The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers

"Galaxy Rangers" redirects here. You may be looking for Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, also known by the international title "Galaxy Rangers".

The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
DVD box cover
Genre	Space Western Action/Adventure
Created by	Robert Mandell
Voices of	Robert Bottone Alexander Marshall Maia Danziger Corinne Orr Laura Dean Jerry Orbach Earl Hammond Ray Owens Hubert Kelly Doug Preis Henry Mandell
Composer(s)	Phil Galdston, John Van Tongeren, Peter Wetzler
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	65 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Abe Mandell
Producer(s)	Robert Mandell Bob Chrestani
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Gaylord Entertainment Company
Release
Original network	First-run syndication
Original release	September 14 – December 11, 1986
External links
Website

The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers is an American animated Space Western television series created by Robert Mandell and Gaylord Entertainment Company. It was broadcast in syndication between 1986 and 1989. The series combines sci-fi stories with traditional wild west themes. It is one of the first anime-style shows produced mainly in the United States, although the actual animation was done by the Japanese animation studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha. At the time it aired, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers was considered a revolutionary children's show.

Plot

The show is set in the future, some time after the year 2086, when two aliens from the planets Andor and Kirwin travel to Earth to search for allies against the expansionist Crown Empire led by the Queen of the Crown. In return for the help, the two aliens gave mankind construction plans for a hyperdrive device. After this key event in human history, interstellar travel flourished and a huge number of colonies emerged in distant star-systems. Alongside the growth of human activities in space, criminal activities also grew, and the new colonies required defense against various threats, including the Crown Empire. A group known as "BETA" (Bureau for Extra-Terrestrial Affairs) was founded to cope with these tasks, with a "Ranger" division being a part of it.

Most of the colonies portrayed in the show specialized in either agriculture or mining "star stones". Many of the planets on the show have names that evoke ideas of a Western setting, Nebraska, Mesa, Ozark, and Prairie being a few.

BETA is shown to be the major military and exploratory arm of Earth. The organization's headquarters are on Earth. BETA sustains several bases on and around Earth, such as the Longshot Research Facility in the Grand Canyon and the BETA space station in Earth's orbit.

The Series-5 Brain Implant, or S5 is implied to be the closest mankind will ever get to merging with cybernetics. The S5 implant enables a dramatic boost of innate abilities due to its unique conversion of bio-electrical power generated by alpha radiation stored within the badges worn by the Galaxy Rangers.

The Crown Empire, also known as the "Crown," is ruled by the Queen of the Crown, whose intentions and motivations are described as being evil. She controls a large number of planets in a vast section of the galaxy, all of which she rules as a cruel tyrant. The Queen controls her empire using creatures called Slaver Lords with whom she has a psychic link. Slaver Lords derive their power from the psychic energy of other beings. After the Empire encountered humans, the Queen discovered that they were more suitable for energy extraction than any other previously encountered species.

Characters

Main article: List of The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers characters

Episodes

Main article: List of The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers episodes

Theme songs

"No Guts, No Glory"

The theme song for the show, "No Guts, No Glory", was featured in the opening credits preceded by a spoken introduction. The song was written and composed by Phil Galdston and John Van Tongeren, and performed by Van Tongeren using the stage name Johnny Vancouver. The song was also featured in the end credits for episodes 1-35 and episode 37.

"Rangers Ride Forever"

The song "Rangers Ride Forever" (commonly known as "Rangers Are Forever"), which featured as the end theme for episodes 36 and 38-65 was performed by the UK rock/AOR band FM, whose lead singer is Steve Overland. FM also performed the song "Showdown" (commonly referred to as "Out Beyond The Stars") which was included as foreground music in several episodes. Both songs were written and composed by brothers Steve and Chris Overland.

DVD releases

Koch Entertainment currently owns the DVD distributions rights to Galaxy Rangers through Koch Vision. Four Galaxy Rangers DVDs, each containing four episodes, were released in the United States. Koch has released the entire series which consists of two box sets. The first set was released on May 13, 2008 and the second set was released on August 19, 2008

KSM Film in Germany released the series on DVD in 5 episode volumes from May to November 2005, 25 episode volumes from April to August 2006, a complete set in June 2008 with a Blu-ray version released in November 2012.

Reception

The show has become a cult favorite and been considered innovative and ahead of its time. It had a unique sense of humor, and each character was well defined, without the trait of clichés to sell toys which many such shows had at the time.

See also

• BraveStarr
• Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders

Further reading

• The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers Annual 1989 ISBN 0-948936-88-6

External links

• The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers at IMDb
• The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers at TV.com
• The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers at the Comic Book DB
• The Hearst Animation Official Galaxy Rangers Website
• Toonopedia - Galaxy Rangers

• Terrace, Vincent (2009). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2007 (Volume 1). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3305-6.