The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 27

ENTERTAINMENT The Vancouver Sun, Monday, Dec. 7, 1 992 HOME TECH to the supersonic '60s PUPPET CAST of the T-Birds had 11 spare heads each Flashback signals. Thunderbird 4 is an amphibious vehicle used for action under the sea. Thunderbird 3 is a rocket for space work. Thunderbird 2 transports a wide array of rescue craft, including the elevator cars and a mole that digs through the earth.

Thunderbird 1 takes off and lands vertically, but flys horizontally. Each Thunderbird is manned by a different Tracy brother: Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon and John. All are named after real life '60s astronauts the former occupation of their father Jeff Tracy, who conceived International Rescue with Brains, a scientific genius. The female members of the cast are Tin-Tin, an electronics expert, and the glamorous Lady Penelope (voice by Sylvia Anderson), who cruises about in her custom-built, six-wheel Rolls Royce as International Rescue's London agent. Filming in supermarionation didn't come cheap.

Thunderbirds cost 38,000 an episode to produce in the '60s, and would probably cost about 500,000 (about $1 million Cdn.) per episode in 1992. But all the attention to detail made it a fascinating show. Watching the Thunderbirds is a bit like coming across a beautiful old hand-tinted postcard. The supermarionated world of the Tracys is far cooler than reality: the way the characters bounce when they walk, the way their lips move in their oversized heads, the very look of characters Continued from C1 Anderson and his writer wife Sylvia in the '50s and '60s. (Another Anderson show, Stingray, airs on YTV Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.

Others, including Supercar, Fireball XL5 and Captain Scarlet, may be resurrected shortly.) It was filmed in "supermariona-tion," a technique developed by the Andersons which combined traditional puppetry with electronic heads that enabled the puppet's lips to synchronize with the dialogue. In order to make the puppets more "realistic," each Thunderbirds character had a dozen heads featuring a variety of expressions smiling, crying, angry. In addition, there were gizmos and special effects galore. Ashtrays and teapots turned into two-way radios. Rolls-Royces came equipped with machine guns in the grille.

Swimming pools drew back to reveal rocket launching pads. It was all very '60s, very modern, very British the supermarionated equivalent of James Bond or the Avengers. (Ironically, the accents are mostly American a largely unsuccessful attempt by the Andersons to sell Thunderbirds to the U.S. market.) Let's not forget the Thunderbirds themselves. Thunderbird 5 is a space station that orbits the earth, monitoring the airwaves for distress TELEVISION Sponsors pull ads from like Brains (who has the biggest glasses ever) give it a surreal quality.

Moreover, it appeals to both children and adults. Kids love the puppetry, the gizmos and the action, adults dig it for the camp value andor nostalgia. And even though each episode is action-packed, there is little or no violence. The series has retained a loyal cult following for the past quarter century (there are 6,000 members of a Gerry Anderson fan club). But its popularity has recently skyrocketed in Britain, where Thunderbirds-rnania has set in.

On BBC-2, Thunderbirds is the number two rated show, and 70 companies are marketing Thunderbirds merchandise. There are Thunderbirds posters, comic books, postcards, videos, skateboards, painting sets, model sets, toys, board games, T-shirts, socks, pajamas, stationary, greeting cards, mugs, trading cards, porcelain figures, popcorn, snacks, cereal, biscuits, yogurt, wall cover The Boys' cast of a tape of her comments about Premier Robert Bourassa's performance during constitutional negotiations. The ban was eventually overturned. Last year, an Ontario judge temporarily blocked the CBC program the fifth estate from broadcasting a report on the fortunes of executed Romanian dictator Nico-lae Ceausescu. This order was also eventually lifted.

In 1986, a Quebec court gave Albert Malouf, chairman of a federal royal commission on sealing, an injunction forbidding the CBC to broadcast news from a leaked copy of the commission's report. Malouf gave up when several newspapers published the leaked information a day later. 9.0C Mel Gibson Danny Glover LETHAL WEAPON III (j4 yeahs) Freq. viol. very coarse lang.

7:30 HONEYMOON IN VEGAS SHOW CmatuhD Oct very cosree laraj. Md sugg somes. DEC II MONDAY ALL SEATS $2.25 Ban loosened but controversy continues ij Shiny new toy aimed at joggers MY FRIEND sounded doubtful. "I hope you write it's a scam," he said. Okay, so everything's a downer to him, but a scam? The it to which he refers is DCC Digital Compact Cassette the shiny new toy from Dutch electronics giant Philips and Mini Disc, the latest in compact disc portability from the Japanese electronics giant Sony.

