Whoah

[handful_ofdust]

...the odd stuff you find on YouTube: This is footage of my Dad talking about Captain Scarlet--in which he voiced the Captain Magenta marionette--at some convention in Bristol, here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En5k0zCqIEw&feature=related). I remember him telling me he was going to this, but it's still a bit of a shock.

At any rate: If any of you ever wondered what Gary Files looks/sounds like, here ya go. Ie, a bit like me, except A) older, B) a dude and C) Aussie.

Comments

[marcy-italiano.livejournal.com]

Huh... I didn't think he looked like you. Maybe the camera's too far away. I didn't listen to the whole thing, just long enough to hear the accent switch. :P Then I heard a little boy who won't sleep. LOL!

[sovay]

This is footage of my Dad talking about Captain Scarlet--in which he voiced the Captain Magenta marionette--

. . . I have never heard of this show. Good God, what?

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Ah, how to explain...

In the 1960s, Gerry Anderson and his wife created a bunch of genre TV shows aimed at teenagers which ably combined all the worst qualities of mid-range James Bond and the American re-edit of Battle of the Planets. Captain Scarlet, rendered indestructible by...uh, I dunno...led a team of international flyboy daredevils who all had spectrum-based codenames like Lieutenant Green and Captain Ochre. Except for the chicks, who were all pilots, and named things like Destiny, Melody or Rhapsody Angel. They fought the Mysterons, invisible aliens who could make themselves look like anybody, but were usually content to let their agent Captain Black do their dirty work and narrate the action from off-screen. Oh yeah...and all these people were puppets. Actually, EVERYBODY was a puppet, in this universe. Think of it as the answer to "What the hell were the guys who made Team America: World Police thinking about, exactly?"

Eventually, marionette-vision shows became prohibitively expensive to produce, and the Andersons stopped getting paid to inflict this creepy horror on the rest of us. For a taste of a typical episode, go here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usUI7TIUtp8&feature=related).

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

Andrew recently got DVDs of the Anderson show Thunderbirds - this one's about International Rescue, a team of people with elaborate vehicles and gadgets who monitor radio communications and rush in to help when an atomic-powered passenger plane has a bomb planted in its landing gear or something; except they're not officially tied to any country, so they have to keep their base hidden and stuff (this is never fully explained, but I figure either (a) they're trying to avoid red tape or political squabbles that might slow them down in an emergency, and/or (b) they're worried they might be pressured to show the specs of their equipment which might then be copied for military purposes). Anyway there's this unspecified-Asian guy called The Hood who keeps trying to "find out their secrets" so he can sell them to unspecified-ominous governments; meanwhile his brother and niece are good guys working with International Rescue. Watching the series on DVD, the thing I noticed is that it's only after about half-a-dozen episodes that IR even mention that they've begun to suspect the occasional acts of sabotage are all the work of the same unknown agent.

Anyway, they're all puppets too. And the sets and costumes are all delightfully period. And Lady Penelope (their agent in London) is actually quite scary, and my favourite character.

[baggyeyes]

I remember those old Gerry Anderson shows. I thought they were funny. I can't see the vid as yet, though.