G-Force: Guardians of Space

G-Force: Guardians of Space (1986) is the second American animated television adaptation of the Japanese anime series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972), following Sandy Frank Entertainment's initial 1978 effort Battle of the Planets and preceding ADV Films' 2005 attempt, known merely as Gatchaman. With G-Force, Sandy Frank Entertainment collaborated with Turner Broadcasting to create a newer, more faithful translation of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman for a new audience, and such a translation was made possible with the relaxed television standards of the 1980s, a luxury that the more Star Wars-themed Battle of the Planets did not enjoy.^{[citation needed]}

In the show, five teenagers—Ace Goodheart, Dirk Daring, Agatha June, Pee Wee and Hoot Owl—battle the aliens Galactor and Computor for the fate of the planet Earth.

"[Singers: G-Force!]
Narrator: Five teenage champions! G-Force: Guardians of Space! Fighting for good over evil, fighting to defend planet Earth from deadly enemies from space. Ace Goodheart: leader of the team. Strong, vigilant, fearless as a hawk, guarding the four young agents under his command. Dirk Daring: Second-in-Command. A crack marksman with the eye of an eagle and nerves of steel. Agatha June: Flies like a dove, strikes like a falcon. A match for the strongest on the team. Hoot Owl: "Hoot" to his friends. Wise-cracking navigator who flies the amazing rocket ship Phoenix and laughs at danger. Pee Wee: Small and bold as a merlin, the tiniest hawk of them all. These are the adventures of G-Force, five secret agents trained to fly like birds. G-Force: Guardians of Space!
[Singers: G-Force!]

During the early-to-mid 1980s, Sandy Frank Entertainment's Battle of the Planets (or BotP) was gradually being phased off the air after a successful number of years in syndication. Television stations began relegating the show to early morning time slots (as typically done with programming on its way off the air) before dispensing of it altogether. During this period Ted Turner's cable network TBS (then known as "SuperStation WTBS") also aired the show on their channel (albeit in a slightly more edited form, with cuts for time constraints), and by 1984, WTBS was more or less the exclusive home of BotP before they too dispensed of it around 1985, effectively ending the lengthy run of Battle of the Planets on U.S television.

With Battle of the Planets having run its course, Sandy Frank, still holding the domestic rights to the first Gatchaman series, continued to market BotP wherever they could while seeking ways to continue making use of their license. Interest came from the part of Turner Broadcasting (who was the last to air BotP on a wide scale on their TBS network) in creating a newer, more faithful adaptation of Gatchaman, which would be easier to accomplish with the newly relaxed television standards of the Reagan era-1980s. (Themes such as violence, death and destruction in cartoons were heavily edited during the 1970s.) Turner executives believed that the series still had potential, and in turn acquired the rights from Sandy Frank to begin work on what would come to be known as G-Force (the same title given to the collective group of protagonists in Battle of the Planets, which in turn would be used for the same purpose on the new version).

To develop this project, Turner enlisted the help of Fred Ladd, a pioneer in the field of translating and distributing Japanese animation in the U.S (with famous works such as Astro Boy, Gigantor & Kimba the White Lion, under his belt) to produce the adaptation. Ladd had previously been offered to produce Battle of the Planets by Sandy Frank himself a few years before, but passed on the offer due to location conflicts; Ladd was working out of New York City at the time, while BotP was being produced in California. Ladd, through his production company "Sparklin' Entertainment", put together two "test" pilot episodes chosen by Turner (see Episode order), and sent them in for approval. Within days, Ladd and his company were given the greenlight to produce the adaptation, and work on G-Force began in the fall of 1986. Despite it being handled by Turner & Fred Ladd, Sandy Frank ultimately held the copyrights to the show (along with international distribution rights), while Turner, through its subsidiary Turner Program Services, and King Features Entertainment (a subsidiary of Hearst Corporation; now Hearst Communications) held limited distribution and syndication rights.

For Turner's G-Force, none of Battle of the Planets' original elements (such as 7-Zark-7, 1-Rover-1, the concept of space travel and space battles and all of the added American footage) were retained, preferably replaced with a more accurate translation of the original Gatchaman series with far fewer alterations. Most of the plot, backstories, violence and deaths remained intact, only edited or "softened" with added dialogue where it was too explicit (i.e., certain on-screen gun usage, deaths via firearms and/or overly violent means and inter-team violence).^{[citation needed]}

An all-new music score was composed (by composer Dean Andre) for G-Force. The score retained some of the original, 1970s Gatchaman score.