You may be forgiven for assuming this is all part of some sort ot huro-Jap-anese electronics trade war with the North American consumer caught in the middle. The truth, as always, is a little more complicated. "The average consumer wants ALEX STRACHAN to know, what can it do?" says Commercial Electronics' Lee Fitzgerald. "Is it simple to use? Is it a benefit to me?" So, one at a time: What can it do? DCC decks use digital technology to record a music signal on a cassette similar in size and appearance to an ordinary cassette. Unlike analog recorders, DCC decks employ a 9-track thin-film head and digital compression to squeeze the data on to a DCC cassette.

DCC decks will play back your regular analog cassettes but DCC tapes will not play on an analog deck. Technical specs and sonic performance are comparable to compact disc players. Mini Disc, on the other hand, is essentially a recordable miniature compact disc, three and a half inches wide, that uses similar optical laser technology as CD. There is a slight signal loss in highest frequencies 15,000 herz compared to 20,000 herz on a regular CD although it's arguable whether the human ear can detect the difference. MD's advantage over CD is that it's smaller, lighter in weight, stable and shock resis-tent.

In short, it's aimed right at the jogger. And perhaps the driver. Is it simple to use? Yes. DCC is really no different than using your cassette deck. MD is no different than using your CD player.

Is it a benefit to you? lY, THERE'S the rub. Are consumers going to want to play their greasy old tapes on a brand new $1,000 DCC deck? And are they going to spend $15 on blank tape to copy their favorite CD if some CDs are already selling for $12 or $13? Conversely, are they likely to buy into MD software recordings if they've already amassed large CD and cassette collections? This is new technology and everything is speculative, admits Steve Medicoff, A Sound's general manager. Relaxed, tanned and looking more like a displaced Allman brother than a record store executive, he points out that December could not have been a worse time to launch an expensive new toy with so little prior publicity. "It's aimed at a limited number of people, those on the cutting edge of technology," he says. "It's going to take a joint effort between Sony and us to explain what it is.

What it is not is a gift item; I'd like to think it's something you would consider buying for yourself." Langley Beamriders' Josh Jar-rett concurs. "People are conscious about what they want to purchase and they don't want to purchase an elephant," he says. "The bottom line is it doesn't matter how good the format is. it won't take off without software. There must be software." A is planning to carry the full line of I) discs, limited ut the moment to about 300 titles of mostly popular music, which will sell for two or three dollars less than a regular CD.

The software position on DCC is less clear. MultiTech has been pushing DCC decks for a month now, while The Sound Room expects their own Philips model later this week. Future Shop and Commercial Electronics will be adding Panasonic and Technics Versions respectively sometime during the coming year. i For their part, A Sound and the Sony Store take possession of their shiny new Ds on Wednesday; alter that, it's anyone's guess. I ings, rugs and bedding.

Before it's through, the Thunderbirds phenomenon may. rack up sales of 100 million (approx. $200 million In Britain, Thunderbirds merchandise is outselling Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Unfortunately for Gerry Anderson, he sold all the Thunderbird rights to ITC in 1967. (He's also divorced from Sylvia.) But the 62-year-old producer, who now does television commercials, is listed in the International Who's Who, and is about to open a new animation studio in Russia.

Meanwhile, ITC is about to relaunch Supercar, a 1959 Anderson series featuring "fearless" test pilot Mike Mercury's adventures in an inter-galactic hot rod that makes the Batmobile look like a go-cart. I can still recall the theme from childhood: "It travels in space, or under the sea, and it can journey anywhere Supercarrrrrrrr." They really don't make 'em like that anymore. broadcast In 1974, two lead companies successfully petitioned an Ontario court to ban portions of a CBC Radio As It Happens documentary on lead pollution while the broadcast was under way. Producers and lawyers tried to edit out the offending bits on the fly, while an announcer read the injunction on the air. Higher courts eventually lifted the gag as an unwarranted interference with press freedom, but found the program's producers guilty of contempt for not observing the spirit of the order more scrupulously.

The closest parallel to the case of The Boys of St. Vincent is a 1985 case in which an Alberta judge gave Jim Keegstra an injunction barring broadcast of a CBC drama about an anti-Semitic teacher who, Keegstra said, viewers would take to be him. The injunction was eventually over-' turned. Tim Robbins Double Bill Mon. Tues.

