestructible.
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The original concepts for Cary Becomes a Car by Jack Kirby. |
The concept for the series started
out a bit differently. Originally pitched as
Cary Becomes a Car, the
legendary
Jack Kirby whipped
up several concept sketches. Under Kirby, the series had a decidedly more
action flare. Cary was still a teenager, but his transformation appeared to be
more deliberate. Although it was written that Cary transformed into a Camaro,
the car he drew more closely resembled a
Ford Mustang. This sketch was featured
in the biographical graphic novel
Jack
Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics by
Tom Scioli during the section on Kirby’s
Ruby-Spears tenure. There were also concepts for several villains—many with
car-themed names: Mogal, the Magi-Mechanic was a sorcerer that carried around a
magic tool box; Super Sonica was a super-speed witch; Hot Rodney Rumpkin was an
overweight race car driver always in the company of his butler, Dingy
Doolittle; and Barney Brannigan, a leprechaun-esque figure that conjured up
crazy obstacles for drivers. Most notable was Speed Demon, described as a
“sinister driver of unknown origin shadows hero”. He seemed to be the prototype
for what would become The Dark Rider—albeit minus being an
actual demon.
Additional Kirby sketches have surfaced showing the slow evolution from
Cary
Becomes a Car into
Turbo Teen, including depictions of
Brett
as a hatchback encountering more science-fiction fare; Brett as a
sportier-looking
car surrounded by a legion of human characters and early versions of Pattie
and Rusty; and
Pattie
and Alex riding in Brett’s final form while evading some unusual-looking
enemies (under the name
Turbo-Teens). Along with Kirby, characters were
designed by
Duncan Marjoribanks,
Doug Wildey and
Thom Enriquez.
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Brett transforming. |
Turbo
Teen debuted on
ABC on September 8, 1984.
It and the network’s other new offerings were promoted the night before in the
Saturday morning preview special
The ABC Saturday Morning
Preview Park hosted by
“Weird Al”
Yankovic. The series was developed and story edited by
Michael Maurer, who also wrote a
couple episodes alongside
Mark Jones,
Matt Uitz,
Evelyn A.R. Gabai,
Dennis Marks,
Michael Ray Brown,
Cliff Ruby,
Elana Lesser
and
Ted Pedersen. Animation
duties were handled by
Hanho Heung-Up Company
and
Toei Animation, with
XAM! Productions
working on layouts.
Bill Perez
designed the opening titles that laid out the entire origin story, with
John Kimball animating its
transformation scene.
Udi Harpaz composed
and conducted the music under the supervision of
Paul DeKorte.
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Glow time means 3D time! |
ABC had
originally planned to have certain shows within its 1984 line-up—
Turbo Teen
being one,
The Mighty Orbots another—include a faux 3D effect. This was
accomplished by producing those programs with a higher percentage of moving
overlays and underlays panning at different speeds, coupled with a pair of 3D
glasses that had one polarized lens and one blank lens to give the illusion of
depth.
Turbo Teen’s 3D sequences were signaled by flashes within the
show to indicate when to put on and take off the glasses. However, story
director
Tom Minton stated
that
ABC was told by
their legal department at the last minute that they couldn’t promise every
viewer that experience
or supply enough free glasses to viewers. As a
result, all advertising about the gimmick had to be dropped and those became
very expensive and pointlessly elaborate sequences.
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The Dark Rider's monster truck.
|
The novel
notion of a kid turning into a car was ultimately failed by its execution. Retrospectives
about
Turbo Teen would sum up its problems as having poor scripts, even
worse animation, and a
nightmare-inducing transformation sequence whenever
Brett changed. Storyboard supervisor
James
Woodring would go on to
lambast the series
as “one of the masterpieces of s--t” in various interviews; a sentiment he
claimed was shared by others in Ruby-Spears’ employ at the time. Viewers and
the network seemed to back up his estimation as
Turbo Teen was cancelled
by the end of its sole season.
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Rolling down the roller coaster tracks. |
Not much
was released in terms of merchandise for the show. There was a
coloring book
published by
Golden,
and a transforming model kit by
Monogram that was originally
made for the product-exclusive
GoBots
character
Trans
Am. The model was a stock Trans Am complete with a decal of the trademark
Screaming
Chicken graphic for the hood. However, it could be changed into a humanoid
body. The
Turbo Teen version got a new head sculpt
representing Brett. None of the episodes have been released to home media
legally in North America, although some can be found on video hosting sites
like
YouTube. Internationally, at least 6
episodes have been
released
on VHS.
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Cold soda about to change Turbo Teen back into Brett. |