Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation". The series followed the adventures of International Rescue, an organisation created to help those in grave danger using technically advanced equipment and machinery. The series focused on the head of the organisation, ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, and his five sons who piloted the "Thunderbird" machines. Perennially popular, the series is still shown today and has inspired a number of subsequent television programmes and films.
Origins
Thunderbirds was the fourth Supermarionation children's series made by AP Films (later Century 21 Productions). The logo of Supermarionation had previously been seen in the shows Supercar, Fireball XL5, and Stingray. Anderson came up with the concept for the series after hearing about a German mine disaster in 1963. The heavy equipment needed to rescue the miners was located far away—transportation time was a major hindrance in ensuring the survival of the miners. The "race against time" element is one of the recurring themes in Thunderbirds. The show's title derived from a letter written to his family by Anderson's older brother, while he was serving in the United States during World War II. In the letter, he referred to an American Air Force base called "Thunderbird Field". The working title, according to the trivia tracks used in Tech TV airings of the episodes, was simply "International Rescue."
Many of the crew came directly from APF's previous production Stingray, but for Thunderbirds the crew was expanded, and was shot at A.P. Films' ever growing studio at Stirling Road, Slough, UK. It was APF's first one-hour series. Thunderbirds had been in production for several months when ITC Entertainment boss Lew Grade was shown the completed pilot episode, "Trapped in the Sky", and he was reportedly so excited with the result that he immediately instructed Anderson and his team to expand all the episodes from 25 minutes to 50 minutes. This initially proved to be a headache as nine episodes had already been filmed and scripts for half-a-dozen others had been written.
Production commenced in September 1964 and the show premiered on British television on 30 September 1965 in the ATV Midlands region. Other ITV regions followed, including London on 25 December 1965. Two series were produced, comprising 32 50-minute episodes in total. Each episode was also split into two parts for a half-hour slot, creating 64 25-minute episodes.
Plot
The Thunderbirds TV series is supposedly set in the 21st century (which at the time of production was still over thirty years away). The specific time frame remains a contentious topic amongst fans, due to contradictory dates seen on newspapers and calendars in different episodes, ranging from 1964 (clearly impossible) to 2026. As he has stated in a number of interviews (most recently for Fanderson's "FAB" magazine), Gerry Anderson's brief to the writers and designers was simply that the series was set "one hundred years in the future" (i.e. 2065). This intent was carried forward in all of the series' contemporary tie-in merchandise, such as the weekly comic strip in TV Century 21 and the Century 21 Mini-Album "Thunderbird 3", wherein Alan Tracy tells listeners that the year is 2065. The close-up appearance of a 2026 calendar in the episode "Give or Take a Million" was later admitted by production designer Bob Bell to have been an error on the part of the prop-maker. 1993 vintage champagne is discussed in "Alias Mr. Hackenbacker", although this only suggests that events in that episode took place after 1993. The date issue is strongly in favour of the mid 2060s, as in the feature film Thunderbirds Are Go the date is shown to be June 2066, and in Thunderbird 6 it is June 2068. In addition, the Zero X spacecraft from Thunderbirds Are Go subsequently appeared in the opening episode of Anderson's next TV series, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, which was set in 2068.
The show depicts the adventures of the Tracy family, which consists of millionaire former astronaut Jeff Tracy (one of the first men to land on the Moon) and his five sons: Scott (pilot of Thunderbird 1 and principal rescue co-ordinator), Virgil (pilot of Thunderbird 2), Alan (astronaut in Thunderbird 3), Gordon (aquanaut in Thunderbird 4) and John (principal duty astronaut on the space station Thunderbird 5) – each named after a Mercury astronaut – Scott Carpenter, Virgil Grissom, Alan Shepard, Gordon Cooper and John Glenn, respectively. (Two of the Mercury Seven, Wally Schirra and Deke Slayton, do not have characters named for them. Slayton did not fly as part of the Mercury program due to being grounded from flight status by a heart condition, although he later flew as docking module pilot on ASTP.) Together with Jeff's elderly mother called Grandma Tracy, the scientific genius and engineer "Brains", the family's manservant Kyrano and his daughter Tin-Tin, the Tracy family live on a remote, uncharted island.
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 FAB1, 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). Lady Penelope's yacht is called FAB-2. Although credited as "London-based Agent", Lady Penelope lives in a mansion in Kent, which is actually a miniature copy of real life Stourhead House in Wiltshire.
Some of the disasters attended by International Rescue are often the result of accident or misadventure, but on occasion involve deliberate sabotage. A recurring villain, "The Hood" (actually never named in the dialogue, but referred to as such in narration, in the comics, tie-in books and other spin-off media), frequently causes major accidents in order to lure International Rescue's vehicles to the scene and spy on or steal them. Although never credited as such, two characters would have recurring roles in the series, with London Airport controller Commander Norman appearing five times. Fireflash pilot Captain Hanson would appear five times as well, though three of his appearances were part of reused or archive footage.
The main characters' appearances were modelled after then-famous actors. Jeff Tracy was modelled after Lorne Greene of Bonanza fame, Alan after Robert Reed, Scott after Sean Connery, and John after both Adam Faith and Charlton Heston.
The Thunderbirds' radio code "F-A-B", meaning "message received and understood", did not stand for anything, it was just supposed to sound "hip". In fact, when asked what it stood for, Gerry Anderson once replied, with some bemusement, "Fab," as though it were obvious. Later, due in part to fan-submitted stories, F-A-B came to mean Fully Advised and Briefed, in keeping with P-W-O-R (Proceeding With Orders Received), a similar radio confirmation code in the series Stingray.
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