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THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF JOE 90
The first commercially available Joe
90 home video, released by Precision Video. Sadly, this is an
American-produced compilation feature. Episodes unceremoniously hacked
together are #1 The Most Special
Agent, #3 Splashdown,
#21 Attack Of The Tiger and
#14 Arctic Adventure. These
four episodes became available to buy uncut for the very first time with
the September 2002 DVD and VHS releases in the
UK.
Running time 90 minutes
approx.
PAL* VHS VITC 2096 Un-certificated (1981)
Also available on Betamax BITC 2096
*Converted from NTSC original |
THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF JOE 90
Family Home Entertainment (f.h.e.)
re-released the same tape in America in 1985, in a nice oversize box.
Running time 90 minutes
approx.
NTSC VHS F4118 (1985) |
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THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF JOE 90
British video company Channel 5 began
to re-issue the old Precision Video tapes at a budget price, before going
on to release the remaining episodes from the series.
Running time 90 minutes
approx.
PAL* VHS CFV 02972 Certificate PG (1986)
*Converted from NTSC original |
JOE 90 VOLUME 2
Episodes:
#02 Hi-Jacked
#06 International Concerto
#04 Operation McClaine
At last, complete episodes!
Unfortunately, transfers from 16mm prints, so not as sharp and bright as
they could be. But nice to see the proper opening and closing title
sequences.
Running time 78 mins approx.
PAL VHS CFV 05792 Certificate U (1986) |
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JOE 90 VOLUME 4 (NOW! 4 EPISODES)
Episodes:
#11 King For A Day
#10 Business Holiday
#13 Most Special Astronaut
#05 Three's A Crowd
For some reason, Most Special
Astronaut had the "time elapse zooms" removed, and replaced
by video still-frames. No idea why - but the BBC screening in the 1990s
had the same problem, so it presumably came from the same source tape.
Running time 100 mins approx.
PAL VHS CFV 07142 Certificate U (1987) |
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JOE 90 VOLUME 7
Episodes:
#23 Breakout
#26 Child Of The Sun God
#27 Trial At Sea
#30 Viva Cordova
Oh blimey. The Channel 5 label is no
more, and the tapes are now branded as "PolyGram Video" - and
have had a slight cover re-design. Still, it's not too bad. Kind of
matches the rest...
Sylvia
Anderson gets a mention on the front cover for the first time.
Running time 100 mins approx.
PAL VHS CFV 05602 Certificate U |
JOE 90 VOLUME EIGHT
Episodes:
#24 Mission X-41
#25 Test Flight
#28 See You Down There
#29 The Birthday
Just when you thought you could put up
with the cover design of Volume 7, PolyGram put a huge spanner in the
works and have a complete redesign for the entire set - meaning that if
you'd bought the original versions, the last video in the set sticks out
like a sore thumb on the shelf. Thanks for that.
Sylvia is dropped, and Joe 90 is
"A Gerry Anderson Production" again.
Running time 100 mins
PAL VHS 084 828 3 Certificate U |
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The re-issues by PolyGram Video were more
or less straight re-packages of the Channel 5 versions, with the same episodes
appearing on each volume. Originally released on May 11th 1992, they were
deleted on June 3rd 1994.
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PAL VHS 084 910 3
Certificate PG
90mins approx
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PAL VHS 084 912 3
Certificate U
78mins approx
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PAL VHS 084 914 3
Certificate U
75mins
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PAL VHS 084 916 3
Certificate U
100mins
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PAL VHS 084 918 3
Certificate U
100mins
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PAL VHS 084 920 3
Certificate U
100mins
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PAL VHS 084 922 3
Certificate U
100mins
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PAL VHS 084 828 3
Certificate U
100mins
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POCKET MONEY VIDEO
One of several similar
"budget" tapes released in 1993 by PolyGram Video Ltd., this
contains Joe 90 episode #29 The
Birthday, and the Supercar pilot episode Rescue. The
picture of Joe on the cover and spine is so dark you can hardly make the
character out. The original "yellow box" version was deleted on
February 1st 1995, but was re-released with a different cover design six
months later on August 14th 1995 (and deleted on July 16th 1996).
With a running time of approximately 60
minutes, this is billed as "An hour or more of magical fun!"
This "hour" includes 10 minutes of trailers.
PAL VHS 087 568
3 Certificate U. |
JOE 90 BUMPER VALUE PACK VOLUME 1
To coincide with the BBC screenings in
1994, PolyGram re-issued the entire series on four "bumper"
tapes. Sadly, the first volume also featured the The Amazing Adventures
Of Joe 90 compilation, and not the individual episodes. Thankfully,
these tapes do not feature the "new" Joe 90 logo that
blighted the BBC versions - but
they do have yet another logo on the boxes!
Episodes:
The Amazing Adventures Of Joe 90 (US compilation of #1 The
Most Special Agent, #3 Splashdown,
#21 Attack Of The Tiger and
#14 Arctic Adventure).
#02 Hi-Jacked
#06 International Concerto
#04 Operation McClaine
Running time 2hrs 48 mins
approx.
PAL VHS 6324903 Certificate PG |
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JOE 90 BUMPER VALUE PACK BOX SET
The four Bumper Value Packs were also available in
a rather uninteresting box set. Hardly a design classic, it is - a yellow box with the
four tapes in.
Running time
12 hrs 23 mins in total
PAL VHS 6332703 Certificate PG |
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The individual tapes were
re-released with almost identical packaging by PolyGram's 4Front Video label on September 16th 1996, to
coincide with the series' screenings on the cable and satellite channel Bravo
(catalogue numbers 043 630 3, 043 632 3, 043 634 3 and 043 636 3).
These tapes were deleted on January 19th 1998.
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GERRY ANDERSON CLASSICS
"Two classic series are
show-cased from the master of fantasy Gerry Anderson"
Released by PolyGram Video in 1995,
this tape features the Thunderbirds episode Pit Of Peril and
the Joe 90 episode Double
Agent.
Running time 110 minutes
approx.
PAL VHS 6365123 Certificate U |
ANOTHER NIGHT IN TV HEAVEN
VOLUME 2
"Classic Nostalgia from the
Great British TV Archives"
Released on November 13th 1995 by
PolyGram Video (deleted March 9th 1998), this tape included the Joe 90
episode Breakout.
Running time 172 minutes
approx.
PAL VHS 6369863 Certificate PG |
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Last modified
02 December 2003
 
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