Thunderbirds (TV series)

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

Production and broadcast history

A total of 32 episodes of Thunderbirds were made between 1965 and 1966 (although production began in 1964, as indicated by the show's copyright date). Its popularity led to the production of two full length feature films, Thunderbirds Are GO (1966) and Thunderbird Six (1968).

Related Topics:
1965 - 1966 - 1964 - 1968

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Today the series is a British institution. A re-run on the BBC in 1992 led to a shortage of Tracy Island models, and so the children's programme Blue Peter helpfully demonstrated how to build a home-made version.

Related Topics:
BBC - Blue Peter

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The TV series was financed by Lew Grade's companies ATV and ITC Entertainment. It was originally intended to consist of half-hour episodes, but on seeing the preview Grade decided that it would be much more exciting as an hour-long show. Ironically, when screened in the US, episodes are sometimes split into paired half-hours.

Related Topics:
Lew Grade - ATV - ITC Entertainment - US

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Thunderbirds is also quite popular in Japan, where it was first broadcast in 1966 by NHK.

Related Topics:
Japan - 1966 - NHK

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Some versions screened on the Fox Network and in US syndication in the 1990s used re-recorded voices and music, much to the disgust of long-time fans. Even more widely disliked was Turbocharged Thunderbirds, a revamped version of the show which briefly aired in syndication c.1995, which replaced the original dialogue with "ironic post-modern" jokes, and live action introductions suggesting the events of the series take place on some strange alien world (with the two teenaged "hosts" referring to Jeff Tracy as "Mr. T"!). Gerry Anderson was reportedly furious and the new version of the series quickly disappeared.

Related Topics:
Fox Network - 1990s - 1995

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In Australia, the Channel 9 Network screened the series many times over in the 1970s and 1980s during the Saturday morning timeslot, and on weekdays during school holiday periods. The original (uncut) series was also re-broadcast several times on the Australasian Foxtel cable network in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Related Topics:
1970s - 1980s - Foxtel

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The series was remastered with Dolby Surround sound in 2000. Gerry Anderson, who had not received any royalties on the show since signing away the rights in the late 1960s, was employed as a "remastering consultant". A North American DVD release occurred in 2002.

Related Topics:
Dolby Surround - 2000 - DVD - 2002

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For approximately three years (2000–2003) the satellite channel Boomerang UK broadcast uncut episodes daily, meaning that the complete run of 32 episodes was screened about 34 times.

Related Topics:
2000 - 2003 - Boomerang

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Thunderbirds was also syndicated on the now defunct television network TechTV from August 5, 2002 through June 20, 2004.

Related Topics:
TechTV - August 5 - 2002 - June 20 - 2004

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The series is frequently repeated on BBC Two in the UK and RTÉ Two in Ireland.

Related Topics:
BBC Two - RTÉ Two

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In September 2005, a curiosity appeared on several P2P networks, an 11MB Quicktime video file titled Thunderbirds IR (new Gerry Anderson TV series trailer 2005). It opens with music by Barry Gray and a few clips of the classic Thunderbirds 1 through 4 launching. It then goes on to show several scenes from what purports to be a new Thunderbirds series from Carlton Television, with new music composed on a synthesizer. It features a mixture of computer-generated imagery -- such as internal sets, external settings, and a sleekly-redesigned Thunderbird 1 -- and character puppets that lack strings and which may be animatronics. Scott Tracy, The Hood, and a lighthousekeeper puppet are seen. Scott Tracy is seen to walk, as well as to do a martial-arts backflip! The trailer says that a new Thunderbirds series is coming in 2005 from Carlton Television and displays a phone number. This otherwise undated and uncopyrighted video was revealed by Anderson experts to be four years old and was commissioned by Carlton without the approval or involvement of Gerry Anderson. No such new series is forthcoming.

Related Topics:
P2P - Quicktime - Carlton Television - Synthesizer - Computer-generated imagery - Animatronics

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