The Avengers 49th anniversary

[Alan]

You'd hope so, but I wouldn't be surprised if it goes unmarked officially.

[Allard]

Your right Alan, current popularity does prove that the Avengers is something special. It also still referenced to in a lot of things even today. I wonder whether that will become less as the generation who watched as children also slowly goes into retirement.

[Dandy Forsdyke]

I started watching with The New Avengers, so 33 and a bit years ago. That really DOES make me feel old! At least I'm younger than The Avengers, on the bright side!

I can remember seeing the original Diana Rigg series. One of the very few on this forum I imagine. And I will beat the big five-oh of The Avengers with months to spare.

I'm still hoping Paul O'Grady's return to ITV could mean him presenting a special documentary next year.

[Timeless A-Peel]

Forty-nine long years since Ian Hendry looked at Patrick Macnee and explained that "Snow is cocaine, you dope!"

It's hard to believe that the show will be half a century old this time next year. When I started it under forty. Great, now I feel old.

I started watching with The New Avengers, so 33 and a bit years ago. That really DOES make me feel old! At least I'm younger than The Avengers, on the bright side!

Well, the snow here is cold today, but I'm looking forward to another year of Avenging. With the new DVD sets and cleaned up prints, it's looking better than ever. Here's to the next 49 years!

Absolutely. It's a testament to the work put in by the likes of Leonard White, Sydney Newman, Brian Clemens, Patrick Macnee and so many other great Avengers cast members that 49 years after it all started, The Avengers is still talked about, still big news.

How many big TV series of the 1960s can lay claim to anything like the continued cultural impact made by The Avengers, I wonder? Probably Doctor Who, The Prisoner and Star Trek and a couple of others, no more.

Well, I'm younger than TNA, but it's still been over a decade since I got into the show. I was just a kid at the time. This growing up thing isn't fun at all.

I can see the Avengers legacy everywhere, in every liberated action heroine, every slightly twisted plot. A lot of what it pioneered has become standard, to the point that today's TV and movies owe something to it without realising it. I still haven't come across another show like it. It defies classification. In many ways it's like four or five shows stuck together, and yet, somewhere in there there's a common thread that goes beyond a guy in a hat named Steed. It would be lovely if it got some recognition in 2011.

[Borgus Weems]

Happy anniversary! Any idea what the rightsholders are planning to celebrate the 50th? I seem to remember there being various Dr. Who anniversaries where they would still make something, like a special, in honor of the show even if the program wasn't being made....

[Dandy Forsdyke]

Happy anniversary! Any idea what the rightsholders are planning to celebrate the 50th? I seem to remember there being various Dr. Who anniversaries where they would still make something, like a special, in honor of the show even if the program wasn't being made....

See my post above.

I think it could only happen if a TV producer was a fan. Unlike Doctor Who there isn't the fanbase to make such a programme a profitable or ratings hit.

[VA_Avenger]

I started watching with The New Avengers, so 33 and a bit years ago. That really DOES make me feel old! At least I'm younger than The Avengers, on the bright side!

I can remember seeing the original Diana Rigg series. One of the very few on this forum I imagine. And I will beat the big five-oh of The Avengers with months to spare.

I'm still hoping Paul O'Grady's return to ITV could mean him presenting a special documentary next year.

I watched the original also - having just graduated university, and with a wife and two small children. I have more than months to spare.

[mousemeat]

Today (January 7th 2010) it is exactly 49 years ago that the Avengers was on television for the very first time. On January 7th 1961 HOT SNOW was aired on ITV, starting a decade of the Avengers which would end with BIZARRE on the 21st of May 1969.

So just one year removed from the big one.

wow..how time flies...hard to believe it's been thaaaat long...

broadcasting sure changed..and an lot since 1961....equipment as well..

[waldotyson]

I started watching the show in 1996 when I was in my twenties. I still remember the first episode I watched- "The Living Dead". I was hooked from the first scene where my beloved Emma pulled up to the traffic light that said, "We're needed"

[Borgus Weems]

Happy Birthday! I believe the first show I saw (that I remember, at least) was a repeat in the late 70's of the Winged Avenger (which is why it will always rate highly with me).

What oh what will happen for 50?