R5's Superheroine Musings

Writings, photo manipulations, and general nonsense, on or around the subject of female superheroes -- particularly Supergirl.

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Why can't you watch the classic Darna tv shows any more?

Darna is perhaps the most popular 'komiks' comicbook character in The Philippines, and her tv shows are unsurprisingly among the most highly regarded of the past 25 years. Yet Angel Locsin's 2005 Darna, and Marian Rivera's 2009 follow-up series, have never been released on physical media or any streaming platform. By contrast, Jane De Leon's 2022 series is widely available on both advertising-based and subscription-based services. Why are the iconic Locsin and Rivera interpretations so overlooked?

Their significant episodes count and soap-like format surely make them ideal for binge-watching on a streaming platform -- but the reason for their absence may be quite simple: intellectual property rights.

License to thrill

It all comes down to who owns Darna, who has license to use her, and what that license permits.

While digging into the history of the Darna tv shows it is impossible to ignore the work of Cherish Aileen Brillon, currently an associate professor in the Department of Broadcast Communication at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Prof. Brillon is an academic who has authored several papers on the popular superheroine's adaptation to cinema and tv screens. One particular paper, the functionally titled Darna and Intellectual Property Rights (published in 2007, not too long after the Angel Locsin series finished airing), gives a few insightful details on the Ravelo family's control of the character.

As one might expect, the Ravelo family retained the rights to Darna after the passing of her creator, author Mars Ravelo, in 1988. Under current international copyright conventions these rights will extend up to 2038, fifty years after Ravelo's death, and grant Ravelo's surviving family considerable control over future works featuring the heroine.

According to Prof. Brillon's 2007 paper the Ravelo family insist that they have a creative voice in any Darna tv or movie. At least one representative from the family must be on the production team, with the power of script and storyline approval. The family can also veto any actor playing one of the iconic cast of Darna characters. This is ostensibly to ensure Darna's brand isn't tarnished by the real-world reputation of any actor connected to the character.

The look of the character also has to be approved by the Ravelo family. Eagle eyed viewers of the Jane De Leon show will have noticed that Darna's iconic costume changing subtly from shot-to-shot in early episodes. This was because a small amount of filming with Jane in costume was already in-the-can before the family gave their approval to the final costume design. The production had unfortunately gambled on using a costume variant that was ultimately rejected by the family.

As Brillon points out, the look of the Darna character is important because the Ravelo family do not own the rights to the original Darna artwork created by artist Nestor Redondo. As such, any costume design for contemporary versions of Darna, on screen and in print, has to be sufficiently different to Redondo's original komiks costume so that the Ravelo family can claim sole ownership of the character's image.

By the way, if you're wondering why the modern Jane De Leon series is called Mars Ravelo's Darna, Brillon explains that the Ravelo family insist that the author's name must appear ahead of the Darna name in any title captions. If you look carefully you'll see it in small print hovering over the official logos of both the 2005 and 2009 shows. The 2022 show's producers simply incorporated Ravelo's name into the official name of the show itself.

Old shows in the modern age

Although Prof. Brillon's paper doesn't specifically address the issue of Darna's licensing on streaming services -- it was written only shortly after the 2005 series finished, after all -- it isn't difficult to speculate how subsequent licensing deals would have frozen out series licensed under expired agreements. The classic shows in 2005 and 2009 were produced under license by GMA, but that license subsequently lapsed and rival network ABS-CBN acquired the rights, going on to create 2022's Mars Ravelo's Darna tv show.

The GMA deal likely specified where it was allowed to exhibit its Darna's shows, and for how long. With GMA no longer having the Darna license it is probably currently unable to continue to exploit the series. So the tapes are left to gather dust on an archive shelf, waiting for the day when the legal circumstances may change.

But this may happen sooner rather than later -- for very unfortunate reasons.

License denied

ABS-CBN has been around in various forms since the 1940s, with the ABS-CBN name first being used on television in the early 1960s. Owned by various generations of the Lopez family, the so-called Kapamilya Network (network of the family) grew to be at one point the biggest free-to-air broadcaster in The Philippines. But in the 2000s its bid to renew its government issued broadcast license, granting it power to use the airwaves, stalled amidst opposition from Presidents Benigno Aquino III and Rodrigo Duterte, the latter of whom claimed bias in the political coverage of the network. In March 2020 ABS-CBN were finally denied a license by the Duterte government -- a move that was widely criticised, with Amnesty International Philippines calling it "another nail in the coffin of press freedom". Their access to the airwaves was immediately revoked, forcing the company to rely on cable and streaming platforms.

