When did you discover The Avengers ?

hans · Post by **hans** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:54 pm

hi, am new, so what better way than to introduce myself then to tell you when i discover the avengers.

It was a college project, where i was designing a scene for a comic book, i was struggling, and came across the avengers on the net, and though it would be fun to draw. I watch a couple on youtube, as I just missed the repeats on bbc 4, and I now love it!
I heard of the avengers on the tv and radio, but I never stop and looked them up, it was fun research the character, and history of the show.

my mum got a bit confused, when I told her about what I was doing for my project, with marvel's avenger, when I explain to her, she told me about how she loved the new avengers when she was my age.

my picture
http://hans-spanner.deviantart.com/art/ ... -111345383

mikey6 · Post by **mikey6** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:06 pm

Enraptured in the 60's on our first telly - then realised just the effect M Appeal had on a young boy ! - when BBC 4 started re- showing the B & W then colour episodes of the show so rediscovered the whole Avengers phenomenon all over again....

Johnny O · Post by **Johnny O** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:57 pm

I have a vague recollection of seeing "Thingumajig", "You'll Catch Your Death" and "Game" (not necessarily in that order) sometime in the early 1970's on UK Thames TV during the weekday mornings. Either I was home sick from school, or it was the school holidays and the series was getting a local re-run. But it wasn't until The New Avengers came along in 1976, that I got into the show and became hooked. It's possibly why I'm not one of TNA deniers, even though I can see all it's faults. For me, Purdey was as good as Emma and Cathy any day and streets ahead of Tara and Venus.

I didn't see the Emma/Tara episodes until 1982, when UK Channel 4 started running the entire colour and monochrome stories again. I saw one Cathy episode around 1991 - The Gilded Cage - and didn't like it much. But when I got the complete Cathy stories on DVD, I've grown to like them very much!

Although I'm not a Tara fan, I do have a soft spot for her and her stories, because they were the first I ever saw - albeit just three of them - and I do remember adoring her apartment!

Andrew Pixley · Post by **Andrew Pixley** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 7:37 pm

Hi Johnny

Johnny O wrote:I have a vague recollection of seeing "Thingumajig", "You'll Catch Your Death" and "Game" (not necessarily in that order) sometime in the early 1970's on UK Thames TV during the weekday mornings. Either I was home sick from school, or it was the school holidays and the series was getting a local re-run.

Oh - that's interesting! I've got partial records of the Thames screenings from 1968 to early 1975. Most of the repeats were late night at 11pm, but I had notes about a run of episodes screened on Tuesday afternoons at 3.30pm from 22 January 1974 to 9 April 1974. I didn't have any episode titles, but I'm now guessing that these could be part of the Linda Thorson run. Very useful! Many thanks!

All the best

Andrew

Johnny O · Post by **Johnny O** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:32 pm

Very glad I could help, albeit completely innocently! 1974 sounds a bit late, but my recollection is hazy at best! It was definitely daytime TV though. The image of Tara being chased by the electric box across her apartment in Thingumajig remained with me! When I finally saw the episode again on Channel 4 in the 1980's, it all came straight back to me. Glad to have jogged some other memories for you!

Andrew Pixley · Post by **Andrew Pixley** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:08 am

Johnny O wrote:Very glad I could help, albeit completely innocently! 1974 sounds a bit late, but my recollection is hazy at best! It was definitely daytime TV though.

I know the feeling. There's been all sorts of almost subliminal memories I've had of TV shows from the late 1960s/early 1970s that it's taken me almost 40 years to resolve.

For those interested in such things, the Thames screening details I have are as follows:

Rediffusion ran repeats of the b/w filmed episodes up to the end of their franchise, concluding with "Honey for the Prince" at 8pm on Friday 26 July. Then there's the chaos of the franchise reshuffle with a fully networked service (of which "The Avengers" doesn't seem to feature ... but "Danger Man" does).

Thames then start the new episodes with "The Forget-Me-Knot" in the 8pm slot from Wednesday 25 September 1968. There's a week off on Christmas Day, and the show runs through to "Thingumajig" on 2 April 1969. Then "My Wildest Dream" is given a late-night screening at 10.30pm on Monday 7 April 1969, following which "Requiem" returns to the 8pm slot on Wednesday 16 April and the run concludes with "Bizarre" on 21 May.

There seems to be a one-off re-run of "The Avengers" at 9pm on Tuesday 16 June 1970 as a replacement for repeats of "The Saint", but I don't know which episode.

