Children’s television shows of my youth often used puppet characters to entertain us. Despite being able to see the strings, and knowing full well that they were puppets, the wonder of watching them was not diminished in the least. We were too young to notice the strings anyway.
I was lucky that my parents could afford a television when I was very young, and one of my earliest memories is of watching Muffin The Mule.
This footage is quite poor, but it was shown in 1955!
My next favourite was Andy Pandy, along with his toy box friends.
My Mum told me that when he waved goodbye, I used to cry inconsolably. ๐
Then came The Woodentops. Along with the family, we also had Spotty the dog.
This was state-of-the-art in the late 1950s.
The genre was revolutionised by Gerry and Syvia Anderson. They took puppet shows to a new level, replicating big screen entertainment. They used string puppets that also had electronic parts fitted, so that their mouths and other facial features could move in a realistic way. They even coined a term for this, ‘Supermarionation’.
They had started out following the trend of earlier programmes, and their first show, ‘Twizzle’ was very popular.
Their next offering was Torchy the battery boy.
This gave some hint to their futuristic ideas, with Torchy’s space rocket catching the mood of the time.
This was followed by their Wild West series, ‘Four Feather Falls’, a huge favourite at the time.
The theme song was even released as a record!
It never occurred to me to question the exaggerated size of the characters in relation to the buildings.
Long before they could be shown in colour, they embraced their vision of all-action shows for kids and the Andersons really took off, with their shows becoming household names, and shown at prime times too.
First came ‘Supercar!’
Then the amazing ‘Fireball XL-5’.
As colour TV sets started to become readily available, the next offering was the eye-popping ‘Stingray’. This was the first Supermarionation series to be filmed in colour.
It was set in a futuristic underwater city, ‘Marineville’, and ‘Stingray’ was a submarine.
In 1965, the pair embarked on their most ambitious project yet, ‘Thunderbirds’. I was 13 at the time, but still loved to watch it.
Telling the story of ‘International Rescue’, it introduced a family who used various ingenious methods to save lives and prevent disasters all around the world.
As they had done with ‘Stingray’, the Andersons caught on to the marketing possibilities. Toy figures and vehicles became the ‘must-haves’ for us kids in the 1960s.
By the time ‘Thunderbirds became internationally popular, that toy market was huge.
In 1967, they brought their final Supermarionation project to the TV screens, using advanced electronics to make the characters even more realistic.
Once again, demand for the toys associated with the series was out of control.
I was 15 by then, so not really watching stuff like this. But I saw it occasionally, if only to find it funny now that I was too old.
I had started to see the strings.
Puppets allow children to feel and express themselves. They are ever popular. Howdy Doody was terrific, but Lamb Chop was my favorite. Well, truth be told, Gloria is my favorite. ๐
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Gloria should have her own kid’s TV show! ๐
You could present it, and end each episode with a ‘read aloud’ chapter!
That has to be your post-retirement new career!
Best wishes, Pete.
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Now thatโs an idea, Pete! I will definitely be reading aloud on a broader scale when I retire. The YouTube idea is something I will research, and my lofty dream is to be the next Lavar Burton and resurrect Reading Rainbow. ๐
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I think South Africa missed out on almost all of these since TV was illegal until 1972… of course I was not actually alive then…
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I’m sure Little O would find these fascinating! ๐
Best wishes, Pete.
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They are looking very interesting and funn, but all are new too me. Thank you for the information. Michael
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Obviously not shown in Germany. You missed out! ๐
Best wishes, Pete.
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Badly not, but now – sice some years – we get a lot of the UK: “Barnaby”, and all the other series, i think no one in the UK had watched. ๐ And many of our old crime series “Tatort”. All the sequels they cant be sold to foreign countries.
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Barnaby is a policeman character in a cosy crime drama, ‘Midsomer Murders’. It is actually very popular here, but not with me! I think it is silly and unrealistic. ๐
Best wishes, Pete.
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Really! Shame on me, i thought we only get the UK-series nobody is interested in. ๐
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We didn’t have a tv until I was too old to watch puppets. My sisters did love Howdy Doody. I loved a show called “Andy’s Gang” with a toy frog who hopped up and down and was obviously being moved by a person. “Plunk your magic twanger Froggie” still makes me laugh.
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That made me laugh too, and I have never even seen it. ๐
Best wishes, Pete.
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These are all new to me. Of course we only had one tv station and most of it local programming.
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We only had two channels, until the late 60s. But the BBC showed a lot of puppet programmes. ๐
Best wishes, Pete.
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Thunderbirds definitely made it into Spain, although some of the others I only know from shows about children’s programmes that I’ve always felt curious about. (I remember Radio 2 used to have a show on Christmas Day when they shared children’s songs and I became familiar and came to love some I’d never heard in the life before…). The strings… Oh well, sometimes it’s amazing to watch old Star Trek episodes and notice the papier machรฉ gadgets and sets, or the strings in the flying machines of old movies and programmes, but they still have a nostalgic value and bring back our youth (and naivete, perhaps…). I hope to catch up on your story when it’s finished, Pete. Have a lovely week.