More recently, in April 2026, an alleged feud within the Lopez family has raised questions about the future of ABS-CBN. Reports suggest that at the heart of the dispute is the authorisation of a large cash injection needed to keep the struggling network afloat. Although ABS-CBN made some progress in adapting to the loss of its broadcasting license, it has struggled to regain the audience and influence it once had prior to that 2020 shutdown.

Many in The Philippines and beyond expressed dismay at the suggestion that the once dominant broadcaster might vanish entirely, with former Darna herself, Angel Locsin, adding her voice to the outcry. It would seem, for now, that the feud has been settled by the expulsion of the family member proposing the shutdown from the company's board. But the so-called Kapamilya Network still faces a tough challenge as it continues its fight to regain access to the airwaves.

So how might ABS-CBN's woes affect the ability of GMA to exploit its old Darna shows?

While we don't know the exact terms of the 2004 deal between GMA and the Ravelos, it seems likely that the 2005 and 2009 shows are embargoed until either the ABS-CBN deal expires, and/or GMA strikes a new deal with Darna's owners. Even in 2038, when Darna enters the public domain, the tv shows will remain under copyright. Creative works using the character under license (such as movies and tv shows) have their own independent copyright.

However, if ABS-CBN surrenders or sells the Darna license before its full contract term is complete, the most obvious rival that might pick the rights up would be GMA. If GMA did indeed regain the license to Darna early, this might unlock their ability to exploit their old Darna shows on modern streaming platforms.

Only time, and a fully qualified copyright lawyer, will know for sure.

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Darna 1977 - how many episodes were there?

When researching lost media, it is always a good strategy to be weary of popular wisdom published online.

Case in point: recently GMA have started to upload Super Klenk onto one of their YouTube channels. The 1999 series, classed as lost media for a couple of decades, starred Ara Mina as the titular heroine, and was often said to have had 13 episodes. This was proven wrong when a 14th episode was recently uploaded, and indeed contemporary tv schedules suggest there may be as many as 18 episodes in total.

Another lost media series is the Lorna Tolentino 1977 show, Darna, based on the popular pinoy superheroine. This show was the first time Darna had appeared on television, and was apparently a response to the ratings success of American superhero shows such as Wonder Woman and The Bionic Woman. Popular wisdom says that the Darna series only had one or two episodes, but an interview with Lorna Tolentino herself suggests that she filmed as many as 12 episodes.

Sadly Lorna also says in the same interview she doesn't have personal copies of any episodes. Given the age of the show it is very likely none exist, although with Filipino networks like GMA and ABS-CBN slowly putting up their back archives online, we can but hope that at some point Darna '77 may turn up.

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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).

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Classed as lost media for many years, the first six episodes of the pinoy superheroine show, Super Klenk, have finally surfaced online. The show was originally broadcast by GMA from the end of 1999. Lost media is a term used when a piece of media is no longer readily accessible by the public, and it isn't known if any copies still exist. Thankfully Super Klenk did still exist, and hopefully more episodes will show up in the next few weeks.

Details are rather vague as to exactly how many episodes were made, with 13 generally considered to be the correct number. However some investigations of the tv listings from the period (late 1999 on) reveal the show may have run for more than 13 weeks. Of course, there may have been hiatus weeks or repeat broadcasts during that run.

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Divya Prem: Indian television's newest superheroine show

Divya Prem - Pyaar aur Rahasya Ki Kahaani (aka दिव्य प्रेम: प्यार और रहस्य की कहानी) is a Hindi language tv serial currently (at time of writing) running daily on India's Sun Neo TV network, and Sun NXT streaming platform. The title translates as Divine Love – A Story of Love and Mystery, which pretty much sums up the series. It mixes action, romance, comedy, and elements of soap opera, and gives them a supernatural twist. What makes it relevant to the topic of superheroines is that not long after the end of its initial story arc, the show did a soft-reboot pivot from mystical fantasy into the realm of superhero fantasy.