7:30 BOB ROBERTS Some very coarse language. 9:35 THE PLAYER fmruia Some very coarse ooc. nudity sugg, scenes. DRACULA: Nightly: 7:10. 9:45.

SatSun: 1:20. 7:10. 9.45 UNDER SIEGE: Nightly: 7:25, 9:50. SatSun: 1:40. 7:25.

9:50 A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Nightly: 7:15, 9:35 SatSun: 1:25, 7:15,9:35, JENNIFER 8: NighHy: 7:05. 9:30 SatSun: 1:35. 7:05. 9:30. B.C.

Warning: Occasional coarse language and suggestive scenes. CmaumQ HOME ALONE 2: Nightly: 7:00. 7:20. 9 25. 9 40 Sat Sun: 1 30 2 00 7 00 7 20.

9:20, 9 40. GENERAL ADMISSION ONLY TUESDAY BOB ROBERTS: Da 215 .4.25 .710 93s C. Warning Some very coarse language. (MA1 ull ENCHANTED APRIL: Daily 1 35.330 5 30.7 30 9 30 iiai) RESERVOIR DOGS: Daiy 200 4 to. 7:10, 9:25 B.C.

Warning: Some gory scenes: occasional nudity, suggestive scenes and very coarse language (j- OF MICE AND MEN: Da 125 400 6 55.9:10 BC. Warning: Occasional very coarse language and swearing G'iuLiD HERO: Daily 1.25.4 00,7:00 9 30 BC Warning Some very coarse language and swearing CkvimT) BEINaA0MElTHCLMDE7 Daily. 1 35. 3 30 5 30 7 30. 9 45 C.

Warning Occasional gory violence suggestive scenes and very coarse languago ter-f LEOLOi Daily: 1 45.4 35.6 55.940 BC Warning Some nudity and suggestive scenes, occasional cruelty, violence and very coarse language (Ivr HUSBANDS WIVES: Dmy'iiT" 4 30. 7 20. 9 35 BC Warning, Some veiy coarse and suggestive language, occasional nudity and suggeslive scenes. QVyiamJ) LOVERS: Daily: 1 45,4 35. 7:13.

940 BC. Warning Some nudity and suggestive sconeS( GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS: Dfl'ly 2 00 4 10 7 00 9 25 BC Warning Frequent very coarse language EH 1 i "Holy Cow! It's Bigger Better, Finer Funnier Than The First!" CHRMt, NATIONAL SAHUITI tHTUTAMMlHT HtTWOM (CtNESAQ locations and showtimes Chock listinna for locations and showtimes HOME ALONE 2: Nightly: 7:00. 9:25. Sat Sun: 1:30, 4,10. 7:00, 9:25.

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Nightly: 7:10. 9:35. Sat'Sun: 1:45. 4:20. 7:10, 9:35.

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Nightly: 7:05, 9:30. Sat'Sun; 2:05. 7:05. 9 30. HOME ALONE 2: Nightly: 7:00.

7:20. 9:25. 9.40. SatSun 2.00. 2:20.

7:00. 7:20.925. 9.40. DRACULA: Nightly 7:10. 945.

SatSun: 210. 7:10, 945 DRACULA: Nightly: 7:10. 9:45. SatSun: 1:40. 4:20, 7:10, 9 45.

CONSENTING ADULTS: Nightly: 7.30, 9:40 SatSun. 2:10, 4,50. 7:30. 9:40 A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Nightly: 7:25. 9.50.

SatSun; 1:50, 4 40. 7:25. 9 50. HOME ALONE 2: Nightly: 7:00, 7:20, 9 25. 9 40.

SatSun: 1:30. 2 00. 4 10.4 30. 700, 7 20 9 25.940 GENERAL ADMISSION ONLY TUESDAY A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Nightly 7,10.935 SatSun 2 15. 7 10 935 DRACULA: Nightly: 7 05.

9 30 Sat Sun. 2: 10. 7 05. 9 30 UNDER SIEGE: Nightly: 7 25. 9 50.

Sat Sun. 2 20. 7 25. 9 50. LOVE POTION 9: Nightly: 7.30.

9 5b, SatSun, 2 25. 7 30. 9 55 C. Warning: Occasional coarse language and suggestive scenes HOME ALONE 2: NigNly 700 7 20 925.940. Sal Sun: 205.225.

