"Full Boost Vertical!" RIP Gerry Anderson 1929-2012

[beamjockey]

Gerry Anderson, producer of TV and movies, has passed away.

Thanks to the inablility of CKLW to keep signals from leaking across the Detroit River into the U.S., I was TOTALLY OBSESSED with Supercar.

The following year, I was TOTALLY OBSESSED with Fireball XL5, as it aired on NBC Saturday mornings.

Because in 1962, 1963, or 1964, where else could a kid see cool spaceships and cool VTOLs on television? Science fiction was thin on the ground. I loved machines and wanted to learn everything about science and engineering. In these shows, the camera worshipped the machines. Viewers learned every detail of Supercar's startup procedure. I ate this up.

Stingray was fun to watch, but not as obsession-making.

I learned of the existence of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, et al, but they were not aired in the cities where I lived. (Decades later, I watched some of them, out of respect for my inner 9-year-old, who would have found them awesome.)

When I met Gerry Anderson at long last, I was able to thank him for feeding the imagination of a young technophile.

Once again, Mr. Anderson, thanks for the adventure. Full Boost Vertical!

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, Supercar and Fireball XL5. The stuff dreams were made of.

[bigbumble.livejournal.com]

The highlight of my Saturday mornings was watching the launch of the Fireball XL 5. I remember not being able to memorize the closing song because it was routinely overdubbed by announcements for coming tv shows.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

FAB

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Was that a Novachord playing during the lift-off?

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

A what?

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

It looks like the kind of retrotechnology you'd be interested in, Bill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novachord

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

First commercial keyboard synthesizer. You hear it in many SF movies and TV shows of the Fifties and Sixties, often misattributed as a Theremin:

http://musicformaniacs.blogspot.com/2006/02/novachord-lost-synthesizer.html

For me, one of the attractions of Anderson productions was the music. Especially when they weren't afraid to be unconventional. As with the conga (?) drums in _Stingray_.

[whl.livejournal.com]

Growing up slightly later than you, and in Chicago, my memories are primarily of Thunderbirds. I remember seeing SOME Fireball XL-5, and having a nice plastic replica. (Alas, I was just as hard on my toys are most of us were, and it has long since been rendered into components and lost, last seen as part of a lunar base in a dirt pile while we were rebuilding part of the house.) My memories of SuperCar and Stingray are less distinct.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

I loved them all, but "Thunderbirds" was my favorite.
I even liked "Joe 90".

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Thought you might like mashup (seen on Boing Boing):

[planettom.livejournal.com]

Another YouTube video in tribute to Gerry Anderson: Ten minutes of SPACE: 1999 Eagles blowing up!