Avengers Dossier
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Rodney
It is error-strewn, particularly for French Avengers fans. However, the general analysis of each season and the essays are full of intelligent observations and insights which place them in a different league IMO to Rogers' valuable but plodding texts. They are critical - in the positive sense of the word - despite some silly categories such as Champagne and Kinkiness ratings. One of the only publications to question the standard view of Clemens as the king of Avengers scriptwriting.
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Dandy Forsdyke
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Frankymole
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Rodney
Champagne and Kinkiness ratings are fine - in themselves - except that they are at odds with the otherwise PC comments in the book about racial and sexual stereotyping. However, there are lots of intelligent insights in the book and it is the nearest we have - so far - to interesting but not esoteric literary criticism of the show. However, hopefully a definitive study will come along one day.
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mousemeat
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well old chap, are you up for doing it ? can't imagine anyone else better suited to deliver the goods...Rodney wrote:Champagne and Kinkiness ratings are fine - in themselves - except that they are at odds with the otherwise PC comments in the book about racial and sexual stereotyping. However, there are lots of intelligent insights in the book and it is the nearest we have - so far - to interesting but not esoteric literary criticism of the show. However, hopefully a definitive study will come along one day.
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Rodney
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Frankymole
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Not quite sure how... Patrick Macnee said "I was a very kinky man!"... and is champagne a racial stereotype as such???Rodney wrote:Champagne and Kinkiness ratings are fine - in themselves - except that they are at odds with the otherwise PC comments in the book about racial and sexual stereotyping.
Now get on with your definitive study - even some recorded notes would be great!
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Borgus Weems
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Having gotten the book, I tend to agree. It's almost like "I really like this show, but there are things in it that won't go over very well with today's society, so to protect myself I'm going to point them out as flaws even while I celebrate those flaws". And what's odd is they could have said the same things about Doctor Who of the 60's & 70's era in their Doctor Who guide, but they didn't.Rodney wrote:Champagne and Kinkiness ratings are fine - in themselves - except that they are at odds with the otherwise PC comments in the book about racial and sexual stereotyping. However, there are lots of intelligent insights in the book and it is the nearest we have - so far - to interesting but not esoteric literary criticism of the show. However, hopefully a definitive study will come along one day.
I like the strange catagories and the fun stuff, but I find the constant reminders of "this isn't up to the PC model of today" to be intrusive.
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Rodney
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Rodney
I've pasted my preface, nothing dramatically new but it gives anyone interested an idea of what the study is about. I will be centering on a handful of episodes each season, rather than an exhaustive overview.
PREFACE:
Few drama television series have had as powerful an impact as The Avengers. Exported to over 120 countries, one of the only British television dramas ever to be networked in the United States, it has been turned into radio in South Africa, a stage play in London and a big budget feature film in Hollywood. The main interest in this cultural phenomenon remains the television format and is as fervent as ever. The Avengers has been the source and inspiration for numerous books, television documentaries, websites and forums; it retains its popularity in countries as disparate as France, Germany, USA and Argentina. It has been used to sell champagne in Paris and to fill cinemas in Buenos Aires (for all-night events featuring back-to-back Avengers episodes). It is a safe bet that somewhere in the world today an episode is being shown on a major television channel. And yet I cannot help but feel that despite this continuing fascination – bordering on obsession – with a piece of 1960s ‘light entertainment’, The Avengers remains misunderstood. At its best it defied genre labelling, and offers us a fascinatingly complex interplay, television which could amuse and disturb simultaneously.
It has often been observed that The Avengers was not created but evolved. [1] Half a century ago, a Canadian television executive was hired by a British corporation to shake up the staid world of television drama, to ‘make it new’. He came up with an intriguing title, The Avengers, but had little idea what this might lead to. [2] In due course, the ‘original’ series spawned from this title was used to re-launch another show which was failing, despite the popularity of its lead actor. [3] The Avengers, initially, belonged to an all too familiar genre: the ‘spy-thriller’. A doctor turns private detective to avenge his girlfriend’s murder; a mysterious government agent helps him to track down the culprits and, subsequently, each week they set off to avenge other crimes, often in tired or mundane plots and locations. A still from this ‘lost’ season offers us the image of the avengers as two men in trench coats standing on a street corner with a cigarette stuck in the corner of the mouth. [4] Despite impressive sets and two dynamic young directors, it was hardly groundbreaking stuff.
Within five years The Avengers had become compulsive viewing for millions. The plots by now swung wildly between realism and surrealism, between the shady world of City businessmen (or the armed forces) and science fiction-based killer plants, robots and Hitchcock-inspired houses that were as deadly as their owners. The dingy clothes had made way for cutting-edge fashion, a female co-lead outthought and outfought men, the music was trendy, and almost every actor in the country was waiting to be offered a guest role. It had become unrecognizable from the unspectacular first season. Long before Diana Rigg left the show, in 1967, The Avengers had achieved cult status. This transformation had been evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Although there had been an original vision to offer television audiences something different, unusual, even quirky, the metamorphosis was a slow one and changes both to the structure and the style were sometimes a matter of chance or force of circumstances, rather than artistic vision or a reflection of changing public taste. [5]
The secret to its longevity – both at the time and since – has been this ability (and need) to constantly reinvent itself. [6] A show which began with a realistic murder scenario in 1960 ended the decade with a surreal scene in which the main characters were launched into space in a rocket (in an aptly-named episode entitled Bizarre.) In reality, the only constants were the defining presence of actor Patrick Macnee in the role of John Steed and the fact that the heroes were avenging crimes which usually involved murder. [7] It is ironic, then, that while the key to its success has been its chameleon-like qualities, for many people it is defined by a single image, that of a gentleman in a Saville Row suit, bowler hat and umbrella, alongside a leather-clad female fighter. Despite the constant interplay between a disturbing, dramatic undercurrent and more surreal, playful elements, publicity images often reduce The Avengers to this fixed, simplistic image. The wonderfully vague and mysterious original title has been lost in translation, both literally and metaphorically. The Avengers becomes Bowler Hat and Leather Boots in France and With Umbrella, Charm and Bowler in Germany; a show which was unwilling (or unable) to stand still is thus portrayed as a still life group of aesthetic objects.
