# Stingray etc Gerry Anderson programmes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655 "2012-10-23T20:13:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/41 "2012-10-24T22:52:42Z")
I got interested in Gerrymation at a young age because of my uncle’s infectious enthusiasm for it. He was fascinated with science fiction, many things British, and special effects into the bargain, all of which came together in Gerrymation. Apparently, even by the early 80’s the techniques pioneered in these shows were still regarded as innovative, and I heard many explanations about how they were achieved. Years later, I was hanging out with some friends when Thunderbirds are Go came on cable. It starts with a segment of perhaps fifteen minutes showing nothing but spaceships taxiing on runways. I was in a position to explain to them that this unnecessarily long sequence where all that was really needed was a few quick establishing shots was basically F/X porn showing off what was for its time exemplary model work. Cinephile nerds that they were, they could appreciate the scene for what it was. (I also explained to them that the Cliff Richards cameo was a British thing that I don’t quite understand myself. Indeed, many of my friends have spotted these strange Cliff Richards allusions in British programs before. A few years ago I actually met an Indian (Asian) woman with a British accent who said she used to swoon over Cliff Richards.) In Chicago for a while they played Terrahawks for a while, and I was thrilled to get up at 6 in the morning to see it every Sunday. This was in SuperMacromation ™. When it was under threat of cancellation, I actually printed up flyers to try to draw attention to the show. I think I only confused people passing these out. Once upon a time, it was hard to get ahold of episodes of any of these shows when they were being used as filler early on some UHF channel. Now, of course, they’re available for sale, rent, streaming, etc. I have now seen the shows that I had only heard of before – Joe 90, Fireball XL-5, Supercar. Once upon a time, the only place I knew of where anybody else had heard of this stuff was Larry’s Comics in Chicago, where they sold annuals – this was another British thing, according to my uncle. In England, if you knew a kid who was into a show, a copy of the show’s annual made an easy gift. In these days, when I often hear suburban housewives talk about their favorite Doctor (since 2005, naturally), even though much of geekery has gone mainstream, the more obscure stuff is also much more readily available. Yet, oddly I was long ago given a random set of vehicles one Christmas that turned out to be identical to the Thunderbirds, though not labeled as such. Just found in some toy bin. My uncle, who was well familiar with the design of the vehicles opened one of them up, to see if it had a submarine inside. And lo, it did. I remember that the package had some Japanese writing on it, and I now know that the design of the vehicles was actually Japanese. I suppose I could probably dig that article up, if anyone is interested. I’m still fond of this stuff, though now with a lot more irony than I knew as a child. The plots and dialogue of these shows was really goofy. Captain Scarlett was more serious, and the dolls looked less cartoonish. But one day I realized that the plots were often more-or-less like this: The Mysterons announced their evil plot in foilable detail ("…we’re going to kill the world president as he visits the sausage factory.") Captain Scarlett foils the plot in some way that takes advantage of his indestructability (throws himself into the industrial sausage press, for example). And then they don’t show the Mysterons snickering to themselves and pitching other ideas for evil plots that will involve horribly mangling Captain Scarlet. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/42 "2012-10-24T23:01:11Z")
My family enjoyed _Thunderbirds_ a lot. In fact, a few years ago I bought my brother the complete series on DVD and he was thrilled. I was the only _Space:1999_ fan, though. ---
**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:** [October 24, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/43 "2012-10-24T23:05:38Z")
The reason the puppets have such large heads is because the technology used to make the mouth open (or lower lip jiggle, such as it was) in sync with the vocal track was inside the head. By the time of Captain Scarlet it had gotten more compact, but also was kept inside the bodies instead, so the proportions could then be a little more realistic. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/44 "2012-10-25T00:20:13Z")
> [@maggenpye](#): > > Those rumours have been around since the show folded (movie / reboot series). > > It’d be fun, but I won’t be holding my breath. [According to this](http://io9.com/5936811/will-syfys-blakes-7-reboot-be-as-good-as-battlestar-galactica) it looks like it’s very close to going ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/45 "2012-10-25T01:39:10Z")
