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Let’s make a playlist together, join and edit: Ara mina Gerald Verona 80 90 70 cinima song true hate Mandy Moore
70 80 90 CSI cinima notebook 📓📒 sm Megamall to you'd Mandy Moore 3 1 u'r enemies too rabbon la union u.s marines switch home all on bombs ah yes babe music trip on chew Marlboro Winston
More Super Klenk details come to light
Does Super Klenk still exist? Did Super Klenk ever exist? The tv show is so famously obscure that one could be forgiven for believing it was just a hoax. Running for 13 episodes at the turn of the millenium, Super Klenk followed the antics of a school teacher who has a secret life as a superhero. Broadcast on primetime Sunday evenings on GMA-7, each episode lasted 90 minutes, blending action, romance, and comedy. For a primetime show running on a major network there's precious little evidence online of it ever having existed. Only one very brief video clip is available, taken from a station promo, plus a tiny number of low resolution promotional photos.
It is, very likely, one of the most obscure and undocumented superhero tv shows ever. The series appeared to have not been reshown since its original broadcast, and for all anyone knows the master tapes may have been junked. But that doesn't mean that with a bit of digital sleuthing we cannot unearth some interesting details about the series. For example, a while back a study of television listings in newspapers revealed the original broadcast details, and the tantalising possibility that there may have been far more than just 13 episodes.
In this post we outline further sources of contemporaneous information.
The Manila Bulletin
We start with a low resolution scan of an article from the Manila Bulletin (see above.) The article is conveniently written in English, yet parts of the text are hard to decipher given the low quality of the image. The following is a transcript as best can be made out. Note: passages marked in colour denote text that is unclear or missing from the image.
[START]
Tired of your usual Sunday night viewing habits? Then look up in the sky. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It's Super Klenk to the rescue!
Although you won't really see Super Klenk in the sky once you channel surf to GMA-7 tonight at 8 p.m., their newest situational comedy entitled "Super Klenk" premieres.
Produced by Philippine-broadcasting leader GMA Network Inc., the comical super series "Super Klenk" stars sexy Ara Mina, who plays a dual role. As a normal human being she is a grade school teacher and volunteer rescuer Charito for Rescue 711, while she turns into the high flying but still fumbling heroine whenever she's needed to save people in distress.
In her new role as a super heroine, silver screen goddess Ara Mina defies the stigma of a "TF" [titillating films] actress. According to her, she doesn't care if people including the press would criticize her the way they did when she took on a singing career. What is important to her is that she remains focused on entertaining the children who will watch her show. She also emphasized that her decision to do children's show is not an indication that she will veer away from doing sexy roles. Her latest film that is slated for a January, 2000 release entitled "Laro sa Baga" will still feature her in some steamy love scenes.
According to its director Mac Alejandre, the unusual title of the sit-com was spawned after its head writer Isko Salvador, aka Brod Pete, who also plays Doctor Cortal in the TV series, took a break from their brainstorming. The creative team formed solely for this show were thinking of the show's title at Amigos Restaraunt when Isko came back with the "Super Klenk" apparently is also the middle name of Ara Mina (it is pronounced in Germany the same way as the word clench is pronounced.)
"Super Klenk" is also unusual in its length. It is a one and a half-hour sit-com, which is not the norm for television. Director Mac has no reason for this except that it was the time given them by GMA 7's programming department. He find this challenging since he knows that he has to keep this one and a half-hour show interesting all the way.
"It is really hard to do a sit-com that's one and a half hour that's why we have to make this as interesting as possible visually, acting wise and gag wise. The truth is the pilot episode was done in more than two days because we have a big cast and it was really hard doing the special effect," Explains Director Mac.
Insiders from the show said that the "Super Klenk's" special effects budget was really financially stressful but GMA-7 shelled out just the project's success. The special effects have also been at the helm of two creative [unreadable] behind "Super Klenk" five days to decide on which special effects to develop and utilize.
"Super Klenk" was developed with children's Sunday night viewing bits in mind according to GMA's VP for Programming Wilma Galvante. [Unreadable] is a wholesome entertainment but with Ara Mina as the star. "The show [unreadable] promises young televiewers bit only fantastic special effects but also moral lessons that are interjected in every episode.
The launching of "Super Klenk" is in line with the new shows GMA 7 has [unreadable] for its viewing public for the year 2000. The culmination of all their [unreadable] released and offered this year is "Millenium Broadcast."
So how does Ara Mina become Super Klenk?
