The☆Ultraman (ザ☆ウルトラマン Za Urutoraman) is the 8th entry in the Ultra Series. It is a Japanese animated television series co-produced by Tsuburaya Productions and Tokyo Broadcasting System. The series aired on TBS Television affiliates on the Wednesday 7:00 PM time slot from April 4, 1979 to March 26, 1980, lasting a total of 50 episodes. It was the eighth installment in the Ultra Series and aired four years after the end of Ultraman Leo. The show was the first animated incarnation of Tsuburaya's iconic superhero Ultraman, as well as one of the earliest works of anime studio Nippon Sunrise (now known simply as Sunrise), known for their now-iconic mecha series Mobile Suit Gundam created during the same year.
The Ultraman featured in this series is named Ultraman Joneus (ウルトラマンジョーニアス Urutoraman Jōniasu alternately spelled Ultraman Jonias), who is also called Ultraman Joe (ウルトラマンJ Urutoraman Jō) for short. Hhe hails from the Planet U40 (as opposed to the Land of Light in Nebula M78, where Ultra-beings usually came from).
Gary Morgan as Scotty Harrison (The Adventures of Ultraman) and Ultraman (The Adventures of Ultraman)
Steve Kramer as Chief Harris (Ultraman II)
Tom Wyner as Ultraman (Ultraman II)
Barbara Goodson as Lieutenant Anne Johnson (Ultraman II) and PDQ (Ultraman II)
Gladys Enright as Anya (The Adventures of Ultraman)
Joe Perry as Lieutenant Glenn (Ultraman II) and Lieutenant Marconi (Ultraman II)
Michael Dobson as Kei Marume (pilot)
Susan Harry Sprang as Lieutenant Nan Johnson (The Adventures of Ultraman)
Tom Wyner as Captain Adams (Ultraman II) and Narrator (Ultraman II)
Sean Reily as General Steel (The Adventures of Ultraman)
English versions
Japan Tonight!
The☆Ultraman on Japan Tonight! in 1980.
Japan Tonight! Host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi introducing Ultraman to American audiences in 1980.
In the United States, on April 5, 1980, episode #14 of The☆Ultraman aired on U.S. national television when New York superstation WOR-TV Channel 9 (now WWOR) aired it as the first part of "Japan Tonight!", a special seven hour block of programming from TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System), hosted by actor Telly Savalas. Japanese actress/author/talk show host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi introduced the episode surrounded by assorted Ultraman toys and merchandise while explaining to the American audience just who Ultraman is ("It's very, very popular in Japan - He's like your Superman."). The episode was dubbed into English by William Ross (Frontier Enterprises) in Japan and was sponsored by Bandai America.
The opening narration: "In a galaxy, which is millions of light-years away from us, the rulers of the star Ultra decided to send one of their men to Earth so that he could protect the people from the many space monsters that had suddenly started to appear at frequent intervals. But they could not very well send in Ultraman, as everyone would notice him because of his strange appearance. They therefore decided to use the vast resources of the star Ultra to implant the spirit of an Ultraman in the body of a young Space Force Trooper named Matt Gordon. In times of danger, Trooper Gordon can call upon these amazing Ultra powers and transform himself into Ultraman and still be able to keep his identity a secret from everyone else on Earth."
Ultraman Promo (1980)
Home Video
There has also been two feature-length movie compilations released for home video:
The Adventures of Ultraman (1981), a featured-length movie produced by Tsuburaya Productions specifically for the English-language market. The movie is composed of edited footage from several episodes at the end of of the series. The storyline was rewritten for this adaptation with a new script by Jeff Segal and music composed by Mark McKinniss.
The Adventures of Ultraman (1981) Trailer-1
Trans World Entertainment's release of Ultraman II.
Ultraman II: The Further Adventures of Ultraman (1983), a dub of the first four episodes co-produced by Tsuburaya Productions and Associates Entertainment International. Despite the title, it has no continuity with the previous English dub of the series. Although the translation is closer to the original Japanese scripts than the first movie, the characters' names were still changed (the names given to the characters are not the same ones used in the previous dub, though several are very similar). The order of the third and fourth episodes were also switched. Also, the opening title and end credits sequences for this release were textless (new U.S. credits were used) as well as being transposed and did not use the vocal tracks.
