mae@aplvax.UUCP (08/18/83)
Several people have mentioned the puppet series Planet Patrol in this discussion of Thunderbirds, etc. Since I didn't remember this one at all I went looking for information (back issues of Starlog). Planet Patrol was a puppet series syndicated in 1963 but was not one of the ones by Gerry Anderson. I found the following list of Anderson shows, mostly from a Starlog #16 article on how the marionettes were filmed - Anderson marionette shows: '56 The Adventures of Twizzle '57 Torchy the Battery Boy '58 Four Feather Falls '59 Supercar '61 Fireball XL-5 '62/3 Stingray (first color TV show filmed in England) '64/5 Thunderbirds '66 Thunderbirds are Go (movie) '67 Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons '68 Thunderbird 6 (movie) '68 Joe 90 '69 The Secret Service '77 Alien Attack - a dessert topping commercial '8? Terrahawks - in production live action: '69 Doppelganger (movie) aka - Journey to the Far Side of the Sun '69 UFO ? The Protectors '75/6 Space: 1999 '75 The Day After Tomorrow (children's special for NBC) The only series on this list to be shown on an American network was Fireball XL-5, NBC Saturday mornings 1963. The rest, from Supercar on, were shown here in syndication. Several have turned up on HBO and Showtime recently. Someone mentioned the mermaid character on Stingray. Her name was Marina (what else!) and she did not speak. Living under water, her people used some other form of communication (telepathy? I've forgotten). The neatest thing I remember about this show was the way the whole base could be retracted underground every time an alert was sounded. Unfortunately I don't remember who they were fighting or why this was necessary. Mary Anne Espenshade ...!umcp-cs!aplvax!mae