Preparing a series in a month

When word came down in late July/early August that Battle of the Planets could move into full series production, the show's staff and cast were put under immediate pressure. Most new programs begin airing new episodes in late September through October and Battle of the Planets would be no different. The series pilot was ready to air since it had been so heavily fine-tuned, but it was the only episode that could make that claim. While the initial thought was to offer seventy-eight episodes of Battle of the Planets to syndication (which has been reflected in some early industry ads and information), the number was upped to eighty-five as Sandy Frank began his sales tour. The reason to offer more programs was to cut down on the number of repeats a station would show per year. Individuals involved in the production have also explained that eighty-five episodes was the new minimum allowed for a weekday syndicated program.

Although Gatchaman consisted of one hundred-five episodes, once Sandy Frank made the determination to offer eighty-five, the producers were free to choose the stories they thought would work best for translation. When the okay to start production was given, Sandy Frank had approximately seventy-five Gatchaman episodes in his possession. These were immediately delivered to Jameson Brewer and the remaining episodes were quickly sent to Brewer directly from Japan. Some episodes were ignored due to the amount of editing they felt would be necessary, while others were rejected due to content. With one episode completed (the pilot), the production personnel had to start an incredibly hectic schedule to complete the remaining eighty-four. A schedule that left very little time for experimentation, errors or retakes.

But they did have to run experiments on one aspect of the production that was sure to cause problems - the music. Once voice recording was completed for a couple early episodes (#36 and #21), the producers took a look at what they could do with the small selection of Bob Sakuma's existing Gatchaman score. Unfortunately with so little music to work with, they saw early on that they would be unable to use it without heavy repetition. There simply wasn't enough to be used over dozens of episodes.

Left with little choice, Jameson Brewer and Alan Dinehart knew they needed new music. After an approval from Sandy Frank for its expense, the team contacted Hoyt Curtin again to see if he could compose a full library of pieces for Battle of the Planets. While Curtin was still a contracted employee of Hanna-Barbera, he was given special permission to work on the project outside the studio. His eventual compositions were a large part of the memorable flavor of Battle of the Planets. More can be seen about Hoyt Curtin's contributions here.

Once the staff and cast got into the swing of things, an episode could be completed within a couple weeks' time. Full production on the series lasted from approximately September 4, 1978 through to January 23, 1979. This date range was determined from information listed on the final delivery dates on series film cans. Each episode would begin with someone sitting down to watch an unedited Gatchaman film print to start a script. Approximately six to eight days later, the script would be completed and sent off to the voice actors, editors and to Gallerie International to produce the new animation segments. For more on the process of writing a Battle of the Planets episode, look here.

Brewer and Alan Dinehart also oversaw the studio recordings of the voice cast. This was done for a few hours nearly every day and each of the recording sessions saw the cast working on numerous episodes. The time to get a single episode recorded usually ranged from two to three days.

Following this step, the new animation elements would be added into the previously edited episode and the final dialogue cutting and mixing could be done. The film would then be delivered to Igo Kantor so he could place Hoyt Curtin's music pieces as needed. Once that was cut in, Brewer and Dinehart would meet up with Kantor and the three would watch over the episode with all the elements in place. If it was approved, then the entire production would be shipped off to have final film prints struck. Due to budget restrictions only a certain number of original prints were made and the stations airing Battle of the Planets across America would share them. Once one station was finished with a print, it would ship it along to the next station in line.

As a buyer of Battle of the Planets, a station would usually receive a small press kit filled with color slides, photos of the actors, color and black and white stills and copies of blank advertising images called slicks. With these, the station could promote the program in local newspapers, TV Guide, etc.. Buyers were also given a small amount of promotional items like stickers and posters to be used as giveaways. There were different airing packages a station could buy, all the way from a few months' run as a test, to a full purchase which would amount to the right to air the series twelve complete times over a four year period.

Along with the strong sales of the series came a number of commercial tie-ins and licensed products. Everything from model kits, comic books, a board game, lunch box and toys in the United States to a treasure trove of items created in foreign markets. Battle of the Planets proved nearly as successful with merchandising deals as it did with sales of the program itself. For more on merchandising, please see this section.

