Bet Is Go! (Bet Is Not Go? No, Bet Is Go!)

I'm a reasonably semi-intelligent woman, who's allowed to vote and drive a car and buy liquor and have a checkbook and everything. But I have a confession to make. I love the movie "Thunderbirds Are Go!"

The Thunderbirds, of course, were the British marionettes who starred in their own self-titled kids' TV series back in the 60s. Who were they? What did they do? Not a fuckin' clue. They were just puppet spacemen and there was a lady puppet named Lady Penelope and she had a limo driver with a Dick Van Dyke cockney accent. And there was a puppet named Brains who looked like the love child of Dean Jones and Paul Shaffer. That's all you need to know, really. That alone makes them worth a watch.

All I know about the Thunderbirds I got from "Thunderbirds Are Go!" the movie. I've never seen the TV series. I've seen it for sale on dvd. And at one point where I almost had more money than sense I was going to buy it. But cooler heads prevailed and I purchased something else, which happened to be the Criterion Collection release of Fellini's "8 ½." So I guess much cooler heads - and hotter loins - prevailed.

Anyway, I don't know how the Thunderbirds TV series could be better than the movie. See, the movie has a special secret ingredient. The movie has an appearance by Cliff Richard and the Shadows.

I remember the first time I saw "Thunderbirds Are Go!" - and believe me folks, I've seen it a lot, thanks to the repetition of TV cable - I was lying on the couch on a cold Sunday afternoon. I came in about 20 minutes into things, and when I saw this was the Thunderbirds (I'd recognized them from their tiny "cameo" in "That Thing You Do!," another movie that ends in a "!"), I had to sit and watch. Well, lie and watch. And it was so campy and kitschy and oh-so British 60s culture, everything I loved in my childhood. And then... (pronounced, "And then! dot dot dot")

And then the movie's dream sequence takes place, where Lady Penelope and one of the Thunderbirds go to the Swinging Star, the coolest outer space nightclub in the galaxy. And appearing at the Swinging Star are Cliff Richard and the Shadows. And yep, there on the Swinging Star Stage are marionettes of all of the Shadows, led by no less a person than Cliff himself. And it's amazing. They look like Cliff and the Shadows, they dance like Cliff and the Shadows. Then their song takes off in a little music video effect that has them dancing and playing on the moon, and on a giant guitar. Well, this is just wonderful. It's probably stupendously terrific if you're stoned, but it's still wonderful when you're sober as a judge.

I happened home from work today, all cold and downtrodden, threw a load of laundry in the washer, flopped down on the couch, and turned on the TV. To find "Thunderbirds Are Go!" Yep, making its 14,587th appearance on my cable in the past 2 years, and again winging its way right into my heart. I poured a glass of wine, relaxed, and did my best dance-along impression to Cliff singing "Shooting Star." And was happy. Thanks, Thunderbirds. I guess you really are Go.

(As a PS to this story, I decided to see if there was a Thunderbirds website. There is, and this is it. I found out that not only is Lady Penelope's cockney limo driver named Parker (nickname: Nosey Parker), but that the Thunderbirds are named Scott, John, Virgil, Gordon, and Alan. All names of our original astronauts. Kinda cute.)