Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad

Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad (SSSS) is an American television series. It was produced by Tsuburaya Productions, Ultracom Inc. and DIC Entertainment, with distribution by All American Television, and ran for one season from September 12, 1994 to April 11, 1995 in syndication, as well as on ABC. It was an adaptation of the Japanese tokusatsu series Denkou Choujin Gridman, or Gridman the Hyper Agent, which was produced by Tsuburaya Productions. The series was originally going to be named PowerBoy, but it was renamed Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad during production. Saban Entertainment claimed this was done to avoid confusion with Saban's other series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad was one made to capitalize on the upsurge in popularity of imported Japanese monster-robot shows which could be adapted with new, regionalized live-action footage. The series development mirrored the creative construct established earlier with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The master toy licensee, Playmates Toys, funded the series, interpolated American development via toy licensing rights, and did a commercial buy-in on the Fox network, where Haim Saban had established a kids block of time with other programs such as Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Big Bad Beetleborgs, the 1994 version of Spider-Man, and the 1992 X-Men cartoon. Playmates called upon the development team at DIC—which, coincidentally, was working with Pangea Corporation, which assisted in the development of DIC's New Kids on the Block and Playmates's earlier hit, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. DIC, Pangea, and Playmates's marketing group created an ensemble of character names, traits and profiles, which were spun into a series offering. Under a product placement deal, Compaq computers were prominently featured in the series and were used to generate the show's computer-generated graphics. Elements of Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad are used in the anime series SSSS. Gridman, itself also an adaptation of Gridman, the Hyper Agent. The "SSSS" in the title references Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.