Megha Ray plays a housewife and mother named Divya, born with supernatural powers. Divya is the daughter of Netra, a Hindu goddess who once lived with other goddesses in an idyllic community on the spiritual plane. A fellow goddess tapped into dangerous forces related to rituals concerning the dead, and as a result she became the evil Karn Mohini. Karn Mohini killed the other goddesses, all apart from Netra, who escaped to Earth. Years pass and Netra had a daughter, Divya. Prophecy says that Netra's daughter is the only one who can destroy Karn Mohini, so the evil goddess tracks her down to eliminate her. Meanwhile, Divya has grown up, married, and given birth to her own kids.

The initial story of Divya and Karn Mohini spanned the first 105 or so episodes, ending in a major showdown. (The show screens 30 new episodes each month(!) of 25 minutes each.) With her mother's nemesis defeated and the prophecy fulfilled, you'd think Divya's life would go back to being a housewife and mother. But a new foe emerged named Rakshasi, and she began to unleash a succession of colourful supernatural villains, monsters, aliens, and even AI robots, onto the Earth. Divya has to continually use her powers to save Earth and protect her family. To hide her identity Divya adopts the masked alter ego of Super Aunty -- a secret known only to her husband. And thus, at around its 107th episode mark, the show smoothly transitioned from mystical adventure into a classic superhero format.

Super Aunty (a name chosen by Divya's kids, who are unaware that the heroine is also their mother) has various supernatural powers, including energy blasts and the ability to fly. Divya must balance her duties as a mother, with her responsibilities as a superheroine, all while avoiding the watchful eye of Padma, her mother-in-law, who becomes convinced that Divya's husband is having an affair with Super Aunty. (She is, naturally, clueless that the two women are one in the same.)

Each story is told over multiple episodes, with the closing moments of one tale setting up the next story. The Super Aunty character isn't in absolutely every episode, indeed with a shooting schedule that runs to 30 episodes per month, lead actor Megha Ray sometimes gets only cameo parts as Divya in occasional episodes. Typical of most Indian serials, the show is colourful and energetic, but also suffers from limited budgets for special effects and costumes. For the most part the costumes look quite good, and the special effects are not unlike Filipino series such as ABS-CBN's Darna, or GMA's Encantadia Chronicles. That is to say they aren't awful, but not on a par with glossy American shows.

As is typical for Indian supernatural dramas there's a lot of filming in green screen studios used to put the actors into fantasy environments that would be impossible to build practically. This actually plays to the show's advantage to some degree, as the obviously computer generated backgrounds become almost a signature look, which helps to make other green screen elements, such as the flying effects, less noticeable. That is not to say that there aren't practical studio sets -- the recurring locations used in almost every episode are real environments, and look suitably impressive.

There hasn't been too many superhero shows on Indian tv, which is odd given how popular fantasy shows based on mythology and the supernatural are (particularly snake women). You'd think producers looking for an unusual spin on the Indian fantasy hero genre might sometimes borrow ideas from the popular fantasy heroes of Western culture, but that rarely seems to be the case. So it is a welcome surprise to find Divya Prem steadily racking up the episode count, and seemingly coming up with an endless supply of fun and engaging stories. It has proven impossible to get viewing figures for the show, but the tiny number of websites that rate and rank Indian tv shows seem to score it as quite enjoyable.

You'll be delighted to know that all episodes of Divya Prem - Pyaar aur Rahasya Ki Kahaani thus far are currently available online to watch for free, from around the world, at the following locations:

Divya Prem at the Sun NXT streaming site.

Divya Prem playlist on Sun Neo's YouTube channel.

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50 years of Isis: America's first superheroine tv series

Before Lynda Carter donned her star-spangled uniform, before Lindsay Wagner went full-time as a cyborg secret agent, there was a certain superheroine in a certain low-budget tv series that beat them too it. Wonder Woman and The Bionic Woman may have had all the expensive gloss of prime-time television, but the crown of American tv's first superheroine show lies elsewhere.

On 6th September 1975 -- exactly 50 years prior to the time of posting this -- school teacher Andrea Thomas first revealed her magic amulet and summoned the power of an Egyptian goddess. Moments later viewers witnessed actress JoAnna Cameron transform into the show's titular character, Isis -- and in the process an innocuous Saturday morning live-action kids tv show beat its prime-time rivals, to steal the crown as America's first superheroine series.