The unassuming Charito lives an ordinary life as a teacher who has to contend with mischievous students like copycat Xerox and the narcoleptic [unreadable]. As a rescue volunteer, she works with an obnoxious publicity hungry [unreadable: police?] chief, Hope Pimentel.
Her daily routine suddenly shifts to a new gear one day in some dark [unreadable: alley?] when she sees an old lady whom she thought was waylaid by street thugs. Charito tries to revive the seemingly old ago-go dancer, Tondang Xorax (Flora Gasser), who [unreadable] against the wall during a chase with her archenemy Oblada (Sandra Gomez.) Charito's attempt to breathe life back into [unreadable] Xorax proves futile but he superpowers of the aging heroine is accidentally transferred to the young volunteer rescuer. Tondang Xorax [unreadable: magically?] fades into a celestial star right before the unbelieving eyes of the [unreadable: unsuspecting?] Charito. Soon Tondang Xorax visits Charito to inform her the [unreadable: henceforth?], she will be known as Super Klenk.
Also starring Pilita Corrales, Isko Salvador, Paolo Fabregas and James Fabregas.
[END]
Philippine Headline News Online
This next piece was posted to the Philippine Headline News Online mailing list on 11th December 1999, and seems to be a standard press release announcing the upcoming show. Translations of the non-English parts, courtesy of Google, are presented in colour.
[START]
WHOLESOME ROLE FOR ARA MINA IN GMA-7 SERIES
Quezon City, Dec.11, 1999 - GMA-7 is changing the image of bold star Ara Mina via a wholesome role in the network’s newest fantasy-action comedy series entitled Super Klenk!
“Tamang-tama nga dahil ngayong naghihigpit sa bold, heto’t nabigyan naman ako ng chance to do this kind of wholesome show na puwede sa bata and for the whole family,” Ara says. ["It's right because now that the bold is being restricted, I was given the chance to do this kind of wholesome show that can be done by children and for the whole family."]
Ara plays Charito, a dedicated grade school teacher and rescue worker. One night, she witnesses the original Super Klenk meet an serious accident. While trying to give the accident victim some mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Ara received the special powers of Super Klenk, played by Flora Gasser.
“I become the new Super Klenk, a crimebuster who is the mortal enemy of the main villain in the show, si Oblada, played by Sandra Gomez,” Ara adds. “I enjoy doing this show because para akong si Wonder Woman and I get to do a lot of action scenes while fighting criminals. Nakakalipad din ako rito at ginastusan nila ang special effects sa flying scenes to make it look really convincing on screen.” [I enjoy doing this show because I'm like Wonder Woman and I get to do a lot of action scenes while fighting criminals. I was also able to fly here and they paid for the special effects in the flying scenes to make it look really convincing on screen.]
Playing the love interests of Ara in the show are newcomer Paolo Fabregas (son of actor-musical director Jaime Fabregas) and Isko Salvador (more popularly known as Brod Pete of Ang Dating Doon.)
This does not mean, though, that Ara is turning her back on sexy movies. As a matter of fact, she has just finished Laro sa Baga.
[END]
Philstar Global
The third piece was published on 18th March 2000 on Philstar Global, marking the premature cancellation of the show. Again, translations in colour.
[START]
Ara: Win Some, Lose Some
The sad news is true, after all. Yes, Ara Mina's Super Klenk will have its final telecast (GMA 7) this Sunday. After that, her flying character will be grounded (never to fly again?).
But the good news is that Ara will topbill a new GMA sitcom, untitled just yet, which starts telecast very soon.
"Super Klenk was very hard to shoot because palagi kaming outdoors," [Super Klenk was very hard to shoot because we were always outdoors] said Ara when Funfare talked to her on the set of FPJ Productions' Ayos Na Ang Kasunod (to be released by Millennium Cinema), her first team-up with FPJ. "Our minimum shooting time was two days. I wore a tight costume which could sometimes be very uncomfortable. I'm looking forward to doing the new sitcom which is light and easier to do. Like Super Klenk, pambata din 'yung bago kong sitcom." [Like Super Klenk, my new sitcom is also for children.]
Ara is leaving for Las Vegas third week of April to perform in a concert with Martin and Bert Nievera.
[END]
Cast and crew
Finally, through various sources (the IMDB, actor's profiles, etc.) we are able to pull together a list of the main actors and their characters, as well as some of the key production crew.
Ara Mina as Charito and her alter ego Super Klenk.
Isko Salvador (aka Brod Pete) as Doctor Cortal, the love interest, and also one of the show's writers.
