Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Thunderbirds (TV series)

Thunderbirds (TV series)

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/30 September, 2015 by Brianboulton (talk) 19:00, 13 September 2015 (UTC)



Thunderbirds is a mid-1960s British science-fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, produced by their company AP Films (APF) and distributed by ITC. It was the fifth APF series to be filmed using a hybrid technique known as "Supermarionation", which combined scale-model special effects sequences with scenes featuring marionette puppet characters (replica pictured). Two series, comprising a total of 32 episodes, were made. Set in the mid-2060s, Thunderbirds follows the adventures of International Rescue – a secret organisation, founded by ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, which uses technologically-advanced rescue machines to save human life. These are led by the Thunderbirds, a fleet of five vehicles piloted by Jeff's adult sons. Thunderbirds premiered on the ITV network on 30 September 1965 and has since been broadcast in at least 66 other countries. Widely considered the Andersons' most popular and commercially successful series, it has received particular praise for its effects and music. It was followed by two feature-length film sequels in the 1960s and a live-action film adaptation in 2004. A computer-animated remake, Thunderbirds Are Go, premiered on ITV in 2015.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Assuming that it passes, Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series) (24 September). However, this article would be only the fourth TV series TFA in six months, and I would argue that this nomination's strong date relevance is enough to override concerns about lack of topic diversity.
 * Main editors: SuperMarioMan
 * Promoted: 6 September 2015 (just promoted)
 * Reasons for nomination: 50th anniversary of the first airing of the series' first episode. Well-known and influential (inspired the visual style of Team America: World Police and creative elements of many other films and TV series). Fair degree of international interest with 16 interwiki links.
 * Support as nominator.  Super Mario  Man  ( talk ) 19:22, 7 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Support, as this is an anniversary likely to generate quite a bit of interest, at least in those countries where Thunderbirds was something of a cultural phenomenon (the UK, Ireland and Japan, I believe, but as the nom has pointed out even though it wasn't particularly successful there it also had a good deal of indirect influence on US animation). I appreciate that if the Simpsons one runs as well that will make a run of three television TFAs in quick succession, but WP:FANMP is at no risk of running short of TV-related articles any time soon, and no reasonable observer would consider Thunderbirds, Pride & Prejudice and The Simpsons as similar. &#8209; iridescent 11:33, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Comment: The 50th anniversary is a decent argument for running this on 30 September, despite the number of recent and proposed media-related nominations. Although their content is different, the three that you mention are all TV series, all part of the Media category, and as with other categories the issue of overrepresentation needs watching. That's  not a particular problem at this moment, however. Brianboulton (talk) 14:43, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Support: a great article that I've watched SuperMarioMan develop so carefully over the last few years with an eye on the 50th anniversary. One of the most famous British TV programmes, still repeated and much talked about, this would be a fitting article for our front page. Bob talk 10:21, 13 September 2015 (UTC)