A few years back, when I was just starting to blog under the Première rubric, I ran a post that quizzed the reader: “Thunderbirds of Antonioni?” On hearing of the passing of Thunderbirds co-creator Gerry Anderson yesterday, I thought it might be apt to link back to that old post, but I discovered that the server on which that Première blog, “In The Company Of Glenn,” had been living all the years since May of 2008 when I left Hachette, was no longer…there.
Oh well. So I thought to reconstruct that frivolous but not entirely inapt visual analogy as a tribute to the fallen sci-fi creator might not be an entirely terrible idea. No quiz component but feel free to put your guesses or surmises or certain identifications in the comments. Some are pretty obvious but hopefully not without amusement value. Rest in peace, Mr. A. And Mr. A.
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Awesome. They are in fact, all obvious (well, 7 takes a half second, and I guess if you thought Thunderbirds was done w/ dept store mannequins the other might be a challenge), but it’s still great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJsW6ta4X8o
*golf clap*
It’s amazing how Supermarionation makes #8 look just like a member of the Yardbirds.
(In fact, am I misinformed that the surely-future Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Sir Jeff was always a mite peeved about his film debut, which made it appear as though he was a frustrated guitar-smasher à la Pete, as opposed to one of the great amplified six-string virtuosi he was and is?)
Brilliant. It even works with Troy/Marina from STINGRAY and Vitti/Delon in L’ECLISSE!
Anderson’s live action TV series ‘UFO’ was pretty Mod-stylish too with its gull-wing lamborghinis and fab-gear uniforms. The secret SHADO organization was even hidden under a movie studio.
UFO was Anderson…wow, one of those many things I should’ve known but didn’t. That one used to show on Saturday late night when I was 8 or 9 and had the feel of a show where one was constantly coming in the middle – didn’t make much sense but there were tons of flashy visuals and creepy atmosphere, which was enough. Boris Karloff’s Thriller and The Outer Limits came on after that.
LOVED UFO! It’s the undervalued segue-way between THUNDERBIRDS and Sir Gerry’s chef d’oeuvre, SPACE: 1999 (its first season, at least – can’t hang with that Maya/cornrowed-eyebrow/shape-shifting shite). Its 70’s glam fashions so utterly misapplied to “1980”, all silvers and browns, plus a brooding disposition towards space/time, existentialism and The Other make it pretty absorbing viewing to this day. That spooky closing credit sequence always gets me – I still consider it Anderson’s finest hour (or 30 seconds).
“Where does the universe end? Where does it begin?”
I’ll always be indebted to Gerry Anderson for making TEAM AMERICA possible.
It was probably just my imagination, but the last time I checked out a couple of Thunderbirds episodes (maybe three years ago) I got the occasional feeling that there was an undercurrent of contempt for Brains by some of the other characters. Anybody else get that? Like I said, probably not, but thought I’d check.
I think ‘UFO’ was Anderson’s bid for grown-up respectability, a lot of which went right over my head when I was a kid. What stuck with me was Gabrielle Drake (Nick’s sister) sashaying around the moonbase in a purple wig and silver miniskirt.
Love this homage and insight – thank you. Gerry was an utter genius.
Which film has the longer explosion montage at the end, “Doppelgänger” (Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun), 1969 or “Zabriskie Point”, 1970?