Four Feather Falls

Four Feather Falls is a British children's western television series, the third puppet TV show produced by AP Films (APF) in association with Granada Television. It was based on an idea by Barry Gray, who also wrote the show's music. The series was the first to use an early version of APF's Supermarionation puppetry. Thirty-nine 13-minute episodes were produced between April 1959 and April 1960, and the series was first broadcast on the ITV network from February to November 1960.

The setting is the late 19th-century fictional Kansas town of Four Feather Falls, where the hero of the series, Tex Tucker, is a sheriff. The four feathers of the title refers to four magical feathers given to Tex by the Indian chief Kalamakooya as a reward for saving his grandson. One of the feathers allowed Tex's guns to swivel and fire without being touched whenever he was in danger, two conferred the power of speech on Tex's horse and dog, and the fourth feather could summon Kalamakooya.

Tex's speaking voice was provided by Nicholas Parsons, and his singing voice by Michael Holliday. The series was sporadically repeated on British television until 1968, and was released on DVD in 2005.

Plot
The series is set in the fictitious late 19th-century Western town of Four Feather Falls, Kansas, and features the adventures of its sheriff, Tex Tucker.

In the first episode, Grandpa Twink relates the story of how it all began to his grandson, Little Jake. Tex is riding up from the valley and comes across a lost and hungry Indian boy, Makooya, and saves him. Tex is given four magic feathers by the boy's grandfather, Chief Kalamakooya, as a reward for saving his grandson. Two of the feathers allow his guns to swivel and fire automatically (often while Tex's hands are raised), and the other two allow his horse, Rocky, and his dog, Dusty, to speak. As Tex, his horse, and dog are very thirsty, Kalamakooya also makes a waterfall where there had been no water before, and so when the town was built it was named after Tex's feathers and the waterfall.

The characters of the town are Grandpa Twink, who does little but rest in a chair; his grandson Little Jake, the only child in town; Ma Jones, who runs the town store; Doc Haggerty; Slim Jim, the bartender of the Denison saloon; Marvin Jackson, the bank manager; and Dan Morse, the telegraphist. Other characters appeared from time to time for only one episode, often just visiting town.

The villains included Pedro, who was introduced in the first show and Fernando, who first appeared in the second episode as a sidekick and someone Pedro could blame when things went wrong, as they always did. Big Ben was another villain who appeared from time to time, as did Red Scalp, a renegade Indian. Other villains only appeared in single episodes.

Cast

 * Nicholas Parsons – Sheriff Tex Tucker (speaking voice) / Telegraph Operator Dan Morse / Various
 * Michael Holliday – Sheriff Tex Tucker (singing voice) / Various
 * Kenneth Connor – Dusty the Dog / Rocky the Horse / Pedro the Bandit / Big Chief Kalamakooya / Bank Manager Marvin Jackson / Doc Haggerty / Saloon Owner Slim Jim Denison / Various
 * David Graham – Grandpa Ebenezer Twink / Fernando the Bandit / Big Ben the Horse Rustler Bandit / Red Scalp the Renegade Indian / Various
 * Denise Bryer – Martha "Ma" Jones / Little Jake / Makooya the Little Indian Boy / Various

Denise Bryer had worked with Anderson on The Adventures of Twizzle, and he wanted her to play some of the voices in Four Feather Falls. Anderson visited Bryer at her home with some scripts and asked her husband, Nicholas Parsons, to help by reading some of the other parts, including the sheriff Tex Tucker. Anderson liked Parsons' interpretation and offered him the job of providing Tex's speaking voice.

Production
American Western TV shows such as Gunsmoke and Wagon Train were popular with British audiences, so APF's Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis decided to make a cowboy series based on a story concept pitched to them by Barry Gray. According to Anderson, Four Feather Falls "was really me trying to make the sort of films I used to see in the cinema." APF offered Gray about £100 (£ in ) to buy his idea, which was originally titled Two Gun Tex Tucker. This was changed to Two Gun Tex of Texas, then The Sheriff of Four Feather Falls before the final title was chosen.

