Thunderbirds are go!

Author
Discussion

thatone1967

Original Poster:

4,193 posts

190 months

Sunday 16th January 2011
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Sounds like Gerry Anderson has finally got permission to make a new series of the Thunderbirds TV series.
Bearing in mind that the original series would have been much better if CGI had been around then (although I still loved it) and the movie was crap because Anderson did not have a hand in making it, the new series should be excellent!

http://www.fanderson.org.uk/news/newseriesofthunde...

jmorgan

36,010 posts

283 months

Sunday 16th January 2011
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Nooooooooooo!

Eric Mc

121,777 posts

264 months

Sunday 16th January 2011
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Sometimes things are best left alone.

Larry Dickman

3,762 posts

217 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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I don't think it would of been better with CGI. The thing that made it so brilliant for me as a kid was the models themselves & I loved how clever they all were. CGI will remove all that.

uncinqsix

3,239 posts

209 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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Larry Dickman said:
I don't think it would of been better with CGI. The thing that made it so brilliant for me as a kid was the models themselves & I loved how clever they all were. CGI will remove all that.
This. It just won't be right.

pacman1

7,318 posts

192 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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I fear the remake will give them all American accents. "Yeah, ma'laydee".

Matt_N

8,900 posts

201 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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thatone1967 said:
Bearing in mind that the original series would have been much better if CGI had been around then
Beyond wrong!

zapbrannigan

260 posts

183 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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Larry Dickman said:
I don't think it would of been better with CGI. The thing that made it so brilliant for me as a kid was the models themselves & I loved how clever they all were. CGI will remove all that.
I couldn't agree more.

It most definitely would not be better with CGI; in fact CGI would ruin it.

Eric Mc

121,777 posts

264 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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pacman1 said:
I fear the remake will give them all American accents. "Yeah, ma'laydee".
Just like the original TV series then.

Many of Gerry Anderson's puppet series featured UK based American or Canadian actors. The producer of the shows, Lew Grade and his ITC comnpany, always hoped to sell the shows into the US TV market. It was felt that they had a better chance if they sounded American.

In fact, many of Lew Grades' other programmes were very Americanised, The Baron, Man in a Suitcase, The Champions, The Protectors, The Persuaders etc.

Magog

2,652 posts

188 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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Agree with a lot of the comments here, Gerry Anderson has turned himself into the Mike Oldfield of marionettes. He's is a guy who had a brilliant idea, that was very much of its time, that we are still exceptionally fond of, but there is absolutely no way it can be successfully updated for the modern age.

If it did have all the charms of the original Thunderbirds it would just be a worthless pastiche, it should just be left alone, any further output just tarnishes the legacy in my opinion.

But I guess you can't really blame commercial rights holders for trying to sweat their assets.


Halb

53,012 posts

182 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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Never liked Thunderbirds that much, always thought it was a tad boring, especially compared to later fare, like Stingray.
If they want to make a cool film they should make Captain Scarlet or Terrahawks, much better ventures for the modern audience.

VernalEquinox

142 posts

210 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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Halb said:
Never liked Thunderbirds that much, always thought it was a tad boring, especially compared to later fare, like Stingray.
If they want to make a cool film they should make Captain Scarlet or Terrahawks, much better ventures for the modern audience.
Stingray was before Thunderbirds. :-)

Shuvi Tupya

24,460 posts

246 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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But, it is being remade for the CGI generation, they won't care.


croyde

22,701 posts

229 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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Yeah to Captain Scarlett (Still in love with the Angels) but Terrahawks!! what was that pile of sh!t3.

Looked like they made the models and then left them next to the boiler overnight.

Eric Mc

121,777 posts

264 months

Monday 17th January 2011
quotequote all
Halb said:
Never liked Thunderbirds that much, always thought it was a tad boring, especially compared to later fare, like Stingray.
If they want to make a cool film they should make Captain Scarlet or Terrahawks, much better ventures for the modern audience.
Sequence of original Gerry Anderson TV series -

The Adventures of Twizzle
Torchy - The Battery Boy
Four Feather Falls
Supercar
Fireball XL5
Stingray
Thunderbirds
Captain Scarlet
Joe 90
The Secret Service
UFO
The Protectors
Space 1999

Stingray (1964) was the first UK TV series to be filmed in colour - mainly to make it attractive to the US market as British TV did not start broadcasting in colour until 1967.

Halb

53,012 posts

182 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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Stongray was before, thank you all.

But Scarlet and Terrahawks were later, I remember Terrahawks fondly, it was the darkest of the lot I think, the teddy bear, Zelda and that dino thing were all quite scary when I was younger.

Eric Mc

121,777 posts

264 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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Halb said:
Stongray was before, thank you all.

But Scarlet and Terrahawks were later, I remember Terrahawks fondly, it was the darkest of the lot I think, the teddy bear, Zelda and that dino thing were all quite scary when I was younger.
Terrahawks was much later (1983) and falls outside the golden Gerry Anderson/Lew Grade/ITC era.

Captain Scarlet was made in 1967/68 and was an attempt by Anderson to get away from pure children's fare. Unfortunately for him, Grade, ITC and ITV wanted to show it in a traditional Anderson children's TV time slot. Some of the action in "Scarlet" was definitely not that suitable for younger children - not that I minded (I was 9/10 years old at the time).
You will notice that the puppets in Captain Scarlet wwere much more lifelike than in earlier Anderson TV programmes.



Edited by Eric Mc on Monday 17th January 13:19

XB70

2,482 posts

195 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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I think there is definite mileage in a new Thunderbirds movie series or what they seem to call a "reboot".

The relatively recent one was utter nonsense but if they made it slight darker and gritter....

For me it was the machines that they had and the aircraft especially but cast it well, get rid of the "happy happy joy joy" super-sweet, apple-pie overtones of the movie and there is something there I think.

Halb

53,012 posts

182 months

Monday 17th January 2011
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
Terrahawks was much later (1983) and falls outside the golden Gerry Anderson/Lew Grade/ITC era.

Captain Scarlet was made in 1967/68 and was an attempt by Anderson to get away from pure children's fare. Unfortunately for him, Grade, ITC and ITV wanted to show it in a traditional Anderson children's TV time slot. Some of the action in "Scarlet" was definitely not that suitable for younger children - not that I minded (I was 9/10 years old at the time).
You will notice that the puppets in Captain Scarlet wwere much more lifelike than in earlier Anderson TV programmes.
Yes I did know that, I have seen a programme aboot how the puppets became more lifelike in the Scarlet era, certainly more so that the goggle eyed ones of previous series. I remember both fondly from my youth, the fact they had an over riding story arc probably helped.

I did not know that there was a golden era though. These are the two I can still sit and watch now, whearas the others just seem flat. Though I can't remember if they ever repeated Joe-90, I had the car when I was younger.

Eric Mc

121,777 posts

264 months

Monday 17th January 2011
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The original "Golden Era" was the period where Gerry and Sylvia were working together through their APF Ltd set up with commissions and funding coming from Lew Grades' export driven TV company, ITC. Grade was also an important figure in the midlands ITV franchise holder, Associated Television (ATV) so Anderson was given pretty big budgets by the standards of British TV at the time.

I believe Thunderbirds was the most expensive TV series ever made in the UK up to that period.

After the demise of ATV (they lost their franchise to Central) and the acrimonious divorce of Sylvia and Gerry, the whole Anderson edifice came crashing down and he dropped out of TV programme making for quite a few years. Terrahawks was a "comeback" programme for Anderson and always looked a more "made to budget" programme than the shows made between 1964 and 1970.