#Colonel bleep series#
#Colonel bleep tv#

Travelogues featured the trio visiting areas such as the Belgian Congo or New Orleans, with no substantial conflict. Training episodes would often follow a format of binary oppositions in which the savvy learner Scratch would follow Bleep's instructions while the hotshot Squeak blew off his duties and got himself into trouble. The accuracy of the science varied widely from episode to episode.Įpisodes could follow any number of formats. Interplanetary travel was facilitated by robots, and a space station, X-1, served as a transportation hub.

#Colonel bleep series#

Occasionally, the planet Futura and its denizens would be seen most of the series took place within Earth's solar system, with various intelligent life forms existing on most planets. The series drew heavy influence from the Space Age of its time. Squeak, other than his unexplained sentience and ability to move on his own, had no identifiable superpowers. Scratch's main weapons were his superhuman strength and a large club. His helicopter could also be pressed into service as a drill or auger. The amount of futomic energy Colonel Bleep could absorb at any given time was finite, and in a few episodes he runs out of energy and becomes vulnerable there were also situations where the heat that the futomic beam generated would pose a hazard and make it an unsuitable choice. The antennae shot beams of 'futomic energy' (a portmanteau of future and atomic), which could manifest itself in any number of ways, most commonly as a raygun. The propeller, used in conjunction with Bleep's ever-present unicycle, helped propel the creature through space. Together, the three establish a base at Zero Zero Island in the Atlantic Ocean to protect Earth's solar system from extraterrestrial threats.Ĭolonel Bleep was typically seen with a transparent bubble as a helmet, with a helicopter-like propeller and two antennae. Representing the present day is Squeak, a cowboy puppet toy and former actor that can move on his own volition but cannot speak (as a puppet, he cannot speak on his own this conceit was eventually abandoned, and Squeak spoke-albeit rarely-in some of the later episodes). Upon reaching Earth, Bleep commissions Scratch as a deputy, with Bleep representing the future and Scratch the past. The Futurians, an alien race with heads shaped like Reuleaux triangles and small, slender bodies, send one of their own, Colonel Bleep, to investigate. In 1945, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are noticed by two figures: Scratch, a caveman from a vague prehistoric era who had been asleep since the last Stone Age and was awakened by the bombings and the denizens of the exoplanet Futura. Of these episodes, 44 episodes are known to exist in some form, eight of which are only available in monochrome. One hundred episodes, of varying length of between three and six minutes each, were produced.

#Colonel bleep tv#

The show was originally syndicated in 1957 as a segment on Uncle Bill's TV Club.

Buchanan, and was animated by Soundac, Inc.

Top row (L-R): Squeak, Scratch, Colonel Bleepīottom row (L-R): Black Patch, the Black Knight of Pluto, Bruto the Black RobotĬolonel Bleep is a 1957 American animated TV series, which was the first color cartoon series made for television.