Development began in late 1958 while the first 26 episodes of Torchy the Battery Boy were still in production, and without the knowledge of APF's employer Roberta Leigh, with whom Anderson planned to sever ties in the aim of becoming an independent producer. The pilot episode, "How It Began", was produced in April 1959 on a budget of £6,000 (about £ in ). A full series of 39 episodes was commissioned by Granada after APF's intended distributor, Anglo Amalgamated, turned it down. Except for the pilot, which was made in APF's studios at Islet Park House in Maidenhead, all episodes were made in a converted warehouse on the Slough Trading Estate. Previously owned by special effects artist Les Bowie, this provided quadruple the floor space of Islet Park House, where the crew had been filming in a re-purposed ballroom. After moving to the Slough estate in June 1959, APF upgraded its new facilities with the installation of a director's control booth and video assist TV monitors to guide the puppeteers, who operated the marionettes from a Dexion bridge built several feet over the set. The model set representing the town of Four Feather Falls measured 30 x 15 ft. Filming in Slough ended in April 1960.

Anderson considered the puppets with static heads, made by Christine Glanville for his earlier productions, to be unacceptable because the viewer could not tell which character was talking unless its puppet moved up or down. For Four Feather Falls, the papier-mâché heads were replaced by interchangeable hollow fibreglass heads with internal rods that could move the eyes from side to side. The heads also contained sound-activated solenoids, which allowed the puppets' lips to move automatically in synchronisation with the dialogue. The electronics of the day required more space than would be available in a human-scale head, therefore all the puppets in Four Feather Falls had oversized heads, though the bodies as a whole were one-third life size. Anderson's aim was to make the puppets look as realistic as possible, the beginning of the Supermarionation puppetry process, although that term was not coined until his next series, Supercar.

The wires used to control the puppets were eight feet long and made of tungsten steel, an improvement on the curtain wire used in Anderson's two earlier puppet series (The Adventures of Twizzle and Torchy), and were only 1/200 of an inch thick. Being shiny, the wires had to be blackened. The horses moved by being pulled along on a trolley, which meant the viewer never saw their feet when they were moving.

The voice cast assembled to record each script without seeing the puppets, much like recording a radio series; synchronisation of each character's speech with the movement of its puppet's mouth was performed later. The tight budget precluded the use of sophisticated special effects, and less costly alternatives were used. For example, to achieve the effect of muzzle flashes, small specks of black paint were carefully applied to the 35 mm negatives so they would appear as white flashes on the finished prints. The production design and puppet costuming were more detailed than those of Twizzle and Torchy.

Continuity for the series was provided by Sylvia Thamm, who later married Gerry Anderson. Provis, who left APF mid-production due to disagreements over the direction of the company, was given a five per cent share of the profits from the series.

Music
The show's music and song lyrics were composed by Barry Gray. Michael Holliday provided Tex's singing voice, and Tommy Reilly performed the harmonica pieces. The best known song to come out of the series was "Four Feather Falls", sung in some episodes by Michael Holliday in the style of Bing Crosby and sometimes incorrectly described as the theme song to the series. The closing theme song was "Two Gun Tex of Texas." Holliday was paid £2,000 (about £ in ) for his singing work on the pilot episode – a significant part of the pilot's £6,000 budget. In all, Holliday recorded six songs for the series: "Four Feather Falls", "The Phantom Rider", "The Rick-Rick-A-Rackety Train", "Happy Hearts and Friendly Faces", "My Home Town", and "Two Gun Tex of Texas". The recording was conducted at Gate Studios in Borehamwood.

Syndication
Four Feather Falls was the first APF series to be fully networked on ITV, that is shown by all regional franchises of the network simultaneously. The series was repeated in some British TV regions on a sporadic basis up until 1968. In December 2004, it was announced that the rights had been acquired by Network, and it was released on three Region 2 DVDs in May 2005. It is the only Supermarionation series not yet released to DVD in North America as of January 2006. Sylvia Anderson wrote two British children's annuals based on the show, published by Collins in 1960 and 1961. The first book featured a short text story based on the pilot episode of the TV series.

Other media
The show was adapted into comics form and published as an ongoing strip in Polystyle Publications' TV Comic. The Four Feathers Falls strip was drawn by Neville Main, and appeared from issue #439 (14 May 1960) until issue #564 (6 October 1962). Sylvia Anderson wrote a Four Feather Falls annual. A tie-in board game was also released.