As has been detailed in a previous posting, Isis (later retitled The Secrets of Isis for syndication) was far from the first time a superheroine had appeared on US television.

Famously Yvonne Craig had played Batgirl opposite Adam West's Batman in the mid 1960s. Throughout the 1960s and early 70s there had been several superheroines on cartoon shows. Then in March 1974, eighteen months prior to Isis, Cathy Lee Crosby appeared as a live-action Wonder Woman, in a tv movie that bore little resemblance to the DC Comics character. And a year later, in March 1975, Lindsay Wagner guest starred as Jaime Sommers -- The Bionic Woman -- in an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. Yet all of these superheroines were appearing in one-off movies, as supporting roles, or as guest characters.

What made JoAnna's Isis special was that it was the first ongoing television series devoted specifically to a superheroine! Isis wasn't a sidekick, she wasn't a guest character, she was the star of the show!

According to some online accounts, the Isis series came about when production studio Filmation tried to create a companion live-action show to their popular Shazam series featuring Captain Marvel. They naturally thought of Mary Marvel, the captain's female sidekick in the comics, and made inquiries with DC Comics. DC itself didn't own the (Captain) Marvel family of characters, they were legally still part of long-defunct Fawcett Comics, but DC had purchased a license to use and exploit the characters, and so it was to DC that Filmation had to go in order to get permission to use Mary Marvel. (A few years later DC did indeed buy the Fawcett stable of characters outright.)

Unable or unwilling to pay what DC wanted, Filmation set out to create their own brand-new and original character. Just as Captain Marvel had drawn his super abilities from ancient characters (Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury), so their new female hero would draw her powers from an Egyptian goddess. And so Isis, the television show, was born.

Isis was secretly school teacher Andrea Thomas, played by JoAnna Cameron, who would slip away and use her ancient amulet to become Isis whenever there was trouble. Andrea was joined in her adventures by fellow teacher Rick Mason, played by Brian Cutler, and student Cindy Lee, played by Joanna Pang. Most of the storylines revolved around Andrea's students, and their various misadventures. Once in her superheroine identity, Isis would access her powers by chanting short spells ("Oh zephyr winds which blow on high / Lift me now so I can fly.") Isis mostly rescued her teenage students from trouble, and occasionally took down a few local criminals.

The series ran for two seasons, one full length of 15 episodes followed by a shorter run of 7 episodes, making 22 in total. There were also a handful of crossover episodes with Isis guest starring on companion show, Shazam. And DC Comics (ironically, given that they may have prevented Mary Marvel from being used) created a comic book to tie in with the tv show.

Despite the action being firmly aimed at young children, the series had a charm that has earned it many devotees in modern fantasy and science-fiction fandom circles, even among fans who were too young to remember having watched it 50 years ago!

50 years after her debut, Isis is now a DC Comics owned character, and has gone on to feature in a handful of comics and tv shows. She was a guest character on Smallville (played by Erica Durance), and a regular on Legends of Tomorrow (played by Tala Ashe). The modern interpretations, however, are only loosely based on the original television series.

Unlike Wonder Woman, and The Bionic Woman, the original Secrets of Isis tv show wasn't sold into prime-time television schedules around the world, so the series is little-known to the public at large. But its comparative lack of fame cannot charge the fact that it beat its rivals to the crown of being first!

Happy 50th anniversary, Isis!

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More lost media: Kaboum, the show that united superheroes and grocery shopping

Yet another example of lost media -- or rather, in this case, partially lost media: Kaboum was a long running kids tv show on Télé-Québec (Canada) that centred around a small group of superhumans who operate out of a secret base hidden below a grocery store. Although numerous superhero characters were introduced during the lengthy run of the show, the two main heroes are Khrono (a superhero who can influence time), and Titania (a superheroine who is incredibly strong.)

The secret identity of Titania is Gina, the kind hearted shop assistant who works at the grocery store (played by Marie-Ève ​​Larivière.) Fellow shop assistant, Greg, is secretly Khrono (Jean-François Nadeau.) The shop's owner, Esther, acts as a plain-clothed leader of the gang and also their technology expert (Dominique Leduc.) Their super powers come from drinking water tainted by the energy of an ancient extra-terrestrial meteorite. The same meteorite water also (conveniently) created a team of super villains for the heroes to face off against each episode.