"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station" runs at 10.30pm on Monday 31 August 1970, which again seems to be a one-off. Then a regular late-night run begins on Thursday 17 September 1970 at 11pm with "Mission ... Highly Improbable" and continues with an erratic sequence of colour Diana Rigg episodes ("From Venus with Love", "Return of the Cybernauts", "The Fear Merchants", "You Have Just Been Murdered" ...) with a few missing weeks (22 October, 24 December, 31 December, 4 February 1971, 25 February) to either 11 March ("Something Nasty in the Nursery") or 18 March 1971. So that's almost all the colour Diana Rigg shows re-run.

The Tara King re-runs begin with "The Forget-Me-Knot" at 11.15pm on Thursday 29 July 1971, continuing in an erratic sequence ("Split!", "Noon Doomsday", "Have Guns - Will Haggle", "They Keep Killing Steed") to 26 August.

Thames then resumes with a run on Thursdays at 11pm from 24 August 1972 with some episodes which I've not identified, but I believe are further Linda Thorson shows; "The Interrogators" seems to be the last of the sequence on 28 September, with a pre-empt on 21 September.

Then I have no Thames broadcasts of "The Avengers" at all for 1973, and from what you've indicated, it seems the Tara repeat run resumed for the spring 1974 screenings above. Unfortunately, my notes from later in 1974 are rather fragmented, so the remainder of the run may well have appeared later that year, or indeed in 1975/6.

All the best

Andrew

DiVicenzo · Post by **DiVicenzo** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:45 am

Just my musings.....I do remember in Yorkshire that the last Emma Peel b&w was 'Honey For The Prince' as it was front-page news in the Express - there was a full-page photo of Diana in her harem clothes and I remember about a dozen kids in my school including the teacher brought me said photo....how wonderful!

I also, remember that 'The Forget-Me-Knot' wasn't aired on the usual Saturday evening so, I had to go a friend of the family to watch because in my house they disliked 'The Avengers' and Diana Rigg It just re-inforced my love of both! Now cemented in history

The Gaslight Ghoul · Post by **The Gaslight Ghoul** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:21 am

Hi Andrew,
I too have a vague recollection of the Thames area afternoon screenings, like Johnny O I really got into The Avengers proper with TNA, but I definitely recall seeing the quick change fight scene at the end of LOOK STOP ME..... in the afternoon, can't remember the year but '74 would fit.

I would have been all of about 10 years old then. Strewth!!!

Johnny O · Post by **Johnny O** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:03 pm

I have genuinely wondered from time to time - how sad does this make me? - about those Thames daytime repeats! The fact that I can only remember three specific stories is natural enough, since as a 9/10 year old, I should have been at school! So either I was home sick, or I caught some in the school breaks, which would account for seeing so few. But if they truly were shown so late in the afternoon, it's possible I saw more than I recall. Or indeed, based on Andrew's really interesting post, it seems there was no rhyme nor reason for the repeat schedules and chronology was tossed out of the window!

I'm also really surprised to learn how many times Thames and other ITV stations repeated the shows in the 1970's. When TNA burst onto ITV in 1976, I got the impression from all the media and from what everyone who knew the original show was saying, that it had been years since TA had been around. Clearly that's not the case at all and repeats of the Tara episodes were being shown almost up until a year before TNA launched. Certainly the re-runs of the Emma stories on Channel 4 in 1982 implied that they were being seen for the first time since their initial run.

I just finished watching the entire run of TA on DVD from Hot Snow to Forward Base. It took me about 5 months. It's a shame it all ended on such a woeful note. The last 6 or so TNA episodes are truly dreadful. Mind you, the last 6 or so Tara episodes are not much better. Shame it all ended with such a whimper.

Sam · Post by **Sam** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:12 am

Johnny O wrote:I have genuinely wondered from time to time - how sad does this make me? - about those Thames daytime repeats! The fact that I can only remember three specific stories is natural enough, since as a 9/10 year old, I should have been at school! So either I was home sick, or I caught some in the school breaks, which would account for seeing so few. But if they truly were shown so late in the afternoon, it's possible I saw more than I recall. Or indeed, based on Andrew's really interesting post, it seems there was no rhyme nor reason for the repeat schedules and chronology was tossed out of the window!

I'm also really surprised to learn how many times Thames and other ITV stations repeated the shows in the 1970's. When TNA burst onto ITV in 1976, I got the impression from all the media and from what everyone who knew the original show was saying, that it had been years since TA had been around. Clearly that's not the case at all and repeats of the Tara episodes were being shown almost up until a year before TNA launched. Certainly the re-runs of the Emma stories on Channel 4 in 1982 implied that they were being seen for the first time since their initial run.

I just finished watching the entire run of TA on DVD from Hot Snow to Forward Base. It took me about 5 months. It's a shame it all ended on such a woeful note. The last 6 or so TNA episodes are truly dreadful. Mind you, the last 6 or so Tara episodes are not much better. Shame it all ended with such a whimper.

Forward Base is actually one of the better second-season episodes. Oh, and Emily is actually the last TNA episode.