Thunderbirds (TV Series) Cast Crew And Production Notes

Thunderbirds was the fourth and by far the most successful of the children's series made by AP Films for the British television company ATV. Two seasons were produced, comprising 32 episodes in total. Production commenced in 1964 and the series premiered on British television in September 1965.

Many of the crew came directly from the previous productions, but for Thunderbirds the crew was expanded, and it was shot in a new and larger studio facility in Slough. It was also APF's first one-hour series. Thunderbirds had been in production for several months when ATV boss Lew Grade was shown the completed pilot episode, "Trapped In The Sky" and he was so excited with the result that he immediately instructed Anderson and his team to expand all the episodes from 25 minutes to 50 minutes.

The voice cast were all experienced character actors and several were already (or became) regular Anderson performers. Interestingly, David Holliday (the original voice of Virgil in Series I) was the only real American cast in any voice role in the series; all the others were British, Australian or Canadian.

Versatile Australian actor Ray Barrett provided the voices of John Tracy and The Hood, as well as many other character parts. He was regularly used by Anderson and had voiced both Commander Shore and King Titan in Stingray. Thanks to his extensive experience in live radio back in Australia, he was adept at rapid changes from one voice to another and he could also perform convincing English and American accents. He became a major star on British TV in the Sixties and since his return to Australia in the Seventies he has become one of the nation's senior film and TV actors.

Veteran Canadian actor Shane Rimmer (Scott) went on to appear in -- and occassionally write scripts for -- many subsequent Anderson productions, and he has an extensive list of TV and movie credits. He is probably best known for his appearances in James Bond films and for his role as Capt. G.A. 'Ace' Owens in Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove. Rimmer has appeared in many action, thriller and sci-fi flims including Star WarsAlternate meaning: Strategic Defense Initiative Star Wars is the name of a series of science fantasy movies, a literary franchise, and a series of video games based on the ideas of filmmaker and writer George Lucas, which consist of numerous prequels, seq, and has often been cast in military or political roles.

David Graham, one of Anderson's longest serving voice actors, had worked on SupercarSupercar was a children's TV show produced by Gerry Anderson's AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment. 39 episodes were produced between 1961 and 1962. In the UK it was seen on ITV and in the US in syndication. The format utilizes puppets in a technique c, Fireball XL5Fireball XL5 was a science fiction marionette TV show produced in Britain in 1962 by Gerry Anderson. Special effects were by Derek Meddings and music by Barry Gray. An APF production in association with ATV for ITC Entertainment. 39 black and white half-h and StingrayThis article is about the fish. For other uses of the word see Other Uses below. See text The Stingray is any of a class of cartilaginous marine animals of the subclass Elasmobranchii, orders Myliobatiformes (rays) or Rajiformes ( skates), found in both s and was also one of the original voices of the Daleks in Dr Who in 1963.

2 Story background

Set in 2064, Thunderbirds depicts the adventures of the Tracy family, which consists of millionaire former astronautBruce McCandless II using a manned maneuvering unit. Picture courtesy NASA An astronaut cosmonaut or taikonaut is a person who travels into space, or who makes a career of doing so. The criteria for determining who has achieved human spaceflight vary (see Jeff Tracy and his five sons, Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon and John (all named after Mercury astronauts). Together with Jeff's mother, scientific genius and engineer "Brains", the family's servant Kyrano and his daughter TinTin, the Tracy family live on a remote, uncharted Pacific island. They are, in secret, the members of International Rescue, a private and highly-advanced emergency response organization, which covers the globe and even reaches into space, rescuing people with their futuristic vehicles, the Thunderbirds.

Tracy forms the idea of International Rescue after the tragic death of his wife, Lucille. Buying a small island in the Pacific and secretly converting it into the secret rescue base for IR, he convinces engineering genius Brains (aka Hiram J. Hackenbacker) to help him bring IR into operational reality, designing and constructing a series of fantastic machines and equipment. Key to this are the five Thunderbird craft and the many Pod Vehicles transported by TB2.

Some of the disasters attended by International Rescue are the result of accident or misadventure, but many are caused by deliberate sabotage. A recurring villain, "The Hood" (who has no other name in the series) frequently causes major accidents in order to lure International Rescue's vehicles to the scene and spy on or steal them. Another complication is that The Hood's half brother, Kyrano, is the Tracy's servant, and because The Hood has some degree of psychic power over Kyrano, The Hood is able on one occasion to compell him to sabotage Thunderbird 1's security systems. Kyrano's daughter TinTin is romantically linked with Alan Tracy, as well as participating in many IR missions.