Paolo Fabregas as another doctor and possible love interest.
Flora Gasser as Tondang Xorax, the superhero whose powers are accidentally transferred to the Charito.
Sandra Gomez as Oblada, the show's main villain.
Pilita Corrales as Aunt Baby, the relative Charito lives with.
James (Jaime) Fabregas as Hepe Pimente, the police commissioner and Charito's boss at the rescue team (also the real life father of actor Paolo Fabregas.)
Dingdong Dantes, possible guest actor.
Mark Anthony Fernandez, possible guest actor.
Elizabeth Ramsey as Tiya Kirara, guest actor.
Roxanne Barcelo, possible guest actor.
Yoyong Martirez, possible guest actor.
Mac Alejandre, the showrunner and director.
Wilma Valle Galvante, GMA's VP for Programming.
Conclusion
Over the last couple of years a lot of classic pinoy television has been uploaded, legitimately, to YouTube. The good news is therefore that it is possible that one day Super Klenk may be available for the public to watch once again. The bad news is that, given the obscurity of the show, it could be a very very long wait. Worse still, assuming the episodes do still exist in an archive somewhere, the chances are any uploads will be chopped up into small YouTube friendly chunks, rather than presented in their original 90 minute format. There's always the possibility that the show in its original form may be included on a streaming platform, or re-screened on a golden hits style cable channel, but so far neither of these things have happened.
And so, in the absence of any episodes to watch, the details above are currently all we know about what is possibly tv's most obscure superheroine show (unless you know more?!?) Maybe that will change in future -- here's hoping.
(A quick thank you to DrMuttonChops for tracking down a scan of the Manila Bulletin article, posted years ago on Ara Mina's social media.)
At the Grand Ballroom Okada
Superheroine detective work: Super Klenk broadcast details uncovered
Ah yes, Super Klenk! The Filipino tv series that is possibly the most well hidden show in the history of superhero television..!
Despite running in primetime on a major network, Super Klenk has left behind precious little evidence of its existence: scant details lifted from a press release, a tiny handful of low-resolution photos, and a few seconds of video footage in a promo. We're not even entirely certain how many episodes of the show were broadcast.
Until, perhaps, now...
Many many years ago Google Books began to collect scans of thousands of old newspapers. The site is somewhat neglected these days (the design has an early 2010s vibe), but the archive is still accessible and -- importantly! -- has indexes of a handful of Filipino papers.
Would there be any details of Super Klenk hiding amidst these column inches, perhaps..?
Time to turn detective...
The Philippine National Enquirer published weekly tv listings in its Saturday editions. Sure enough there's an entry for Super Klenk in its Saturday 1st January 2000 edition, showing that the show was scheduled for broadcast on Sunday 2nd at 8:00pm on Channel 7 (aka GMA-7.) Subsequent Saturday editions also have listings scheduling Super Klenk for January 9th, 16th, 23rd; February 6th, 13th; March 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th; and April 2nd, 9th, 16th. (No listings were available for February 20th and 27th, nor April 23rd -- those editions are absent from the archive.)
A short article about Super Klenk's star Ara Mina, published on April 15th, claims the series had folded, suggesting that April 16th was likely the show's last broadcast. Presumably the next Enquirer Saturday edition (23rd April, missing from the archive) would have shown a replacement series. All archived editions after this date have Super Klenk absent from tv listings.
Common internet wisdom is that 13 episodes were broadcast before the show was cancelled. But (assuming broadcasts on 20th and 27th February) the tv listings show 4 episodes each in January, February, and March, plus 3 in April, making a grand total of 15 episodes.
Unfortunately the Google archive for the Philippine National Enquirer only goes back as far as 1st January 2000. However, the one brief video clip we have of Super Klenk is from a promo that suggests its debut was set for December 12th. This might indicate 3 episodes in 1999: December 12th, 19th, and 26th. That ups the potential episode count from 15 to 18 episodes!
But we should be careful...
Tv listings can be unreliable. Guide magazines are often prepared six weeks ahead of broadcast, so don't reflect sudden cancellations or late reschedulings. Daily newspapers have a shorter lead time, but they typically only print the show title, making it impossible to know whether a repeat or original episode is being shown.
Indeed the Enquirer exhibits some contradictions within its own pages: the listings consistently show Super Klenk being broadcast at 8:00pm, yet there's a couple of brief mentions in articles that suggest the show was switched to 7:30pm during January.
The tv listings may be unreliable, but at least they give us something to work from, rather than a vacuum.
