What with all the excitement about the end of a the old year and beginning of the new one, with its tumult and hope and celebration, we forgot to post this announcement last week, when it happened.
It’s TVWriter™’s sad duty to report the death of one of the greatest creators of genre material in TV, the UK’s Gerry Anderson, at the age of 83. Anderson’s creation include THUNDERBIRDS, SPACE: 1999, SUPERCAR, CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS, UFO, FIREBALL XL5, STINGRAY, and even more science fiction series (all, sadly, before our time, but we’ve certainly loved the compilations).
Anderson suffered from Alzheimer’s in his last years, but fans remembered him long after he’d forgotten himself. To us, STINGRAY was the epitome of cool, a puppet show with exciting effects done in what Anderson called “Supermarionation.” God, what a great word to coin. We sure hope he remembered that one!
Our condolences to Anderson’s survivors. And to the world.
The first Anderson product I saw was the movie “Thunderbirds Are Go!” It was at the Lake Theater in Oak Park, IL. I was quite impressed at whatever young age I was at the time.