[HN Gopher] Unseen Thunderbirds film reels found in garden shed
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Unseen Thunderbirds film reels found in garden shed
Author : samizdis
Score : 207 points
Date : 2024-10-07 08:46 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
| worldsayshi wrote:
| Thunderbirds was made in the 60's?? How come it was such a hit
| when I was a kid in the 90's? I had their fortress as a toy.
| MrVandemar wrote:
| Maybe there was a revival around that time? Otherwise I'd guess
| nostalgia from parents?
| huesatbri wrote:
| From wikipedia: " In the early 1990s, Matchbox launched a new
| range of toys to coincide with the BBC2 repeats. Sales figures
| for Christmas 1992 surpassed those achieved by Star Wars
| merchandise in the 1970s and 1980s."
| hi_hi wrote:
| There was also an episode of the popular kids TV show Blue
| Peter, where they showed you how to make Tracy Island. I
| believe that helped boost it's popularity.
| ChrisKnott wrote:
| I think that was downstream to deal with the fact the real
| toy was expensive and hard to get due to demand.
|
| IIRC it was Blue Peter's most requested instructions ever.
|
| Quite a signficant public service by whoever designed that
| when you think about it.
| Symbiote wrote:
| The original instructions are online!
|
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/bluepeter/makes/tracyisl
| a...
|
| Via https://www.bbc.com/videos/c511wey54g4o ("1993: Tracy
| Island - Blue Peter")
|
| The next video in the archive is about "this new thing
| called the Internet", from 1994
| https://www.bbc.com/videos/czv20818q2no
| simonjgreen wrote:
| This was huge. Everyone in my class was trying to build it!
| It occasionally gets talked about to this day
| _joel wrote:
| With Anthea Turner, no less...
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM_iV7R8rTM
| hi_hi wrote:
| Back in the good old days, when kids had attention spans!
| hi_hi wrote:
| For all those who didn't have the privilege of growing up as
| a kid in the 90's, this went viral before going viral was a
| thing :-)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UzWkEHOdZA
| dfawcus wrote:
| Yes. Probably because Terrahawks (80s) was such a flop, and so
| there was scope to repeat Thunderbirds.
|
| Not that the others: Joe 90, Supercar, etc got much in the way
| of repeats. That said I did enjoy Captain Scarlet and Stingray
| as a kid.
| Mindwipe wrote:
| There was about eight years between Terrahawk's failure and
| the BBC deciding to repeat Thunderbirds to great success so
| the two things are probably unrelated.
| noneeeed wrote:
| There were a lot of repeats when I was a kid (80-90s). Shows
| like Thunderbirds and the like were mainstays of my TV
| watching.
|
| They were really good for their time, and hadn't really aged
| too badly by the 80s and 90s, so it made good financial sense
| to repeat them. Combine that with the money to be made from
| toys and it was a much better deal than forking out for new
| programmes.
| simonjgreen wrote:
| Because it was really well produced, and brilliantly written
| and directed! Even now it looks great.
| _joel wrote:
| Yep, here's Peter Cook and Dudley Moore
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oMi_Hv3Sws
|
| full version
| https://www.facebook.com/WeirdHollywood/videos/2021-march-pe...
| postexitus wrote:
| There was an even a (quite crappy) Amiga game! Coincided with
| re-runs on Turkish (newly formed) cable TV - such good (or not)
| memories.
|
| https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=1056
| AdammadA wrote:
| There was a really good Thunderbirds game for its time on the
| inferior Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k. I was amazed all those
| years ago by its puzzle gameplay design. You can play it
| here.
|
| https://archive.org/details/zx_Thunderbirds_1985_Firebird_So.
| ..
|
| Edit : to set up controls since it's not noted on that page,
| you'll need to press R ( Redefine keys! ) and that'll get you
| started!
|
| How to play : you swap between thunderbird 1 and 2 each ship
| by pressing spacebar ( default ) or whatever you configured
| it to. You'll notice the ship selected in the bottom left
| corner of the screen.