But aside from these air dates, are there any other snippets of information lurking amidst the newspaper archive?
Sadly, not many. (Although it is possible they've yet to be surfaced by the right search query.) The 11th March edition gives a brief synopsis of the next episode, mentioning a plot that sees the heroine putting up with a house guest and fighting a villain known as Bingo Man. There's some profile pieces on actors who appeared in the series, but they only mention Super Klenk as a line item on a list of credits.
It is entirely possible that there are other archives, with magazines and newspapers that give further details on this series, but for now we'll have to make do with a list of potential broadcast dates and a brief plot synopsis of one episode.
The detective work continues...
Super Klenk - how many episodes are there?
Now that GMA have started to upload episodes of Super Klenk -- the Ara Mina superhero vehicle that was previously considered lost media -- it is possible to speculate how many episodes will eventually be uploaded. Currently there are nine in total on the YoüLOL YouTube channel. Many web sources suggest 13 episodes were made in total before the show was cancelled. But details of lost media can be unreliable, as they are often based in people's fallible recollections. Contemporary records, like tv listings, are less prone to error. The tv listings for Super Klenk suggest that there could be as many as 18 episodes made of this series.
Who is right? To get to the bottom of the matter we need to delve into some investiagtion and speculation involving dates.
First let's document what dates are known for certain -- all of these will be useful clues when we try to work out the broadcast dates for each episode:
The first episode was broadcast on 12th December 1999, according to tv promo adverts for the series.
Valentine's Day in The Philippines in 2000 was on Monday 14th February.
The 12th March edition of the series featured a villain called Bingo Man, according to a snippet in The Philippines Inquirer.
The 16th April edition was its last, again according to a snippet in The Philippines Inquirer.
Back in 1999 and 2000, The Philippines Inquirer newspaper would published weekly tv listings in its Saturday editions, making it possible to know which weeks the show was broadcast. Super Klenk was broadcast at 8pm on a Sunday, so the previous day's newspaper will have references to its episodes. Sadly the online archives only stretch back to the the start of 2000, and not all editions are present in the archives.
The table above indicates the Sundays when the show could have been shown, starting on 12th December and ending on 16th April, with the yellow cells indicating the broadcasts where tv listings are viewable in the newspaper archives. The series ended on the 16th April, but it wasn't possible to double check from the listings whether the series was absent on 23rd April, however the listings for the 30th (in red) show that Super Klenk had indeed been replaced by another show.
On YouTube, GMA isn't putting up the original broadcast dates as part of its descriptions for each video, but the latest episode currently available (as of writing) is a Valentine's Day themed story, labelled as episode number 9. Let's assume this was likely broadcast on Sunday 13th Feb, the day before the event itself. Starting on 12th December 1999, and assuming they didn't show an episode on 26th December, then it would indeed be the case that the episode shown on the day before Valentine's Day would be the 9th episode.
Of course this makes a few assumptions (notably that the Valentine's episode was shown just before the day itself), but the assumptions are reasonable and the resulting timeline fits in well with the tv schedules.
But following this logic, the episode on 16th April would not have been the 13th episode, but the 18th episode. This assumes that no episode was repeated.
If the 13th episode uploaded to YouTube turns out to be the Bingo Man episode, then we'll know we're correctly mapping episode numbers to their broadcast dates. (Note: see updates at the foot of this post.)
To make matters even more complicated, however, episode 9 (the Valentine's episode), as it appears on the YouTube channel, ends on a cliffhanger and has no end credits. This suggests that this YouTube episode is only half an episode, and that the original tv episode has been cut into two parts. If this is indeed the case, then episode 10 on YouTube will actually be part two of the 13th February story. This would mean the actual episode count on YouTube could end up being more than 18 -- although again this is based on the assumption that episode 9 is half an episode, and that our initial assumption about 18 broadcast episodes is right.
So there could be 13 episodes, if some were repeated. There could be 18 episodes, if all the available Sundays were original episodes. And there could even be more than 18 uploaded episodes, if GMA are splitting some feature-length episodes into two parts.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see as the episodes are slowly uploaded...
EDIT: Since the above was written, YoüLOL have uploaded episodes 13 and 14; episode 13 is indeed the Bingo Man episode mentioned in the Inquirer. So, we now know that there are certainly more than 13 episodes. Also, it has become clear that episodes are not being cut into parts, but that the end of some episodes are being chopped off after the final commercial break -- notably this appears to have happened on episode 9 and 11. All of this puts the 18 episode timeline on track (assuming no repeats).
