australian television information archive

About the series

From the makers of OCEAN GIRL, PIRATE ISLANDS and WICKED SCIENCE comes a show about a boy who just wants to fight the good fight, and as long the good guys don't know, and the bad guys don't catch on, Scooter Carpenter might just keep winning.

Scooter Carpenter is just possibly the world's clumsiest kid. He's a magnet for disaster wherever he goes, but even though he's just a pizza delivery boy, Scooter knows he's destined for far greater things.

What exactly? He's not sure.

When he discovers a secret super-computer belonging to one of the world's greatest Secret Agents, Scooter starts to believe that maybe fate is taking a hand.

To the horror of his best friend Melanie, Scooter decides he's going to accept the missions a mysterious "Agency" keeps sending out via the computer to someone named "Agent X-19".

Totally undaunted, this very accident prone kid dives headlong into a world of master criminals, highly prized artefacts, smuggling, hijacking and international intrigue.

Never suspecting they're dealing with a kid, the Agency keeps sending Scooter an amazing array of super-spy gadgets each week. So with each new mission,Scooter keeps pulling off miraculous rescues, dangerous escapes and hair-raising stunts. Soon he's the scourge of international criminals and the nemesis of evildoers everywhere.

But how long can it last?

Melanie is amazed that Scooter's innate optimism and his positive outlook seem to get them out of any dangerous situations they find themselves in. Even her cynical friend Katrina, who thinks it's all dumb luck, has to admit that Scooter always seems to land on his feet.

It almost seems as if Scooter really is destined to be a Secret Agent.

The Idea

Conquering the Mount Everest of children's television — the comedy genre had been a long held dream for Executive and Creative Producer Jonathan M. Shiff. While confronting this personal goal of creating great children's comedy — he reflected on his own comedic influences as a young person — INSPECTOR CLOUSEAU and GET SMART­ benchmarks to Shiff of fabulous comedy. Coincidentally at this time children's television buyers from around the worldwere demanding kids detective stories. Determined he could meld the two — comedy and sleuth, he began musing on a James Bond style parody.

In conjunction with well-known comedy writer Chris Anastassiades (WOG BOY, WANNABEES) and Philip Dalkin (FLIPPER, MCLEOD'S DAUGHTERS) SCOOTER was born.

Casting

Casting was particularly tricky on SCOOTER. Finding someone with a unique combination of body language, timing and an innate sense of comedy, as well as vulnerability (essentially Scooter is a klutz and succeeds despite himself) was an enormous task. Through a lengthy process, schoolboy Martin Sharpe was discovered, "Martin's audition was quirky — he absolutely captured Scooter's offbeat nature and made the character his own", recalls Shiff.

Of course our never-say-die hero could not be a secret agent without the balance provided by Melanie and Katrina.

"In playing Melanie, Talia brings a warm, sweet and caring touch to the role of the romantic interest. She has a lovely quality allowing her to rein in Scooter without nagging him!" adds Shiff.

The character of Katrina on the other hand, has a terrific sassy, biting humour. "Unlike Melanie who is often romanticising Scooter's abilities, Katrina brings areality check to the trio. Her eccentric wardrobe and bold design look provide a wonderful expression of self-confidence and a great role model, particularly to young girls watching", says Shiff. "Charlene had previously been a support cast member in our WICKED SCIENCE series so we were thrilled to be once again working with her but this time as a lead", continues Shiff.

Stunts and Visual Effects

The sophisticated stunts and effects on SCOOTER, rarely seen in children's television, pay tribute to the classic stunt and spy film and television shows. Inspired by the Bond films and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE amongst others, SCOOTER features a feast of visual treats including thrilling car and bike chases, abseiling, whiz bang gadgetry, communications devices, appearance changing masks, eavesdropping devices and rocket propelled shoes.

Brian Alexander, Production Designer on SCOOTER recalls with some amusement the many hilarious props and gadgets created for the series. Some of his favourites included the creation of a fake cat to 'cat-a-pault' across the jetty in Episode 1, the nuclear pizza oven and the duck snorkel which disappeared up the ducks rear end! "For inspiration we borrowed from 007 and GET SMART — we even managed to work in a small homage to the infamous shoe phone!" recalls Alexander.

Ideas for the show came from all corners. Even the CIA was a source of inspiration! When the producers came across a news article on CIA gadgets made to look like insects, they used this as reference material for some of the Agency 'gizmos'.

One of the fascinating visual effects created for SCOOTER was the 'Mask in a Can' gadget where a piece of material/latex is scanned with a photo. As the user applies the material/latex to his face their appearance changes to the person on the photo. "As this is pure fantasy, it is the combination of drama, onset gadgetry, direction and visual effects that work together to create a believable scene" comments Brian.

Other SCOOTER effect highlights were the 3D CGI elements such as the disguised golf ball operated by remote control to disarm alarms and unlock doors and the 'micro sun' satellite in space with a powerful beam that can blow up a warehouse. — Such situations require planning and co-operation with all departments to achieve the relevant shot elements. Computer generated or fantasy elements are then added to complete the desired stories" explains Barry Lanfranchi, Post Production and Visual Effects Supervisor.

From car and motorbike chases to wire work, which allowed Scooter to activate and fly his jet propelled shoes SCOOTER showcases truly exciting stunts. The show employed some of Australia's most experienced stunt professionals including Russell Allan who can be seen as the driver of the chase car in the exciting opening scenes of Episode 1.

Stunt Coordinator Brett Anderson, one of Australia's foremost stunt designers also brought a standard of stunt work which in conjunction with effects allowed the series to reach a visual standard rarely produced for the youth market.