History Series / Thunderbirds

--> '''Bank Manager:''' Let's go back to the old design; at least it took him five hours to open it.

** Alternately, Thunderbird 1 looks more like it was based on the Fantastic Four's Pogo Plane, both being tail-sitting rocket-assisted takeoff aircraft that switched to horizontal flight after takeoff; Marvel comics were not widely available in Great Britain in the 60s so the resemblance would not have been immediately obvious.

* HoverBike: International Rescue has severak of these at its disposal for navigating around a danger zone. [[note]]In reality, they were introduced to reduce the amount of walking the puppets would otherwise have to do on screen.[[/note]]

Punk/new wave band The Rezillos released a song "Thunderbirds Are Go" in 1978, extolling the praises of the series -- "the TV show that's never been beat."

80s band Fuzzbox released a single "International Rescue" as an affectionate [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF0aHzNtYsk tribute/parody of the series]] that made it to number 11 in the charts

** And Jeff: gold -- not in an episode or film, but in an ad for the charity Barnado's.

* CrazyJealousGuy: Alan doesn't quite like it when Tin-Tin shows interest in another man. This is best seen in "End of the Road", when her old friend Eddy Houseman comes to visit her, and "Richochet", when she turns out to be a great fan of Rick O’Shea. Ironically, in both episodes Alan ends up having to rescue the men he doesn't like.

* HoverBike: International rescue has multiple of these at it's disposal for navigating around a danger zone. [[note]]In reality, they were introduced to reduce the amount of walking the puppets would otherwise have to do on screen[[/note]]

* NoOSHACompliance: Pretty much the raison d'être of many episodes. It's almost as if Gerry Anderson decided the most dangerous thing about the 2060's were that it is populated by [[TooDumbToLive idiots]]

* {{Spinoff}}: Due to the prescence of Zero-X in both first [[TheMovie movie]] looks like it was doubled up as the pilot of the next series, ''Series/CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons''. However, it isn't really confirmed in-series as the Thunderbirds never showed up in ''Series/CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons''.

** Poor Gordon, and his favoured ride, ''Thunderbird 4''. His skills as a diver and submersible pilot were not useful as often as he might have liked. Most of the times he was called out on a rescue he was riding shotgun with Scott or Virgil as generic backup, and despite being a Tracy brother he was less important to the plot than Tin-Tin, Brains, or Penny almost all the time. TB 4, despite being a main-line vehicle, was the size of a van next to a fleet of giants, and was overshadowed in importance by many barely-seen robotic pod vehicles, like the Mole. On the few occasions when there was danger at sea, he really did shine. Gordon was recognised as the best marksman on the team, though, and was often utilised when something needed aiming, eg. firing the cable from ''Thunderbird 2'' into the Zero X in the first movie.

** Perhaps it wasn't flying a full Mach 6, it's reactor would probably need a lot of maintenance for it to be pushed to the limit so often. Wouldn't a plane travelling a full Mach 6 top speed be in danger of hitting multiple objects and damaging the plane, but then again it should have decent radar too.

* OddlySmallOrganization: Well, saving the world is a family business.

* HowWeGotHere: The episode "Move - And You're Dead" begins with Alan and grandma stranded on a bridge with a bomb. While ''Thunderbirds 1'' and ''2'' are on their way to save them, Alan recalls how they got into this situation in the first place (which takes up most of the episodes time). [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] because Jeff is asking him how he got there in full detail to keep him concentrating, so he doesn't fall unconscious from heat exhaustion and fall to his death, if not triggering the bomb's motion sensor.

* IsThisThingStillOn: in "Cry Wolf", while Alan gives the two boys a tour around Tracy Island, he greatly brags about his own role in piloting ''Thunderbird 3'', and describes Scott (who always comes along as co-astronaut) as being merely his subordinate. Unfortunately for him, the intercom on the cart they are in is still on and Scott hears everything Alan says. However, he plays the game along and promptly starts addressing Alan as "sir".

* ThemeTuneCameo: Virgil plays the theme song on a piano at the end of the pilot episode.

//* ComputerEqualsTapedrive

Also see ''WesternAnimation/PawPatrol''.

