We are learning about shows that are “Kinda Creepy” this month. Our first two shows, The Munsters and The Addams Family both began in 1964 and ended in 1966; guess when our show today started and ended? Yep, the same. None of this was planned. It just turned out that they all were on the air at the same time.
Today’s show is Thunderbirds. The show was created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. It was a science fiction adventure series, using marionettes that were electronic puppets.
This series was the Andersons’ fourth supermarionation series. Supermarionation combines marionette puppetry with scale model special effects. It comes from “super,” “marionette,” and “animation.” The previous shows had been marketed to kids, and Gerry wanted this one to be for adults as well.
Thunderbirds is set in the 2060s and features the International Rescue, a life-saving organization employing a fleet of five vehicles named the Thunderbirds. The rescue missions are launched from a secret base in the Pacific Ocean. Leading the group is ex-astronaut and widower Jeff Tracy who oversees his five adult sons (Scott, John, Virgil, Gordon, and Alan) who are the pilots. The brothers were named after Mercury Seven astronauts (Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Virgil Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper, and Alan Shepard).
The show debuted on the ITV network in 1965. The show was praised for its special effects; it was directed by Derek Meddings and musical score was composed by Barr Gray.
Thunderbird 1 is a blue and silver hypersonic rocket plane for fast response to danger zone reconnaissance. Thunderbird 2 is a green supersonic carrier that transports equipment. Thunderbird 3 is a red single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft. Thunderbird 4 is a yellow submersible, and Thunderbird 5 is a gray and gold space station that relays distress calls from around the world.
The family lives on Tracy Island in a luxurious villa. Jeff’s mother also lives there along with a scientist/engineer named Brains; Brains’ assistant Tin-Tin, who is Alan’s girlfriend; and Tin-Tin’s father Kyrano. London agent Lady Penelope Creighton Ward and her current butler, and ex safe-cracker, Parker are also part of the cast.
Hood is a master criminal based in the Malaysian jungle, Kyrano’s half brother. He often spies on the Thunderbirds and their machines.
A typical plot is Season 1, Episode 4, “Terror in New York City.” After Thunderbird 2 is heavily damaged in an attack, it leaves the team without a way to quickly transport Thunderbird 4 to New York City when a news crew is trapped underneath the collapsed Empire State Building.
The series was filmed between 1964 and 1966 after a few months of pre-production. Alan Pattillo became the official script editor to reduce the producing burden on Gerry.
After reviewing the pilot, financial backer Lew Grade liked the show so much that he asked for the episodes to be increased from 25 minutes to 50 minutes. The total budget for season one’s 26 episodes was 1 million pounds, equivalent to an incredible $23,226,980 today.
After the sixth episode in 1966, the show was canceled. Grade was unable to sell the series in the United States. All three major networks wanted to bid for the series, but Grade kept increasing his price, and finally NBC withdrew its offer, and ABC and CBS followed suit.
As you can imagine, the building of the puppets was quite an endeavor. The head puppet sculptors were Christine Glanville and Mary Turner who were also lead puppeteers. They built the 13 members of the main cast in about six months at a cost of what today would be $6000 each. Each character was based on an actor. For example, Jeff Tracy was Lorne Greene, Scott was Sean Connery, Alan was Robert Reed, and Brains was Anthony Perkins. The characters need replaceable heads depending on whether they were smiling, frowning, etc. The finished puppets were about 22 inches tall.
They were made up of more than 30 different parts. The solenoid synchronized lip movements with pre-recorded dialogue. Pre-recorded voices were played back during filming; each marionette’s head contained filters, which converted the dialogue into pulses, which then traveled to the solenoids in the lips. Triggered by the pulses, the solenoids enabled the mouth to move in time. While I understand this was very cutting edge in the sixties, I think it was this action that make this an option for our “Kinda Creepy” blog series.
The “characters’ were sculpted from plasticine or clay. Then a silicone rubber mold was made, coated with fiberglass mixed with resin, and enhanced with bondapaste, a type of putty. Leather mouths, and then plastic eyes and incisor teeth were added.
Mohair wigs were designed and clothing of cotton, silk, and wool were made. Between the 1964 and 1966 dates, more than 700 costumes were stored. Because the marionettes had seven wires total and only one control wire per leg, movement was awkward looking and scenes were filmed from the waist up for action.
The special effects were pretty amazing for this time. Meddings added two additional units to film because a typical episode contained about 100 special effects.
Meddings and his assistant Mike Trim, designed vehicles and buildings. They used customized parts from model kits and kids’ toys. Lady Penelope and Parker, newer characters, had to fit inside the FAB 1 so a model was made that cost about $52,500 in today’s numbers.
During the sixties, the show was distributed in more than 30 countries including Holland, Canada, Australia, and Japan. It finally reached the United States in syndication in 1968 with modest success.
More than 3000 items were marketed for this show. One of the most recent was a Thunderbirds board game in 2015.
United Artists released two films, Thunderbirds Are Go in 1966 and Thunderbird 6 in 1968. Distributed by United Artists, both films were critical and commercial failures.
We watched this show on Saturday afternoons, I think. Because it was in syndication, it was on various times depending where you were located in the US. While I was able to watch a few clips for this blog, I did not get a chance to watch an entire show. I do remember that the show was very different but it was not anything that captured me; however, I think most of the technology probably was way over my head at the time. They are all available on prime video on Amazon if you want to check them out. If you do, I’d love to hear what you think about the show.