Six or Seven seasons?

cyberrich · Post by **cyberrich** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 11:54 am

Frankymole wrote:"Murdersville: is this the best season 5 episode?"

No, but it may be the worst.

(And it's Season 6.)

No Franky, it's season 5. There is a misconception that the final 8 episodes were a separate season. Maybe one or two publications have erroneously misled you. Officially there are 25 episodes in season 5. There was merely a break in filming between episode 16 and 17. Tara's season is therefore season 6.

Frankymole · Post by **Frankymole** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 1:46 pm

cyberrich wrote:
Frankymole wrote:"Murdersville: is this the best season 5 episode?"

No, but it may be the worst.

(And it's Season 6.)
No Franky, it's season 5. There is a misconception that the final 8 episodes were a separate season. Maybe one or two publications have erroneously misled you. Officially there are 25 episodes in season 5. There was merely a break in filming between episode 16 and 17. Tara's season is therefore season 6.

Close: you've only got it slightly wrong:

"for many years The Avengers was thought to have had six seasons in the UK, when in fact it actually had seven."

As Avengers Forever (brilliant site) explains, it's all down to how preparation and filming and organisation for US the Tara season was organised (and the contracting for the final Emmas):

You may notice that some books and websites organize The Avengers into six seasons, while other books and websites use seven seasons. So, which is right? Most people don't really care—they just enjoy the show. For the purists who demand a definitive answer, we begin with a little history...

Not as planned

The first color season was originally planned to feature 26 episodes, according to a promotional mailer prepared by the studio at the outset of the fifth season. As it happened, however, only sixteen episodes made it onto UK airwaves for their fifth season. The reason for this is a little complicated.

Producing a relatively high-quality series such as The Avengers is an expensive proposition, so the sale of the series to America became mission-critical. But the Americans balked at buying a monochrome series, making the switch to color something of a necessity. This, plus the added casting expenses (a steady stream of big-name guest stars that included the likes of Donald Sutherland, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, plus a trebled salary for Diana Rigg) made the series that much more costly to produce.

Unfortunately, the production company came to rely almost exclusively on American money—unfortunate because America was still running the show as a summer replacement, and was not placing regular orders for full seasons. Worse, no one in the UK was ordering any new episodes! Consequently, when an anticipated order for additional color episodes from the US did not arrive when expected, the coffers ran dry and the producers were forced to suspend production after completing sixteen of the planned 26 color episodes.

When the next order did finally come through from the US, the studio had been on hold for about a month and a half. This delay placed the rest of the fifth season in jeopardy, as there would not be enough time to get the remaining episodes on the air during the normal schedule. To complicate matters further, Diana Rigg had already decided to leave the show, and the studio was in a state of turmoil: ABC television was being consolidated into a new company, Thames, and The Avengers property was at risk of being orphaned.

Ultimately only eight of the last ten color Rigg episodes were finished, and as they were completed late, they were held back until the following UK broadcast season. Thus these last eight color Emma Peel episodes legitimately constitute a complete—albeit rather brief—sixth season.

Meanwhile, Linda Thorson was chosen to replace Diana Rigg, and after an aborted start with a different producer, seven Tara King episodes were rushed through production to meet the deadline for the first full season order from the US. The UK broadcasters elected to hold these episodes back and run them together with the 26 Tara King episodes that followed, creating a generous 33-episode seventh season for the UK market.

History overlooked

All of these historical wrinkles were overlooked by Dave Rogers and others when the first books on the series were published, and so most episode guides are still based on six seasons. (Indeed, to this day Rogers refers to the color Rigg episodes collectively as season five, as do Patrick Macnee and series copyright owner, Canal+.)

Subsequently, Cornell, Day, Topping (The Avengers Dossier) and others did a little more homework and produced evidence of this so-called "missing season." In an effort to be strictly accurate, they split the first color season in two, resulting in a total of seven broadcast seasons.

Resistance to change can be fierce in some quarters, and so many fans stood by Rogers, even in light of the fact that, in the end, the last eight Emma Peel episodes were promoted by the studio as a "new" season. Such "Dave Rogers Hardliners" often get into clashes with the "Seven Season Revisionists" who have embraced the accurate if untidy newer scenario.

But just to muddy the waters still further, the series was subsequently re-run and syndicated worldwide in the six-season format. This not only made organizational sense (reflecting the producers' original plan), but it also served to reinforce Dave Rogers' original scheme, however flawed it might appear to be.

http://theavengers.tv/forever/sixorseven2.htm

Archive TV is normally a very complex history when you get into it!

Captain Crusoe · Post by **Captain Crusoe** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 4:42 pm

Dave Rogers responds in The Ultimate Avengers that it's incorrect to say that there was a six-week production break. Filming of Who's Who??? completed on 18 April 1967 and filming recommenced with Death's Door on 3 May 1967, only 15 days later.

