When Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs first ran in Europe and Asia in 1984, it was titled Bismarck the Star Musketeers (Sei Jushi Bismarck; 1984-'85). The English translation played up the "cowboy" trappings of the series' 52 half-hour episodes, which were released in the U.S. for daily syndication during the brief outerspace western cartoon spate of 1986-'87 (i.e. Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers and Bravestarr). The plotline of Saber Rider was set in the extraterrestrial New Frontier, an untamed land where the law was in the hands of the Star Sheriffs, headquartered at space station "Cavalry Command." The characters were aristocratic, blond Saber Rider, whose personal mecha suit made him look like a robotic Royal Hussar from The Charge of the Light Brigade; laid-back teenage cowboy Colt, who sported a 10-gallon hat and a six-shooter; April, the blonde, teenage team member who spent most of her time mooning over the boys; and Fireball, the daredevil (and obviously Japanese) race car driver. The villains were the renegade Outriders, led by such hombres as Vanquo, Nemesis and Razzle. Forming a united front against the Outriders, the Star Sheriff team piloted the "Ramrod," a sheriff-shaped space vehicle. (You read that right. The vehicle was in the shape of a sheriff.) The good guys were outfitted with electronic badge units, which were supposed to provide an interactive connection with the home viewers that is, those kids who'd bought the necessary tie-in electronic Star Sheriff merchandise. The unluckier youngsters were left to scratch their heads and wonder why the program had so many gratuitous closeups of those badges. Outside of this distinctly American aspect, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs betrayed its overseas origins by being more trigger-happy than the general run of weekday cartoons. When the series was being "Americanized," the producers wanted the main character switched from the Japanese kid, Fireball, to the American cowboy, Colt. The original Bismarck was designed so that the team were nominally equals, but in reality it was Fireball (Shinji Hikari in the original) who was the center of the action, and the de facto leader. The writers' attempts to make Colt the focus (and the one April favored) resulted in some weird scenes where everyone would be looking at Fireball (Shinji), but apparently listening and talking to Colt. The original series also had lots of humor based on the teenagers getting drunk. The American version edited out all scenes showing drunken behavior, and since many scenes took place in Western saloons, the heroes ended up appearing to spend time in lots of "coffee shops" and "soda fountains," drinking "lemonade" or "root beer." Though it didn't survive past its first Monday-through-Friday season, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs was a valuable freshman lesson in cartoon syndication for Calico Entertainment, who'd later forsake distribution of readymade cartoons in order to develop its own projects: Denver the Last Dinosaur, Widget, the World Watcher, Mr. Bogus, Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars, and Twinkle the Dream Being.