Spiral Zone

1987

Spiral Zone

7.5 | en | Animation

Spiral Zone is a 1987 American science-fiction animated series produced by Atlantic-Kushner-Locke. Based in part from a toy line made by Japanese company Bandai, the series focused on an international group of soldiers fighting to free the world from a scientist who controls much of the Earth's surface. It only ran for one season, with a total count of 65 episodes. Tonka acquired the license from Bandai and created a different treatment to the series, plus a short-lived toy line. Spiral Zone is known among fans as a series that stood out from other contemporary cartoons of the 80s because of its dark story. The series has not been officially released on DVD by Hasbro, who had acquired Tonka in the 90s, including all the copyrights to their properties.

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Seasons & Episodes

EP65 Countdown

Dec. 18,1987

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EP64 Zone Trap

Dec. 17,1987

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EP63 Evil Transmissions

Dec. 16,1987

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EP62 Nightmare in Ice

Dec. 15,1987

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EP61 Little Darlings

Dec. 14,1987

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EP60 Brother's Keeper

Dec. 11,1987

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EP59 The Face of the Enemy

Dec. 10,1987

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EP58 The Final Weapon

Dec. 09,1987

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EP57 Conflict of Duty

Dec. 08,1987

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EP56 They Zone by Night

Dec. 07,1987

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EP55 Assault on the Rock

Dec. 04,1987

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EP54 Oversight

Dec. 03,1987

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EP53 Duchess Treat

Dec. 02,1987

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EP52 Power Play

Dec. 01,1987

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EP51 The Darkness Within

Nov. 30,1987

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EP50 Profiles in Courage

Nov. 27,1987

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EP49 High and Low

Nov. 26,1987

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EP48 The Right Man for the Job

Nov. 25,1987

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EP47 Seachase

Nov. 24,1987

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EP46 Element of Surprise

Nov. 23,1987

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EP45 A Little Zone Music

Nov. 20,1987

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EP44 The Siege

Nov. 19,1987

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EP43 Anti-Matter

Nov. 18,1987

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EP42 The Enemy Within

Nov. 17,1987

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EP41 Australian in Paris

Nov. 16,1987

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EP40 The Electric Zone Rider

Nov. 13,1987

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EP39 Starship Doom

Nov. 12,1987

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EP38 The Power of the Press

Nov. 11,1987

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EP37 Behemoth

Nov. 10,1987

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EP36 Zone with Big Shoulders

Nov. 09,1987

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EP35 Heroes in the Dark

Nov. 06,1987

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EP34 Bandit and the Smokies

Nov. 05,1987

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EP33 Zone of Fear

Nov. 04,1987

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EP32 The Secret of Shadow House

Nov. 03,1987

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EP31 So Shall You Reaper

Nov. 02,1987

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EP30 The Last One Picked

Oct. 30,1987

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EP29 In the Belly of the Beast

Oct. 29,1987

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EP28 Hometown Hero

Oct. 28,1987

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EP27 The Ultimate Solution

Oct. 27,1987

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EP26 The Best Fighting Men in the World

Oct. 26,1987

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EP25 The Way of the Samurai

Oct. 23,1987

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EP24 The Man Who Wouldn't Be King

Oct. 22,1987

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EP23 The Lair of the Jade Scorpion

Oct. 21,1987

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EP22 Canal Zone

Oct. 20,1987

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EP21 The Mind of Gideon Rorshak

Oct. 19,1987

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EP20 The Shuttle Engine

Oct. 16,1987

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EP19 Island in the Zone

Oct. 15,1987

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EP18 When the Cat's Away

Oct. 14,1987

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EP17 Breakout

Oct. 13,1987

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EP16 Zone Train

Oct. 12,1987

A train carrying scientists reseaching the Spiral Zone to a conference is routed by the Black Widows into the Zone. The Zone Riders are dispatched to stop the train from reaching a power plant within the zone; however things go from bad to worse when Tank's suit fails and he becomes a Zoner and is ordered by Dutchess Dire to stop his colleagues.

EP15 The Sands of Amaran

Oct. 09,1987

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EP14 Overlord's Mystery Woman

Oct. 08,1987

In this episode we discover Overlord's romantic side. The Zone Raides find the woman he was in love before he entered the take-over-the-world business. Using her as bait the riders set a trap to capture the leader of the Black Widows. Dashing out of the Zone in shining armour Overlord goes to rescue his love, but he doen't have only romance in mind.

EP13 The Hacker

Oct. 07,1987

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EP12 The Imposter

Oct. 06,1987

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EP11 Duel in Paradise

Oct. 05,1987

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EP10 The Unexploded Pod

Oct. 02,1987

An unactivated zone generator, found in Katerina's hometown, could provide the first and only opportunity to study the zone release mechanism. Well aware of this, Overlord is determined to keep it out of the Riders hands.

EP9 Ride the Whirlwind

Oct. 01,1987

The extreme weather is slowly flooding San Juan, while making airborne evacuation impossible. The only route of escape is through the zone, but can the Riders take out the generator in time?

EP8 Gauntlet

Sep. 30,1987

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EP7 Zone of Darkness

Sep. 29,1987

The Zone Riders bring a scientist to Miami, looking for a possible cure to the zone bacteria in the form of a local plant. Dirk also hopes to find an old friend who was in the area during the zone attack.

EP6 Small Packages

Sep. 28,1987

The Black Widows slips a miniature zone pod into McFarlands clothes, activating it inside the MCC while the Zone Riders are on a mission. Forced to go up against their own defenses and Overlord at the same time, the Riders have one hour to take out the pod before a UN ordered air strike reduces the place to rubble.

