a space ship. It was great early sleepy head / rainy day TV.

...was my favorite. I recently bought a die cast model of it. Just as cool as it ever was.

Especially Captain Scarlet, which is what I primarily remember them showing here locally. Quintessential '60s. LOL

R.I.P. and thanks for providing some fun watching during my childhood!

If you get a chance to watch them, pay attention to the costumes and sets. Classic 60's Futurism. Lucite desks, purple metallic hair -- pretty much how I imagined the future would be when I was a kid.

Here's the first 14 minutes of the series premiere. Gonna miss you, Gerry, and it's too bad that you won't be able to see the finished "UFO" big-budget movie that supposedly is still coming sometime next year.

And the rest too...

...or shiny metallic suits.

Seriously, check out lamps and chairs and things. Amazing set design, for its time.

Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and Barry Morse. I loved it!

Cross gently, Gerry.

Lots of people bailing on us before the new year.

My introduction to Gerry Anderson was "Fireball XL5" (I even had a model of the rocket) and "Supercar." Both shows used a process dubbed "Supermarionation."

Trivia: The sons -- Scott, Alan, Virgil, Gordon and John -- were named after the Mercury astornauts. The main characters' appearances were modelled after prominent actors. Jeff Tracy was modelled after Lorne Greene of Bonanza fame, Alan after Robert Reed, Scott after Sean Connery, and John after both Adam Faith and Charlton Heston. And "F-A-B" -- meaning "message received and understood" -- did not stand for anything. It was just supposed to sound hip.

I first saw "Thunderbirds" in 2004 as a live action B-film, directed by "Number One" himself, Jonathan Frakes. It's been fun to start watching the original 1960's versions again.

FAB, Gerry Anderson.

Obviously during one of my "no tv" decades.
But I do know who Brian Blessed is, strangely enough.

i think he was in I Claudius also.

Mr Dixie turned me on to Black Adder, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry
( Fry's audio book reading of Harry Potter is marvelous)
and Brian Blessed, plus
Red Green, the silly canadian show.

i adore the american versions, by jim dale, so i'd probably like them, too.

i love the elizabethan adder the best -- richard III is great, also.

i haven't caught up with red green - my husband likes him too. i should try
and line that up.

my husband also turned me onto red dwarf, which is probably my favorite
britcom. i am crazy about chris barrie, for some reason. i think he's
absolutely adorable.

Had forgotten about Red Dwarf.
He had them all on VHS.....so now I gift him the dvd versions for Christmas and etc.

And..Ab Fab?

the list is endless. we mostly watch british tv now. i love dr. who.
especially the one with david tennent (sigh)

.........and was wondering how he was. I was born in 1961 so all his shows are a part of
my childhood.

On Capt Scarlet DVD1 ep "The Mysterons" he did a commentary & was very interesting.

That was the intro to Stingray.

I recall an interview with Gerry wherein he described the early days of lo-tech, low-budget production in an unheated warehouse where it was difficult to keep the water from freezing and the puppeteers up on the catwalk would be overcome by the smoke from all the pyrotechnics. Anglia Television was going head to head with the BBC and Terry Nation's Dr Who.

Sometime between the first and second season of Stingray, Styrofoam became available. That represented a major developmental milestone in Gerry's life, and the show; they no longer had to use coal to simulate rocks.

I still have a mad preteen crush on Lady Penelope (and her car)

F-A-B Gerry, you were a good teacher.

aren't very good at humor.

Watching the thunderbirds. 1999 and UFO with my son when he Was a boy. We had great visions of a great possible future. It amazing now all still.love them. RIP Gerry and thanks for the memories.

I noticed that in his live action series, the actors often moved just like Gerry's marionettes. Watch for it. Dedication to his craft and vision.

Loved the theme song. Kind of like The Ventures meet Lulu.

We watched Space: 1999 and Supercar also. We imitated the voices on Supercar for years after. Not familiar with the others.

But I always missed the last 10 minutes of UFO because the TV store I worked in Saturdays closed at 5:30 and the program ran until 5:45

I had to use my imagination and ask friends at school on Monday to see if I was anywhere close.

Virgil was my favorite Thunderbird Pilot, but I identified most closely with Alan, all alone on T5. I often felt like Alan as a teen with few friends and a definite scientific geeky part to my makeup in a very rural area.

Thanks for some wonderful fantasies and RIP, Gerry

RIP

. . .and my favorite characters were Lady Penelope (Sylvia Anderson, Gerry's wife) and her chauffeur, bodyguard, expert burglar/safe-cracker Aloysius Parker (David Graham).

F-A-B, Gerry Anderson.

I really like his work.