AP Films (Anderson Provis Films) had a successful track record in the production of puppet series for children with The Adventures of Twizzle, Torchy the Battery Boy, and Four Feather Falls. Under the patronage of Lew Grade at ATV (Associated Television) they had achieved international success with Supercar. Fireball XLS, and Stingray. In 1964, when Lew Grade asked Gerry Anderson for a new series, AP Films produced "Trapped in the Sky," a 25-minute pilot for Thunderbirds. Lew Grade asked that the programs be lengthened to an hour at a cost of nearly £40,000 an episode. (AP Films' first three series with ATV had earned over £3 million in the United States alone.)

     Gerry Anderson and his team-his wife Sylvia, Reg Hill, John Read, Derek Meddings and Barry Gray­ had built up a wealth of experience creating their new form of puppet program. Great care was taken to dis­guise the jerky movements of the puppets; the tungsten strings were sprayed with color powder, shots of the puppets walking were minimal (they were often shot from the waist up) and real hands were often used for close-ups. Departing from traditional puppet show techniques in which puppets were dangled in front of flat backdrops, the puppets were placed into three­ dimensional action scenes. This was achieved by use of detailed scenery and model-making, developing the puppets electronically enabling them to lip-sync the pre-recorded dialogue, creating realistic special effects in miniature, and use of specialized sound effects. The company dubbed this new type of production "Super­ marionation."

     Shot  in  color  (like  Stingray),  Thunderbirds was made for adults as well as children. For this reason  it was given an early evening slot of 6:35 P.M. when first broadcast on Saturday, October 2, 1965. Set in 2063, Thunderbirds   revolved   around   the  lives  and adventures of the Tracy family, the principal members  of the International Rescue organization, based on a remote Tracy Island in the Pacific. The head of the family was Jeff Tracy, a millionaire  ex-astronaut with five sons; Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon, and John (named after five of the seven original Mercury astronauts). The five sons manned the five specialized rescue craft, the  Thunderbirds.  Thunderbird 1,  piloted by Scott, was usually the first on the scene and would co-ordinate rescue operations. Thunderbird 2, piloted by Virgil, was a heavy transport craft that carried specialized rescue equipment in a detachable "pod." Thunderbird 3, piloted by Alan, was a spacecraft. Thunderbird 4, piloted by Gordon, was an underwater rescue craft, usually transported via Thunderbird 2 Thunderbird  5,  manned  by John, was a permanent space station monitoring communications for rescue calls. The Tracy family was joined on the island by scientific genius "Brains," faithful servant Kyrano and his daughter Tin Tin (Alan's love interest) with an occasional appearance from Grandma. Two other members of the International Rescue team were based in the UK-the glamorous London agent, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, and her cockney chauffeur Parker. Parker drove Lady Penelope's heavily armed pink Rolls Royce, registration plate FAB 1. Lady Penelope  also owned  a  yacht,  FAB2.  (The letters F.A.B. were also used in communications between the Tracy brothers and base-usually to confirm instructions.) In his biography Gerry Anderson comments that "part of the success of Thunderbirds was due to the fact that it ran for an hour an episode. That enabled the character development we couldn't feature in previous shows."

     The program always started with a dramatic countdown, illustrated with the  five aircraft, accompanied by "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ... Thunderbirds are go!" Then came a montage of highlights of the following program. The launches of Thunderbirds 1, 2, and 3 were particularly memorable sequences. Thunderbird 1 would launch from its underground silo through the retractable swimming pool. Thunderbird 2 would emerge from behind an artificial cliff-face and crawl between two lines of palm trees that bent to the ground to allow its wings to pass. Thunderbird 3 would blast off through the center of the circular house. These unconventional take offs were all a part of the emphasis on the secrecy of International Rescue and its base. Photography and tracking of the aircraft was prohibited. The greatest IR adversary was a villain called The Hood who pos­sessed strange mind-altering powers, especially effec­tive on his half-brother Kyrano. The Hood made frequent appearances at the scenes of disasters (usually in disguise) hoping to photograph the Thunderbirds and their crew in action.

     Storylines mainly revolved around rescue opera­tions. The disasters were a mixture of man-made (ma­chinery going haywire, sabotage), and natural (floods and landslides). In his biography Anderson says the decision to avoid politics and make the causes of the disasters natural disasters or sabotage was deliberate. Tension was built up to a dramatic finale with a well­ paced story, underscored by Barry Gray's incidental music.

     First shown on the Independent Television network at different times across the UK, it was not until 1991 that Thunderbirds was first networked, attracting an audience of 5 million viewers when re-run on BBC 2. A digitally remastered Thunderbirds was broadcast on BBC 2 in 2000. Two feature films were also made. Thunderbirds Are Go! was released in 1966 and Thun­derbird Six in 1968. In January 1993 the long-running children's program Blue Peter was overwhelmed with requests for fact-sheets on how to make a model of Tracy Island, which had been demonstrated on the program. After 90,000 requests the BBC decided to repeat the program instead. Thunderbirds characters have continually remained in the spotlight; in adver­tising campaigns; when Parker was featured in Dire Straits's "Elvis Calling" video, and in Lady Pene­lope's "guest appearance" in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous.

     The program has been spoofed on many occasions. One of the best known was Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's "Superthunderstingcar" performed in the first series of Not Only… But Also. A Stage show, Thunderbirds FAB, mimicked the actions of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet puppets to the accompaniment of Barry Gray’s music. The show appeared on London’s West End stage in 1991 and returned in 1993 and 2000.