ANOTHER unaired G-Force pilot ep?

Greetings ya'll, it's been a while! Glad to see some activity in the wake of Gatch's 40 anniversary. I've been "celebrating" the occasion by continuing the epic project I've been embarking on since August: digitizing my VHS collection of G-Force episodes (all 6 of them, containing most of the 85 episodes) to PC via a nifty DVD recorder I scored not too long ago! Not only will I be fulfilling a long-time goal (I bought these tapes well over four years ago), but it'll be a victory for the handful of fans of Gatch's red-headed stepchild.

That notwithstanding, I just made an interesting discovery on a random Google search. As you may (or may not remember), "G-Force" had two sets of pilot episodes (one unaired, the other aired, both based off of Gatch Episodes 18 and 87) that featured noticeably different music that was not retained for the rest of the show's episodes. They were put together as demonstration pilots by Fred Ladd's "Sparklin' Entertainment", whom Turner Program Services contracted and eventually put on to the project in 1986.

Around the same time period (mid-to-late 1986), it appears that Turner contracted another production company, media360group, to put together a test pilot for "G-Force". media360group faced more restrictions producing their pilot however, as they were allowed no access to scripts, translated or otherwise. They did whip up new music and sfx which sounds well.....totally' 80's. Here is a snippet of their pilot episode, which predominantly features Ryu The Horned Owl not as "Hoot Owl" or "Hootie"....but "Quintin":

http://youtu.be/OA9M2r9UCeU

Comments? I've contacted the company with an inquiry regarding their work on "G-Force", and am patiently awaiting their response!

Thanks for posting
very interesting, not sure about the voices though...

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Thanks for sharing, Dirk! Surprises never end!

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Some more info from media360group:

The G-Force pilot was created in 1985 under contract with Turner Program Services ["TPS"], the program development division of TBS. At that time, Lee Turner was the contracting officer for TPS. Lee, no relation to Ted, has since retired. Prudence Eddy was Turner's Exec. Producer for the project.

Bill Anderson and Steve Bell, Co-Founders and Senior Partners of our firm, were the primary creators. (At that time, the firm was known as AVS.) Bill led concept development, wrote most of the script and directed the voice talent. Steve contributed to the script, scored and performed the entire original music track (with Bill contributing guitar tracks) and co-produced the voice recording sessions with Bill.

Audio was recorded @ JBS Studios, Avondale, Ga. Brad Jones served as chief audio engineer. Final layback and video conform was completed at Crawford Post Production, Atlanta.

Primary Cast included:

Don Spalding - Lucas
Doug Paul - Quintin, Commander Tiros, Narrator
John Ferguson - David, Commander Zol, Timmy
Barry Stoltze - Jason, Professor Nicholas, Newsman
Faith Salie - Rachel

Although Turner was elated with the pilot, a mutually acceptable series production contract proved to be elusive. Apparently, Turner revisited the G-Force property in the mid-90s, but without the involvement of our firm.

media360group's pilot was based off of Gatch Episode 26 (the one with Ryu's brief departure from the team and the mechanical sting rays).

My guess is that:

Ken=Lucas
Joe= David
Jun= Rachel
Jinpei= Timmy
Ryu= Quintin
Nambu= Prof. Nicholas
Katse= Commander Tiros (with Hol as the lieutenant)

Oh, what could've been!

fascinating... oh if only something could have come of it, and brought our favorite show to a new generation!

I must agree about the voices though, but could have got used to them.

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quote:

Originally posted by Dirk Daring My guess is that: Ken=Lucas Joe= David Jun= Rachel Jinpei= Timmy Ryu= Quintin Nambu= Prof. Nicholas Katse= Commander Tiros (with Hol as the lieutenant) Oh, what could've been!

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Keep in mind that Ep. 26 prominently featured Ryu's younger brother, which may have been "David" or "Timmy".

Some more info:

"the Turner people were absolutely great; totally pro all the way. They worked so hard with us to try to make it happen. Everyone was on board with the creative. The issue really boiled down to the cost of the technology/production processes required to execute the creative. In those days, rooms full of very expensive gear were needed to do what can now be done on a PC. Nevertheless, we will always be grateful for the opportunity. It was our first TV pilot and it opened doors to other opportunities."

Sounds like Turner Program Services was looking for a company who'd be able to produce "G-Force" for the cheapest price tag. This coincides with the anecdotes I'd read from Dean Andre, who mentioned that the production was both low-budgeted and tightly scheduled (85 episodes dubbed over 3 months!). media360group would've definitely provided a better soundtrack, but Fred Ladd's dubbing expertise resulted in better voices and dialogue.

quote:

Originally posted by Dirk Daring My guess is that: Ken=Lucas Joe= David Jun= Rachel Jinpei= Timmy Ryu= Quintin Nambu= Prof. Nicholas Katse= Commander Tiros (with Hol as the lieutenant) Oh, what could've been!

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