What, no love for Torchy, the battery boy? What about Twizzle? ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/46 "2012-10-25T03:22:11Z")
> [@Battle\_Pope](#): > > [According to this](http://io9.com/5936811/will-syfys-blakes-7-reboot-be-as-good-as-battlestar-galactica) it looks like it’s very close to going ahead. There’s a few ‘ifs’ in there and it would be an Americanised version. The writer himself points out that this would not be an easy translation of concepts. If it goes ahead. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/47 "2012-10-25T08:42:06Z")
> [@maggenpye](#): > > Those rumours have been around since the show folded (movie / reboot series). > > It’d be fun, but I won’t be holding my breath. They did a brief reboot for radio with the same actors doing the voices. Quite good. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/48 "2012-10-26T22:56:13Z")
American, born 1955. I remember when _Supercar_ was on, I must have been in third grade. I think it was on very early Saturday mornings, so I caught maybe one or two episodes. _Stingray_ and _Thunderbirds_ were always on local stations after school, never later than 6:00 pm. I loved both of them. _UFO_ and _Space: 1999_ I watched in the '70s. I thought the first was well done; I was much less impressed with the other. The only episode that worked for me was the one where Commissioner Simms insisted on taking the only seat on an alien ship bound for Earth, and then found out the suspended animation hadn’t worked. (The one episode of the second season I watched looked like a bad parody of _Star Trek_; not surprising, considering who the producer was.) The other series I don’t recall being offered in any of the markets I lived in growing up, but I did get to see some of them (_Joe 90_,\* Captain Scarlett\*) after I moved to Moscow in the '90s. They’re on a channel called 2x2, which is (or at least was, last time I looked) exclusively animation. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/49 "2012-10-26T23:39:29Z")
> [@Small\_Clanger](#): > > Grew up with Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and UFO, they had the best theme tunes ever. > > Anything can happen in the next half hour! > > Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Thunderbirds are go! > > Anyone else remember being creeped out by the Mysteron-ised Angel Interceptors :eek: > > Never had a crush on Marina. Destiny Angel though… Your first sentence matches my experience. I can still remember the theme tunes, I had a Lady Penelope Rolls Royce firing missiles (matchsticks ). Another friend had a model of Thunderbird 2 and a pod with TBA 4. He also had a model of TBA 3 and an Interceptor from MOONBASE in U.FO. Another had a Captain Scarlet car. We grew up at the right time. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/50 "2012-10-27T03:10:27Z")
I remember _Fireball XL-5_, _Thunderbirds_, and _Space:1999_. Never saw the others, and I regret missing _UFO_ as it seems rather highly thought of. I was very young around the time of the first, just hitting the sweet spot of early adolsescence for the second, and a bit past it for the third. As someone who built a crapload of model aircraft and cars, I absolutely adored _Thunderbirds_ for the level of detail, clever practical effects and other techniques used to add visual realism, while still recognizing that the show was fundamentally and deeply silly. I’ll even admit to having a bit of a crush on Lady Penelope. No, I did not just say I had a crush on a puppet; it was more a crush on the concept of someone like Lady Penelope. For a kid growing up in the dead end of a dying Pennsylvania steel town, a gorgeous British aristocrat with a six-wheeled Rolls-Royce that shot missiles was pretty exotic stuff. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/51 "2012-10-27T08:26:21Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I’ll even admit to having a bit of a crush on Lady Penelope. No, I did not just say I had a crush on a puppet; it was more a crush on the concept of someone like Lady Penelope. She was modeled after Sylvia Anderson, Gerry’s wife, was she not? ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/52 "2012-10-27T17:21:03Z")
> [@stanger](#): > > That was not the opening theme song, although some of the footage is from it. I always thought the opening theme was AWESOME! This video seems to be opening sequence plus extra show footage put together with an extended version of the closing theme credits. > > In my youth I LOVED Fireball XL5. I wanted the XL5 spaceship model SO bad, but couldn’t get my parents to buy one for me. > > I also remember watching Supercar, but it came on opposite the local news, so I didn’t get to watch it very often. > > I liked Space 1999 when it came out. It wasn’t as exciting as Star Trek, but it was interesting. Because of the moon setting, there wasn’t a lot of color, so the black/white/grey look made it look cheap. Very true. It surprised me, but XL5 was always before my time and was only occasionally on TV by the time I was the right age (1980 or so). This full episode on YouTube has the intro and the outro: https://www.youtube.com/embed/83yku222hBI?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/53 "2012-10-27T18:28:42Z")
