# Another icon of my childhood bites the dust. Gerry Anderson, dead at 83 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220 "2012-12-26T21:18:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/1 "2012-12-26T21:18:26Z")
_Thunderbirds_, _Fireball XL 5_, _Stingray_ and tons of other shows creator, [Gerry Anderson](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-20845407) has died from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 83. I remember watching his shows growing up, fron the puppet shows like _Supercar_ et al. to the live action shows like _UFO_ and _Space 1999_. He provided us with hours of entertainment, not always premium quality, but always enjoyable… He will be missed. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/2 "2012-12-26T21:25:38Z")
He created one of my first childhood crushes: [Marina!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD96RQ1-wnY) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/3 "2012-12-26T21:27:50Z")
That’s too bad, but 83 years isn’t too bad a run. I just finished (seriously, about three hours ago) watching all of _UFO_ and revived an 18-month-old thread about it. I hadn’t actually checked if Gerry Anderson was still alive, although a lot of the main cast has passed on by now. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/4 "2012-12-26T22:02:10Z")
As I see this thread, it rests right above the UFO thread. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/5 "2012-12-26T23:29:27Z")
I wasn’t familiar with his work, but I just saw a report on BBC America including some clips. Pretty amazing stuff, especially for the era he worked in! -D/a ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/6 "2012-12-27T00:10:14Z")
Gerry Anderson is go! I loved “Supercar” as a kid. I have the complete series on DVD. I’ll have to watch a few this week in his honor. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/7 "2012-12-27T00:16:53Z")
F.A.B. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2012, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/8 "2012-12-27T00:23:10Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > That’s too bad, but 83 years isn’t too bad a run. This is also my attitude to deaths late in life. When I was a kid I used to watch: _Stingray_ _Thunderbirds_ _Joe 90_ _UFO_ _Space 1999_ _Captain Scarlet_ _Terrahawks_ and most recently the new CGI _Captain Scarlet_ The guy helped shape my entire childhood! ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/9 "2012-12-27T01:08:21Z")
From the _UFO_ thread: > [@I Watched Episode 1 Of "UFO" last night.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-episode-1-of-ufo-last-night/586738/27): > > Is there a term for this sort of show, where there is such loving attention to the vehicles and technology? “Gadget porn” seems to apply more to real-world electronics than fictional space ships. Or do we not need a term, since Gerry and Sylvia Anderson seem to have the genre to themselves? Any thoughts to share here? Did anyone else ever construct a science-fiction universe that paid such attention to the minutia of the hardware? (And _post hoc_ fanwanking doesn’t count.) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/10 "2012-12-27T02:53:17Z")
‘Thunderbirds are gone!’ ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/11 "2012-12-27T21:45:13Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > This is also my attitude to deaths late in life. > > When I was a kid I used to watch: > _Stingray_ > _Thunderbirds_ > _Joe 90_ > _UFO_ > _Space 1999_ > _Captain Scarlet_ > _Terrahawks_ > and most recently the new CGI _Captain Scarlet_ > > The guy helped shape my entire childhood! My experience is similar to yours, though I never got to see _Space 1999_ or \*Terrahawks \*. Though I must add \*Secret Service \* I have a book by Derek Meddings entitled "21st Century Visions " which describes a lot of the work he did for Gerry Anderson and has some wonderful photographs. Come to think of it, it’s only the Gerry Anderson productions he describes in the book. Worth it for nostalgia value if nothing else . And some of the pictures are amazing . You’d believed they were real. ---
