Yet another classic telefantasy series has it\’s birthday today (September sees a lot of that kinda thing). Thunderbirds has hit the big Five-Oh.
It\’s 50 years since old favourite kid\’s (and big kid\’s) series Thunderbirds premiered on British television, way back on 30 September 1965. The pilot episode, \”Trapped in the Sky\”, was first broadcast on the ITV network\’s regional channels ATV Midlands, Westward and Channel Television. Other ITV regions, such as ATV London and Granada, didn\’t start transmissions until the following month.
Thunderbirds was the fourth Supermarionation puppet show, following in the footsteps of Supercar, Fireball XL5 and Stingray, and it ran for two seasons and a total of 32 episodes. Maybe it wasn\’t my absolute favourite Anderson puppet series (that was Captain Scarlet), but Thunderbirds has always remained the most popular of the Gerry Anderson series.
Oh, and HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY, THUNDERBIRDS!!! 🙂