The show revolves around the struggle between these two groups: the Karmadors, who want to protect the remaining supply of meteorite water, and the Krashmals, who want to steal the water and misuse its power. When trouble appears, Gina and/or Greg will slip away to a quiet part of the store to transform into their hero costumes, then go into action to defeat the episode's Krashmals villain.

Various other characters hang around the store, a mixture of adults and children, unaware of Gina and Greg's alter egos. The team's secret base is accessed via an innocent looking conveyor belt in the back room, and over the course of the series various characters (usually the children) end up accidentally visiting the secret base and discovering the superhero's true identities.

As the series progressed more heroes were introduced. Two of them were superheroines: Assomia (aka Petronille, played by Edith Cochrane) first appeared in season four, with telekinetic powers, while Savanna (aka Clara, played by Kimberly St-Pierre) was added in season six, with the power to talk to and transform into animals.

The show began in 2007 and ran for a whopping six seasons, each with fifty episodes, totalling 300 episodes overall. Each episode was around 22 to 23 minutes in length. The series was made in the French language for a Quebec audience, which perhaps explains why it doesn't appear to have been sold to many broadcast territories outside of Canada. Sadly, although the first two seasons were released onto DVD, and a few episodes from season six have made their way onto YouTube, seasons three to six are largely unavailable to view anywhere. An online petition has attempted to get the final four seasons released onto DVD, but so far nothing has happened.

Realistically the only chance to see the show in future will be if broadcaster, Télé-Québec, decide to either put the series up for streaming on its web site, or offer the series to a third-party streaming service. Unfortunately, as it currently stands, Télé-Québec's current site focuses mainly on recently broadcast shows rather than old shows from its archives.

Fans can only hope that this policy will change in future.

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New rare Super Klenk images found

Super Klenk, starring Ara Mina, was a Filipino superhero comedy action series that debuted in the final weeks of 1999, and is possibly one of the most obscure superhero tv shows of recent times. And that's a shame... because despite apparently not making much of an impact at the time of broadcast, the show does play an interesting part in Pinoy superhero tv history.

Up until Super Klenk there had been only sporadic appearances of superheroes and superheroines on Filipino tv. In 1977 Darna had appeared in a one or two (depending on who you believe) tv specials. Then in 1986 two companion superhero shows, Kidlat and Zarda Super Filipino, are rumoured to have been broadcast (although details are sparse.) But the heavily fantasy inspired fantaserye and telefantasya genres didn't really seem to take off until the 2004 ratings hit Marina, a series about a mermaid.

Marina prompted a steady supply of fantasy-based shows, including several based on superheroes, that has lasted up until the modern day. Early examples, like Krystala (2004) with Judy Ann Santos, Darna (2005) with Angel Locsin, and Darna (2009) with Marian Rivera, are all fondly remembered. But sadly few remember Ara Mina's Super Klenk, the 1999 superheroine show that was their forerunner.

This blog has been trying to correct the dearth of Super Klenk information by tracking down details of this incredibly obscure tv show. You can see past efforts documented here, here, here, and here. But details have been painfully slow in revealing themselves. Particularly there's still a real lack of images from the show, and only a single tiny fragment of video taken from a trailer advert.

But that has now changed... just a little.

Thanks to a source who wishes to remain anonymous we're able to present a couple of new photos from Super Klenk. And they're pretty decent quality images too -- indeed, the most high quality pictures to date. One image even shows a scene apparently taken from an episode, featuring Ara Mina alongside her co-stars Paolo Fabregas and Jaime Fabregas.

The new pictures throw up some interesting questions about Ara Mina's costume. As it is possible to see from the various assembled images, it appeared to change quite a bit.

In older photos the costume body either appears quite plain with the cape totally detached, or decorated in sparkles with the cape secured under the arms. But these new photos show a plain body with a cape that is attached onto the body itself. (The dark stripes in one photo may possibly be a trick of the light -- or maybe not.) One photo looks like it was taken during filming, so do the other pictures show early prototypes from the costume's development?

Unless we can get hold of more details, specifically clips or images from the episodes themselves, it will be difficult to answer those questions. We can but hope that there's more hidden Super Klenk material out there just waiting to be discovered.