International Rescue's London agent, international socialite Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, and her cockney butler/chauffeur Aloysius "Nosey" Parker, are often seen chasing The Hood and other villains in the pink, amphibious Rolls-Royce FAB 1, which is equipped with James Bond-style gadgets. (Rolls-Royce actually provided an authentic radiator grille to the production company for closeups of FAB 1 (such as when the retractable machine gun was fired).)

The characters use the radio sign-off "F. A. B." rather than "Roger" or "Over and out". Anderson was often asked what F. A. B. stood for, but in fact it simply stood for "fab" (short for "fabulous"), which was a 1960s catchphrase.

3 The Thunderbird vehicles

The Thunderbird machines are:

Thunderbird 1: a sleek, variable geometry hypersonic rocket plane used for fast response, rescue zone reconaissance and as a mobile control base
Thunderbird 2: a heavy supersonic carrier lifting body aircraft used for the transport of major rescue equipment and vehicles
Thunderbird 3: a reuseable spaceship used for space rescue and maintenance of TB5
Thunderbird 4: a submarine for underwater rescue
Thunderbird 5: an Earth-orbiting space station which monitors world broadcasts for calls for help and manages communications with the organization.
Thunderbird 6; a biplane introduced in the theatrical film, Thunderbird 6.

The function of Thunderbird 2 is the transportation of specialised rescue vehicles and equipment to disaster sites. They are carried in one of six interchangeable pods. Pod 4 contains Thunderbird 4 and other undersea rescue equipment. The pod vehicles which would emerge from one of TB2s pods each week were often the stars of the show. These include:

The Mole: a high-speed manned tunnelling machine
Firefly: a fire-proofed vehicle fitted with a large blade and armed with a nitroglycerine cannon to extinguish fires
Recovery Vehicles: One manned and one remote vehicle equipped with magnetic grappling lines
High-Speed Elevator Cars: one manned and three remote vehicles used to assist aircraft in landings, these can be manoeuvered into place beneath an aircraft to act as replacement landing gear
Domo: a restraint vehicle with three lifting arms to restrain or lift unstable structures
Booster Mortar: a small cannon used to fire rescue packages into high structures
Transmitter Truck: a converted commercial truck used for long-range communications with spacecraft

The Pod Vehicles were variously stored within the pods as necessary or in TB2s cavernous hangar.

4 Special effects

The programme was notable for its (for the time) superlative special effects using miniatures, many of which still stand up remarkably well forty years after the series premiered. The effects supervisor, as on all of Anderson's shows from Supercar to UFO, was Derek Meddings , who went on to produce special effects for the James Bond and Superman movies. Many of the effects developed for Thunderbirds became standard practice in the film industry.

One of Meddings' most famous inventions was the so-called "rolling road" and "rolling sky" systems. The series often called for scenes that showed the Thunderbirds and other craft flying through the air, aircraft landing or taking off along runways, and motor vehicles travelling along roads. The effects team quickly discovered that the old method of moving the models across a static base or against a static background produced very unconvincing results. Meddings came up with a novel solution to the problem, first used in the premiere episode, "Trapped In The Sky", which called for the Thunderbirds' elevator cars to be manoeuvered into position on the runway beneath the stricken Fireflash aircraft as it comes in to land.

He created an endless belt of canvas, stretched over rollers and driven by an electric motor. The outer surface of the canvas was sealed and painted with a continous runway pattern, and the miniatures were then fixed to fine wires on and above this "rolling road". A similar roller system, painted with a sky background, was built at right angles to the runway and the motors were linked to provide a consistent speed for both elements.

When the lights and cameras were set up in the right position and the rollers were activated, it created a very convincing illusion of movement. It also proved extremely helpful for the lighting and camera crews, since the miniatures did not move and were therefore easy to light and shoot. The 'rolling sky' system proved equally effective for shots of flying aircraft, and the illusion could be further enhanced by blowing smoke across the miniatures with a fan to simulate passing through cloud. The 'rolling road' system was later used on several James Bond movies.

