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Gerry
Anderson Productions - 1966 to 1977
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1966
/ 1967 Original Novels
8 original
novels authorised
4 by Armada in paperback and 4 by World Distributors in hardback
Paperback - all by John Theydon
'Thunderbirds'
'Calling Thunderbirds'
'Thunderbirds: Ring of Fire'
'Lady Penelope: The Albanian Affair'
Hardback -
Two Authors
'Thunderbirds: Operation Asteroids' by John W.Jennison
'Thunderbirds: Lost World' by John W.Jennison
'Lady Penelope: Cool For Danger' by Kevin McGarry
'Lady Penelope: A Gallery Of Thieves' by Kevin McGarry
1967 - Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
A Gerry Anderson
Production
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32 episodes
made in two blocks - 12 in 1967 and 20 in 1968
First
transmitted: 1st October 1967
Format
by Gerry and Sylvia AndersonExecutive Producer: Gerry Anderson
Produced
by Reg Hill
The
Mars landing by Spectrum, Earth's security organisation,
in 2024, ended in the destruction of the Mysteron
city. Mistakenly believing themselves to be
the victims of an unprovoked attack, the Mysterons
swore revenge and during their retaliation attacks,
two Spectrum agents, Captains Scarlet and Black,
are killed and duplicated with the power to
recreate themselves even after death. Captain
Black becomes an agent for the Mysterons, while
Captain Scarlet remains loyal to Spectrum and
leads the fight to protect Earth and Skybase
from the revenge of the Mysterons and their
strange reconstructive powers. Despite
the lyrics of the 'Spectrum' song, it was never
the Mysterons' intention to conquer the Earth.
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First
use of properly proportioned puppets and the first series
to use the Century 21 dart before the main title sequences.
Notable for the eerie opening scenes, the
main theme tune played by The
Spectrum ( who never appeared as a group
although they released a single entitled 'Samantha is mine'
) and the 7 note segue used during the 'strobe-shot' scene
changes.
Each episode had a two week shooting schedule but, for the
first 12 episodes, pairs of episodes were shot simultaneously
over
a period of 12 weeks. The remaining 20 episodes were shot
back-to-back with the film 'Thunderbird 6' over a five month
period.
1967 - 1969
Candy and Andy
A series of
photo stories about two children that live with Mr and Mrs
Bearanda who are Pandas.
The storyline was intended as a TV series but did not make
the screen.
The characters were first seen in a magazine called 'Candy'
published by City Magazines Ltd
in co-operation with Century 21 publishing and edited by
Alan Fennel.
I ssue 1 appeared on 21st January 1967 and ran to issue
154 on 27th Dec 1969.
Annuals were produced from 1967 to 1969. Story titles included:
Good Deed Day, Rufus To The Rescue,
The Magic Slippers, Penny For The Guy and The Duck Who Could
Not Swim.
1967 - Thunderbird
6
Century 21 Cinema / United Artists
Film - 90 minsPremiere: 29th July 1968 at the Odeon Cinema,
London
Executive
Producer: Gerry Anderson
Associate
Producer: John ReadProducer: Sylvia Anderson
A
second crack at the big screen for International Rescue.
This time, featuring Lady Penelope aboard the maiden voyage
of Brains' new airship - 'Skyship One'. It doesn't take
long for Lady P to discover that the crew are imposters,
involved in a plot to bring about the downfall of International
Rescue.
Thunderbird
'6' is, in fact, the biplane in the film. The real life
pilot had to appear in court on charges of dangerous flying
after filming the sequence of flying under a motorway bridge
on the then new, unopened, M40 motorway at Lane End near
High Wycombe.
The charges were dropped!
1968 - Doppelganger (Journey To The Far Side of
the Sun)
Century 21
Cinema / Universal
Film - 101 minutesPremiere:October 8th 1969 at the Odeon Cinema,
London (June 1969 - U.S.A.)
Produced
by Gerry and Sylvia AndersonAssociate Producer: Ernest
Holding
Following
the discovery of a new planet on the opposite side of the
sun, EUROSEC, the European Space Exploration Centre,
send a 2-man probe to investigate. The probe crashes, but
it takes the crew a while to realise that it has crashed
on a mirror-image duplicate of Earth.