In the meantime, many thanks to the anonymous source who provided the new pictures.

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“Superman Radio Show - "The K-Metal From Krypton" (Fan Audio; AI Assisted)”

Excellent audio serial in the style of the classic Superman radio shows, made by fan of the blog, DrMuttonChops. Well worth a listen.

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Why are there no good Superman/Supergirl video games?

Question: has there ever been a really successful, well respected, video game based on Superman or Supergirl?

It is often said that Superman, Supergirl, et al, are too difficult to adapt into a game format. The point has been debated online from time to time, with the main arguments going something like this: the characters are over-powered, making it hard to devise situations that challenge them; they are impervious to most weapons, making it hard to create any sense of jeopardy; and they have too many different super powers, making it hard to create balanced gameplay mechanics.

Without resorting to gimmicks like Kryptonite, is it possible to create a compelling video game based on the Kryptonian clan? The received wisdom might suggest “no” -- but perhaps a bit of lateral thinking might provide a possible solution.

What if we turned the problem on its head?

Instead of trying to fight against Superman and Supergirl's near god-like abilities, what if we lent into them? Embraced them. Made them the central part of the gameplay..!

The 80s saw the emergence of many new genres of video games -- among them a strategy sub-genre known as god games. The first example that really caught the public imagination was a 16-bit classic known as Populous. Many copy-cats quickly followed. Lemmings, Canon Fodder, Command and Conquer, Mega-lo-mania, to name just a few examples from that era. These games put the player into the role of an omnipotent god who can freely manipulate the fate of a group of autonomous mortal characters. In Populous these mortals took the form of tribespeople fighting for survival against other tribes, in Lemmings they were an ever-multiplying brood of green haired critters... Different games had different scenarios, but in every case the underlying concept in each god game was the same -- the player intervenes to save as many non-player characters as possible.

These god games were all strategy based; the player’s deity avatar generally never appeared on-screen in the game itself. Obviously that isn’t going to work for a superhero game, where the player expects to see the hero on-screen interacting with the environment directly, rather than manipulating things as a hidden-hand. But what if we took some of the mechanics of the god game genre and merged them into another popular game genre? The open world sandbox format has proven to be a successful vehicle for heroes like Spider-Man, and perhaps it could work for the Kryptonian characters too, if the rules of the sandbox were amended to make them work more like a god game.

Sure, bullets may not be able to pierce the invulnerable skin of Superman or Supergirl, but that’s far from true for any of the other citizens of Metropolis. The challenge, therefore, would rely not on placing the player’s own avatar in peril, but rather by charging the avatar (Superman, Supergirl, etc.) with protecting the other non-player characters around them. So GAME OVER isn’t when Superman’s health bar hits zero, it is when a hostage dies, or the plane crashes, or the bomb detonates, or a bystander gets killed, etc., etc.

The more successful the hero character is at preventing carnage in the city around them, the more points they earn.

But we don’t have to drop the strategy aspects of god games entirely; we just need to re-think them a little. For example, Superman and Supergirl (for all their immense powers) cannot be in two places at once, so one potential element of strategy might come from working out how to prioritise goals within each mission.

We can also weave elements of strategy around the copious super-powers that Superman and Supergirl possess. Suppose, for example, that one mission sees Superman dealing with a nasty hostage situation. The hostage-takers pose no threat to the Man of Steel, but if Kal-El smashes his way into the bank they might kill some of their hostages before he has a chance to save them. So rather than only using overwhelming force to solve the problem, Kal-El has to also mix in elements of cunning and stealth. By switching to Clark Kent, Kal can blend in with the hostages, allowing him to investigate without raising too much suspicion. Careful use of Kal-El’s super senses, including x-ray vision and super hearing, can then give the player an idea of where in the building the innocent victims are being held captive. With all this information available, the player can formulate a plan of attack, choosing when and how to act as the Man of Steel to ensure no innocent person gets hurt.

One can imagine a whole host of different mission types that allow the player to try a blend of different strategies, sometimes jumping straight into costumed action as Superman or Supergirl, other times taking a more intelligence-driven approach by first assessing the situation covertly using their super powers and/or their secret identity as a disguise. Ideally there would be more than one path to success in any given mission, with the player choosing to use a brain or a brawn centric strategy to achieve their goals. But no matter how the player chooses to play, the goal is always the same: protect the innocent non-player characters.