Battle of the Planets did quite well for Sandy Frank. According to Jameson Brewer, the series' initial sales in the United States totaled $15 million. Surviving records back that up, and also indicate an additional $3.5 million was cleared in initial international sales. These totals were just for first sales of the series, they did not include any later sales, resales nor merchandising deals.

Once Battle of the Planets finally aired, the response was phenomenal. It was a hit and ratings in most major market cities were far beyond that of competing programming. But strangely, once it had its initial run, the series seemed to lose a lot of its momentum. When it came time to renew their commitments to air longer runs of Battle of the Planets, almost half of the original run stations passed while many others renewed for lesser time. This was a very odd situation and one Sandy Frank still puzzles over to this day. Nevertheless, Battle of the Planets stayed on the air as a syndicated program from the 1978-79 season through the 1983-84 season. During the end of the 83-84 season, Frank made a deal with Ted Turner-owned WTBS out of Atlanta, GA to air the program. It remained there for a while, a virtual exclusive in North America, until even they decided it was no longer pulling in the viewers they desired.

However, both Turner and Sandy Frank still saw potential for Gatchaman. In a bold move, they negotiated a deal to retranslate the series, doing away with nearly all reference to Battle of the Planets. Only two terms remained from the earlier English language version were the name of the team's ship - the Phoenix, and the name of the team, which would eventually be the title of the new series - G-Force. Fred Ladd, the gentleman who had passed on translating Gatchaman initially, finally got his chance to work on it with this version. He acted as head creative, overseeing all the aspects of its production in just the manner he had wanted to do in 1978. Due to the deal between Frank and Turner (which, according to Jameson Brewer, earned Frank $10 million), Turner was able to offer the resulting G-Force series in North America, while Frank offered it in all foreign territories as set forth in the initial Gatchaman deal. G-Force made its US debut in 1986 on WTBS where it aired very briefly, while various areas of the rest of the world received the entire run of the show. G-Force was not shown completely in the United States until its appearance on Cartoon Network in 1995.

With G-Force available and selling, Battle of the Planets was no longer being offered for air in any territory. It remained in the vaults for nearly fifteen years until a late-90s resurgence in late-70s/early-80s animation led to inquiries to Sandy Frank about the show's status. Frank still retained the rights to Gatchaman and so he was able to restart its sale to television, home video and as a license. Starting in 2000, Battle of the Planets got its second wind to an appreciative audience hungry to experience it again. The first station to bring Battle of the Planets back to television was the Bravo Channel in the UK, where the entire eighty-five episode run was aired several times through.

Following that, Battle of the Planets made its return to US TV on the Boomerang Network where it was heavily promoted. But didn't stay long on the schedule. Boomerang only committed to airing twenty-six episodes which they cycled through. Unfortunately, of the twenty-six they wanted, only twenty-four were viewed as being in good enough quality (in terms of the video quality) to actually be shown. The license then switched to ADV Films in 2005 and Battle of the Planets, G-Force and Gatchaman were all aired on that company's newly started Anime Network.

The hard work and dedication of Sandy Frank's production crew paid off, leaving strong, memorable impressions on kids who were able to grow up with the series. The charm and impact of the original material came through, even with all the heavy editing that was necessary. Battle of the Planets' visuals and animation style from Japan, along with the uncommon, yet perfectly chosen voice cast and the phenomenal new music score added to the new production, quickly cemented it as an iconic series.

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Special thanks to Battle of the Planets producer Sandy Frank, head writer Jameson Brewer, actors Casey Kasem, Ronnie Schell, Janet Waldo, Alan Young and David Jolliffe, music composer Hoyt Curtin, supervising editor Franklin Cofod, music editor Igo Kantor and assistant voice director Alan Dinehart, as well as Fred Ladd, Phil May, Kenneth Urheim and Jimmy, Eve and June Valentine and Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd. for their invaluable information and assistance.