Doppelganger
was retitled 'Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun' for American
and Australian audiences. British and European releases
retained the Doppelganger title, which is the name under
which the film is catalogued by the BFI and the BBFC. It
won the 1969 Hollywood Blue Ribbon Award for best screenplay
and was nominated for an academy award for best special
effects. Strangely, only the American version has been seen
on British TV. John Read left the company during production.
1968 - Joe 90
A Gerry Anderson
Production
30 episodesFirst transmitted: 5th October 1968
Format by Gerry
and Sylvia AndersonExecutive Producer: Reg
HillProducer: David Lane
Directed
by: Peter Anderson : Leo Eaton : Alan Perry : Ken Turner
: Desmond Saunders
Nine
year old Joe McClaine can acquire the brain patterns and,
therefore, the abilities of anyone, using B.I.G.R.A.T. (
Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer ), an invention
of his adopted father. The ability is activated whenever
he dons his special electronic glassesand is put to good
and frequent use by W.I.N. - the World Intelligence Network.
Politics
were important at the height of the 'Cold War' - even in
children's series - so, despite the plot of Joe 90's first
episode featuring British agent Joe stealing a Russian fighter
plane to restore the balance of power,there is an explanation
at the end of the episode that there is no conflict between
Soviet Russia and the West. This
was the first time a woman wasn't used to do the voice of
a boy.
A real kid - Len Jones - was used, making the character
sound much more realistic.
Production
started at MGM studios, Borehamwood but halted during the
17th episode when the studio closed due to a switch to shows
containing more live action.. Shooting restarted six months
later at Pinewood. While the puppet stages closed down and
the puppetry staff were made redundant in January 1969,
the Century 21 Studios at Stirling Road continued to operate
until late in 1970, as all the stages were given over to
the filming of special effects for UFO.
Merchandising companies set up around the puppet series
were wound up as was the Century 21 record company.
The last issue of TV21 under Century 21 ownership came out
on 6th Sept 1969.
1969 - Secret Service
A Gerry Anderson
Production
13
episodesFirst transmitted: 21st September 1969
Format
by Gerry and Sylvia AndersonExecutive Producer: Reg
Hill
Set
in the present day, Father Stanley Unwin and his gardener
Matthew Harding are secret agents for B.I.S.H.O.P., a department
of British intelligence. They use a device called a minimiser
which can reduce any object in size - even people.
The
Secret Service was not the first of Gerry Anderson's series
to be set in the present day. Supercar was also set in the
present day.
The first season episode 'A Little Art' indicates that the
date is around 1960 while the second season episode
'The Day That Time Stood Still' is specifically set in 1962.
This was the first
series to use puppetry mixed with live action sequences.
1970 - U.F.O.
A Gerry Anderson
production with ATV for ITC worldwide distribution
26 episodesFirst transmitted: 18th September 1970
Producer:
Reg HillExecutive Producer: Gerry Anderson
Set
in the, then, near future in 1980, S.H.A.D.O., Supreme Headquarters
Alien Defence Organisation, was set up to protect Earth
from attack by aliens trying to obtain human organs for
transplant. Conveniently based underneath the Harlington-Straker
film studio, both run by Ed Straker, S.H.A.D.O. also operated
a moonbase and the mobile underwater vehicle Skydiver.
This
series was mostly live action with models used for the futuristic
vehicles, except for the road cars, which were actual vehicles.
UFO starred twelve actors from the film Doppelganger, seven
making regular appearances, plus the dancer Peter Gordeno
and Gabrielle Drake as Lt. Gay Ellis.
Title theme
When syndicated in America it topped the New York and L.A.
ratings for 17 consecutive weeks. This was the last production
for Century 21, Gerry Anderson setting up the Group Three
company after this as the contract with Lord Lew Grade had
expired.
1972 - The Protectors
A Gerry Anderson
/ Group Three production in association with ATV for ITC
worldwide distribution
52 episodes
x 25 minsFirst transmitted: 29th September 1972
Created
by Lord Lew Grade
Harry
Rule (Robert Vaughn), Paul Buchet (Tony Anholt) and the Contessa
Caroline Ogilvie Di Contini
(played by the late, wonderful actress Nyree Dawn Porter)
are one team in the Protector organisation that acts outside
the law to bring criminals to justice.