In an open world environment the game might use the journalistic skills of Clark Kent to unlock new missions. Instead of missions just being presented to the player on a plate as part of a pre-determined story path, or triggered randomly while exploring the game map, perhaps the game could insist that ace reporter Clark Kent uncover plots by liaising with sources inside the criminal underworld, or inside shadowy technology companies, or wherever. This might be an ideal opportunity to turn Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and other supporting roles into playable characters -- each having their own intelligence gathering skills that unlock or advance storylines hidden within the game world, leading to missions that ultimately require the skills of the game’s titular superhero.

Yes, the player can still kick-butt as the Man of Steel or Maid of Might, however these abilities can no longer be used recklessly. The game puts the focus not on the lead character’s great power, but on their great responsibility..!

Of course, the above is not a fully-fleshed out game design. But it is perhaps the starting point on a journey towards what some might have considered impossible: making an enjoyable and rewarding Superman and/or Supergirl game that remains true to the characters and their ethos.

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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.)

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Is Super Ma'am worth watching?

With the release of an English subtitled version of the Marian Rivera series Super Ma'am, it seems like an opportune moment to revisit this classic Pinoy series -- a show that mixed superhero antics, sibling rivalries, monster invasions, and the supernatural.

Super Ma'am ran in an early evening primetime weekday slot on the GMA network, aimed at a family audience. Broadcast Mondays to Fridays, it racked up 95 episodes, each episode running typically 30 minutes. As with all telefantasya series, the show fused combat and action with elements of daytime soap (romance, heartbreak, relationships, etc.) At the core of its story is a the mild mannered school teacher, Minerva Henerala (Marian Rivera), who becomes the whip cracking, monster hunting, artefact collecting, superheroine known as Super Ma'am.

The premise

The story begins with Dr. Raquel Henerala taking her family to investigate some ancient markings recently discovered inside a cave. The symbols relate to mythical shape-shifting creatures known as the Tamawos that legend explains once ruled over mankind. Investigations inside the cave trigger earthquakes that open up sinkholes, releasing Tamawos from their prison deep beneath the ground. Dr. Henerala and one of her daughters, Mabelle, vanish into one of the sinkholes, which closes up making it impossible to attempt a rescue. Both are subsequently assumed to have perished.

Many years later Dr. Henerala's husband, Chaplin, her surviving daughter, Minerva, and her son, Bixby, are still living with the loss of their two family members. The adult Minerva has become a high school teacher, but she is teased and mocked by students and colleagues for her belief in the mythical Tamawos creatures. Meanwhile the escaped Tamawos have been hiding out in society by adopting the form of regular humans, and feeding by draining the lifeforce of kidnapped children.

The Queen of the Tamawos has adopted the guise of a wealthy woman called Greta Sagovia. Greta plots to overthrow mankind and once again allow the Tamawos to rule the Earth. The defeat of the Tamawos in ancient times was due to the angel Dalikmata and her gift of a magical weapon that can hurt the Tamawos. The divinely chosen wielder of the weapon -- a stingray tail (short whip) -- is known by the title of Tagachu, and its modern day holder is a woman called Ceres who has been tracking down and defeating the recently escaped Tamawos.

But Ceres needs to retire and pass the whip on to a new Tagachu, and it seems the next divinely chosen candidate is the mild mannered school teacher, Minerva Henerala. Meanwhile Greta Sagovia has been intensively training her 'daughter', Avenir, to become a weapon against the Tagachu. The young girl is desperate to win the approval of her mother by killing the Tagachu, but she fails to do this before Ceres has passed the whip on to her replacement, Minerva.

Using the immense power of the whip Minerva transforms her appearance to hide her true identity and protect her family, adopting the alias Super Ma'am. Avenir makes it her mission to kill Super Ma'am, but what Avenir doesn't know is that Greta is not her real mother -- rather Avenir is in reality the heavily brainwashed Mabelle, Minerva's sister who vanished into the sinkhole all those years before. So both Super Ma'am and Avenir become mortal enemies, neither woman realising that they are actually sisters behind their alter egos.

