As an Australian baby boomer kid in the early 1960s, Jet Jackson was eagerly watched after school on Channel 9. Yes, we too noticed how the actors' lips were out of sync whenever they said, "Jet Jackson". The myth sprang up that this was because it was too close to the 19th Century Australian bushranger (outlaw), Captain Moonlight. Now we now the truth - all about ownership rights to the original name after the show lost its original sponsor.
Now of course, Jet Jackson's adventures would be a great source of amusement,with its ra-ra Cold War rhetoric, and its earnest hand-on-heart patriotism that amuses us irreverent Aussies. Well maybe irreverent Americans too - I'm sure Jet Jackson inspired that great cartoon satire, Roger Ramjet. Jet had the Secret Squadron; Roger had the American Legion.
Jet Jackson's plane was definitely called The Silver Dart, and one of the oft-repeated lines was, "Icky, warm up the Silver Dart!" Sometimes they headed for the jungle but it was never shown quite how Ickabod Mudd (with two Ds) and Jet Jackson landed their jet/rocket powered plane in aforesaid jungle. Nor was it ever explained how just three people, Jet Jackson, the comic relief Ickabod Mudd and Tutt, the nerdy, bespectacled scientist, were able to run their secret base high on a lonely hill, nor what business or legacy allowed Jet Jackson to be the mega-wealthy, patriotic citizen defending our freedom against the enemies of America and the Free World. Same as how the Daily Planet, "a great metropolitan daily newspaper", was run by just four people: Clarke, Lois, Jimmy the kid,and cranky old editor Perry White.
Some Jet Jackson scenes will remain with me forever: I remember that the word "Russia" was taboo. In one scene, Jet Jackson was warning his listeners at a meeting that they were under grave threat from "a certain country, and I don't have to tell you what that country is." Lichtenstein? Burkina-Faso? Costa Rica? Of course, no one at the meeting says, "Oh, you don't mean Russia?"
In another scene, the baddies have Jet trapped in an ice works, and he is flapping around, desperately staving off freezing to death. He notices that blocks of ice are being dispensed by a vending machine outside. He takes out some wire and breaks it into pieces. What on earth is our hero doing? (Is this what inspired McGyver?)He fashions these into three characters, "SQ1", his code sign (naturally No. 1) in the Secret Squadron, and places it on the ice block. Outside, a little old lady who looks like Tweedie Pie's mother puts her nickel into the machine. To her astonishment, the ice block comes out with "SQ1" on it. Then she whips out her mini radio, and pulls out the aerial. You see, Granny is also a member of the Secret Squadron! Putting 2 and 2 together, (or rather S and Q and 1), like a trooper, she barks out,"SQ674 (or similar) calling SQ3!" SQ3 is Tutt and the old girl saves Jet, and Icky too, I think.There were no problems with coverage in those pre-transistor days.
It got a bit racist too. In one episode, Jet is flying in the Silver Dart next to his passenger, a Chinese gent whom our hero trusts as a freedom loving ally. However, it turns out that he is a dirty Commie who pulls out a gun and demands Jet fly him to his dirty Commie masters. Jet then pushes the stick forward and puts the Silver Dart into a vertical dive. The gun-toting Commie rat, either by virtue of his Commieness or Chineseness, or perhaps both, goes into overacting panic, then conveniently has a massive heart attack and dies. What a woos. Jet literally scares the yellow, spineless rat to death. The steely jawed Jet then pulls the Silver Dart out of the dive, a victor in this game of playing Chicken with the Dirty Commies, and thus demonstrating his moral, physical and perhaps racial superiority. Heady stuff.
The star Richard Webb certainly took himself very seriously. I wasn't surprised to learn that many years later, he had a bit too much to drink on an airliner and insisted to the flight crew that one of the other passengers was a Commie agent and must be arrested. Poor old Dickie was restrained and taken off the plane by police. "This way, Mr Webb. Those dirty Commies won't bother you any more!" Even as a kid, I got the impression that the actors who played Icky and Tutt must have found him difficult to work with. They were there for, respectively, comic relief and scientific credibility. Like the Professor in Gilligan's Island, Tutt was there to give a scientific explanation when needed. Perhaps he added credibility as well: "See Mum and Dad, this show IS educational! It's not just about flogging Ovaltine."
Poor old Tutt must have been lonely, with good old Jet and Icky being away most of the time saving the world. What did this white-coated boffin get up to when he wasn't beavering away in the lab? A jet base high atop a mountain can be a lonely place, especially at night. And no internet.
With Icky, I could never figure out why Jet chose this Lou Costello character to be his trusted right-hand man, nor how Icky had the wherewithal to maintain and co-pilot a piece of hi-tech kit like the Silver Dart. Maybe Jet wanted someone who was just smart enough to be useful but not too smart to threaten his job as Supreme Leader of the SS (Secret Squadron, of course.) Or maybe he picked him for his dress sense: dark tweed jacket,bow-tie and one-liners.
