Gerry Anderson has passed away

[Marc]

I like UFO the best... one of my favorites. Though apparently the idea that it was intended to be an S:1999 spinoff is actually a myth.

It's the other way.

A second season for UFO (iirc) would have seen a much enlarged moonbase with Shado HQ moved from under the film studio to the lunar surface and taking place 20 years later.

However the ratings dropped towards the end of the run so a second season was shelved but a lot of design work had been done and Anderson was determined to do something with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1999#Conception_and_development

 

[Klaus]

Yes of course, got those reversed lol...

 

[Cutter John]

Neil Gaiman pays his respects.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6SV1yX-Kp5c#![/yt]

 

[MacLeod]

Gerry Anderson will probably never be recognized as an the icon of Sci-Fi TV that he should be. His most remembered series, Space: 1999, tends to be derided in SFF fanboy circles who focus more on its failures (mostly involving the second season in which Anderson had lesser involvement in) than it's successes. And UFO is a outstanding SF series for its time that is not as well remembered as it should be. Also to his credit is the remarkable film "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" (aka Doppleganger).

Well if you include his supermarionation shows, he'll most likely be best remembered for likes "Thunderbirds" and "Captain Scarlet".

 

[Australis]

Re: the Frakes T-Birds movie. Granted the original series was aimed at adolescents, thus, I guess, the decision to make the movie "for kids."

My argument is that the adolescents the series was made for are adults now, OLD adults! And they're the ones most interested in it. So why not make the movie a serious (but fun), mature updating of the concept for us grown-ups who loved the show as kids?

Yet some of the Thunderbird stories lines weren't exactly kid even adolscent oriented, arson, murder, espionage, terrorism, hijacking.

But thankfully for the most part there were no kids Think there were maybe 3 maybe 4 eps which featured theme.

I observed something interesting at my local mall when that film came out. There was a huge poster on a stand, and it looked pretty good, The interesting thing? The people that stopped to look at it were not the teens and youngsters it was directed at, but guys in their 30s and 40s. And that's the audience it should have been aimed at.

My dream project would be a live action Stingray made by Michael Bay. Yes, I'm odd.

 

[MacLeod]

Re: the Frakes T-Birds movie. Granted the original series was aimed at adolescents, thus, I guess, the decision to make the movie "for kids."

My argument is that the adolescents the series was made for are adults now, OLD adults! And they're the ones most interested in it. So why not make the movie a serious (but fun), mature updating of the concept for us grown-ups who loved the show as kids?

Yet some of the Thunderbird stories lines weren't exactly kid even adolscent oriented, arson, murder, espionage, terrorism, hijacking.

But thankfully for the most part there were no kids Think there were maybe 3 maybe 4 eps which featured theme.

I observed something interesting at my local mall when that film came out. There was a huge poster on a stand, and it looked pretty good, The interesting thing? The people that stopped to look at it were not the teens and youngsters it was directed at, but guys in their 30s and 40s. And that's the audience it should have been aimed at.

My dream project would be a live action Stingray made by Michael Bay. Yes, I'm odd.

No doubt because they remembered it from their childhood, nostalgia can be powerful. Now of course it would be wrong to target soley at 30-40 somethings when making a film. But from an initial point of view that's your audiance, you work on expanding it to include other demographics from there.

Remaking a show either as a movie or into a new TV show can be tricky, you have to be viewed as being respectful to the original or risk allienating part of your potential audiance. From memory in the uK at least the Frakes filmed was viewed to be less than respectfl, esp. when Gerry Anderson wasn't involved in it.

 

[Starkers]

Re: the Frakes T-Birds movie. Granted the original series was aimed at adolescents, thus, I guess, the decision to make the movie "for kids."

My argument is that the adolescents the series was made for are adults now, OLD adults! And they're the ones most interested in it. So why not make the movie a serious (but fun), mature updating of the concept for us grown-ups who loved the show as kids?

Yet some of the Thunderbird stories lines weren't exactly kid even adolscent oriented, arson, murder, espionage, terrorism, hijacking.

But thankfully for the most part there were no kids Think there were maybe 3 maybe 4 eps which featured theme.

I observed something interesting at my local mall when that film came out. There was a huge poster on a stand, and it looked pretty good, The interesting thing? The people that stopped to look at it were not the teens and youngsters it was directed at, but guys in their 30s and 40s. And that's the audience it should have been aimed at.

My dream project would be a live action Stingray made by Michael Bay. Yes, I'm odd.