The verdict

Super Ma'am rattles along at quite a pace, and delivers enough melodrama and plot twists to keep the audience coming back for more. The computer generated effects are mostly fine given the limited budget, with the occasional underwhelming exception. The fight sequences are not too bad, considering how little time the production would have had to choreograph and rehearse each fight. The monsters are clearly actors in costumes, but they pass so long as disbelief is suspended just a little. The gore is limited to rather unconvincing stage blood and dubious looking painted-on bruises and scratches. And the acting is typical of this type of show: somewhat melodramatic and saturated with unsubtle emotion, but entertaining nevertheless.

Overall Super Ma'am doesn't try to offer anything too radical. It packages up a lot of familiar tropes from the superhero and telefantasya genres, and delivers them with confidence. Marian Rivera is likable in her dual roles, and the supporting cast do enough to play up to the melodrama without making the show look silly. The plots are simple, but nevertheless keep the audience guessing what will happen next, while the dynamics between the various characters compels the audience to keep coming back for just one more episode.

Super Ma'am is not deep or multi-layered, but it is a lot of fun.

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How old was Supergirl when she died in Crisis on Infinite Earths?

It has previously been established that Kara Zor-El was 15 when she crash landed on Earth at 12:17pm on 18th May 1959. But... how old was she when she died in Crisis on Infinite Earths..?

If she was 15 in 1959, then surely she would have been in her early 40s 26 years later in 1985? But a middle-aged Supergirl just doesn't seem right!

In her alter ego as Linda Danvers, Kara had grown up, graduated college, then been employed variously as a camera operator for a news channel, a college counsellor, and a daytime soap actress. She certainly wasn't a 15 year old girl any more, and she didn't look or act like she was approaching middle age, so how old was she..?

Aside from that one issue of Action Comics in 1960 when Kara celebrated a birthday, her exact age had been kept rather ambiguous. Time passes at an odd rate in the DC Universe. While some adult characters seem to never grow a day older, the junior characters are often allowed to slowly age from childhood into early adulthood. By her mid-1970s run in Superman Family, Kara was assumed by most fans to be in her mid 20s. Even though DC Comics had been careful to never verify her exact age, it was a plausible answer given how the character was depicted in her stories.

But that was to suddenly change! Supergirl was re-launched into her own title in 1982, and with it came a substantial change of policy.

The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #1 soft-rebooted Supergirl's origin, skipping over her various jobs as Linda Danvers (as if they never happened) and the rediscovery of her Kryptonian parents in the Survival Zone, resetting the character back to being a college student once more. In lieu of a letters page, the first issue featured a two page editorial introducing the new title and its creative team. In sympathy with the soft-reboot, the article's opening paragraphs definitively set Kara's age as just 19 years old!

So, after years of ambiguity, DC was now giving a specific answer -- but it was an answer that seemed to be an odd fit with Supergirl's recent adventures.

Naturally, fans took notice..!

By issues 4 and 5 of DNAOS, letters responding to the new comic were starting to be published. And Kara's sudden re-aging was obviously going to be a topic of discussion. Issue 4 contained a long answer that sought to justify the decision. The driving force behind the move was, it was explained, to ensure Supergirl didn't become too much like her cousin Superman. Having Supergirl be in her mid 20s, and Linda Danvers be a career professional, was just too close to Superman and Clark Kent -- at least that's what DC feared.

Whether fans agreed with the de-aging or not, as of DNAOS #1 Supergirl's official age was 19 according to DC Comics.

So, to return to the original question, how old was Supergirl when when she died in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7..?

There's obviously a near three year gap between November 1982 when the editorial in DNAOS #1 was published, and October 1985 when CoIE #7 was published, but it is very clear that when DC soft-rebooted Kara Zor-El as a 19 year old college student they intended that she shouldn't start to drift once again towards her mid-20s. The plan seemed to be that -- just like her cousin Superman -- Supergirl's age was to be permanently fixed (at least until some later creative team might come along and decided to unfix it.)

With that in mind, we can reasonably conclude that Kara was still 19 years old when she died in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7. As such her whole career as Supergirl, from seeing the destruction of her Argo City home, to crash landing on Earth and becoming Supergirl, to sacrificing herself to save multiple universes, took place in just a four year span..!

That's quite an incredible journey. That's quite an incredible hero..!

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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...