* ComputerEqualsTapedrive

An unsuccessful trip made by Lew Grade to try and sell the show to American networks ensured the second season would be the series' last; further, amid corporate fears that the bubble had burst, Gerry Anderson was instructed that said second season be cut back to just six episodes. United Artists, surprised at the failure of the first movie, subsequently commissioned another -- ''Thunderbird 6'', where designing a new Thunderbird vehicle is put on hold when a state-of-the-art luxury airship is in danger -- and this also flopped. But by then Anderson was already at work on new Supermarionation projects with a new generation of puppets.

!!Thundertropes are go!:

!!Tropes:

* PinkElephants: Invoked.

* KidAppealCharacter: Alan

* NoOSHACompliance: Pretty much the raison d'être of many episodes. It's almost as if Gerry Anderson decided the most dangerous thing about the 2060's were that it is populated by[[TooDumbToLive idiots]]

* NoOSHACompliance: Pretty much the raison d'être of many episodes, like the Fireflash in "Trapped in the Sky", an atomic-powered aeroplane which would have killed all of its passengers by radiation poisoning if it didn't land within 2 '''hours''', and the Crablogger in "Path of Destruction", an atomic-powered logging machine which was going to '''blow up''' if not shut down properly, a complicated process that took upwards of five minutes. We guess a red "emergency stop" button was too simple -- then anyone could have stopped it should it have been about to smash through a village or destroy a dam.

* CutAndPasteTranslation: ITC did this ''twice'' in the mid-90s. First came an attempt to cram it into a half-hour slot on Creator/FoxKids- in addition to cutting scenes for both time and censorship, all the voices were redubbed and the original music replaced by random rock music. After that flopped, ITC took it into syndication and edited it even more, turning it into the horrific ''Turbocharged Thunderbirds''. Now there were a couple of live-action kids called the "hackers", who lived inside Thunderbird 5 (now "Hacker Command") and took orders from Jeff Tracy (who they called "Mr. T"). while The Hood took orders from a floating holographic head named "the Atrocimator"; they redubbed all the dialog again to add "post-modern" jokes, and supposedly took place on "Thunder World". Gerry Anderson was so enraged by this, he ordered ITC blur his name out of these monstrosities and even supposedly ordered them destroyed. It really says something when the [=YouTube=] comments on an episode of ''Turbocharged'' say that the ''[[Film/{{Thunderbirds}} 2004 movie]]'' was better than this.

* Alternately, Thunderbird 1 looks more like it was based on the Fantastic Four's Pogo Plane, both being tail-sitting rocket-assisted takeoff aircraft that switched to horizontal flight after takeoff; Marvel comics were not widely available in Great Britain in the 60s so the resemblance would not have been immediately obvious.

2004 saw the release of a [[Film/{{Thunderbirds}} live-action version]] directed by Creator/JonathanFrakes; unfortunately, Creator/{{Universal}}'s ExecutiveMeddling and being trapped in DevelopmentHell since the 90s turned what could've been an awesome film into [[FanonDiscontinuity something most fans of the franchise would like to forget.]]

* FauxActionGirl: Tin-Tin actually does have an IR uniform and occasionally joins the boys on a rescue mission... but stands as the person who ended up in need of rescue the most. Averting this trope is the one and only positive thing fans can point to about the live-action film.

** The 2004 movie also dropped this, presumably because nowadays, trying to keep their vehicles and tech under wraps would be far more difficult, what with how technology's advanced- you can't exactly just shoot someone's cameraphone out of their hands. On the other hand, the main plot is The Hood attempting to utilize the Thunderbird craft for his own evil ends, justifying the latter concern.

** Using acronyms like FAB, and those seen in other Anderson series, such as P.W.O.R. ('''P'''roceeding '''W'''ith '''O'''rders '''R'''eceived) from ''Series/{{Stingray|1964}}'', was a nod to then-current real life radio practice which required responses to messages to be understandable even if the signal was bad. Oddly enough, the show's use of actual radio practice -- giving directions like "Left-left two degrees" got it wrong, as there should only have been one "left" but two "rights" so as to be decipherable even if all that could be heard was one or two unintelligible squawks.

Created by preeminent British puppet-show producer GerryAnderson (1929-[[http://news.sky.com/story/1030371/thunderbirds-creator-gerry-anderson-dies 2012]]), ''Thunderbirds'' is the story of the Tracy family, a wealthy clan who embark on a unique philanthropic venture.