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Thanks, Olga. It’s all about the nostalgia for me. A time of relative ‘innocence’ too.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Great post ๐ How much do you want to bet that the movie Team America World Police parodied Thunderbirds style – the use of I believe marionettes. Anyway, keep up the great work as always ๐
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Team America was a rip-off of Thunderbirds in many ways. I have the ‘uncut’ version on DVD, and love it!
Best wishes, Pete.
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I’m unfamiliar with these shows, although I’ve heard of the Thunderbirds. I don’t think I ever would have cared much for this sort of puppetry. However, as an adult, I am a fan of stop motion animation (I often watch “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Corpse Bride,” and am itching to buy “Frankenweenie” and “Coraline”).
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There was something charming about the obvious puppetry, David. It kept up a very British tradition of puppet shows, I suppose.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I had never seen any of these, sadly. I think the puppeteering shows were not shown on Indian TV, except one Muppet show I was too old to watch. ๐ฆ
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That’s a shame you didn’t get them in India, Shaily.
Even now, I think they would still be popular.
Best wishes, Pete.
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As a kid, I saw “the Jungle book”, “Duck tales”, “Tailspin”, “Pingu”… They were all animation. Beautiful but not puppeteering
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‘Pingu’ was very popular here, Shaily.
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Torchy and Fireball XL5 were my favorites I did enjoy Bill and Ben but it was only when I got a lot older and after a few beers that I started to understand them talking ๐
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‘Torchy’ is almost forgotten now, Peabo.
I could always remember the theme tune! ๐
Cheers, Pete.
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Remember Fireball being repeated. The theme tune was great!
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Did you ever see the film ‘Love, Honour, and Obey’, Rich?
Top version from Sean Pertwee.
Cheers, Pete.
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I’ll have a look
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The Woodentops were my favourite. My father was bald ( when it was unfashionable! ) and one day I rushed down the road to greet him with ‘Hello Daddy Woodentop.’ I have not heard Twizzle mentioned before, I thought I might have imagined it! As we went to Australia in 1964 I missed out on some of these.
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You probably had Skippy to enjoy instead, Janet. ๐
I can still remember the theme song!
Best wishes, Pete.
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Yes we certainly watched Skippy – I was disillusioned years later to discover they filmed more than one kangaroo!
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Usually, unless I was off school ill, I wasn’t allowed to watch TV until 6pm, so missed out on a lot of these. However, I do remember favourite programmes of my youth; Star Trek, The Avengers, The Champions, and The Young Doctors to name but a few!
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I used to enjoy The Champions, mainly because of Alexandra Bastedo! ๐
Shame they didn’t have strings, even though they looked like they did at times. ๐
Best wishes, Pete.
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Oh gosh, Thunderbirds, Stingray etc were the ones I got to see. Loved them!
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Thanks, June. They still sell them on DVD. Maybe they should be revived for today’s kids? ๐
Best wishes, Pete.
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My favourite was Stingray, they had a Mermaid!
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Marina! She didn’t have a tail though. I liked her eyes! ๐
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She didn’t speak either! Every boys dream ๐คฃ๐คฃ
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Loved Thunderbirds! And do you remember Bill and Ben around the same time as Andy Pandy?
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Of course! The Flowerpot Men, and Weed. ๐
Best wishes, Pete.
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I remember The Thunderbirds…
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Glad to hear they made it across the ocean, Cindy. ๐
Best wishes, Pete. x
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Seeing the strings was always part of the charm for me. warmest regards, Theo
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I know what you mean. It certainly never bothered me at the time. ๐
Best wishes, Pete.
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Howdt Dowdy comes to mind……and of course the Thunderbirds…..chuq
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Ah, so you did get Thunderbirds there? Kim doesn’t remember it, but she was too young.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Oh yes…..cannot remember how long they had on their run…..chuq
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I loved Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop! The only other puppets I was familiar with were the ones on Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers.
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I’m not sure that those string puppet shows made it across The Atlantic, Kim. ๐
Best wishes, Pete.
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Puppets like “Scott Tracy” I seem to recall showing up here in the ’60’s. What I recall from the 1950’s here in the U.S. are ”Kukla, Fran & Ollie”; “Howdy Doody”; “Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop”; and “Paul Winchell & Jerry Mahoney”.
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Thanks, GP. Shari Lewis made a lucrative career with her sock-puppet, ‘Lamb Chop’. She was very popular in the UK too.
Best wishes, Pete.
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She was my favorite (I was told) and then Paul Winchell.
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Thunderbirds was my firm favourite when I was in transition from junior to ‘big’ school, but I am just old enough to remember Watch with Mother, although I’m not sure if it was our own television, or that of a family member/friend.
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I had a soft spot for Marina, the mute undersea lady in ‘Stingray’. ๐
Best wishes,Pete.
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