h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there Primord

What a list of golden oldies, I was just wondering how far back you are willing to admit to watching Gerry Anderson's programes?

I'f i'm correct one of his first was a series called Torchy the Battery boy.

Hi lightman!

sadly I have never seen Torchy or Twizzle- but I have seen some episodes of others-such as Supercar and four feather falls, and of course-the more 'recent' Stingray, Thunderbirds, Joe90 etc.

The first time I saw any of Gerry's wonderful work, was during shool holidays-about 20 years ago-when the first Thunderbird film was on tv-and that's when I fell in love!

I have loved the recent run of Capt Scarlet on bbc2-and I have heard that Joe90 will be on-starting in september-so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

a few facts and figures-
The Adventures of Twizzle-52 episodes 1956

Torcy the battery boy-52 episodes 1957

Four feather Falls-39 episodes 1958

Supercar-39 episodes 1959

Fireball XL5-39 episodes 1961

Stingray-39 episodes 1962-63

Thunderbirds-32 episodes 1964-66

Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons
-32 episodes 1967

Joe90-30 episodes 1968

The Secret Service-13 episodes 1969

U.F.O.-26 episodes 1969

The Protectors-52 episodes 1971

Space 1999-48 episodes 1973-76.

Thanks for the info,

I forgot Twizzle was his as well, Please tell me the year dates are wrong

ahhh!
of course! all these series were of course made in the 80's-90's-just like Tom Baker's Doctor Whos

ah well-better than being these youngsters with their mobile phones and playstations...I think.

Was the film version that turned you on to Thunderbirds, the one with the Shaddows in puppet form?

hehehe
yep-that's the one-Thunderbirds are Go! if I remember rightly.
It took until last year to see the second film-Thunderbird 6.

I wonder what the computer generated Captain Scarlet will be like? I can't imagine anything being better than the original-but If Gerry's on board it should be OK. I'm a bit of a stick-in-the-mud when it comes to change-and the awful film version of The Avengers didn't help much-you can't replace Patrick Macnee!

Morning Primord.

What was it Gerry anderson said about Terahawks, which I note was not amoung the list.

Having hand puppets gave him greater experesion of chaaracter's.

I'm not a fan of full CGI. It tends to look as bad as Star wars 2

oops! that's right- Terrahawks-1983-85, 39 episodes.

I'm not keen on CGI myself-tends to be kindof emotionless...I think it has to be done more sympathetically-in a recent Dr Who DVD release, part of the old effects were replaced by CGI-but you have the choice on the disc to watch it the way it originally looked. I think effects have taken the place of actors-and I miss the old days

I didn't know Gerry Anderson did the Protectors. Is that the one with Robert Vaughan as Harry Rule?

Well Third Man
Robert Vaughan's acting can be wooden, sho he would have fitted into the Gerry Anderson Mould quite well.

I'm not so sure about wooden, but he was in one of the greatest Hollywood films of all-time, The Magnificient Seven, thus giving him greater immortality than the likes of David Beckham.
Now I remember the Tony Christie theme, Harry had two assistants, one was an impossibly coiffured Nyree Dawn Porter. But who was the Bobby Ewing look-alike?

Tony Anholt was the third one.

Gerry Anderson was the producer of the series

"in the avenues and alleyways-where the soul of a man easy to buy-everybody's wheeling, everybody's dealing-all the low are living a high...can we ever stop 'em? some of us are gonna try!" dum-dum-dee-dum-dum!

Poor old Tony Anholt-he died a few weeks ago-aged 62 I believe.

And Nyree-was it last year she died?

You Are right Primord

Nyree Dawn Porter Died 10 April 201

Tony Anholt Died 26 July 2002

How depresssing!

I'm not that c;lever I just looked up the info..

awww! shame int it?

as for clever-well you've got information gathering skills-add that to your c.v.

already have.

I'm redoing my cv at present. I'm fed up where I am at the moment. and want to change jobs

I'd say come and work for the Post Office but you sound too bright.

Do not know what to sat to that