Four Feather Falls
Four Feather Falls is a 1960 television series created by Gerry Anderson, who would later acquire fame for shows such as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Stingray and Fireball XL5.
Overview
The series takes place in the town of Four Feather Falls in Kansas, sometime in the 19th century. The show revolved around Tex Tucker, the town sheriff who could utilise four magic feathers given to him by a Red Indian chieftain in thanks for rescuing his son. These feathers Tex would use to stop the machinations of the devious outlaw Pedro and his partner Fernando.
Cast
- Nicholas Parsons as Tex Tucker, the sheriff of Four Feather Falls, Kansas, who is able to use four magical feathers given to him by a Red Indian when in danger. Two feathers allow his gun to fire by itself, whilst the other two allow his horse and his dog to speak English
- Denise Bryer as Ma Jones, an elderly resident of the town, and Little Jake, a young boy encapsulated by the stories about Tex
- Kenneth Connor as Rocky, Tex's horse, Dusty, Tex's dog, and outlaw Pedro. Connor would go on to become a star of the popular Carry On film series
- David Graham as Grandpa Twink, Jake's kindly grandfather, and Fernando, partner-in-crime with Pedro
Production
The series was developed from an idea proposed by Barry Gray, who composed all music for all of the Supermarionation series. Gray also wrote the script for a pilot episode, which was later developed into a series by Gerry Anderson.
Four Feather Falls was first broadcast on February 25, 1960 on ITV, and ran for 39 minutes (each at 13 minutes length) until November 17, 1960.
The show introduced an advanced form of puppetry that would later become known as Supermarionation. Despite showing many traits of the technique, Four Feather Falls is generally overlooked as a Supermarionation series as the term was not coined until Anderson's next project, Supercar.
Comics
The adventures of Four Feather Falls continued in comic-book form after the end of the series, running until 1962. The strips were drawn to deliberately resemble the original television series, thus making the characters seem bulky and surreal.[1]
