60's TV and the Gerry Anderson Experience....
These were the TV puppet series created by Gerry Anderson, all in glorious supermarionation,
It doesn't come close to todays computer generated hypermarionation, but for the time they
were good and remembered fondly. The puppets heads contained solenoid motors that
created the synchronised mouth movements, which is why to start with the heads were out of
proportion with the bodies, this was rectified later with smaller solenoids being made allowing the
heads to remain in proportion with the body, this was introduced into the Captain Scarlet series.
It was impossible to make puppets walk convincingly, walking was kept to a minimum, having them
sit in chairs, vehicles or just standing, Some puppets where made to look like the actors who did
the voice over, examples being Lady Penelope look like Sylvia Anderson and Captain Blue from the
Captain Scarlet series resembled the characters voice over actor Ed Bishop, other puppets were
modeled on stars of the time, Stingray's Troy Tempest was modeled on James Garner and Captain
Scarlet on Cary Grant & Stingrays Marina was modeled on Brigitte BardotEd Bishop Star of UFO tv series Captain Blue
Captain Scarlet Cary Grant
The Gerry Anderson puppet theater shows. * Four Feather Falls (1960)
* Supercar (1960)
* Fireball XL5 (1962)
* Stingray (1963)
* Thunderbirds (1964)
* Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967)
* Joe 90 (1968)
* The Secret Service (1969)
The shows were big on memorable theme tunes, Thunderbirds being probably
the most famous of these closely followed by Stingray & Firebal XL5.<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/BfIAKj3Gl1E&hl=en&fs=1" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/BfIAKj3Gl1E&hl=en&fs=1</a>]]><![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/rPu9mLfLoOA&hl=en&fs=1" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/rPu9mLfLoOA&hl=en&fs=1</a>]]><![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/IXvfNJIOzxg&hl=en&fs=1" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/IXvfNJIOzxg&hl=en&fs=1</a>]]>Villains played a big part in these TV shows, always getting in the way while
our heroes where trying to save the world, the most prolific of these through
a series were: 'The Hood' from Thunderbirds
and the relentless 'The Mysterons & Captain Black' from Captain Scarlet
The Mysterons' primary agent on Earth was Captain Black. A reconstruction of the human
Spectrum officer, who is killed in the first episode. His murder victims, once duplicated by
the Mysterons, are coordinated by telepathy. Despite several narrow escapes throughout
the series, the elusive Black is never captured by the forces of Spectrum.Thunderbirds had an array of versatile transport all became well known in there own right.
While Stingray had Stingray and Fireball XL5 had, you guessed it, Fireball XL5
Some of these shows have been made into games and animated series, Thunderbirds
did make it to the big screen in 2004 in a live action movie of the same name, it was
poorly received by critics and the box office, Gerry Anderson Described it as:
"the biggest load of crap I have ever seen in my life."As I said earlier, by todays standards they are poorly made, but for
the time they were ground breaking, not that we knew it at the time,
As a child you only saw the magic that early TV pioneering held,
and the impression that left on the young mind, that was strong
enough for us to remember them so well, so vividly, years on.
How many programs today will still be remembered so well in 30 odd
years time, not many I wager....Although at the time I enjoyed all the shows from XL5 up to Joe 90,
Thunderbirds being the one most enjoyed , including me, but Stingray was
the one i liked the most, although you can't beat the Thunderbirds
theme tune.Remember:
ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN THE NEXT HALF HOUR.... 
Stingray
