Thunderbirds is a triumph of TV. It's a real series for children that took them seriously. It didn't treat kids as kids, it treated them as small adults, and in the process gave us real excitement, cutting edge effects and great stories. The premise of the series may seem unrealistic, but the plots were excellent. It contained real people (they may have been represented by puppets, but they were real people) in real situation. They were edge of the seat programs that quite frankly many programs today could learn lessons from. Plus, how many things in these programs have either come true, or indeed look just like the designs of things used by the Thunderbirds team. It's no chance happening that kids (and still adults) love it today just as much as they did when it was made. Why? Because they don't see the strings, they see the program, and the program captures the imagination completely. How many (supposedly) children's programs made 40 years ago do 21st century kids want to watch now? And what's the betting they still will in another 40.