So Thunderbirds are Go (1964-1966), is a beloved TV show created in the 1960's by a small group of creatives led by chief creator Gerry Anderson and his wife Sylvia who was the role model and voice for the wonderful Lady Penelope.
Children (and some adults), have tuned in enthusiastically over the decades to see the original puppets with strings clearly visible. To the current day remakes of digitally enhanced cartoons and animated adventures.
But it's the thinking behind the creation and the power behind the destruction that makes the story more interesting.
Those who worked on the original Thunderbird productions were a mixed bag of individuals. No one expected the original success, it was not created as a money maker enterprise although it started the journey towards complete merchandising of films and tv shows.
Most of the prop designers had never designed props before, they were the perfect band of enthusiastic creatives led by Gerry ( of Twizzle & Battery boy fame); and held together by Sylvia (who in the first instance turned down the role of secretary as she thought the set up was strange to say the least)
The creators even shared the same house, spending huge amounts of hours on set and with each other, enjoying the process and the company of each other without even a share or any expectation in profits.
Look closely at the original Thunderbird programmes and you will see much more than the strings, there is an egg box in the set of Thunderbird 2's launch pad, tin foil in abundance, artificial trees and models that were clearly paper mache. The scenery was often shaken by an over enthusiastic prop designer to simulate a bad landing or rushed take off, but as an audience we believed it all.
Voice over parts were fought over and generally over the top in terms of accents and tones.
The story shone through, the bravery of the characters, a charming millionaire father on a desert Island; the evil lurking within the bald headed man, who sometimes wore a wig but was always the baddie.
The classical elegance of Lady Penelope and the shadiness of Parker the chauffeur. The concept of watching Supermarionation, a word coined by Jerry Anderson referring to the audio links that made the puppets lips move in syncranisation leading to the birthing of believable characters.
Audiences loved the concept of a family taking on the responsibility of rescuing people across the globe, with the sons named after beloved american astronauts, the storylines took on a cold war backdrop with a mix of ethnicities intertwined. Across the world children and adults enjoyed watching the exploits of international rescue.
After a few years of success Gerry wanted to move onto to new concepts many of which never worked in reality, a venture with Stanley Unwin that thankfully never made it onto our screens; some success with Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Space 1999; but he never recaptured the early success of Thunderbirds.
At the end of filming the last scene of Thunderbirds Gerry gave the order to destroy the original sets, don't save anything for prosperity just smash up and dump the lot.
It's the thinking behind this action that we need to rekindle. A sense of leave it all behind, avoid taking anything with you it's just clutter (or in this cast as time would prove this clutter would be very valuable clutter).
Nothing illustrates the 1960's focus of don't look back in the rear view mirror that's not where we are going more than this action.
"Get rid of all of the props, the physical memories of the production, let's move onto something better."
The 1960s' decision makers are always criticised for their careless treatments of past heritage; lets knock down that Georgian building and build some concrete monstrosity; let's take down the dado rail and the victorian pine doors and replace them with formica.
A total ethos of how to get rid of the past and let's look forward. Let's ditch the petticoats and wear miniskirts, wear our hair in bobs or shoulder length and avoid looking like our Mothers and Fathers. The Beatles, Stones and Beach Boys reigned and everything that came before became obsolete. Students marched and young people rioted to gain justice for all and did not believe that everything could be learnt from past history.
For its only when we look ahead and not behind that we can truly generate the focus we need to be creative and not merely rehash what we have done before. Take a look at the top 10 movies showing now, many are remakes or episodes 2 and 3, we crave originality and conversely also fear it.
In the 1960's we had the first showings of Star Trek, The Monkees, Batman, The Avengers, Bewitched, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Addams family. It is hard to believe that shows like Batman were on for the first time, mixed generations enjoyed the Man from Uncle (1964-1968), and we were thrilled to be tested by the storyline to the cult show Prisoner which is still being argued about 50 years on.
Films such as Guess who is coming to dinner? The Dirty Dozen, Mary Poppins, A Fistful of Dollars, the Great Escape, In the Heat of the Night, screenplays written by young writers, crammed with unknown actors who would become movie stars.
Where are the original shows now that bring such growth such freshness of thought and inspired thinking? Whole generations are now hooked on remakes and re hashing of 1960's originality, the money makers fear change and innovation and are pleased to fund something that someone has succeeded with before.
In our politics, economics, wealth distribution, environmental management and education systems we need to be braver, be bolder and not just rehash and remake. We need to tear down and cut through the systems and processes created to keep us stuck and mouldering away with our feet neither in nor out of the festering waters.
We need to ditch the clutter, the debris and the detritus around our thinking and clear our heads in order to actually make something new, think creatively and look for future solutions not based on past mistakes.
As the Xmas turkey painfully understood just because you get fed every day doesn't mean this action or behaviour can be relied on; sometimes you just have to let go of past habits and confused behaviours and move on in order to truly live.
Ditch the clutter and look ahead!