Season 6 Intro & Credits: "Targets" vs "S

[denis rigg]

While directing material for the episode False Witness on Thursday 11 July 1968, Charles Chrichton also directed an insert for the second set of Thorson opening titles that involved an extra and not Linda as she was not called for filming there that day. I think the only part of the opening titles that could be an insert is the close-up shot of Tara (her face is not seen) catching the bouquet of carnations having just come through the pink door. This could well have been done inside a soundstage with the correct lighting.

Thanks, Mike, and I think, you're right, only part of the opening titles that could be an insert of Charles Crichton for Linda is the close-up shot of Tara, where face is not seen.

I'm sure that John Hough said on the Morning After dvd commentary that he did the bridge running shot!

I still on old opinion too, Darren, that John Hough was included in opening titles. We can suggest the possibility that John Hough could specifically not mention later about, by reasons, for example, if he suddenly decided that his contribution was very negligible or maybe he thought about something else, as sometimes our memory works best visually.

Bright event.

One day a few years ago Aleksey Arsent'ev, one of the founders Steedumbrella, raised the subject in range of Russian fans on his fanfics. He said that he wrote only one story about the Avengers and a story about Linzia.
When I was left alone with Aleksey (I did not want to speak publicly), I asked him, "Did he remember anything about the story Rain?". He looked at me puzzled and asked, "What is this Rain?". I told him a summary of story and he said, "I have no idea what you're talking." At this point, I discovered that it was other his fanfic about Steed, which has already posted on the website. He thought it was a joke. Internet was at hand, he quickly found the story and began to read. I remember that when he read half of the prologue, he still could not remember any thing. He was sure at 100 percent when only read half of the story. After he said "It was a long time ago, Denis, unfortunately a lot of things such a plan is not retained in my memory." I noticed "Unfortunately, this is typical, when we grow up, however, the only one thing I worried, Aleksey". He looked at me and I said, "You are talking about own story Rain about five years ago." He did not believe it.
Only when Sergey Pronin and Aleksei Sidorov confirmed it, as they have witnessed for a while, he realized that his memory is erased in a short time one of the most important events.

Not surprisingly, I'm sure any of us when re-read the articles or watching films, etc., which we "learned" last time for a long time ago, we find something that we have forgotten.

Also I read that Cyril Frankel could not remember things about his Avengers episode.

etc...

[Sam]

Funny you mention about having the option to view the Targets credits-i actually e-mailed Jaz Wiseman about this while he was preparing the special features for the Optimum sets. I also asked about the option to view the Chessboard opening sequence for series 4, just for completeness. (There were other features I asked about, but I can't remember them now). He kindly replied saying that they had got a limited budget for all the features and he wanted to concentrate on getting as many of them as he could. From this I gathered that it would be a bit costly to have the "branching" option on some, or all the discs in a set.

re: forget-me-knot closing credits. Yes, there is an alternative take on this. If memory serves, one features Linda Thorson turning to look at the camera as she and Patrick Macnee walk away at the end.

Forget-Me-Knot also credits "Introducing Linda Thorson as Tara King" instead of "And...".

When I was growing up in the 70's, the syndicated repeats our local station showed had several episodes with the Targets opening and closing. There were also some that had a shortened version of the Armor Fields titles that I have not seen since.

[Sam]

To be more specific about the shortened version I mentioned:

It started with the main theme, instead of the drum roll. The title read "The Avengers in Color", then came the sword hitting the shield. After that, it immediately cut to the "Starring Patrick Macnee", "And Linda Thorson" credits, however, they were superimposed over the action shots of Steed and Tara instead of the freeze-frames. After Linda's title, it then cut to Steed pushing over the armor, followed by the "Produced by Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens".

Not sure if this was ever shown in the UK or was a US version.

[Happychap 2.0]

To be more specific about the shortened version I mentioned:

It started with the main theme, instead of the drum roll. The title read "The Avengers in Color", then came the sword hitting the shield. After that, it immediately cut to the "Starring Patrick Macnee", "And Linda Thorson" credits, however, they were superimposed over the action shots of Steed and Tara instead of the freeze-frames. After Linda's title, it then cut to Steed pushing over the armor, followed by the "Produced by Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens".

Not sure if this was ever shown in the UK or was a US version.

This has jogged my memory...I seem to recall a shortened version too (here in the US)

[mrspeel01]

I have always been curious about this shortened version and would love to see it. I believe it was only shown in US. I don't think it was ever shown in UK.

Denis Rigg has mentioned about a "joined" titles version, which starts with armour titles and ends with Targets. (Would love to see this also). Don't know if the shortened version of Armour titles was ever shown outside US.

