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The children's science fiction television series Fireball XL5 follows the missions of the starship Fireball XL5, led by Colonel Steve Zodiac of the World Space Patrol. Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, husband and wife team, produced the show in 1962 for ITC Entertainment through their company APF in association with ATV. During the development of his new show, Anderson thought Castrol XL had an interesting sound. The name "Fireball XL" was developed by a phonetic modification, with the "-5" added because the title sounded a bit flat without the digit. The Andersons' Supermarionation was featured in the show, a type of puppetry first introduced in Four Feather Falls and Supercar and later used in their subsequent productions such as Stingray and Captain Scarlet. On 35mm film, 39 black-and-white half-hour episodes of Fireball XL5 were shot; all subsequent Anderson series were produced in color. Several Anderson series have aired in syndication in the United States, but Fireball XL5 is the only Anderson series to have aired on a network in the United States. The series aired on NBC's Saturday morning children's block from 1963 through September 1965. Space Patrol, produced by Gerry Anderson's former business partner and co-founder of AP Films, Arthur Provis, is sometimes confused with Fireball XL5 due to a number of setting similarities.