Mighty Jack (マイティジャック Maiti Jakku) was a tokusatsu SF/espionage/action TV series. Created by Japanese effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya, the show was produced by Tsuburaya Productions. It was broadcast on Fuji TV from April 6, 1968 to June 29, 1968, every week on Saturday, from 20:00 to 20:56 with a total of 13 one-hour episodes. After broadcasting Episode 13, the show was renamed Fight! Mighty Jack, and 26 half-hour episodes aired from 9th July from 28th December every Saturday from 19:00 to 19:30 (JST)
Overview
The music for the episodes was done by Isao Tomita and Kunio Miyauchi. Reportedly, Eiji Tsuburaya considered this series his masterwork because the focus was on the people rather than on the vehicles and special effects (the show never had any monsters or aliens, as his more famous shows Ultra Q, Ultraman and Ultraseven did.) This focus on the people was similar to the works of Gerry Anderson, of which Eiji was a big fan. The Mighty Jack mecha/HQ featured in this series also has some similarities to Eiji's previous TV masterpiece, Ultraseven.
The original series of 13 one hour-long episodes, the ratings were low. The follow-up series, Fight! Mighty Jack, fared better in the ratings, perhaps because of its inclusion of monsters and aliens rather than purely human evil-doers like Q. The insignia of the titular heroic spy team has also become the current logo for Tsuburaya Productions.
Plot
"Mighty Jack" is a top-secret international peacekeeping organisation's 11 agents, established for the purpose of "defense", "construction" and "rescue". They fight the plots of the organisation known as "Q" with the technologically advanced flying Mighty-Gō, armed with an array of weapons. The show incorporated spy and mecha themes.
Cast
- Hideaki Nitani
- Hiroshi Minami
- Naoko Kubo
- Akiyoshi Kasuga
- Wakako Ikeda
- Masanari Nihei
- Hideyo Amamoto
- Masayoshi Fukuoka
- Yoshitaka Tanaka
- Noriaka Inoue
- Mitsuru Ōya
- Gorō Mutsu
- Anne Marie
- Jirō Yanaga
Mighty Jack in the US
In 1986, American producer Sandy Frank took the first and sixth episodes of Mighty Jack (without any of the episodes that were released in between) and combined them into a dubbed, feature-length film of the same title. The movie gained its widest exposure in the United States when it was shown as a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode on Comedy Central (originally shown on the UHF station KTMA TV 23during the show's KTMA season). [1]
External links
Mystery Science Theater 3000
- "Mystery Science Theater 3000" Mighty Jack (TV episode 1989) at the Internet Movie Database
- "Mystery Science Theater 3000" Mighty Jack (TV episode 1991) at the Internet Movie Database
- Episode guide: K14- Mighty Jack
- Episode guide: 314- Mighty Jack
