Early this summer I discovered an old children's show I like when I was young (Fireball XL5). I found it on the streaming service Tubi. When looking at the "You Might Also Like" choices, I discovered a bunch of other shows in the same vain. These shows were made using marionettes\puppets instead of live characters or animation. The show was created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. The shows were produced in the U.K. but were also syndicated to the U.S.
While I was familiar with Fireball XL5 from my childhood and The Thunderbird after coming across it on cable several years ago, was not familiar with the others. I have now watched all of the 60's shows except Four Feathers Fail and Secret Service. I only remember Fireball XL5 from my childhood. While some of the other shows were syndicated in the U.S., I either missed them ore they were not syndicated on any station I could watch.
These shows were all crated and broadcast in the 60's. A couple of the shows The Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons were revived years later. These shows The New Captain Scarlet (2005) and Thunderbirds Are Go (2015-2020) were not in Supermarionation but used modern animation instead.
As I watched the shows I could find, I was impressed in the improvement in the marionettes\puppets over the course of the decade. I did read where after the first couple of shows they opted to not show the characters walking as they couldn't get the movement the way they wanted. In the later shows you never saw the feet while walking. The only exceptions is when they chose to show just the feet and then it was that of a real person. That is one thing that was done regularly. Especially when the focus needed to be of a hand doing something.
List of Shows
Four Feathers Fail (1959-1960)
Supercar (1960-1961)
Fireball XL5 (1962-1963)
Stingray (1964-1965)
Thunderbirds (1964-1966)
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-1968)
Joe 90 (1968-1969)
Secret Service (1969)
I will be waiting on watching the Thenderbirds and Captain Scarlet remakes since they are not Supermarionation. My interest now has moved to old movie serials. Have found a bunch of superhero ones and currently just finished the two Batman ones Will write about this later.
Do you remember any of the Supermarionation shows? Which ones have you watched?
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I remember these, well sort of, and watched some of them. However, I was not happy that the shows were done with puppets; I would have preferred live actors or animation. As a result, I didn't watch on a regular basis.
PS I lived/live in Canada and watched on a Canadian network.
I thought maybe these might have been more available in Canada.
The 1st renditions were kind of bad with the puppets. As new shows came out, they improved. The last couple series I watched the puppets were much more lifelike in looks though movement was a bit clunky.
I haven't actually watched these yet but the 21st century versions of Captain Scarlet and the Thunderbirds are animated use the modern animation there it is more 3D like look.
@Callie_Exploring Their movements were, "a bit clunky" is perhaps an understatement. I think that's what turned me off the most about the shows. That must have been more than 50 years ago! Where as all that time gone?
I did not even know those shows existed, and I grew up in a major TV market city with four
TV channels: CBS, NBC, ABC, and one of the first UHF channels: FOX-News in Baltimore.
I can't find all the references I read about syndication in the U.S. but Fireball XL5 was picked up by NBC. All of these were basically 1 season shows. I am thinking that any of the others were picked up by individual local stations.
@Callie_Exploring --- Agreed. I worked at one of those TV stations with my FCC License to operate their transmitter (WBAL). I appeared on two of the major league stations, and on Fox-45, as a guest/actor in locally produced shows. Their low budget productions were tragically artificial cheese grade product. I was in love with Angela Cartwright for many years. I still am. I saw her again in "Sound of Music" a few weeks ago. TLND!