Gerry Anderson – F.A.B.
Gerry Anderson (1929 – 2012) British director and writer who created the popular TV puppet series Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet.
When approached to produce and direct a puppet show for children’s television in the 1950s, Anderson saw it purely as an opportunity to get a foot in the door and hoped that it would lead to a career directing more conventional TV dramas and feature films, with human stars.
Anderson did direct one low-budget British crime movie a few years later. But Crossroads to Crime (1960) merits nothing more than a footnote in British screen history, and it was Anderson’s subsequent return to working with marionettes on such cult sci-fi series as Supercar (1961-62), Fireball XL5 (1962-63), Stingray (1964-65) and Thunderbirds (1965-66) that secured a pre-eminent place in the story of British television, the history of puppetry and the memories of more than one generation of young viewers.
Anderson and his team, including his wife at the time, Sylvia Anderson, took puppetry to new levels of realism, with a technique he christened “Supermarionation”, a portmanteau of “super marionette animation”. It employed very thin metal wires, which not only controlled the puppets but also carried signals that synchronised lip movements with dialogue.
The downside, or at least the apparent downside, was that the heads contained the equipment and were overly large for the bodies. The puppet-makers could have made larger bodies too, but they would have been too heavy for the operators.
The puppets still walked in a jerky fashion, so Anderson determined they should spend as much time as possible in vehicles. The science-fiction genre provided the scope to make his vehicles as imaginative and futuristic as possible and they became an essential part of the appeal of the classic shows – taking on the role of title character in each.
Advances in electronics enabled a leap forward again with Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-68) and this time the puppets’ heads were in perfect proportion to their bodies. The storyline of a war with aliens, represented as two sinister circles of light, borrowed from the premise of the chilling sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and it marked a move away from the sweet notion of Thunderbirds as a family business, with the former astronaut Jeff Tracy running a fleet of rescue craft, each manned by a different son.
He went on to create and produce many more series, with puppets and human actors, including Space: 1999 (1975-77), a live-action series that was reputedly the most expensive made for British television up to that point.
His career dipped in the 1980s but he enjoyed a remarkable resurgence in the 1990s when repeats of Thunderbirds led to it becoming a phenomenon all over again. People queued overnight outside shops in the hope of being able to buy a model of Tracy Island for Christmas and Blue Peter ran an item on how to make your own.
The renewed popularity led to a big-budget, live-action film of Thunderbirds in 2004. It seemed to miss the point of the TV shows (which was that they were puppets) and failed abysmally at the box office. Anderson, who had once been so desperate to work in movies, had nothing to do with it.
Gerald Alexander Abrahams (1929 – 2012) was born in London, his ancestors came from Central Europe and their surname was changed from Bieloglovski to Abrahams when they arrived in England. His parents changed it again when he was a boy.
Anderson’s film career began in the 1940s when he worked at the Colonial Film Unit and Gainsborough Pictures, serving as an assistant editor on The Wicked Lady (1945). After national service in the RAF he returned to Gainsborough and then joined an independent television company called Polytechnic Studios. When it folded he set up a company, with several former colleagues, and they were desperate for work when they were offered the chance to get involved in a children’s show called The Adventures of Twizzle with the children’s author Roberta Leigh.
The Adventures of Twizzle (1957-58) featured a toy boy (in the old sense of the phrase), with expanding arms and legs. Torchy the Battery Boy (1959) followed, another Roberta Leigh project.
Four Feather Falls (1960) was the first series originated by Anderson. It was a Western featuring a sheriff called Tex Tucker, voiced by Nicholas Parsons. But it contained fantastic elements that Anderson would develop in his run of classic sci-fi series, after his failure to cross over into live action feature films with Crossroads to Crime.
Sylvia Thamm had been a secretary at Polytechnic and subsequently worked for Anderson’s company AP Films (which evolved into Century 21 Productions). Anderson left his first wife, married Thamm and, as Sylvia Anderson, she became a key figure in the set-up and a familiar name in British television. She gets the credit for developing the personalities of many of the characters. She also provided voices for some, including Lady Penelope in Thunderbirds.