If anything, "Jet Jackson" or "Captain Midnight" is ample proof that brainwashing and marketing to kids while entertaining them is not just the preserve of one side of the political fence. It wasn't alone then, nor is it now.
Now of course, Jet Jackson's adventures would be a great source of amusement,with its ra-ra Cold War rhetoric, and its earnest hand-on-heart patriotism that amuses us irreverent Aussies. Well maybe irreverent Americans too - I'm sure Jet Jackson inspired that great cartoon satire, Roger Ramjet. Jet had the Secret Squadron; Roger had the American Legion.
Jet Jackson's plane was definitely called The Silver Dart, and one of the oft-repeated lines was, "Icky, warm up the Silver Dart!" Sometimes they headed for the jungle but it was never shown quite how Ickabod Mudd (with two Ds) and Jet Jackson landed their jet/rocket powered plane in aforesaid jungle. Nor was it ever explained how just three people, Jet Jackson, the comic relief Ickabod Mudd and Tutt, the nerdy, bespectacled scientist, were able to run their secret base high on a lonely hill, nor what business or legacy allowed Jet Jackson to be the mega-wealthy, patriotic citizen defending our freedom against the enemies of America and the Free World. Same as how the Daily Planet, "a great metropolitan daily newspaper", was run by just four people: Clarke, Lois, Jimmy the kid,and cranky old editor Perry White.
Some Jet Jackson scenes will remain with me forever: I remember that the word "Russia" was taboo. In one scene, Jet Jackson was warning his listeners at a meeting that they were under grave threat from "a certain country, and I don't have to tell you what that country is." Lichtenstein? Burkina-Faso? Costa Rica? Of course, no one at the meeting says, "Oh, you don't mean Russia?"
In another scene, the baddies have Jet trapped in an ice works, and he is flapping around, desperately staving off freezing to death. He notices that blocks of ice are being dispensed by a vending machine outside. He takes out some wire and breaks it into pieces. What on earth is our hero doing? (Is this what inspired McGyver?)He fashions these into three characters, "SQ1", his code sign (naturally No. 1) in the Secret Squadron, and places it on the ice block. Outside, a little old lady who looks like Tweedie Pie's mother puts her nickel into the machine. To her astonishment, the ice block comes out with "SQ1" on it. Then she whips out her mini radio, and pulls out the aerial. You see, Granny is also a member of the Secret Squadron! Putting 2 and 2 together, (or rather S and Q and 1), like a trooper, she barks out,"SQ674 (or similar) calling SQ3!" SQ3 is Tutt and the old girl saves Jet, and Icky too, I think.There were no problems with coverage in those pre-transistor days.
It got a bit racist too. In one episode, Jet is flying in the Silver Dart next to his passenger, a Chinese gent whom our hero trusts as a freedom loving ally. However, it turns out that he is a dirty Commie who pulls out a gun and demands Jet fly him to his dirty Commie masters. Jet then pushes the stick forward and puts the Silver Dart into a vertical dive. The gun-toting Commie rat, either by virtue of his Commieness or Chineseness, or perhaps both, goes into overacting panic, then conveniently has a massive heart attack and dies. What a woos. Jet literally scares the yellow, spineless rat to death. The steely jawed Jet then pulls the Silver Dart out of the dive, a victor in this game of playing Chicken with the Dirty Commies, and thus demonstrating his moral, physical and perhaps racial superiority. Heady stuff.
The star Richard Webb certainly took himself very seriously. I wasn't surprised to learn that many years later, he had a bit too much to drink on an airliner and insisted to the flight crew that one of the other passengers was a Commie agent and must be arrested. Poor old Dickie was restrained and taken off the plane by police. "This way, Mr Webb. Those dirty Commies won't bother you any more!" Even as a kid, I got the impression that the actors who played Icky and Tutt must have found him difficult to work with. They were there for, respectively, comic relief and scientific credibility. Like the Professor in Gilligan's Island, Tutt was there to give a scientific explanation when needed. Perhaps he added credibility as well: "See Mum and Dad, this show IS educational! It's not just about flogging Ovaltine."
Poor old Tutt must have been lonely, with good old Jet and Icky being away most of the time saving the world. What did this white-coated boffin get up to when he wasn't beavering away in the lab? A jet base high atop a mountain can be a lonely place, especially at night. And no internet.
With Icky, I could never figure out why Jet chose this Lou Costello character to be his trusted right-hand man, nor how Icky had the wherewithal to maintain and co-pilot a piece of hi-tech kit like the Silver Dart. Maybe Jet wanted someone who was just smart enough to be useful but not too smart to threaten his job as Supreme Leader of the SS (Secret Squadron, of course.) Or maybe he picked him for his dress sense: dark tweed jacket,bow-tie and one-liners.
If anything, "Jet Jackson" or "Captain Midnight" is ample proof that brainwashing and marketing to kids while entertaining them is not just the preserve of one side of the political fence. It wasn't alone then, nor is it now.
