A Quick Look at TV: THUNDERBIRDS

   Gerry Anderson's follow-up to Stingray was Thunderbirds, which followed the chronicles of the Tracy family. Jeff Tracy was a millionaire former-astronaut with five sons, all of whom were pilots, astronauts, and aquanauts. The family, based on a tiny island in the Pacific, formed the organization International Rescue. As a team, they used incredible vehicles to launch into danger zones around the globe and help people the authorities couldn't. These machines were the Thunderbirds. An hour show this time, Thunderbirds had better scripts than any other Anderson puppet show, and really developed full characters. Scott Tracy was the eldest, and commanded Thunderbird 1, a sleek rocket that arrived first at the danger zone to co-ordinate with the local authorities. Virgil piloted Thunderbird 2, the heavy-lifter of the group, which carried rescue equipment in numbered pods that made up the main body of the ship. Every conceivable contingency had been taken into account. Alan flew Thunderbird 3, a rocket capable of space-based actions. Thunderbird 3 also connected with Thunderbird 5, an orbiting space station which monitored all radio frequencies. This platform was manned most often by John. Emergencies would be relayed to Thunderbird 5, then back to Jeff at command headquarters, who would then advise his sons in the field. Thunderbird 4 was a submarine piloted by son Gordon. (The Tracy sons were all named after real-life astronauts.) All the Thunderbirds and rescue equipment was designed and built by resident genius Brains. Also living on the island was manservant Kyrano and his daughter Tin-Tin, she Alan's romantic interest. Jeff had subsidiary agents all across the globe, but none saw as much action as glamorous British royal Lady Penolope. Along with her butler Parker, Lady Penelope traveled in her custom Rolls Royce, FAB-1. Each episode was basically a disaster movie. Something would go wrong, be it an industrial accident, a form of espionage, or natural disaster, and when the situation got beyond the abilities of the authorities, International Rescue would be called in. The show was marvelous, and Gerry Anderson attempted to move the franchise to the big screen with THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO. The film failed to find an American audience, but a producer did encourage Anderson to make a second film, the more elegant THUNDERBIRD 6. I saw the movies first, thanks to TNT way back when.