As well as pushing back the frontiers of puppet technology, Anderson was also a pioneer in the field of merchandising in the early 1960s, long before Star Wars (1977). He set up a separate merchandising operation and there was a huge range of toys, comics, annuals, bubblegum and confectionery cards, model kits and other items, many of which are now very valuable as memorabilia. He also acquired merchandising rights for other people’s shows, including Bewitched, The Man from UNCLE and The Saint, and at one point even had a deal with the pop group Abba.
His shows sold internationally, but had only limited success in the US; and two Thunderbirds films, Thunderbirds are Go (1966) and Thunderbird 6 (1968), did disappointing business. After Captain Scarlet, many regarded Joe 90 (1968-69), with its nine-year-old secret-agent hero, as puerile.
Anderson realised a long-held ambition when he wrote and produced the live-action film Doppelgänger (1969), about a planet on the far side of the Sun where everything on Earth is duplicated. The television series UFO (1970-71) was also live-action, though the basic scenario of alien invaders and a secret defence organisation recalled earlier puppet shows. ITV schedulers could not make up their mind if it was for adults or children – in some areas it went out late at night and in others it was broadcast on Saturday mornings. It was to be a recurring problem for Anderson.
Anderson effectively hired himself out as producer for Lew Grade’s live action drama series The Protectors (1972-74), which followed a trend of shows about freelance troubleshooters. Space: 1999 (1975-1977) was another live-action series, starring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain.
During the 1970s he was approached by the producer Harry Saltzman to adapt the James Bond novel, Moonraker. His active involvement in the series ended when Saltzman split with his business partner Cubby Broccoli, though Anderson claimed that Broccoli used some of his ideas in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).
In later years there were many unrealised and abortive projects. One of his more successful later shows was Terrahawks (1983-86), a sci-fi show that used fairly realistic glove-and-rod puppets as heroes and ugly, caricatured puppets as villains. The latter were clearly influenced by Jim Henson.
Anderson’s later shows retain a loyal following but there is little sense of breaking new ground. Anderson, who was appointed MBE in 2001, produced a new CGI version of Captain Scarlet in 2005.
Filmography
Supercar (1961 – 62)
Supercar, a multi-environment craft invented by Professor Rudolph Popkiss and Doctor Horatio Beaker, and piloted by Mike Mercury.
Fireball XL5 (1962 – 63)
The interplanetary adventures of the crew of the W.S.P. spacecraft Fireball XL5, patrolling Sector 25 of the galaxy in the year 2062.
Stingray (1964 – 65)
The adventures of the crew of the W.A.S.P. super-submarine Stingray, patrolling the oceans in the year 2064.
Thunderbirds (1965 – 1966)
First launched onto British television in 1965, and for many fans remains the pinnacle of the Gerry Anderson legacy. The series centred around the exploits of International Rescue, a global response organisation founded by billionaire ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy on a beautiful island somewhere in the Pacific. His five sons, (each named after a real life NASA astronaut), took control of the five Thunderbirds machines, a fleet of rescue craft designed by the engineering genius Brains. These included: Thunderbird 1 (a hypersonic rocket piloted by Scott) Thunderbird 2 (the heavy transporter piloted by Virgil) Thunderbird 3 (the space rocket flown by Alan) Thunderbird 4 (a submarine operated by Gordon) and Thunderbird 5 (an orbiting space satellite manned by John).
Originally planned as a series of half-hour episodes the Thunderbirds format was expanded to a full hour on the orders of ITC head Lew Grade, who was extremely impressed by what he saw in the opening episode, Trapped in the Sky.
Right from the start the series promised and delivered action and spectacle on the scale of a feature film, and continued to do so throughout its first season. The longer running time now allowed for a greater emphasis on the characters and their relationships as well as action and excitement, and viewers also got to spend time getting to know each episode’s guest characters before they were thrown into mortal danger.
Despite this the show’s star attractions were always the machines, with both the Thunderbirds craft and guest vehicles alike lingering in the minds of viewers long after the programme had ended.
Along with dynamic vocal performances from the cast and a stirring brassy musical score from Barry Gray, every element of Thunderbirds came together almost perfectly to produce a series that very quickly became a hit with audiences worldwide.
Crucially, it managed to capture the attention of adults as well as children. Although it only ran for 32 episodes, the series has become an enduring television phenomenon, and it will no doubt continue to inspire and entertain future generations. F.A.B!
