I'm watching this old 80s cartoon on youtube. It is a western themed scifi/action adventure show. The Galaxy Rangers each have a series 5 implant that grants them a special ability. The leader has a half cyborg body that shoots an energy beam when he activates his implant. There is a psychic chick, a computer expert, and a super soldier named Goose. He is sort of modeled after Clint Eastwood. His ability is to develop a bio-defense/adaptation to any danger or environmental condition. They fly around in a spaceship that has little attachable modules. Goose usually flies a fighter. Two aliens came to Earth and brought the technology of hyperdrive so their ship and Goose's fighter can travel all over the local area of the galaxy. They fight various villains, but their main enemy is the Queen. She tries to kill them in new ways all the time. I'm enjoying the show. Has anyone else here seen it?
I saw it when it originally aired in syndication back in '86 and it was one of my favorite shows of that year. Haven't seen it since then, so my memory's fuzzy about the details, but I remember it having pretty good animation for an '80s cartoon and one of the first to use real computer graphics here and there. It was also one of the few action cartoons that wasn't originally built around a toyline (I think one came after the show premiered). Yeah, I just went and ordered the first DVD collection, something I've been meaning to do for some time...
I also watched the show back in the 80s. I picked up volume one, but it is still in my backlog. I really should check it out to see how the show holds up.
It was the best of the spate of animated SF Westerns that came along within a year or two of each other, the others being Filmation's Bravestarr and the anime import Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs. It was a pretty sophisticated show for its day. I've got it in my Netflix queue.
i read the Marvel UK comics back in the 80s before they showed the toon in the 90s on ITV. (still have them in fact). The computer bloke was Walter 'Doc' Smith, his implant boosted his computer skills, Niko was the psychic chick who's implant boosted her powers and Zachary Foxx was the leader. the villains were Lazarus Slade, a human with a bionic eye that shot laser blasts, Captain Kidd, a bird-like alien pirate and the evil Queen of the Crown and her robotic Crown Agents. the Rangers also rode cybernetic horses. personally, i thought it was a far better SF/Western fusion than Firefly.
And Zachary Fox was played by Jerry Orbach. That's right, the future Lennie Briscoe from Law and Order. One of the ways this show was ahead of its time was that its producers deliberately cast actors who were more naturalistic performers than the clear, announcer-type voices that were then standard in animation.
Is that where Bruce Timm got the idea when it popularized getting TV and theater actors to do voices for the DCAU shows?
I have no idea what Bruce Timm's thought processes were. But there were other shows in the interim that were part of the same trend. If anything, it was probably The Simpsons more than anything else that convinced name actors it was cool to do animation. And it wasn't unprecedented before Galaxy Rangers for theater actors to do voice work. For instance, Rene Auberjonois (mainly a stage actor at the time) did plenty of voices for Hanna-Barbera shows in the '70s and '80s. And many career voice actors were also experienced TV character actors, for instance Alan Oppenheimer and Howard Morris. It was just less common for big-name actors to make the crossover.
I remember the show vaguely. Is that the one where they press a button (their sheriff badge?) and, for example, the main guy's arm powers up? Did that show have blue (?) robots as bad guys too? Or am I thinking of another show. Sabre Rider had brown-coloured bad guys didn't they?
They pushed their badge to activate their implant. There were blue robots as cannon fodder types. There were also alien villains like the Black Hole Gang.