| ragebol wrote:
| I still have that island fortress thing somewhere in a closet,
| or maybe my parents. With the pool that could swivel out the
| way, the trees that fold down and some sound effects IIRC. Was
| all the rage in my class when I was a kid (in the 90s).
| worldsayshi wrote:
| Yup, same. I don't still have it though. :(
| ccppurcell wrote:
| I also had the toys in the 90s and possibly attempted the blue
| Peter make of the fortress. I even had a duvet cover and
| lunchbox. These things were of course bought by my parents who
| watched the show in their childhoods. In turn my kid loves
| sonic and I have bought him hats and jumpers etc.
|
| I think these revivals intentionally capitalise on nostalgia.
| jayflux wrote:
| Looks like the majority of it is the same as what aired, just
| with some alternative edits. Which makes sense as the guy was an
| editor for the show.
|
| These aren't "unseen" episodes etc.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| Nah, but the title is accurate; the reels had been unseen. And
| there's some unused / unaired scenes (or, at least one). Still
| a valuable historic artifact.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| The documentary "Supermarionation" (no relation to Super Mario)
| on Netflix is about the making of Thunderbirds and the other
| puppeteer shows from the same studio. Mind you, it's a typical
| Netflix documentary with 90% interviews from a handful of people.
| jahnu wrote:
| Is it worth watching though?
|
| I wouldn't mind if a documentary was an interview with just 1
| person if it's good. The problem with those Netflix ones is
| they have a handful of people repeat the same thing over and
| over and over. Then they pad it out even further in between
| those repetitions with pan and zoom of a couple of barely
| relevant photos or newspaper clippings or illustrations,
| perhaps a clip of a news anchor reporting from the relevant
| time etc. What would be 30 seconds in a good documentary ends
| up being 5 minutes and 1 episode becomes 6.
|
| I now usually give up and read the Wikipedia page once I spot
| these techniques.
| illwrks wrote:
| I watched this when it first appeared. From memory it was a
| good behind the scenes documentary and worth the watch if you
| had a passing interest in it as a kid.
| mavhc wrote:
| you'll be wanting https://www.youtube.com/@century21films28
| HeckFeck wrote:
| I tried to watch the McAfee documentary and gave up after 20
| minutes of that slog. How they managed to make the
| documentary about this man boring is beyond me, and answering
| that would itself make a more interesting documentary.
|
| In short, it was so bad that I will no longer watch any
| Netflix documentary again.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| Well some info about the concept, making of, follow-up
| series, and the people involved revisiting the studio (which
| is a car garage now but still has some of the original sets /
| movie making gear like gantries) was interesting enough, but
| honestly I was watching it in bed in a few sittings and kept
| falling asleep, lol. The story would make for a decent book
| I'd say.
| ZiiS wrote:
| PSA: despite the trope, please do not store film in your garden
| shed. Film is very delicate and hates moisture and temperature
| fluctuation.
| InDubioProRubio wrote:
| Dont worry- as long as there is PSA personal around, you know
| there is a guy, whos job is it to fix the films discolouration
| and damages in post. So its okayish and greyish.
| shermantanktop wrote:
| But in Britain all things end up in the garden shed
| eventually...
| GJim wrote:
| > please do not store film in your garden shed.
|
| Under no circumstances should you store nitrate film (or film
| you even _think_ might be nitrate) in your home. It is more
| flammable than petrol.
|
| There is a damn good reason people store old film in garden
| sheds and not in the house. It isn't a 'trope'.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_base
| ZiiS wrote:
| An important thing to be aware of. However, storing nitrate
| film in your shed would still be illegal and inadvisable.
| There is a decade buffer ensuring Thunderbirds was not filmed
| on nitrate. tbh I don't think the is any nitrate film stored
| in a shed which would still be recoverable.
| cameronh90 wrote:
| I'll ensure that from now on my shed is only used for old
| tins of paint, firelighters, matches, leaky jerrycans of
| diesel, fireworks, and gas cylinders.
|
| My nitrate film can go in the loft instead.