The aim of this book is to examine how The Avengers’ continually shifting boundaries – and what I have called its ‘constant interplay’ – defy both genre classification and the desire for closure and simplicity. I am centering on a period which is generally considered to include the pinnacle of its artistic achievement, the Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King eras, from 1962 until 1969. [8] This seven year span charts an evolution in which the show moved from ‘live’ video taping to the first use of film, and then colour; at the same time The Avengers was making the stylistic transition from mild eccentricity to something genuinely experimental.
Dr. Rodney Marshall, January 2009
PREFACE:
Few drama television series have had as powerful an impact as The Avengers. Exported to over 120 countries, one of the only British television dramas ever to be networked in the United States, it has been turned into radio in South Africa, a stage play in London and a big budget feature film in Hollywood. The main interest in this cultural phenomenon remains the television format and is as fervent as ever. The Avengers has been the source and inspiration for numerous books, television documentaries, websites and forums; it retains its popularity in countries as disparate as France, Germany, USA and Argentina. It has been used to sell champagne in Paris and to fill cinemas in Buenos Aires (for all-night events featuring back-to-back Avengers episodes). It is a safe bet that somewhere in the world today an episode is being shown on a major television channel. And yet I cannot help but feel that despite this continuing fascination – bordering on obsession – with a piece of 1960s ‘light entertainment’, The Avengers remains misunderstood. At its best it defied genre labelling, and offers us a fascinatingly complex interplay, television which could amuse and disturb simultaneously.
It has often been observed that The Avengers was not created but evolved. [1] Half a century ago, a Canadian television executive was hired by a British corporation to shake up the staid world of television drama, to ‘make it new’. He came up with an intriguing title, The Avengers, but had little idea what this might lead to. [2] In due course, the ‘original’ series spawned from this title was used to re-launch another show which was failing, despite the popularity of its lead actor. [3] The Avengers, initially, belonged to an all too familiar genre: the ‘spy-thriller’. A doctor turns private detective to avenge his girlfriend’s murder; a mysterious government agent helps him to track down the culprits and, subsequently, each week they set off to avenge other crimes, often in tired or mundane plots and locations. A still from this ‘lost’ season offers us the image of the avengers as two men in trench coats standing on a street corner with a cigarette stuck in the corner of the mouth. [4] Despite impressive sets and two dynamic young directors, it was hardly groundbreaking stuff.
Within five years The Avengers had become compulsive viewing for millions. The plots by now swung wildly between realism and surrealism, between the shady world of City businessmen (or the armed forces) and science fiction-based killer plants, robots and Hitchcock-inspired houses that were as deadly as their owners. The dingy clothes had made way for cutting-edge fashion, a female co-lead outthought and outfought men, the music was trendy, and almost every actor in the country was waiting to be offered a guest role. It had become unrecognizable from the unspectacular first season. Long before Diana Rigg left the show, in 1967, The Avengers had achieved cult status. This transformation had been evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Although there had been an original vision to offer television audiences something different, unusual, even quirky, the metamorphosis was a slow one and changes both to the structure and the style were sometimes a matter of chance or force of circumstances, rather than artistic vision or a reflection of changing public taste. [5]
The secret to its longevity – both at the time and since – has been this ability (and need) to constantly reinvent itself. [6] A show which began with a realistic murder scenario in 1960 ended the decade with a surreal scene in which the main characters were launched into space in a rocket (in an aptly-named episode entitled Bizarre.) In reality, the only constants were the defining presence of actor Patrick Macnee in the role of John Steed and the fact that the heroes were avenging crimes which usually involved murder. [7] It is ironic, then, that while the key to its success has been its chameleon-like qualities, for many people it is defined by a single image, that of a gentleman in a Saville Row suit, bowler hat and umbrella, alongside a leather-clad female fighter. Despite the constant interplay between a disturbing, dramatic undercurrent and more surreal, playful elements, publicity images often reduce The Avengers to this fixed, simplistic image. The wonderfully vague and mysterious original title has been lost in translation, both literally and metaphorically. The Avengers becomes Bowler Hat and Leather Boots in France and With Umbrella, Charm and Bowler in Germany; a show which was unwilling (or unable) to stand still is thus portrayed as a still life group of aesthetic objects.
The aim of this book is to examine how The Avengers’ continually shifting boundaries – and what I have called its ‘constant interplay’ – defy both genre classification and the desire for closure and simplicity. I am centering on a period which is generally considered to include the pinnacle of its artistic achievement, the Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King eras, from 1962 until 1969. [8] This seven year span charts an evolution in which the show moved from ‘live’ video taping to the first use of film, and then colour; at the same time The Avengers was making the stylistic transition from mild eccentricity to something genuinely experimental.
Dr. Rodney Marshall, January 2009
Last edited by Rodney on Wed Jan 28, 2009 7:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.