This
was the first Group Three production.
The
powerful theme song, 'Avenues and Alleyways' by Mitch Murray
and Peter Callender was a chart success for Tony Christie.
The memorable five note segue by Mitch Murray in the song
was also used consistently throughout the incidental music
which was composed by John Cameron.
Mitch Murray,
who wrote and co-wrote many hits and Number Ones in the 60s
and Seventies
1972 - The Investigator
Starkits
1 pilot episode
x 25 minsProduced by Gerry Anderson
A
heard, but unseen being from another galaxy enlists the
help of two children, John and Julie, to help him in his
crusade against crime and injustice on Earth. In this case,
to prevent the theft of a relic from a Maltese church.
Not
transmitted. As in Secret Service, the miniaturisation of
people once again plays a major part in the special effects
and storyline.
1975 - Space 1999
A Gerry Anderson
/ Group Three production for ITC worldwide distribution
48 x 50 min
episodes in two seasons of 24First transmitted: Thursday
4th September 1975
Created
by Gerry and Sylvia AndersonExecutive Producer: Gerry
Anderson
Producer:
season 1: Sylvia AndersonProducer: season 2: Fred
Freiberger
Set
in the 1990's and the moon has been blasted out of orbit
by the accidental explosion of a radioactive waste dump,
along with moonbase Alpha and its 300 inhabitants commanded
by John Koenig.
This is the story of its travels and the Alphans' search
for a new home.
Martin
Landau and Barbara Bain star in this tale of human survival.
Barry Morse left after the first season and was replaced
by a second female lead - Maya, a metamorph from the planet
Psychon - played by Catherine Schell. Work had already started
on a second series of U.F.O. but as it was not taken up
by America, production quickly changed to Space 1999. The
company moved to the old Hammer site at Bray studios for
the special effects work. To make the space vehicles fly
more smoothly a technique was evolved where the cameras
were moved instead of the model, the background being superimposed
afterwards.
See
the superb quality EAGLE II pictures at space1999eagle.com
1975 - The Day After Tomorrow - Into Infinity
A Gerry Anderson
/ Group Three production for the NBC network
1 episode x
52 minsFirst transmission U.S.A. 9th December 1975
/ U.K. 11th December 1976
Produced
by Gerry AndersonProdn. Supervisor: F.Sherwin GreenDirected by Charles Cricton
The
lightship Altares which can travel at near lightspeed using
a photon drive carries two families, the Masters and the
Bowens, to Alpha Centauri on an exploration mission. After
being struck by a meteor shower, the ship passes through
a black hole into a new universe.
Starring Brian Blessed, Joanna Dunham and Nick Tate, and narrated
by Ed Bishop. This production was made in 10 days during
July 1975 at Pinewood and Bray studios using the cast and
crew of Space 1999 between the first and second series.
The special effects took a further 6 weeks. Having the appearance
of a pilot episode it is, in fact, one of a series of seven
educational programmes commissioned by NBC, each dealing
with a different subject. This one was meant to encompass
Einstein's theory of relativity. Never made into a series,
it has been seen only once on U.K. television.
c.1976 - Intergalactic Rescue Four
Conceived by
Gerry Anderson and Fred Freiberger
Proposed:
13 x 30 minute episodes
This
was a proposed live-action version of Thunderbirds originally
titled 'RESCUE 4'. It was centred around an all-purpose
rescue vehicle patrolling a distant sector of space. Presented
to NBC as a 13 x 30 minute series, the option was not taken
up.
c.1977 -
Starcruiser
Created by Gerry
Anderson and Fred Freiberger
Planned:
13 x 30 minute episodes - not taken up - no pilot
Although
never making it to the screen, the concept eventually materialised
in the form
of a comic strip in the childrens TV magazine 'Look-In'
c.1977 - Ericsson Promo
A
promotional film for the Swedish telecomms giant Ericsson
was scripted by Gerry Anderson
1977
- Alien Attack
A
Gerry Anderson-produced television commercial for Jif Dessert
Toppings
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