| ZiiS wrote:
| Guncotton (a better name for nitrate film) cannot be
| extinguished (because it contains sufficient oxygen); can
| autoignite; and is illegal to store.
| ssl-3 wrote:
| So if not the garden shed, then: Where do I store my
| collection of nitrate films?
| themadturk wrote:
| Don't ask 20th Century Fox:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_Fox_vault_fire
| implements wrote:
| Speaking of dodgy things in sheds, as a heads-up Hexamine fuel
| tablets are now illegal to possess in the UK - so campers and
| model steam engine enthusiasts beware.
| VagabundoP wrote:
| Captain Scarlet was where it was at, such a scary vibe in that
| show.
| zabzonk wrote:
| What about UFO? Not puppets (though by the Anderson team) but
| live-action with sexy ladies in purple wigs and somewhat creepy
| vibe.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_(British_TV_series)
| VagabundoP wrote:
| I remember it but not too well. The Invaders[1] was scarier I
| think...
|
| [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061265/
| cutler wrote:
| Definitely. I remember months of anticipation as a kid leading
| up to Christmas Day when I received my Captain Scarlet outfit.
| hi_hi wrote:
| Let me use this moment to turn your attention to the superior
| successor of Thunderbirds...Terrahawks
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaOQA-wcm2w
|
| The opening sequence 3D wireframe graphics were rendered on a
| cluster of prototype ZX Spectrums and were the inspiration for
| ILM's groundbreaking work on Tron.
| aardvark179 wrote:
| Not actually true. The title sequence was hand drawn, and the
| series didn't even start filming until after Tron had come out.
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| Indeed, at it seems particularly unlikely when you consider
| that the absolute state of the art in the ZX Spectrum
| demoscene nearly fifty years on still isn't as high-
| resolution as Terrahawks' title sequence:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJd6GtM5P9E
|
| By the way, there is an excellent orchestral rendition of the
| theme music by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, seemingly
| from a recording for the 'On Screen' album in 1986:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lEQFrl9bEE
| UncleSlacky wrote:
| Yes, it looks similar to the Hitch-Hiker's Guide graphics
| from around the same time, they were cartoons.
| fredoralive wrote:
| Kevin Davies, who animated the opening and ending credits
| for Terrahawks (credited as "Video Game & Titles") was an
| assistant to Rod Lord when he was making the graphics for
| the TV version of Hitch-hiker's.
| RichardCA wrote:
| This was discussed a few weeks ago.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41509558
| alexjplant wrote:
| More practical methods were fairly common during that period
| since they was actually cheaper and quicker than real
| computer graphics. The wireframe sequences in "Escape from
| New York", for instance, were actually miniatures with
| fluorescent paint applied to the edges.
| steve1977 wrote:
| Even Tron had quite a bit of rotoscoping with a ,,computer
| look", especially the scenes with human actors. Not shots
| like the lightcycle scene though, those were actual CGI.
| kridsdale3 wrote:
| Fun fact: That was one of James Cameron's first gigs.
| teekert wrote:
| Never knew this series but little me (from the Netherlands,
| from 1982) would have loved this show, I certainly loved
| Thunderbirds (even though 50% of the show was the same TB
| launch sequence ;) ). I feel sad that I seem to have lost the
| capacity to experience the epicness of such series/films.
|
| Anyway, very cool that that Mars base is from 2020... It seemed
| so far way back then. The SciFi future with Mars bases and
| flying cars that never happened. We did get Smartphones
| though... What will humanity look like in 40 years?
| Unrecognizable probably.
| nox101 wrote:
| I actually loved the new series
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Thunderbirds-Are-Go-Season-1/dp/B086H...
|
| As well as being a huge fan of the originals
| LightBug1 wrote:
| Wow ... big part of my childhood ... those robot ball things!
| Weird how this seems largely forgotten
| GJim wrote:
| According to Wikipedia, problems with broadcasting rights
| meant it wasn't really repeated after the original 1980's
| broadcasts.
|
| As an aside, it's hardly surprising our American cousins
| haven't heard of Terrahawks. I doubt the tongue in cheek
| humour (typified by 'robot ball' Sergeant Major Zero) would
| translate well!
