Thunderbirds (TV series)

Thunderbirds is a mid-1960s Sylvia and Gerry Anderson television show which used a form of puppetry called "Supermarionation".

Parodies

The AP Films marionette series have often been the target of satire, but the best-known Thunderbirds send-up was the sketch entitled "Superthunderstingflash", performed by British comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in the mid-1960s for their BBC TV series Not Only... But Also. This sketch was closely imitated by the Australian satirical series D-Generation in the mid-1980s.

Related Topics:
Peter Cook - Dudley Moore - BBC - Not Only... But Also - D-Generation

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In A Close Shave, an animated film by Nick Park starring Wallace and Gromit, Wallace's mounting of his motorbike is a brilliant parody of how Virgil Tracy gets into Thunderbird 2 and takes off.

Related Topics:
A Close Shave - Nick Park - Wallace and Gromit

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In 1998 in the United States, the cable TV network MTV aired a six-episode puppet series called Super Adventure Team. It featured marionettes as well as hand puppets with rods. Many of the satiric elements seen in this TV series ultimately surfaced in the movie (2004), such as a puppet vomiting, sexual innuendo, and the use of live kittens, even though Matt Stone and Trey Parker claim to have never seen it. Incidentally, both movies feature the voice talent of Daran Norris in a lead role.

Related Topics:
United States - MTV - Marionettes - Matt Stone - Trey Parker

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The series was co-created and produced by Dana Gould, who is now co-executive producer on The Simpsons, and co-creator Rob Cohen. Disputes over the budget of the series caused its cancellation by MTV after only six episodes. It has never been released on DVD nor repeated on MTV. Rumors suggest that Carlton Television, which owns the rights to the Gerry Anderson classic Supermarionation TV series, purchased all rights to the series from MTV in order to supress it. From time to time, all six episodes of this series are available for download via P2P networks and Usenet groups which may be the only way for the curious to sample it as video, although a Flickr set of MPEG screen grabs of the first episode has been made available.

Related Topics:
The Simpsons - MTV - Carlton Television - Gerry Anderson - Supermarionation - P2P - Usenet - Flickr - MPEG

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More recently, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker produced a full length feature film ' (2004) which lampooned the original series. Team Americas marionette humour drew heavily for its inspiration on the quirks and foibles of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation techniques, whilst managing the not insignificant task of paying respect to the original. Produced for $30 million, the film took a reasonable $50 million at the global box office.

Related Topics:
South Park - Matt Stone - Trey Parker

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Lastly, Matt Groenig's animated TV series Futurama features a green spaceship that is clearly modeled along the lines (and colour) of Thunderbird 2.

Related Topics:
Futurama - Spaceship

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