Non-motoring > Thunderbirds have gone.... Miscellaneous
Thread Author: R.P. Replies: 24
View Threaded 

 Wed 26 Dec 12 16:49 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - R.P.
Sadly their creator Gerry Anderson has died - as a FB friend says, the happiness he brought to my childhood is beyond measure....
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Wed 26 Dec 12 17:01 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Stevek100
Saw him at the Fab bar in Manchester a few years ago. After talking about his life he showed the cgi demo of captain scarlet. He got a large round of applause.
One of my childhod heroes.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Wed 26 Dec 12 18:39 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Robin O'Reliant
Isn't it strange how the Christmas/New Year period always seems to bring a handful of celebrity deaths?
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Wed 26 Dec 12 19:06 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Runfer D'Hills
>>Isn't it strange how ...

Maybe so but I'm not so sure. What I am sure of is that there are fewer other things of note going on during the Christmas break so such things get more publicity than they otherwise might as journalists scratch around for stuff to write about.

I'm going stir crazy now by the way...still, the relatives have left at last...

:-)
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Wed 26 Dec 12 18:54 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Harleyman
RIP Gerry. A true pioneer and innovator.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Wed 26 Dec 12 at 18:54
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Wed 26 Dec 12 19:10 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Dog
I never realised he did www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFF26F-C_RQ
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Wed 26 Dec 12 19:20 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - corax
Must make a mention of the best song in the world.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD96RQ1-wnY
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Wed 26 Dec 12 19:44 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - No FM2R
>> the happiness he brought to my childhood is beyond measure....

Ditto.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Wed 26 Dec 12 20:07 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Zero
The pinnacle of his art was.......

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmDfkzPaOVw


He produced, for years, sone of the finest kids TV ever seen.

Genius.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Wed 26 Dec 12 23:10 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Zero
Oh and Gerry Anderson now has terminology in the rail industry. A rescue loco used to assist a broken train is called a "Thunderbird"
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 07:52 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Ian (Cape Town)
>> >> the happiness he brought to my childhood is beyond measure....
>>
Indeed?
I got into trouble for terrorising the cat by shooting Captain Scarlet missiles at it.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 18:54 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Bromptonaut
Mrs B points out that the Tracey boys were all named after US astronauts. Most if not all members of the original Mercury team.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 27 Dec 12 at 18:54
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 18:58 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - R.P.
I seem to remember that from somewhere - Virgil, Alan, Scott, Gordon.... Wasn't the real Virgil one that died in a pad accident involving an Apollo/Saturn rig ?
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 19:05 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Bromptonaut
>> I seem to remember that from somewhere - Virgil, Alan, Scott, Gordon.... Wasn't the real
>> Virgil one that died in a pad accident involving an Apollo/Saturn rig ?

Yup. Virgil 'Gus' Grissom died in the Apollo 1 disaster along with Ed White and Roger Chaffee on 27 Jan 1967. Nineteen years and one day later Challenger Space Shuttle blew up just after launch.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 19:18 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Armel Coussine
By the time it appeared I was too grown-up for it. No telly in my childhood and adolescence although other people had it, which I feel must be connected to my greedy consumption of late-night schlock in late middle age.

Naturally my eye has fallen on T-birds though. The six wheeled pink Rolls-Royce is funny. But the narrative and puppets and voices were all so stiff... perhaps that was the point if you were a nipper. Hardly more convincing than moving your own toys about, so would give you a warm feeling unless like me you were into production values... Jerky puppet carp, fascizing militarist theme, who needs it? Any boy between six and thirteen I seem to remember. For I too was once a boy absorbed in war and violence. As were most adults at the time.



Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 19:22 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - R.P.
Not that I'm a Thunderbirds anorak but my memory is that they portrayed military types as disaster prone donkeys. The IR puppets never fired a shot in anger. Good stuff though...
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 19:29 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Armel Coussine
>> my memory is that they portrayed military types as disaster prone donkeys.

They may well have done. The fascistic uniforms and general militarised society portrayed might easily have been offfset ideologically like that. I think children's TV has often been in the hands of thoughtful, careful people interested in the message they were sending to nippers, while aware of the sort of garish stuff that appealed to them.

Can't say the same about early 60s teenagers' TV... but no, I won't mention that again.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 19:32 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Zero
>> Not that I'm a Thunderbirds anorak but my memory is that they portrayed military types
>> as disaster prone donkeys.

Indeed your memory has not let you down. IR had to rescue the military in the episode Pit of Peril and in the episode Terror in New York City" the military even shoot down Thunderbird 2
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 19:41 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Armel Coussine
>> n the episode Terror in New York City" the military even shoot down Thunderbird 2

Wow! Positively subversive! Actual satire.

Clearly I was too thuggish and stupid myself to get the point. The wise-ass elder pose does have real risks. Treacherous areas of boggy ignorance.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 21:34 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - -
Confession, got every Terrahawks on DVD, absolutely brilliant my favourite Anderson creation, some subtle humour when you rewatch them as an older if no more mature small boy..:-)
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 21:59 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Robin O'Reliant
The best ever episode -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=riMHp28_cqw
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Thu 27 Dec 12 23:06 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - R.P.
Maybe you're too intelligent to get it AC. Not the target audience ! :-) I enjoyed it because I was a kid not an adult in shorts !
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Fri 11 Jan 13 22:01 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - No FM2R
And according to my sister the Funeral was at the Crem in Caversham.

According to her it was a fitting funeral.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Fri 11 Jan 13 22:35 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - Zero
>> And according to my sister the Funeral was at the Crem in Caversham.
>>
>> According to her it was a fitting funeral.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20969525


Nice to see the BBC and mark agree on something at least
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Fri 11 Jan 13 22:40 
 Thunderbirds have gone.... - No FM2R
>>Nice to see the BBC and Mark's sister agree on something at least
Reply to this message | Report message
       
Latest Forum Posts