Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Original Thunderbirds Atrocity

Thunderbirds IR
In September 2005, a QuickTime video file titled Thunderbirds IR was released on several P2P networks. It opens with music by Barry Gray and a few clips of the classic Thunderbirds 1 through 4 launching, then shows several scenes from an intended new Thunderbirds series from Carlton Television. The trailer made with a combination of computer-generated imagery and puppetry depicts scenes including internal sets, external settings, and a sleekly-redesigned Thunderbird 1, Scott Tracy, The Hood, and the rescue of a falling lighthousekeeper. Scott Tracy is seen to walk, and perform a backflip.

The trailer stated that a new Thunderbirds series would be coming in 2005 from Carlton Television and displays a phone number. The series was developed by Carlton with David Freedman as executive producer and David Mercer who was heading the Children's Department at Carlton at the time. Greg Johnson and Bob Forward were lead writers and Asylum did all the set builds and puppet work. Tim Field was line producer. Dave Throssel and a small team from The Mill TV Dept did the CG work. Steve Clarke directed the short. Gerry Anderson met the Carlton team in the early days of development and gave his full blessing. However, when Granada and Carlton merged, the series was shelved until further notice.



Some of the text from that wikipedia snippet is mine, back when it was possible to contribute without a user ID. The second paragraph diverges from mine and adds a lot of information I didn't have.

I was horrified and disgusted when I ran across that video on P2P a few years ago.

I still am.

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