| RichardCA wrote:
| You're talking about the generation that grew up with Monty
| Python and The Goodies.
|
| We were also familiar with the latex puppets because of
| Spitting Image and the Genesis "Land of Confusion" video.
|
| And the idea of a ball-shaped droid with a Cockney accent
| just seemed like a big miscalculation, unworthy of the
| Anderson legacy.
|
| But to be fair, if you go back and watch Space: 1999, most
| of the episodes aged poorly in retrospect except for one or
| two of them (e.g., Dragon's Domain still holds up).
| pansa2 wrote:
| > _Wow ... big part of my childhood ... those robot ball
| things!_
|
| Yes! And the noughts-and-crosses game they played during the
| credits:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nJ2vyXKOOE
| aejfghalsgjbae wrote:
| This was my show as a kid, the one my parents had to get us
| back home in time to watch or else much stroppiness would
| occur. I haven't heard it for many years, but the opening notes
| of the theme tune made me grin ear to ear.
| xattt wrote:
| How was CGI output with enough scaling to look good on film,
| when the Spectrum only had composite output?
|
| Similarly, with early CGI like Tron, what was the render/target
| resolution for film?
| alexjplant wrote:
| Not sure about Tron but here are a few details [1] about the
| Foonly F1 used on that film and how it was later used for
| Flight of the Navigator:
|
| > They had pushed for Triple-I to build the DFP, the first
| (that I know of) high-resolution digital film printer for
| motion pictures. This was the next generation PFR, using an
| 8" CRT which had fast-decaying phosphors so that it could be
| used for scanning in film (using photomultiplier tubes built
| into a special camera) as well as printing. The imagery was
| amazing
|
| > Since the Foonly only had enough disk storage to hold the
| frame being computed and the frame being printed, the numbers
| worked out like this: 30 seconds of film at 24 frames per
| second works out to 720 images each computed and printed at
| 6000 x 4000 pixels.
|
| [1] http://dave.zfxinc.net/f1.html
| ahoka wrote:
| The trick with Tron was that it was not CGI.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| Tron was a mix of CGI and not-CGI. The not-CGI stuff, w/
| all the photographic technique, was pretty wild. The CGI,
| in contrast, was not as wild.
|
| I believe this was the documentary I watched a couple of
| years ago re: the making of Tron that went into a lot of
| detail about the effects:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbgHMrLPQrE
| steve1977 wrote:
| The ZX Spectrum bit seems unlikely, considering that was a Z80
| box and the quality of those graphics is pretty good.
|
| See the Terrahawks game on the Spectrum:
|
| https://youtu.be/diLez1bM3jo
|
| Is there a source for this, that would actually be interesting.
| wyldfire wrote:
| > the quality of those graphics is pretty good.
|
| IIUC grandparent post refers only to the sphere & ships
| projected into 2d stills, not all of the titles. A software
| wireframe renderer seems "easy" compared to modeling the
| ships. Even if it took a day to render each one, this was all
| done in the service of a pilot episode, so probably not a lot
| of pressure. They're on the screen so briefly before fading
| to the filmed miniature, I suppose it would easily hide most
| issues.
| timdiggerm wrote:
| This is not true.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrahawks#Title_sequence_and_...
| msla wrote:
| People aren't getting the joke because nobody here realizes how
| essentially crappy the ZX Spectrum was. You'd do better to
| render it on a four-function calculator or, perhaps, an abacus.
| voytec wrote:
| Never heard of this show but puppets style seems to have later
| became the basis for the Team America puppets[0].
|
| [0] https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-
| content/uploads/2019/...
| Freak_NL wrote:
| That was pretty much a direct homage to (or spoof of)
| Supermarionation, the puppetry style used for Thunderbirds and
| a number of other shows.
| marcle wrote:
| Nice childhood memories: "Thunderbirds are go!"
|
| I always wondered how the palm trees were able to be flattened:).
