Four Feather Falls
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| Four Feather Falls | |
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 DVD Cover |
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| Format | Supermarionation western adventure |
| Created by | Gerry Anderson Barry Gray |
| Starring | Nicholas Parsons |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 39 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 13 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Original run | February 25, 1960 – November 17, 1960 |
Four Feather Falls was the third puppet TV show produced by Gerry Anderson for Granada Television, from an idea by Barry Gray. Gray, most noted as a composer who created the theme songs for many of the Andersons' creations, also wrote the first episode.
The series is set in the late 19th Century Western town of Four Feather Falls, Kansas and features the adventures of its Sheriff Tex Tucker. In the first episode, Grandpa Twink relates the story of how it all began to grandson, Little Jake.
Tex is riding up from the valley and comes across a lost and hungry Indian boy, Makooya and saves him. Later when reunited with his father, Tex is given four magic feathers by Indian Chief Kalamakooya as a reward for saving his son, Makooya. Two of these feathers allow his guns to swivel and fire automatically (often while Tex's hands are raised) and the other two allow his horse (Rocky) and his dog (Dusty) to speak English. As Tex, his horse and dog are very thirsty, Kalamakooya also makes a waterfall where there had been no water before and so when the town was built, it was named after Tex's feathers and the waterfalls.
The show was made on a tight budget and could not afford sophisticated special effects. To achieve the effect of the guns' muzzle flashes, small specks of black paint were carefully applied to the 35 mm negatives, so that they would appear as white flashes on the prints.
The series was the first to use an early version of Anderson's Supermarionation puppetry process, although the term wouldn't be coined until Anderson's next series, Supercar. The original puppets produced for the series were made by Christine Glanville and had papier-mâché heads and nothing moved so unless a puppet moved up and down, you could not tell which one was talking. This was unsatisfactory to Anderson and he had some hollow fibre glass heads made, with rods inside which could move the eyes (though the puppets could not blink) and wires which with a 12 volt current could move the mouths.
The wires used to control the puppets were eight feet long and made of tungsten (an improvement on the curtain wire used in the two earlier series) and were only 1/200 of an inch thick. Being shiny, the wires had to be blackened optically. The puppets were made one third life size with the puppeteers on a bridge eight feet above the set. The horses moved by being pulled along on a trolley which meant you never saw their feet when they were moving.
Anderson approached singer Michael Holliday for a song for the show and paid him £2,000 for it. Tommy Reilly played the harmonica/mouth organ music for it, and for Tex Tucker when he played a mouth organ in the show. A number of people had been brought in for the voices and Denise Bryer suggested her husband for the voice of Tex Tucker. When Anderson asked if he had had any stage experience, she revealed that her husband's name was Nicholas Parsons. Anderson liked Parsons' voice and he got the job.
The waterfall in the pilot episode was produced by making a model version of a library film of a waterfall available to Anderson and fading from the model to the film of a waterfall running, so the water seemed to appear by magic. A lot of fantastic scenery and buildings were produced by Reg Hill, his carpenter Bill James and an assistant, Bob Bell. Anderson said that Bob Bell got arrested while getting shrubs and trees for the show by taking cuttings in a local park. Reg Hill meanwhile got hold of huge chunks of coal and painted them white for rocks for the mountain and desert scenery. Shortly afterwards polystyrene appeared and Hill then carved his own "rocks" from this and painted them grey. The show was filmed in a mansion on the side of the River Thames in Leatherhead. The film used was not very sensitive and under the strong lights needed, something would start to smoke if left there too long.
Pedro was introduced as a villain in the first show and was teamed up with Fernando by the second show, so someone to talk to, to plan with, to blame when things went wrong as they always did. Big Ben was another villain who appeared from time to time, and Red Scalp, the renegade Indian, since it was a western show. Other villains turned up for just one episode.
The characters of the town were Grandpa Twink who did little but rest in a chair, Little Jake the only child in town, Ma Jones who run the town store, Doc Haggerty, Slim Jim the bartender of the Denison saloon, Marvin Jackson the bank manager and Dan Morse the telegraphist. Other characters appeared from time to time, for one episode, often just visiting town.
The series has not been repeated in Britain since the 1960s. In December 2004 it was announced that the rights had been acquired by Network Video, and was released on three Region 2 DVDs in May 2005. It is the only Supermarionation series not yet released to DVD in North America as of January 2006. Two British children's annuals were produced based on the show published by Collins in 1960 and 1961. They were both written by Sylvia Anderson and the first one featured a short text story based on the pilot episode of the TV series.
While making the first show, a man from Granada appeared and had Anderson sign some papers which he unfortunately did not read first, and so he signed over all rights to the series to Granada. After its cancellation by Granada Gerry Anderson was approached by Lew Grade to make puppet shows for ATV. Had Anderson failed to accept, later series such as Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons might never have been made. The rights to the series remained with Granada until Carlton's recent acquisition of the company. Almost all future Anderson productions were sold to Grade's ITC Entertainment. Grade also part-owned Anderson's AP Films (which later became Century 21 Productions.
- Made by AP Films with Director - Gerry Anderson, Director of Photography by Arthur Provis, Art director by Reg Hill, Special Effects by John Read. Puppetry by Christine Glanville, Mary Turner and Roger Woodburn. Editorial Supervision by David Elliot, Production Supervision by Jim Marsh, Film Editor was Bert Rule. Dubbing Editor was John Kelly, Continuity by Sylvia Thamm (later married and became Sylvia Anderson). Technical Advisor was Bob Ledbetter. Screenplay was by Mary Cathcart Borer.
- Voice Cast:
- Nicholas Parsons as Tex Tucker.
- Denise Bryer as Ma Jones and Little Jake.
- Kenneth Connor as Rocky, Dusty, Pedro.
- David Graham as Grandpa Twink and Fernando.
Barry Gray, the show's inspirator, also composed the music for the series. The best known song to come out of the series was "Four Feather Falls", sung in some episodes by Michael Holliday in the style of Bing Crosby. This song is sometimes described as the theme song to the series, but it was not as another song referring to the Tex Tucker character actually opened the episodes. The closing theme song was "Two Gun Tex of Texas".
[edit] External links
- FANDERSON The official Gerry Anderson appreciation society site.
- Nostalgia Central.
- Television Heaven feature
- Four Feather Falls at ClassicKidsTV.co.uk
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