EP5 Back to the Stone Age

Sep. 25,1987

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EP4 Mission Into Evil

Sep. 24,1987

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EP3 Errand of Mercy

Sep. 23,1987

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EP2 King of the Skies

Sep. 22,1987

The Zone Riders rescue King Donovan, a retired military pilot and Dirk's former CO, as he is being pursued out of the zone. He has details on an Overlord plot to increase the size of the zone by hooking a generator up to the Hoover Dam, and a plan to stop it. But instead of allowing them to sneak up on the generator, the suggested rout leads the Raiders into an ambush, and King ends up suspected of treason.

EP1 Holographic Zone Battle

Sep. 21,1987

While the Riders prepare to take out a zone generator that is blocking San Francisco harbor, Bandit infiltrates their base and tricks Hiro into accepting a hypnotic device disguised as a holographic computer game.

7.5 | en | Animation , Action & Adventure | More Info

Released: 1987-09-21 | Released Producted By: , Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:

Synopsis

Stream Online

The tv show is currently not available onine

Cast

Michael Bell , Hal Rayle , Dan Gilvezan

Director

Producted By

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Cast

Michael Bell

Scooby-Doo! and the Pirates Tangled Frisky Dingo It Waits Scooby-Doo! and the Loch Ness Monster Rugrats Go Wild Adventures in Odyssey: Escape from the Forbidden Matrix Rugrats in Paris: The Movie Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein

Hal Rayle

Bionic Six The Wizard of Oz Spiral Zone Galaxy High School Jim Henson's Little Muppet Monsters G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero

Dan Gilvezan

All-New Dennis the Menace Ring Raiders X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men Dino-Riders Spiral Zone Transformers: The Return Of Optimus Prime The Transformers: The Movie The Transformers Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

Reviews

marklungo-1 Yes, I know the original messages were written years ago, but I just saw them today.To Bruce: Straczynski only wrote the pilot episode of "Spiral Zone" ("Mission Into Evil"), then left the series after a dispute with the producers. Also, he never wrote for "Bravestarr" as far as I know. He was busy with "The Real Ghostbusters" and "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future" at the time.To bcolquho: The Australian Zone Rider was Ned *Tucker* (Ned Kelly was a famous Aussie criminal), and the French Black Widow was named Crook.I hope this post doesn't sound snarky or anything; I just want the information on "Spiral Zone" to be as accurate as possible.

thesevensamurais Hi ,my name is Pierre De Celles,I would like to have you know that I was supervising animation director on 'Spiral Zone' and my second in command supervising director was 'Georges Grammat';We had about 11 months and a few weeks to create 65 episodes,of which 15 shows went to 'Akom' in Korea,and the rest to 'Visual 80' in Japan.It was a very difficult series to produce cause the show was realistic SC.-FI. a bit like 'Akira' the famous Japanese comic strip.You can check on the website for 'Spiral Zone' # 3,you will find there a devoted bunch of fans,Chris Millar being the first one and in command of the site;I have submitted actual original artwork from the series to him.And we are hoping to get the rights to make all 65 episodes available on DVD format for the fans.I kept all 65 episodes on tape and some of the Artwork for the last 20 years,I am proud of that because we do not know what was the faith of the negatives,films or 3/4 inch tapes,was everything lost ????? So thank you very for the opportunity to share this with you. Pierre De Celles

bcolquho That's what opened every episode of Spiral Zone. I used to watch it all the time back in 1987. Overlord, a mad scientist who invented the Zone Generator, had stolen an ion shuttle and Zoned half the world. Earth's finest soldiers, Dirk Courage, and Max Jones, (USA,) Katerina Anastasia, (USSR, if it sounds dated, it's because I'm using the name of the country before 1991,) and Tank, (West Germany, again, this is prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall two later.) These are the Zone Riders. They wear Zone resistant armor to protect themselves against the Zone. As for why Overlord, (real name Michael Bent,) Zoned half the world, the reason's revealed in a later episode. Dr. Michael Bent, who would later become Overlord, defected to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union didn't want him and showed him the door. He didn't forget this perceived insult and vowed revenge. The series is set twenty years in the future. Twenty years from 1987 is 2007. The Zone Riders, led by Dirk Courage, also include Hiro Taka, (Japan,) Ned Kelly, (Australia,) and Benjamin Franklin, (USA.) Overlord's followers include Duchess Dire, Bandit, and Rawmeat. There was also a French criminal who was part of Overlord's gang.

StlBlade I was pleasantly surprised to find that J. Michael Straczynski was involved with the writing on this show. When I first watched it some 10+ years ago, I wasn't impressed with the obviously 'toy oriented' hardware the various heroes and villains used, but rather with the potential depth shown with the characters. IE the character Tank had evacuated the Zone in the initial attack, and ended up leaving his loved ones behind (His daughter, maybe a wife, too). This tortured him and was especially touching in one ep when he attached himself to a young girl that was seemingly immune to the Zone. Another where one character froze up during combat and was assigned to the rear, humiliating him into becoming a trustworthy soldier again. These came to a somewhat 'stunted' ending, it being a 'kids' show and all, but that's what I mean when I say it was as well developed as the demands of the late 80's allowed.I don't think it was ever repeated since it's initial showing and I know that I didn't see ALL the eps that were made (No idea why, the local channel only showed 20-30 out of the 60 ep run). Knowing JMS (Babylon 5, Murder She Wrote, The New Twilight Zone) as I do, I am sure that they wouldn't have disappointed me. Perhaps they even would have filled in some of the blank spots in the characterization. After all, JMS has a reputation of forcing genuine quality down the throats of executive types that only care about selling a related toy line. Just look at "The Real Ghostbusters" that JMS edited for, and "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future" that has a strong cult following. Both, like Spiral Zone, had genuine character development, as opposed to simply having a background story. This series is not his best, but it definitely puts He-Man and Brave Starr to shame. (Not that it was hard to do for those series).