The team also quickly mastered the art of creating extremely convincing miniature explosions using materials including petroleum and Fuller's Earth . These were filmed at high speed, and when slowed down to normal speed they produced spectacular results. The team also became expert at creating a convincing illusion for rocket take-offs and landings. After exhaustive tests, they found a British firm that could make special thrustless solid-fuelled rocket canisters in different sizes, which burned for about ten seconds and which could be fitted inside the various miniatures to provide convincing rocket exhaust effects.

The show was (and still is) justly praised for the exceptional quality of its miniature vehicles and sets. Some of the main Thunderbird vehicles were built by a professional model-making firm, but many others were complex radio-controlled kits built by Meddings and his team, who pioneered the technique of adapting commercially available models and miniature vehicles, 'customising' them by applying pieces from commercial model kits to add convincing surface detail. The miniatures were also often 'aged' with paint and dust to create the convincing appearance that they were real, well-used vehicles. These techniques became standard practice in the special effects trade and were used to great effect in the building of the miniature spaceships and other vehicles for the first three Star Wars films.

Many of the effects team including Meddings and Brian Johnstone became respected specialists in the flim industry. Impressed by their work on the TV series, director Stanley Kubrick poached several of the Anderson effects team to work on his sci-fi masterpiece .

A crucial element of the show's success was its thrilling music score, composed and conducted by Barry Gray, who provided all the music for the Anderson series up to and including . His instantly recognisable Thunderbirds March is one of the best-known of all TV themes and has become a perennial favourite with brass and military bands around the world. Gray's original recordings for the Anderson series were recently rediscovered in a storage facility in London and a remastering and CD re-release project is currently underway.

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).

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.

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.

Around a dozen novels were published when the series first came out, most by the author John Theydon, some hardcover, most paperback. Two were spinoffs based solely on the adventures of Lady Penelope and Parker. The plots were original, rather than recapitulations of TV episodes. These books are now collectors' items.

Several companies including Matchbox and Dinky were licensed to produced die-cast metal and plastic toys based on the Thunderbird vehicles. They proved hugely popular and were one of the best selling merchandising lines of the decade. Original Thunderbirds toys are now expensive and highly sought after collectors' items.

Some versions screened in US syndication in the 1990s used re-recorded voices and music, much to the disgust of long-time fans. Even worse was "Turbo-charged Thunderbirds", which replaced the original dialogue with "ironic post-modern" jokes. Gerry Anderson was reportedly furious.

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".

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.

The Thunderbirds were also screened on G4techTV from August 5, 2002 through June 20, 2004.

A live action feature film version directed by Jonathan Frakes, and premièred on July 24, 2004. All of the Thunderbird craft seen in the live action film are based upon the original designs, but with refinements. The film garnered poor reviews with critics complaining that the plot was essentially a copy of Spy Kids that sidelined the main series characters in favour of children characters who have to rescue the adults, alienating longtime fans of the show, many of whom are adults. (In fairness, it should be pointed out that the plot of the film Thunderbirds Are Go also focused on the youngest Tracy brother, but not to the same extent). In addition, the film has done poorly in the box office with its opening weekend having the film finished out of the top ten grossing films of that period, a sure sign of an unsuccessful run for a film of this budget and cinema count.

The show was observed by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. In an interview by G4techTV, Parker and Stone admitted they viewed the screening on the then TechTV network, and decided to create a marionette-based movie,

5 Original novels

A number of novels were published based upon the television series, most during 1966:

Thunderbirds, John Theydon ( pseudonym for John W. Jennison), 1966
Calling Thunderbirds, Theydon, 1966
Ring of Fire, Theydon, 1966
Thunderbirds Are Go, Angus P. Allen, 1966 (film novelization)
Operation Asteroids, John W. Jennison, 1966
Lost World, Jennison, 1966

In 1992 Corgi Books published four episode novelizations for children based upon the teleplays "The Uninvited", "Brink of Disaster", "Sun Probe", and "Atlantic Inferno".

The character of Lady Penelope was also featured in her own series of novels:

A Gallery of Thieves, Kevin McGarry, 1966
Cool for Danger, McGarry, 1966
The Albanian Affair, John Theydon, 1967

6 See also

7 External links

FANDERSON – The official Gerry Anderson appreciation society site.
Thunderbirds Online

G4techTV ITV television programmes Programs broadcast by YTV Science fiction television series

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1 Cast, crew, and production notes