[Catweazle]

many thanks Denis!

re: the Targets credits. These were included on some episodes shown on German TV. When I first got Sky TV way back in the early '90s, when it was analogue, it was able to pick up some European channels, that were also on the Astra Satellite. I believe one was the German ZDF (I am relying on memory of 20+ years so it might have been another German channel!) It showed Avengers for a time (under the German title and dubbed of course!). I saw some Rigg B&W & Thorson episodes. The Rigg ones had the slightly different German opening (this is included in the special features on the Optimum series 4 set). Link is below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GmQ-saKJig

One of the Thorsons had the targets credits but i can't remember which one it was!!!

On the original channel 4 showings, if my memory is correct, I believe "Look (stop me..." was actually the only one with the targets credits. I was so surprised as I had never seen it before, or even knew about it. I remember being so glad that I had taped it.

Nope - i´m afraid you are wrong on this.. ZDF never showed any Tara episode with the target titles - the first time the german audience could see them was with the airing of "Split" on german/french channel "Arte" few years back.
That what was shown from the Tara King episodes on ZDF back in the early 70s had the field/armour credits tacked to the beginning of each episode (minus the "Avengers in Color" card at the very beginning, that was always omitted). But - and on an interesting note - ZDF chose to use a shortened version of the Target end credits for each episode. The card tricks outro was never seen in germany up until Arte showed the complete series a few years ago.
But..... French channel Antenne 2 (now France2) showed the Tara King episodes in the early 90s - and there was more than one episode with the Target credits! Some of them had the mixed up audio minus the gunshots. As for the version with the gunshots - i know there is a french DVD set out there that has the field/armour credits but with the gunshots audio. Also the credits on that version are in french. I borrowed those DVDs from a work collegue of mine who purchased them in france and i think to remember that they came from one of these collection sets that come together with a magazine, the ones you can buy on a newsstand..

[mrspeel01]

Thanks for the correction! As I Stated I was relying on memory of 20 years or more and I didn't know for sure if it was ZDF. ZDF was the one i was most familar with!!

If it was NOT ZDF, then, it might well have been the one you mention. This would explain the Thorson eps. shown with the target titles.!! I may well have mixed it up!! Perhaps the Rigg B&W eps. with the German opening were also shown or maybe it was another channel!!!! I wish my memory was clearer and I wish i knew which European sat. channels showed Avengers in the 1990s.!!!

The "newsstand" DVDs you mention are known as "partwork dvds" also known as "the kiosque edition". These were initially released individually with a magazine that contained information on the episodes on that DVD. They were also available later in collector sets known as "kiosque" as they were presented inside a small red-plastic British telephone box! I have the 2 kisoque sets for the Emma Peel seasons. They are nice, but bulky!

There were also sets for Tara King and Cathy Gale. The Gale season 2 set also contained the DVD for season 1. The season 1 partwork DVD was the first time the Ian Hendry episode "girl on the trapeze" was available. (it also contained "the frighteners" and 1st act of "Hot snow"=all in English with burnt-in french subtitles). I remember that particular DVD, because it was then a French exclusive, and was being sold on ebay UK, for prices such as£50, and one for even £100.! I managed to get one from a french seller on priceminister for £10! As the DVD was not rare in France, the seller obviously didn't know what it was going for in UK!

[TrueIndigo]

With the benefit now of watching these on DVD, with the standing knights intro I noticed in the shot overlaid with "Produced by Albert Fennell Brian Clemens" you can just see Linda's hair at the bottom of the frame! I assume the 35mm was shot in standard Academy 1.37:1 ratio, and this overscan limit would not have appeared in the picture seen on the average CRT television set of the time. For some reason Linda was holding station in the doorway, waiting to shoot or having just shot, the scene when she runs between the standing knights with the bunch of carnations. But the cameraman has tilted the camera up to shoot the angled sky shot with a clear area for the producers credits, while Linda (or a stand in?) remained in position within the doorway. You can almost imagine the director saying: "Hold on Linda, before we do another, while the clouds are still looking good we'd better do the static shot."

[mrspeel01]

I think I remember now that the German sat. Channel that showed the Rigg b&w episodes in the '90s was "SAT.1" When I posted the German season 5 opening credits the sat.1 Logo was very fàmiliar. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it was. The Thorson eps with the target credits may well have been shown by another channel, such as the French one mentioned. There was no on-screen TV guide to keep track of things then so you needed a good memory! Plus at that time the Sky box only had 1 tuner ! Also, the only way to record then was via an external VCR and only the channel beiñg watched!! Seems so primitive now!! The next generation of sky boxes had 2 tuners and then eventually a record facility when HDDs came in!