| lgeorget wrote:
| I always assumed everything on the island was made to LOOK
| real, but everything was cleverly replicated and engineered.
| irthomasthomas wrote:
| Wait, they have all those digital scans, but the article does not
| include a single frame from any one of them? I know they said it
| needs restoration work, but still...
| quercusa wrote:
| The _Endeavour_ episode 'Apollo' (s6e2) takes place in a studio
| much like the Andersons' - recommended
|
| https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/endeavour-apollo-moon-ra...
| carwyn wrote:
| Most of the Gerry Anderson shows are available to stream on ITVX
| in the UK. The Re-imaginings of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlett
| in 3D are there too.
|
| Fireball XL-5, Supercar, Joe 90, Space Precinct (sub needed),
| UFO, Terrahawks, Space:1999, The Secret Service, Stingray, Gerry
| Anderson's New Captain Scarlet (3D), Captain Scarlet,
| Thunderbirds the Anniversary Episodes, Thunderbirds Are Go (3D),
| Thunderbirds.
| jmbwell wrote:
| Many of these are on Peacock in the U.S.
| Finnucane wrote:
| Are there blooper reels where the puppets swear when they blow a
| line?
| regus wrote:
| The Thunderbirds board game is an excellent co-op game and it is
| worth playing if you can find it. It was made by the same guy who
| created Pandemic and Forbidden Island/Desert.
|
| https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/160610/thunderbirds
| hyperman1 wrote:
| I've just shown these to my kid, as he seems not to like most of
| todays TV. He loves them. I never watched them myself, so I am
| learning a lot of all your coments. A board game? Making the
| island? I'll have some research to do.
| Dwedit wrote:
| Thunderbirds is actively airing on TV today, there's a channel
| owned by Weigel Broadcasting (MeTV Toons) which shows it.
| robertlagrant wrote:
| I still remember an episode of Blue Peter where they got you to
| make your own Tracy Island. I vaguely recollect blocking the
| toilet with toilet paper as you needed the inside of a toilet
| roll for part of it.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| This sounds so much like something my youngest would do, haha.
| I always wonder if the creators realize when they come up with
| this stuff that a ton of rogue kids are going to flush entire
| rolls to get the tube.
| bombcar wrote:
| That's why school supply stores will sell you 4,800 tubes for
| only $1,640!
|
| https://www.discountschoolsupply.com/arts-crafts/arts-
| crafts...
| timdiggerm wrote:
| I never _quite_ got that thing built. I came close, but then
| never painted it maybe?
| chgs wrote:
| This was in the early 90s when thunderbirds was being reshown
| on tv, comics reprinted and in the shops, toys available at all
| good toy shops etc
|
| Howver the toy Tracy island was out of stock - demand exceeded
| the supply. With Christmas rapidly approaching and a lot of
| kids about to be unhappy, the "build your own" program lodged
| in the national conscious - everyone knew Blue Peter, it had
| been running for decades with its sticky back plastic and one
| they made earlier.
| joshuaheard wrote:
| Great show I loved as a kid! I have the series collection on DVD.
| pjmlp wrote:
| One of my favourite childhood series....
| hacsky wrote:
| The film survived 60 years. Wonder if modern storage media (SSD,
| NVME) would survive that long?
| squarefoot wrote:
| Don't know why but I never liked shows with puppets, not even as
| a kid, and I still don't like them today, the only one exception
| being Farscape.
| nuancebydefault wrote:
| Postman Pat looks quite nice, stop motion of pupers with a lot
| of joints.
| Aachen wrote:
| Is this what Mozilla Thunderbird was named after? It took me a
| while to parse this title as something other than an email
| client! Wikipedia doesn't list a name origin for Thunderbird,
| just that it was renamed from Minotaur
| kridsdale3 wrote:
| Thunderbird is also a common deity in Pacific Northwest native
| mythology. The Seattle area AHL hockey team is the
| Thunderbirds. As is the UBC Football team.
| renecito wrote:
| We are so fortunate we live in the days of "found never seen
| before" content is so comon, it's not like people found a way to
| fake artistic content right?
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