> [@maggenpye](#): > > To the 10 year-old me, it was OK. It segued nicely into 2000AD (comic) with the near-future storyline. > > I’m oddly pleased it stands up well since the first moon landing was only 6 years before the show started. > > Was anyone else bugged by the odd scene in the puppet shows (Joe90, I’m lookin’ at you!) where close ups of people doing intricate things, like picking something up, used real hands. I understood the puppet hands couldn’t do what they wanted, but it was a real kick in the suspension of disbelief for me. I think I was abut 7. Yep I know what you mean. But the worst (or funniest) adaption of this technique that I saw as a very young child, was from an Australian, Black and White series called Skippy the Bush Kangaroo . ( You know the thing, "What Skippy, little Timmys fallen down the well at the old Hartman place etc.etc. ) If my memory serves me right there is a scene where there is a boat heading towards the rapids/falls or something, and what looks suspiciously like a stuffed kangaroo paw throttles the boat down. Pan back to Skippy ! Apologies if I’ve got this wrong, it was many, many years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/54 "2012-10-27T19:24:51Z")
American, b. 1959. Remember _Fireball XL-5_ and _Supercar_, loved _The Thunderbirds_, watched _Captain Scarlet_ regularly, wasn’t allowed up late enough to watch _UFO_ (and probably would have thought it was too scary anyway), dropped _Space: 1999_ after 4 or 5 episodes when I realized it was crap (I can even tell you which episode broke the camel’s back). And I just sang the theme song to _Skippy the Bush Kangaroo_ at my kitchen table. Watching those YouTube videos is a blast, but they raise a question about something I’d only vaguely noticed as a kid: What is it with Gerry Anderson and huge eyebrows? Did he have a Leonid Brezhnev fetish or something? ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/55 "2012-10-27T19:41:27Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > What is it with Gerry Anderson and huge eyebrows? Did he have a Leonid Brezhnev fetish or something? Those eyebrows could move giving some means of expression to the otherwise static faces of the puppets. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/56 "2012-10-27T22:21:04Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Yep I know what you mean. > > But the worst (or funniest) adaption of this technique that I saw as a very young child, was from an Australian, Black and White series called Skippy the Bush Kangaroo . > > ( You know the thing, "What Skippy, little Timmys fallen down the well at the old Hartman place etc.etc. ) > > If my memory serves me right there is a scene where there is a boat heading towards the rapids/falls or something, and what looks suspiciously like a stuffed kangaroo paw throttles the boat down. > > Pan back to Skippy ! > > Apologies if I’ve got this wrong, it was many, many years ago. Absolutely spot on! It was getting stuff out of the pouch (rubber snake) that I remember, but definitely the stuffed paws onna stick. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/57 "2012-10-27T22:40:05Z")
There is one Circuit Court of Appeals justice who cited reruns of “Space 1999” as one of those things that can cause great pain but leave no visible marks. SCOTUS Justice Thomas later quoted this line in a different case, That about sums that show up. the “Star Trek Voyager” episodes that had people changing into lizards would have been one of “Space 1999” episodes. Although there was a first season episode that featured a smoking Catherine Schell, before she was Maya the second year. > **[Hudson v. McMillian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_v._McMillian)** > > Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1 (1992), is a United States Supreme Court decision where the Court on a 7—2 vote held that the use of excessive physical force against a prisoner may constitute cruel and unusual punishment even though the inmate does not suffer serious injury. > Justice Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the opinion of the Court, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices White, Kennedy, and Souter. Justices Blackmun and Stevens separately concurred in the judgment. In the case, peti... ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/58 "2012-10-27T22:46:03Z")
> [@maggenpye](#): > > Absolutely spot on! It was getting stuff out of the pouch (rubber snake) that I remember, but definitely the stuffed paws onna stick. Skippy was frequently parodied in the early 90’s. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpASbAO5LX4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpASbAO5LX4) ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655/59 "2012-10-27T23:09:07Z")
Like it needed parody! Ta for link, there goes my Sunday afternoon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stingray-etc-gerry-anderson-programmes/638655.md?page=2)