Steve, the chap I’m talking about was Ken Scrivener (there was another guy called Ken Cameron who also part-owned Anvil, I think). but as I said earlier, they didn’t do more than a couple of series of Thunderbirds plus (iirc) a bit of Capt. Scarlet.
At age about 10 I had a huge crush on Captain Blue (from Captain Scarlet).
And for all us Fandersons, there’s the upcoming Captain Scarlet video game.
The Tech TV pop-ups mentioned this. It was just something they made up.
Those girls in the funky purple wigs on UFO! According to an on-line site, they were part of their uniforms!
Agreed: UFO was Anderson’s finest hour, the masterpiece of his career. That says alot for a producer who’s every work has attracted a cult following for itself. Within the Supermarionation canon, Joe 90 is my most favorite and Thunderbirds the least. Between the two I would rank Fireball XL5, Stingray, Supercar and Captain Scarlet in order of preference.
Trivia:
It was Hiram Hackenbacker. Also, Aloysius “Nosey” Parker is a bit of a play on words: a “Nosey Parker” is a busybody, a snoop.
He did. Gordon relieved him as Thunderbird 4 saw comparatively little action.
How do you know the entire patio didn’t slide over the swimming pool to expose the launch silo instead?
Anderson’s shtick was to make the vehicles in his programs stars in themselves, and occasionally they created a superstar – Thunderbird 2’s silhouette is almost as recognizable as the Boeing 747, and it’s not even a real aircraft. Same with Space: 1999’s Eagle – people who’ve never seen the show recognize it instantly.
FABulous. It was a hip expression at the time.
I believe the re-recording was done at Anvil throughout the Century 21 days, up to and including UFO.
I stand corrected. It’s quite possible that I just didn’t see my Uncle’s name as often (or Anvil’s, come to that) on the credits.
The purple wigs were, indeed, part of the Moonbase uniform - the Moonbase girls didn’t wear them when they were on Earthside duties.
(I’m sure SHADO had the least “uniform” uniforms of any military or paramilitary organization, ever. And I’m also sure that there was strong competition among the ranks to get into the SHADO Mobiles unit - the Mobile operatives had the only uniform that was practical and not horribly coloured!)
And never mind the purple wigs, what about the white ones? Like the one Ed Bishop wore in UFO, that wasn’t even the same shape as his head. Or the one in the first season of Space: 1999, that was passed from guest star to guest star … gracing the distinguished crania of (if memory serves) Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Margaret Leighton, Leo McKern and Joan Collins, before they finally put it out to stud…
Do any of you like Flight Sims?
If so, go here–
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/fireball-xl5.html
Enjoy! 
They had a guest wig? I never noticed that. Is that like having to wear the bunny ears?
Interesting you should mention the SHADO uniforms, Steve: I always thought it was curious that a secret military organization would blow its own cover by pasting its logo on anything let alone the uniforms, while treating anyone Dr. Jackson denounced as a security hazard in the harshest possible manner.
Still, you gotta love Sylvia Anderson’s “Century 21 Fashions,” as without the Nehru-collared business suits you’d never know the program was made in 1969. But what’s with Straker’s penchant for blue eye liner makeup? It makes him look slightly less butch than Col. Lake.
PS to Tblue: Terrahawks, Anderson-Burr Productions (1984). Now available on Region 2 DVD I believe.
Sorry, Koala, you may be right, but as I recall it was Alan and John who alternated duty on Thunderbird 5. Both were the ‘astronauts’ of the organisation, so every few months Alan went up in Thunderbird 3 and John came down, or vice-versa.
Gordon was the aquanaut, so he wouldn’t have been much use in space.
Oh, and add one more shameless admission of early fixation with Marina. But hey, she was hot.
OK. I’ll post this … does anybody else wonder how many of the Tracy boys were actually Jeff’s kids? I mean, two blonds, two dark-haired, and one redhead … it seems genetically unlikely, doesn’t it?