Starring Mark Wahlberg as Troy Tempest, Shia LeBoef as Phones, and Megan Fox as Marina...

 

[MacLeod]

I suppose Captain Scarlet could be worked into a live action movie.

 

[Australis]

Yet some of the Thunderbird stories lines weren't exactly kid even adolscent oriented, arson, murder, espionage, terrorism, hijacking.

But thankfully for the most part there were no kids Think there were maybe 3 maybe 4 eps which featured theme.

I observed something interesting at my local mall when that film came out. There was a huge poster on a stand, and it looked pretty good, The interesting thing? The people that stopped to look at it were not the teens and youngsters it was directed at, but guys in their 30s and 40s. And that's the audience it should have been aimed at.

My dream project would be a live action Stingray made by Michael Bay. Yes, I'm odd.

Starring Mark Wahlberg as Troy Tempest, Shia LeBoef as Phones, and Megan Fox as Marina...

I like the cut of your giblets!

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

Gerry Anderson will probably never be recognized as an the icon of Sci-Fi TV that he should be. His most remembered series, Space: 1999, tends to be derided in SFF fanboy circles who focus more on its failures (mostly involving the second season in which Anderson had lesser involvement in) than it's successes. And UFO is a outstanding SF series for its time that is not as well remembered as it should be. Also to his credit is the remarkable film "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" (aka Doppleganger).

The massive amount of coverage and tributes all over the press and media show that he clearly is recognized as a major figure - in Britain at least. And he's probably the only tv producer to have his own fan club. As others have said, Thunderbirds is and always will be his most successful and best remembered series. The fact that 45 years later, the vehicles and characters such as Brains and Lady Penelope are still recognized as cultural icons, such that they can be used in tv commercials and the like without any need of explanation or introduction, must demonstrate that.

What's perhaps not best remembered is what Gerry Anderson actually did. (My girlfriend demonstrated this to me the other day when she commented that she thought he was a puppet maker.) And his MBE was awarded for "services to animation" which demonstrates that the honours committee only thought Dick Spanner, Lavender Castle and New Captain Scarlet were worthy of note - or that they too had no idea what he actually was famous for.

 

[MacLeod]

Yep Thunderbirrds have been used to advertise at least 3 products I can think of, Kit Kats, Water and specsavers. But then again the Daleks have been used in Kit Kat ads.

 

[therealsb63]

Remember how big Thunderbirds became again in the 90s and Tracy Island was the must have for Christmas. I think the puppetry will always have a special quality that CGI just can't capture.

some years back they did a re-release of the movie Thunderbird 6 in my home city (probably during the 90s resurgence) Now the session I went to wasn't exactly packed but I suspect the people there fell into three categories

Those who would have watched Thunderbirds first run, those like my self who watched the repeats in the 70s and 80s and the young kids being along with their fathers being seeing on the big screen.

Oh and when that abomination of a Frakes directed movie was coming (was it ever disavowed by Anderson?) I can remember seeing the poster and thinking what the hell is that? Then realised it was TB2.

BTW does anyone remember the Anime version from the early 80s? If not there was some eps on Youtube. Not quite Anderson quality and little to do with the original apart from the basic concepts (International Rescue, the Thunderbird craft each with a different role) but less of travesty than the movie).

I have a VHS copy of the anime Thunderbirds (think it was called "Thunderbirds 2061" or similar), I picked it up many years ago because I thought it was a continuation of the real Thunderbirds but was disappointed to find it pretty much a loose reworking. Hopefully some day I can transfer it to DVD as I've never seen it listed anywhere on disc.

 

[Redfern]

Tangently on topic...as a young child between the ages of 6 to maybe 8, I caught sporadic episodes of Stingray, Fireball XL-5, and Thunderbirds when I visited my grandmother in south Georgia. WCTV aired those various series on early Saturday mornings during the late 60s through early 70s. A few year later, it aired Space: 1999 during the early afternoon on Saturday. Oddly enough, I don't remember any channel in Birmingham, AL airing any Gerry Anderson productions during those same years.

Anyway, at that easily confused age, I somehow got it in my head that the various characters were handicapped, that they were paralyzed from the waist down and required "wheelchairs" to get about. the fact many of the characters used interesting conveyances to reach their designated vehicles rather than simply walking and running to them led to this mistaken assumption. Never mind that the different series did show puppets "walking"; I somehow "blocked" those facts as they would have disproven my "reasoning".

Anybody else here come up with some crazy ideas relating to those shows?

Sincerely,

Bill