I was around when Pinky and Perky were at their most popular and I don't know of anyone, ever, who thought it was entertainment. Just wasting TV time before Thunderbirds came on.
I have always thought the best bit of Thunderbirds was the final 20 seconds of the closing credits theme, when it stops being a poncey triumphal march and switches into full-on John Barry Bond-style thrill mode. Like this: https://youtu.be/__8f-HDai64?feature=shared&t=324
By the time I was a kid Gerry had moved on to Terrahawks, which was entertaining but also terrifying when Zelda was on, although the likes of Thunderbirds, Stingray, Fireball XL5, Joe 90 and Captain Scarlet were still in regular rotation.
You'd like to think by the 80s that TV show budgets would have got bigger, but we got Fingermouse and Button Moon rather than Pinky & Perky.
I worked for a time with an actor who voiced some of the Terrahawks characters. I still haven't seen an episode: the puppets look like dog chew-toys so I couldn't bother to give it a chance.
Brilliant investigation Mr. Dabbs, Sir. And thorough. And wistful.....
Isn't it strange how AI creations always seem to be missing something, but when humans are at their most creative it doesn't make sense at all..... until later. Often much later.
Actually, I did get one result of a man with two beards and a chin for each. I decided it might be too freaky, and not everyone reads Private Eye to get the joke.
So, and do correct me if I'm wrong, what you are basically saying is that the industry, to which I have dedicated the last 46 years of my life, has turned into one big fucking joke?
I'm not sure which I find the most disconcerting. The fact that you are probably right or the fact that I was one of the people that enabled it to become the shit show it most clearly is.
There's a long history of 'new' technology being ridiculed because..... Well just because.
In the words of the great Mr Babbage....
“Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple.”
P&P. That fired up a few dormant neurons…. Formative years watching them. They were also on the Goons Song “Ying Tong”…or was that piss take by the Goons?
“ So I fired up Photoshop and asked it to generate my own ‘Modern Shakespeare’ using AI. ”
Ah. I see exactly what you did wrong: you neglected to use the [i]Magic[/i] of AI.
Regarding the various weird hats, ties, and other fashion accessories: there was a precedent set. I recently observed some auctioneer demonstrating one of Napoleon’s authentic hats, and was shocked to learn it’s nothing more than a gigantic Mexican sombrero, painted jet-black, and with front & rear brims starched to stand bolt-upright.
Once you know the truth you see precisely how ridiculous those preposterous old fashions truly are..
Now, this is interesting to me. There used to be a music hall performance art known as chapeaugraphy in which a flat ring of felt would be folded and twisted in various ways to form different hat styles and the wearer would impersonate characters from history and general culture. Napoleon, Wellington, a fireman, a cowboy etc.
Dec 4, 2023·edited Dec 4, 2023Liked by Alistair Dabbs
Adobe seemed to want to cast either Roy Dotrice or Ron Moody as Will Shakespeare. Great how Dickens became Eddie Izzard.
The Pinky & Perky video had me thinking the man was Robin Ray (K. 345), but instead it was a real Yorkshireman, Jimmy Thompson. Phew, the thought of Robin doing a northern accent was almost too much to bear.
The eyelash plucking episode reminded me of an incident in the book Spycatcher, where they're trying to find the mole in MI5, and they put a camera behind a one-way mirror in one suspect's office, only to get a lot of shots of him doing deep teeth cleaning with a toothpick every lunchtime.
I can just about remember Pinky and Perky, as well as Bill and Ben.
But of course nothing came close to Gerry Anderson.
I was around when Pinky and Perky were at their most popular and I don't know of anyone, ever, who thought it was entertainment. Just wasting TV time before Thunderbirds came on.
I have always thought the best bit of Thunderbirds was the final 20 seconds of the closing credits theme, when it stops being a poncey triumphal march and switches into full-on John Barry Bond-style thrill mode. Like this: https://youtu.be/__8f-HDai64?feature=shared&t=324
By the time I was a kid Gerry had moved on to Terrahawks, which was entertaining but also terrifying when Zelda was on, although the likes of Thunderbirds, Stingray, Fireball XL5, Joe 90 and Captain Scarlet were still in regular rotation.
