person or book cover
The steam zeppelin flies over Sydney Harbour in the Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin title sequence (screen cap)
form y separately published work icon Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin series - publisher   film/TV   fantasy   science fiction   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 1986... 1986 Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Another Roger Mirams production, Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin was a spin-off from Mirams's previous series, Secret Valley. In this series, Professor Poopsnagle, grandfather of one of the Secret Valley children, is kidnapped while working on a means of stopping air pollution. The children, in an effort to save him, complete his half-built steam zeppelin (a combination of an old bus and a hot-air balloon) and set off in pursuit of six golden salamanders: each salamander contains the name of a mineral, and the six minerals combined will complete the professor's formula.

The children are aided by the professor's friend, Doctor García, and opposed by the sinister Count Sator, a retired local land magnate. In the figure of the latter and in the concern with environmental destruction, Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin (like Secret Valley) echoes the concerns of other children's programs such as Falcon Island and series one of The Henderson Kids.

The program also touches on the iconography of the then nascent genre of steampunk: though the program does not borrow the British Victorian or American Wild West settings associated with steampunk, the zeppelin itself is a distinctly steampunk device. Moran notes, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, that 'The effect of the flying bus was achieved through a combination of front projection photography, a double set of models, and front shots and interiors of a real bus hoisted on a crane'.

The program was successful on Australian television, and also aired in Switzerland, Finland, Spain, Greece, The Netherlands, France, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom (where, unlike Secret Valley, it was immensely popular).

Notes

  • Steampunk Note: The program touches on the iconography of the then nascent genre of steampunk: though the program does not borrow the British Victorian or American Wild West settings associated with steampunk, the zeppelin itself is a distinctly steampunk device. The character of the inventor-professor is also a common feature of steampunk.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Reg Grundy Enterprises , 1986 .
      person or book cover
      Title screen for Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin (screen cap)
      Extent: 24x30min. episodesp.
      Description: Produced on film; colour
Last amended 5 Apr 2022 16:18:49
X