700 720 925 940 -Mru Lost In New York ppij suggestive scenes i SS BEAVER I With 150 Years of Sailing History jftt rf I CAROL SHIP FLOTILLA I family tradition 1 Ham And Turkey Bullet Parade Of Lights I I 4 Hr. Cruise Dancing LIMITED TICKETS AVAILABLE $44.95 INC. TAX RESERVATIONS 682-7284 SHO 'TIMES FOR FRIDAY DECEMBER 4 THROUGH THURSDAY DECEMBER 10 barrett TOM BARRETT Vancouver Sun VdllLA Si EVERAL ADVERTISERS have pulled their ads from the CBC's controversial drama The Boys of St. Vincent, CBC vice-president Ivan Fecan said Sunday. Fecan, the English network's top programming executive, said advertisers pulled out in the midst of publicity over the show, which has been banned by court order in Ontario and Montreal.

He said he did not know what caused the companies to change their minds at the last minute. "Maybe they thought it was a musical," he said. On Friday, an Ontario court granted an injunction banning broadcast of the show, a harrowing drama about sexual abuse of boys in a Catholic-run orphanage in Newfoundland. The ban was sought by four members of the Christian Brothers, a Catholic lay teaching order, who are charged with sexually assaulting boys at residential schools in Ontario. The CBC appealed the decision to the Ontario Court of Appeal, which allowed the show to be broadcast except in Ontario and Montreal.

The first half of the four-hour series was broadcast in B.C. Sunday. It concludes tonight at 8 p.m. The appeal court also relaxed a gag order that prohibited the reporting of any details of the original injunction. Immediately after the appeal court ruling, Fecan said the injunction sets an "appalling precedent." The decisions raise a number of troubling questions, he said in a telephone interview Sunday.

"The real question is, where is the ut 1 1 3 'Vv line now? If a defendant, based on hearsay, believes that his or her right to a fair trial is going to be compromised by some work of fiction, whether it's a book or a play or a film or a piece of poetry for that matter, it seems to me that they can try and move to have it banned. "And it just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense." Fecan said he did not have details of the advertising withdrawal. "But clearly it was hard to sell advertising in the show. Up to a week ago or so we were about 95 per cent sold out. Apparently in the last three or four days a number of sponsors pulled out." He said he was not aware of any organized campaign to persuade sponsors to boycott the show.

In asking for the injunction, lawyer Tony Kelly said The Boys of St. Vincent parallels the cases of his four clients and would prejudice their right to a fair trial. The original injunction prohibited the media from reporting who had applied for the ban. Some media lawyers felt the order went so far as to prohibit the publication of any details of the program itself. The Globe and Mail withheld its TV magazine, which featured The Boys of St.

Vincent on the cover, from Saturday's papers. While gag orders prohibiting broadcasts are not uncommon in Canadian legal history, they have usually involved news programs, rather than dramas. During the constitutional referendum campaign, a Quebec court granted a senior Quebec bureaucrat's motion to block broad tats lift jmnat i D' tltiain aura an) trjajJiK''' "SEW (11 i4 UNDER SIEGE: Nightly: 7:25, 9:55. Sat'Sun: 1:40. 7:25, 9.55 B.C.

Warning: Frequent violence. ORACULA: Nightly: 7:05. 9:45. Sat Sun; 1:45, 7:05. 9.45.

B.C. Warning: Some gory violence, nudity ind suggestive scenes. HOME ALONE 2: Nightly: 7:00. 7 L'0. 9 25.

9 40. SatSun. 1:30. 2.00, 0C 7:20, 9:25. 9.40.

dl Nl. HAp A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Nightly: 7 10. 9 .50. SatSun .50. 7:10.

9.59 B.C Warning Occasional nudity and coarse language A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Daily, 1:40.4:20, 7.05.9 35. HOME ALONE 2: Daily: 1:30, 200. 4.10. 4: JO. 7:00.

7:20, 925, 9.40, THX SOUND. No 7:00 or 7:20 show on Thursday. December 10th DRACULA: Umly. 1 30. 4-16.

7:00.9 45 LAST OF THE MOHICANS: Daily 4 30. 7 15.9 35 13 Warning: Frequent gory violence tfj" BREAKING THE RULES: Daily 1 4i 4 IS 7 20 9 45 C. Warning Occasional very coarse language and -uggestive scenes Cw'wp HOME ALONE 2: Nightly, 7 00, 9 25, Sat Sun: 1 30. 4.10. 7.00, 9 25.

DRACULA: Nighlly 730.955 Sat Sun. 2 15. 4 40, 7 30. 9 55 A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Nightly 7 tb 9 40 Sat Sun 2 00, 4 25, 7 15, 9 40.