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967 – 68)
In the year 2068 AD, a Zero-X mission has successfully reached and landed on Mars; its mission: to discover the source of strange signals that had been monitored on Earth. An MEV (Martian Exploration Vehicle) sets out to explore the surface, with its 3-man crew: Lieutenant Dean, Navigator Conway and mission commander Captain Black – a top officer of the worldwide peace-keeping armed force and security service known as Spectrum.
After much searching, they discover a mysterious complex owned by a race of unseen beings known as the Mysterons. Pleased to have company, they prepare to welcome their visitors, moving their scanning camera to get a better view. However, Black and his crew-mates — mistaking the camera for a weapon — panic, believing they’re about to be attacked! Black orders Dean to fire missiles at the complex, completely destroying it…
…or, is it? The alien metropolis slowly shimmers back into existence…and the now-hostile Mysterons ominously vow revenge for the crew’s act of aggression, threatening to destroy all life on Earth. One of Spectrum’s top agents is Captain Scarlet – once under Mysteron control himself, he managed to break free and gained the ability of retro-metabolism, making him virtually indestructible, becoming Spectrum’s greatest asset in the fight against the Mysterons.
Trivia: The face and voice of Captain Scarlet were both based on Cary Grant.
Joe 90 (1968 – 69)
The series follows Joe McClaine, a 9-year-old British schoolboy, the adopted son of Professor Ian “Mac” McClaine, a renowned computer expert. Residing in a secret underground laboratory is Mac’s latest invention, the BIG RAT (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record and Transfer), a machine capable of recording knowledge and experience from leading experts in various fields and transferring it to another human brain.
Despite the 9-year-old protagonist, Joe 90 was not aimed at a particularly younger audience than Anderson’s previous series. In fact, it features some of the grimmest stories of any Supermarionation series, and Joe regularly kills people and is threatened himself!
UFO (1969 – 70)
In the future year of… 1980, Earth is under attack by UFOs sent by a dying race (no name for the aliens is ever given) seeking to harvest human organs! A top-secret multinational organisation called SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation), led by the dedicated Commander Straker, is given unprecedented resources to suppress knowledge of the aliens while at the same time finding ways to fight them. The series is remembered for its garish decor, glamorous girls in miniskirts, and dark (for the time) subject matter.
Space: 1999 (1975-1977)
Its premise was simple: on September 13th 1999, a small explosion blows the moon out of its orbit and accelerates it to a velocity sufficient to send it hurtling out of the solar system and travelling interstellar distances in improbably short times.
During this catastrophic event, the 300 persons crewing Moon base Alpha decide to make the best of bad situation by surviving for at least three years with no means of support, until they hopefully find a new planet to call home. They also deal with all the usual sci-fi tropes — aliens, monsters and mysterious events.
The show starred Martin Landau as Commander Koenig and Barbara Bain as Dr. Russell, its chief medical officer.
Terrahawks (1983 – 86)
In the year 2020, the alien android Zelda attacks an outpost on Mars and makes it her home base in her efforts to destroy humankind and take over the Earth. To stop her, the Earth employs an elite task force known as the Terrahawks, who pilot an array of exotic aircraft into battle against Zelda’s minions.
Essentially, the puppets here are operated from below with techniques developed by Jim Henson.
Space Precinct (1994 – 95)
Space Precinct was Gerry Anderson’s most spectacular series ever – a space cop show featuring live-action and movie-style alien effects.
Set in the mid-21st century, the story of veteran New York police lieutenant Patrick Brogan who gets a transfer to Demeter City, the crime capital of the galaxy.
Two hundred years ago, planet Altor in the Epsilon Erandi System was completely uninhabited, but by the year 2040 it has been colonised by alien species from the planet’s neighbouring worlds.
New Captain Scarlett (2003 – 05)
A CGI remake of the marionette show Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. As a nod to the original’s Supermarionation format, this reboot is described as Filmed in Hypermarionation. The basic storyline starts the same: in the year 2068, Captain Scarlet and Captain Black discover the Mysteron City during a mission to Mars, and Captain Black opens fire when he mistakes a probe for an offensive action.
Thus the Mysterons are now retaliating on Earth with their retrometabolism power, and using Captain Black’s clone as their main agent. Captain Scarlet, also recreated as an invulnerable clone, but retaining his original personality and loyalties, opposes them along with the Spectrum organisation.
Source: thetimes.co.uk, gerryanderson.com, tvtropes.org and britbox.com