You'd like to think by the 80s that TV show budgets would have got bigger, but we got Fingermouse and Button Moon rather than Pinky & Perky.
I worked for a time with an actor who voiced some of the Terrahawks characters. I still haven't seen an episode: the puppets look like dog chew-toys so I couldn't bother to give it a chance.
Brilliant investigation Mr. Dabbs, Sir. And thorough. And wistful.....
Isn't it strange how AI creations always seem to be missing something, but when humans are at their most creative it doesn't make sense at all..... until later. Often much later.
The second modern Dickens is clearly Evgeny Lebedev.
And the third one is Eddie Izzard.
Nowhere near masculine enough for Eddy Izzard.
Actually, I did get one result of a man with two beards and a chin for each. I decided it might be too freaky, and not everyone reads Private Eye to get the joke.
Another Babbage RTFM reply.
Have you changed the water?
It's got definite possibilities for a full RFC (after the style of the good old Avian Carrier Protocol).
My childhood left of the Pond was buoyed by Alvin and the Chipmunks. Similar idea, complete with Beatles cover.
But does anyone remember Bleep and Booster?
Bleep and Booster appeared in that zone between (Grammar) school and one's own children.
Other events...... competed for one's attention.
Missed B&B completely.
Bleep & Booster were on Blue Peter. They were string marionettes. I think we had Pelham Puppet editions of them at home but they are long gone.
So, and do correct me if I'm wrong, what you are basically saying is that the industry, to which I have dedicated the last 46 years of my life, has turned into one big fucking joke?
I'm not sure which I find the most disconcerting. The fact that you are probably right or the fact that I was one of the people that enabled it to become the shit show it most clearly is.
This is dark humour. Black comedy is cool.
There's a long history of 'new' technology being ridiculed because..... Well just because.
In the words of the great Mr Babbage....
“Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple.”
With all due respect to Mr Babbage, I retort with a proverb from his own era
'The road to hell is paved with good intentions'
Isn't that a road near Middlesbrough. The one Chris Rea drives home along?
"whistful" isn't a word, Ali 😝
I whish it whas.
And maybe I was in the mood to play a game if cards?
As long as it makes you laugh 😝
P&P. That fired up a few dormant neurons…. Formative years watching them. They were also on the Goons Song “Ying Tong”…or was that piss take by the Goons?
Did anyone work out why there are balloon dogs in the main pic?
Oh, yes. Very good.
But you might need to explain it to the others.
... Nah.
“ So I fired up Photoshop and asked it to generate my own ‘Modern Shakespeare’ using AI. ”
Ah. I see exactly what you did wrong: you neglected to use the [i]Magic[/i] of AI.
Regarding the various weird hats, ties, and other fashion accessories: there was a precedent set. I recently observed some auctioneer demonstrating one of Napoleon’s authentic hats, and was shocked to learn it’s nothing more than a gigantic Mexican sombrero, painted jet-black, and with front & rear brims starched to stand bolt-upright.
Once you know the truth you see precisely how ridiculous those preposterous old fashions truly are..
Now, this is interesting to me. There used to be a music hall performance art known as chapeaugraphy in which a flat ring of felt would be folded and twisted in various ways to form different hat styles and the wearer would impersonate characters from history and general culture. Napoleon, Wellington, a fireman, a cowboy etc.
Adobe seemed to want to cast either Roy Dotrice or Ron Moody as Will Shakespeare. Great how Dickens became Eddie Izzard.
The Pinky & Perky video had me thinking the man was Robin Ray (K. 345), but instead it was a real Yorkshireman, Jimmy Thompson. Phew, the thought of Robin doing a northern accent was almost too much to bear.
The eyelash plucking episode reminded me of an incident in the book Spycatcher, where they're trying to find the mole in MI5, and they put a camera behind a one-way mirror in one suspect's office, only to get a lot of shots of him doing deep teeth cleaning with a toothpick every lunchtime.