"However, production on the series did not cease during the recess. Several directors were employed to film 'pick-up shots' (to be edited into the episodes sometime later), the film editing continued apace and Laurie Johnson visited the studio to record incidental music. Conclusion? I insist there is no sixth Emma Peel colour season!" (Dave Rogers, The Ultimate Avengers, p. 200)

I think there's a philosophical problem with the seven-season approach. It only applies to the way the episodes were originally broadcast in the UK. As David K Smith pointed out, it doesn't apply to the way they were broadcast in the United States or any other country, to the way they've been shown in the UK since 1967 or to the way they've been released on DVD.

So it's a rather Anglocentric (or, to be pedantic, UK-centric) way of looking at things. I don't see why we should privilege the way the episodes were first shown in the UK as the 'correct' way and the way they were shown elsewhere and have been shown in the UK for the last 40 years as the 'wrong' way.

Frankymole · Post by **Frankymole** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 11:08 pm

In that case, monochrome Emma Peel is Season 1!!! :O

Of course, for the states, the intention was a 26-week season (

I think I prefer the more detailed/accurate research post-Dave Rogers. Great as his books were, they are rather error-prone compared to the greater detail and better documentation available to archive historians later

.

History overlooked

All of these historical wrinkles were overlooked by Dave Rogers and others when the first books on the series were published, and so most episode guides are still based on six seasons. (Indeed, to this day Rogers refers to the color Rigg episodes collectively as season five, as do Patrick Macnee and series copyright owner, Canal+.)

Subsequently, Cornell, Day, Topping (The Avengers Dossier) and others did a little more homework and produced evidence of this so-called "missing season." In an effort to be strictly accurate, they split the first color season in two, resulting in a total of seven broadcast seasons.

Resistance to change can be fierce in some quarters, and so many fans stood by Rogers, even in light of the fact that, in the end, the last eight Emma Peel episodes were promoted by the studio as a "new" season. Such "Dave Rogers Hardliners" often get into clashes with the "Seven Season Revisionists" who have embraced the accurate if untidy newer scenario.

But just to muddy the waters still further, the series was subsequently re-run and syndicated worldwide in the six-season format. This not only made organizational sense (reflecting the producers' original plan), but it also served to reinforce Dave Rogers' original scheme, however flawed it might appear to be.

mousemeat · Post by **mousemeat** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:24 am

[quote="Frankymole"]In that case, monochrome Emma Peel is Season 1!!! :O

Of course, for the states, the intention was a 26-week season (

I think I prefer the more detailed/accurate research post-Dave Rogers. Great as his books were, they are rather error-prone compared to the greater detail and better documentation available to archive historians later

.
How true....The show,has such a spotty history..

Monochrome Emma is season 1 !!! (LOL)

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:17 am

Take a look at The Avengers Declassified's regional variations for Series 5 and you'll soon realise that there was no rhyme nor reason to how ITV showed the colour Peel episodes.

http://declassified.theavengers.tv/peel_regions.htm

There's only one way to approach these episodes sensibly, and that's as 5A and 5B, because various ITV regions were showing 5B episodes when they still had 5A episodes to show.

Dandy Forsdyke · Post by **Dandy Forsdyke** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:46 am

I think 5a and 5b is the best approach for those that want to (not me). I'm really not happy with dividing the first colour season into seasons 5 and 6, creating a Tara King season 7.

Downing tools for a few weeks is not enough for me. Each Avengers season traditionally brought a new spin to the show - either a change of partner or colour. There's not enough difference between 5a and 5b for me to care, and it makes me sound elitist if I did. As has been suggested, it would make me sound a little Brit-centric too - The Avengers (seasons 4-6) was made for a global audience.

It also creates enough confusion for me (who knows a bit about the show) let alone a new fan. I'll stick to the seasons as per the volumes on the DVD releases.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 10:13 am

I have to admit that it's something I've never got particularly hung up about.

As for the original question... six or seven?

In my book, eight!

Dandy Forsdyke · Post by **Dandy Forsdyke** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:04 am

Also in the US, as I understand it, the TK episodes were shown immediately after the EP ones creating one season of episodes from Death's Door to Look Stop Me...

All confuddling and a bit erudite for me...

Madelow · Post by **Madelow** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:15 pm

Dandy & all-- Yes, that's correct (or, the way I remember it). Starting with the Mrs.Peel monochrome season, "The Avengers" ran in the U.S. from March to September. A type of "summer replacement" if you will. The only change came with the Tara King episodes. Then, ABC in the U.S. ran the show in the fall and prime time, as they did with original American based programming. Unfortunately, they chose to move Steed & Tara to Monday night, opposite a red-hot "Laugh-In". Oh well. Best wishes, Madelow.

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Six or Seven seasons?

Six or seven seasons of the Avengers?

Six or Seven seasons?