**Author:** ![Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/12 "2012-12-27T23:09:01Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > From the _UFO_ thread: > > Any thoughts to share here? Did anyone else ever construct a science-fiction universe that paid such attention to the minutia of the hardware? (And _post hoc_ fanwanking doesn’t count.) This was always the criticism leveled at Anderson - he was technically gifted, the shows had wonderfully-designed hardware, but there was a void where the characters and plots should have gone. He was in certain respects the mirror-image of Jim Henson. Henson used puppetry to bring characters to life and tell stories; Anderson used characters and stories to show off his puppetry and modelwork. As a British person Anderson looms slightly larger in my childhood than he must loom for Americans, although not _much_ larger, because his shows had been supplanted by cartoons in the 1980s, when I was young. _Terrahawks_, his only 1980s production, seemed to come and go. My dad’s generation grew up with _Thunderbirds_, _Captain Scarlet_ et al and there was a revival in the 1990s, although it has to be said that _Thunderbirds_ in particular was padded like mad; as something to dip into it was fine, but to sit down and actually _watch it_ was torture. I can remember _UFO_ only being on occasionally, and late at night. It was fascinating, clever, stupid, ahead of its time, badly dated, all at the same time. Gabrielle Drake; light jazz music. _Space: 1999_ is one of those things that will vex me forevermore. How could so much amount to so little? Tell me, how big was Gerry Anderson in the States? His shows were produced by Lew Grade, who deliberately set out to make British TV programmes that would sell to the US market - he funded _Danger Man_, _The Saint_, _The Persuaders_, _The Prisoner_ etc, all of which were ruthlessly designed to conquer the US market. The Gerry Anderson productions likewise, which is why they had mid-Atlantic accents and were shot in colour with decent budgets. At the time the rest of British TV - with the exception of _The Avengers_ - was very cheap and parochial, two diseases that persisted for decades afterwards. Lew Grade also produced _The Muppet Show_, which was huge, but I have the impression that the 1960s/early-70s shows were only middling successes in the US, Anderson’s output included. Is this the case? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/13 "2012-12-28T01:23:00Z")
If you really want to wallow in Gerry Anderson nostalgia, see [here](http://davidszondy.com/future/Thunderbirds/thunderbirds.htm) and [here](http://davidszondy.com/future/UFO/ufo.htm) and [here.](http://davidszondy.com/future/doppelganger/doppelganger.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/14 "2012-12-28T01:49:57Z")
> [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](#): > > This was always the criticism leveled at Anderson - he was technically gifted, the shows had wonderfully-designed hardware, but there was a void where the characters and plots should have gone. He was in certain respects the mirror-image of Jim Henson. Henson used puppetry to bring characters to life and tell stories; Anderson used characters and stories to show off his puppetry and modelwork. I didn’t mean that entirely as a criticism. I did just watch all of _UFO_ in the last couple weeks. (I dimly remember it from the early '70s; remember _Space 1999_ much better.) There were some interesting stories (see my post in the other thread), but lots of TV shows have interesting stories. What jumps out as different about _UFO_ is the unusual level of detail and intricacy in the fictional technology. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-icon-of-my-childhood-bites-the-dust-gerry-anderson-dead-at-83/645220/15 "2012-12-28T02:05:48Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I didn’t mean that entirely as a criticism. I did just watch all of _UFO_ in the last couple weeks. (I dimly remember it from the early '70s; remember _Space 1999_ much better.) There were some interesting stories (see my post in the other thread), but lots of TV shows have interesting stories. What jumps out as different about _UFO_ is the unusual level of detail and intricacy in the fictional technology. As [David Szondy](http://davidszondy.com/future/Thunderbirds/thunderbirds.htm) puts it: > [@](#): > > _Thunderbirds,_ the '60s Gerry Anderson television series that understood that the machines were the real stars of the show and caused more than a few parents to go faint with despair a couple of Christmases ago when the Tracy Island toy set from the show sold out. > > But it’s of particular interest in terms of Future Past because of its whole attitude toward technology. Thunderbirds showed a fascination for machines; especially flying types, but it didn’t worship them. This was not a Star Trek future where technology solved all problems. In fact, the whole premise of the show was that progress entailed risks to life and property. > > But the 21st century world of Thunderbirds was one that could only be called an engineer’s utopia. This was a world where any idea, no matter how insane, could get the green light and where funding is unlimited. Want to build a giant walking tank? Sure. Send a manned spaceship to the Sun? Why not? Move the Empire State Building? No problem. Deejays in orbit? Why didn’t we think of that? Atomic-powered hypersonic passenger-planes? Blank cheques all around!