Dogtrousers
Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
You're not the only one to have noticed. A learned article Re-evaluating gender and smoking in Thunderbirds 35 years on in the journal Tobacco Control, 2002. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20747594
Thunderbirds are 60
- Thread starter Sharky
- Start date
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You're not the only one to have noticed. A learned article Re-evaluating gender and smoking in Thunderbirds 35 years on in the journal Tobacco Control, 2002. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20747594
Richard A Thackeray
Legendary Member
That segment is on YouTube
You might see yourself in the background?
Profpointy
Legendary Member
In my view a change in society's smoking habits and not just "think of the children" either. Thankfully my parents didn't smoke and it's a vice I too avoided, though both grandfathers smoked. Look at an old TV programme like a panel show, or a documentary, and everybody smoked, and like the quoted article puts it, it was portrayed as somewhat sophisticated. Not unrelated people in their 50s often looked very old by modern standards too. Whilst partly down to hardships of previous times, not least the War, but also arguably the prevalence of smoking. Even now I notice how old-looking a 50 year old smoker looks. Whilst I was somewhat against the ban on smoking in pubs when it was introduced (on freedom of choice grounds) it has likely greatly improved the nation's health as well as making pubs far more pleasant for me personally
Anyhow, perhaps straying into the Other Place now
captain nemo1701
Space cadet. Deck 42 Main Engineering.
- Location
- Bristol
One of the drawbacks of 4K, check the background behind Scott at 0.35:
Did anyone spot the studio brick wall & door as the ramp takes Scott over to TB1?. They didn't build a background for this set apparently and in low-res 60's telly, it was just a blur. Also, note 'Thunderbird 1' can be read face on as it goes down the ramp...but mysteriously swivels 90 degrees so you can also read it from the side
. Still nice to spot the orange/citrus fruit grater on the launch bay wall
...and old fuses. Its so famous, I think they put it into the 2015 CGI reboot.
Did anyone spot the studio brick wall & door as the ramp takes Scott over to TB1?. They didn't build a background for this set apparently and in low-res 60's telly, it was just a blur. Also, note 'Thunderbird 1' can be read face on as it goes down the ramp...but mysteriously swivels 90 degrees so you can also read it from the side
. Still nice to spot the orange/citrus fruit grater on the launch bay wall...and old fuses. Its so famous, I think they put it into the 2015 CGI reboot.
Vapin' Joe
Formerly known as Smokin Joe
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Profpointy
Legendary Member
as are most vices to be fair !
captain nemo1701
Space cadet. Deck 42 Main Engineering.
- Location
- Bristol
Captain Carlin was smoking on board Skydiver in UFO, Straker & the gang weren't strangers to lighting up cigars and boozing in SHADO HQ either. Lady Penelope enjoyed a ciggy too. Guess it was just those days.....
Profpointy
Legendary Member
The Shadow lot, particularly Colonel Freeman wasn't averse to what might now be called sexual harrassment of girls half his age
Dogtrousers
Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
I watched an episode of UFO recently, and it wasn't just SHADO HQ. They were even sparking up in Moonbase.
Profpointy
Legendary Member
Didn't Straker have a whisky dispenser on his coffee machine ?
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Virgil kicked ass. Those dark good looks, he smoked, he played then piano, he kicked ass laughing in the face of danger in the biggest and baddest Thunderbird.
Any kid worth their shorts would have cheerfully given their left nut to do all that, and then along comes some killjoy who ruins it all for everyone. That report wasn't published until 2003 because if he'd done so any sooner hed have got his teeth kicked in.
captain nemo1701
Space cadet. Deck 42 Main Engineering.
- Location
- Bristol
Did you know Virgil's voice actor changed?. In the last few episodes, David Holliday was replaced with Jeremy Wilkin. Wilkin was the blonde haired tall Skydiver crewman in UFO. Always liked Virgil, TB2 was everyone's fave. Those huge eyebrows converging when things went pear - shaped
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a.twiddler
Veteran
Nothing exists in isolation. Thunderbirds, like everything else, was a product of its time. In the 60s everyone smoked. Offering someone a light or one of your ciggies was seen as an an acceptable way of breaking the ice, as much as asking what team you supported. It was a social skill back then.
My parents smoked, most adults I knew smoked. Ashtrays were common things found in most households. Having the technology to make their characters smoke must have seemed a good way for the Thunderbirds production team to make them seem more natural and human at that time. They might have had the imagination to devise future technology for the 2060s but they couldn't have forecast the way social trends such as smoking would go. I don't recall any specific product placement of brands in the programmes.
Us kids must have been passive smokers for years before we got to make a choice about it. I never took up smoking beyond some experimentation as a young adult -I just didn't like it. Come to think of it, I wasn't too fussed about football either. No wonder I'm such an unsociable git. I did like Thunderbirds though, Fireball XL5, Supercar, Four Feather Falls. Joe 90, not so much. I suppose that I was at just the right age to appreciate them when they appeared on TV.
My parents smoked, most adults I knew smoked. Ashtrays were common things found in most households. Having the technology to make their characters smoke must have seemed a good way for the Thunderbirds production team to make them seem more natural and human at that time. They might have had the imagination to devise future technology for the 2060s but they couldn't have forecast the way social trends such as smoking would go. I don't recall any specific product placement of brands in the programmes.
Us kids must have been passive smokers for years before we got to make a choice about it. I never took up smoking beyond some experimentation as a young adult -I just didn't like it. Come to think of it, I wasn't too fussed about football either. No wonder I'm such an unsociable git. I did like Thunderbirds though, Fireball XL5, Supercar, Four Feather Falls. Joe 90, not so much. I suppose that I was at just the right age to appreciate them when they appeared on TV.
