Gerry Anderson Associated Television (ATV) boss who offered to buy the show. This began a long friendship and a very successful professional association between the two men. The new series, "Supercar", (1960–61) was developed by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson and Reg Hill based on a story written by Sylvia Anderson and marked several important advances for APF. Sylvia Anderson took on a larger role and became a partner in the company. The series was also the official debut of Supermarionation, the electronic system that made the marionettes more lifelike and convincing on screen. The system used the audio signal from pre-recorded tapes
Thunderbirds (TV series) to the puppets". "Thunderbirds" has been praised for the quality of its effects. Jim Sangster and Paul Condon, writers of "Collins Telly Guide", consider the model work "uniformly impressive". To Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping, writers of "The Guinness Book of Classic British TV", the effects are "way beyond anything seen on TV previously". Impressed by their work on "Thunderbirds", film director Stanley Kubrick hired several members of Meddings' staff to supervise the effects shooting for "". The series' title sequence, storyboarded by Gerry Anderson, is made up of two parts. It opens with a countdown of "5,