Superbus (TVVC)

Superbus was a Kuboian children's Wednesday morning television series that was broadcast on Vision One for three different series during the late spring/summer of 2001, 2003 and 2004 as part of the Vision One Big Wednesdays strand.

History
Superbus was created to keep children occupied and encourage them to wake up early on Wednesday mornings. The show was announced in September 2000, and the first episode premiered on 14th March, 2001.

The show had the same five presenters throughout its run; Ericka Streets, Blade Holter, Hlengiwe Duplooy, Dan Guseo and Spy Fandel. All of the presenters had previously worked in the Kuboian children's television industry with the exception of Hlengiwe, who began her career on the show - she used the nickname Helen for convenience.

Despite receiving high ratings, Superbus was only intended to last one series. However, after its 2002 replacement, Live at Nine proved to be less popular, it was announced that the show would be returning for the 2003 schedule for Big Wednesdays.

Superbus ended after three series in June 2004. Although it was intended to return in the Spring of 2005, it was announced on the TVVC website that the series had been cancelled due to the multiple factors, including the high cost of running the show's bus, as well as complaints from several sources that it was unfriendly to the environment. The show was effectively replaced by Orbit Zone, which premiered in April 2005.

After the cancellation, the show's signature bus was stored in the TVVC Television Studio. It was moved to the National Museum of Media and Television in 2013, where it currently resides as of 2020.

Format
Superbus ran on Wednesday mornings from 9:00a.m. until 11:00a.m. The show was named after its main element, the Superbus - a large bus that would appear in a different settlement in Kuboia each week. The show had several different presenters, and would feature a variety of events such as phone-ins, competitions and audience/viewer participation. Celebrities would occasionally make guest appearances, either taking part in one of the show's games or performing live on the show.

Competitions
Throughout the show's run, a lot of prizes were offered via competitions.

One recurring competition on the show involved a child who would be told to observe a music video for a current pop song, and would had to answer five questions on what happened in the video. Getting two questions right would win them a prize, typically a CD single for said song, whilst getting more questions right would award additional prizes like a new CD player. On one occasion, Helen offered a child the chance to win a limited-edition CD single for her single, "Get Up", before it was even officially released.

Gunge
Superbus was known for its use of gunge, and used it in several of its games. When a gungy game was away to be played, a siren sound would play.

One game that included gunge was PvP (short for Presenter versus Presenter) in which two of the presenters would have to face each other in a quiz. Both of the presenters would sit in see-through tubes which both contained a big red button. Each question would be read out by Spy, and the presenters would have to hit their button if they think they knew the answer - correct answers would award them a point, but getting a question wrong or not providing an answer would give their opponent a point. Whoever got five points first would win - the loser would get gunge poured over them.

Whenever Ericka took part in a game that involved gunge, she would usually be gunged regardless if whether she won or not.

Main presenters

 * Blade Holter
 * Dan Guseo
 * Ericka Streets
 * Hlengiwe "Helen" Duplooy
 * Spy Fandel

Guest presenters
The following is a list of presenters who covered for one of the main presenters on at least one occasion.
 * Andre Hung
 * Cue Gilson
 * Jiao Sun
 * Kayzie Mondelez

Home releases
A compilation of 'best of' moments from the second series was released in October 2003. Another for the third series was released in July 2004.