Summer was once the pure providence of reruns. In my youth, I
used to emerge from the house for at least three months out of
the year thanks to the television networks' policy of redundancy.
Now, though--with a hundred thousand cable networks scrambling
for a chunk of the coaxial--the "summer series" is becoming
more and more of a regular event. This week alone, we'll see premieres
for "Stressed Eric," "The Upright Citizen's Brigade"
and "That '70s Show." Oh well, who needs sunshine and
fresh air anyway?
MTV, never one to stick with conventional TV "seasons"
anyway, has launched several new series this summer. One of the
most recent (and certainly one of the more twisted) is "Super
Adventure Team." The acronym-named "S.A.T."
sprung forth from the crazed minds of writer Robert Cohen
and comedian Dana Gould. The dynamic duo met several years ago
while working on "The Ben Stiller Show." According to
official documents, "their love of puppetry, lack of dates
and servitude to 'The Ben Stiller Show' led to the godless creation
(known as 'Super Adventure Team')."
"Super Adventure Team" concerns the members of a high-tech
action/adventure team--all of whom seem to spend more time dealing
with assorted sexual peccadillos than they do saving the universe.
The team is led by lantern-jawed idiot Colonel Buck Murdock, who
manages to look the hero no matter how badly he screws up each
S.A.T. mission. Murdock's love of adventure is matched only by
his love for the flame-haired Talia Criswell. While Murdock and
Talia are rolling in the sack, Talia's husband--the brilliant
but clueless Dr. Benton Criswell--remains steadfastly locked in
a state of deep denial. Rounding out the team are the trigger-happy,
Murdock-hating Major Landon West and the sexually confused Chief
Engineer Head. Aside from being severely dysfunctional, the team
is also composed entirely of marionettes!
For those with long memories (or exceptionally geeky ones), "S.A.T."
is easily recognized as a cruel parody of Brit puppeteer Gerry
Anderson's long-lost "Supermarionation" series "Thunderbirds."
Way back in the 1960s, Anderson used a bunch of creepy latex-faced
marionettes to tell the tale of the space-spanning heroes, the
Thunderbirds. S.A.T. are a thinly veiled riff on the old Thunderbirds
team with plenty of sex thrown in for good 1990s measure. Whether
they're rescuing the president's plane from the side of an exploding
volcano or protecting the planet from an enraged alien, the team
always finds time to sleep around on each other, engage in a
little backstabbing and otherwise corrupt the spirit of teamwork.
Mix one part "Star Trek," one part "Melrose Place"
and one part "Howdy Doody" and you've got a recipe for
TV's newest cult hit. Join the Super Adventure Team now!
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