Gerry Anderson, Co-Creator of Thunderbirds, Dies

jamstar7 writes "According to the BBC, 'Gerry Anderson, the creator of hit TV shows including Thunderbirds, Stingray and Joe 90, has died at the age of 83. He also created Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and his puppet superheroes fired the imaginations of millions of young viewers in the 1960s and '70s. Thunderbirds, a science-fiction fantasy about a daring rescue squad, ran from 1965 and was his most famous show.' In my opinion, his greatest creation was Space: 1999, an ITV production with practically no budget, which had great shows in the first season. Unfortunately, like so many other Gerry & Sylvia Anderson projects, it ran out of gas in the second season. They did some great stuff." Anderson's son Jamie also has a post in remembrance of his father.

Comments

Gerry Anderson

[Anonymous Coward]

Is GO!!!

Re:Gerry Anderson

[Brett Buck]

I don't know if he is "Go!" but he is certainly not F.A.B.

Re:Gerry Anderson

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Supercar. Fireball XL5. Stingray. Joe90. UFO.

Man.

Exciting visual stuff, for a 4-9-year-old.

And Barry Gray's theme music for Space:1999. I think I put up with the show, simply for that music.

Space: 1999 was awesome.

[BitterOak]

It's amazing to read that Space: 1999 had a small budget. The sets, in the first season in particular, were quite amazing, a big step up from Star Trek in my opinion. (Though the writing and acting in Star Trek were far superior.) But there were some very good episodes of Space: 1999, some of them quite dark. I have them all on DVD and I do still enjoy watching them.

Re:Space: 1999 was awesome.

[trodofor]

"no" budget, but wikipedia says that it was the most expensive show produced for British television up until that time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_1999

Re:Space: 1999 was awesome.

[symes]

Completely agree about Space 1999 - and embarrassingly I did not realise GA was behind it. What was nice was a certain air of realism, sci-fi that didn't rely on tricks and alien tech to move the story forward. Good writing with the dues ex machina.

Re:Space: 1999 was awesome.

[Dave Emami]

Completely agree about Space 1999 - and embarrassingly I did not realise GA was behind it. What was nice was a certain air of realism, sci-fi that didn't rely on tricks and alien tech to move the story forward. Good writing with the dues ex machina.

Well, except for the "moon blown out of orbit" underlying premise...

I loved the Eagle ships when I watched the show as a kid, but it wasn't until later that I could put my finger on why: they're believable, workable ships. In fact, they look like bigger, more-advanced versions of the actual lunar lander -- strictly functional. They manage to look cool by not looking like they were designed with the intent of looking cool.

I'm just glad I didn't see the Dragon's Domain episode during the initial run. It would given me nightmares for sure. Hell, I've heard people comment that for them, it still does.

Re:Space: 1999 was awesome.

[Gadget_Guy]

The second season of Space 1999 was definitely as you describe, but the first season was not like that. It was much more serious and realistic. It is just like Lost in Space. The early black and white episodes of that show were ten thousand times better than the later, colour, and campy episodes.

I can just imagine that there was some stupid network executive behind the downfall of both these shows, who thought that science fiction was just for kids and that kids only want to see monsters and aliens. It would be interesting to read an account of the behind the scenes decisions that changed these shows.

Re:Space: 1999 was awesome.

[hardburlyboogerman]

You're right on that,but the black hole was not the focus of the episode,but accidental time travel was.Black Sun also depicted what is called spagettification on objects falling into the hole.An asteroid and an Eagle were ripped apart by tidal forces.Turns out that this was correct,according to what we know now.It wasn't until the early 1990s that Black Holes were proven to even exist.That's when Stephen Hawking conceded his famous bet with Kip Thorne over black holes.
I wonder if Thorne enjoyed the year of Penthouse he got for winning that bet.

My heart is still a fireball

[niks42]

I'll always remember Gerry and Sylvia Anderson creations with huge fondness. The first program I can remember watching is Fireball XL5, and I've always managed to marry blondes all my life in deference to Venus.

Re:My heart is still a fireball

[SternisheFan]

I'll always remember Gerry and Sylvia Anderson creations with huge fondness. The first program I can remember watching is Fireball XL5, and I've always managed to marry blondes all my life in deference to Venus.

...and Lady Penelope (voiced by Sylvia) was my puppet fantasy woman when I was 12. Come to think of it, she still is.

Re:My heart is still a fireball

[Doctor_Jest]

I was enamored with Space: 1999 when I was a kid (even had the little metal lunar ship too), and I caught up with it again when they were selling the complete series for $20 on Amazon. I know the series hasn't aged well, but I still think it's pretty good knowing they had a shoestring budget. After putting a name with a creation, I bought the "UFO" series (pretty good, for a futuristic show), "Thunderbirds" and "Fireball XL5" (thanks to amazon.com). I look at Mr. Anderson (heh.. no pun intended) as a great visionary creator who made marionettes cool. (and made me want their vehicles and space ships for my own toy collection).

He may not be missed by the current generation, but those of us old enough to remember 3 channel television, he will be greatly missed.

Re:My heart is still a fireball

[Vulch]

He may not be missed by the current generation

In the UK at least there are a lot of Grandads happily watch Thunderbirds with their grandsons, and thanks to some strong female characters quite a few Grandmas and granddaughters tutting about having to watch but enjoying it never the less.

There aren't that many 45 year old series still bear watching.

also known for the UFO TV series

[Sipper]

Actually my favorite of Gerry Anderson's work was the TV series UFO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_(TV_series)
Space 1999 was good when I was a kid, but when I re-watched it as an adult I found it terrible -- the show needed better writing. [A few of the episodes are still good though.]

Re:also known for the UFO TV series

[The Optimizer]

When I first watched Space:1999 season 1 in the mid-70s, one of the things they did made a big impression on me: Some of the episodes would end with something like this:

John: What the hell was that and how did we survive?
Victor: I don't know. We don't know. There's a lot of stuff in the universe that we have no idea about, and it could just as easily have killed us all. We survived due to sheer luck and not because we're anything special.

That's paraphrased of course, but compared to the tone and formula/attitude of all the other action and sci-fi on TV in that era, and it was downright subversive.

Captain Scarlet and Space: 1999 were the best

[rklrkl]

I have many of the Gerry Anderson DVD box sets and I think the best two series he did were Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (easily the best puppet show he did - way better than Thunderbirds) and Space: 1999 (OK, you have to ignore most of Season 2 of that, but it did have Catherine Schell as eye candy to compensate).

He didn't do too well with Space Precinct (Gary Ewing as a non-drunk cop? :-) ) and the CGI version of Captain Scarlet was awful (and even stole a whole episode from another sci-fi series!), but at least he tried to keep the UK sci-fi light alive when we've all had in recent years is the truly cringeful Primeval, a less than stellar return of Red Dwarf and the highly variable Doctor Who reboot.

Re:What no mention of UFO?

[mykepredko]

I would put in a vote for Lt. Ellis over Col. Lake.

I would agree that it was Anderson's best show.

myke