Discovered the original on MeTV several years ago and still working my way thru the final season on Paramount+. Have heard of the 80’s series and would love to see it but I’m sure it’s hard to watch being on video. Is it any good?
Some episodes are really pretty good for what they were. I liked that they kept the original theme from Lalo Schifrin. They did a season and a half before it was canceled.
I'm currently watching my DVDs of the '88 and '89 seasons. It's actually pretty good, although I don't think anything can come close to the original series, especially seasons 2 and 3, and also the second half of season 1. In these "new" episodes, when Peter Graves receives his mission at the start of the show, instead of a reel-to-reel tape machine, he has to punch in a 3 or 4 digit code to unlock a video player, and inserts a little mini-disc. Also - the same guy who did the voice for these mission assignments from the original series did them for the revival!
I'm currently watching every episode of Villains (1972), Hazell (1978), Dial 999 (1958), The Saint (1969), Juliet Bravo (1985), Batman (1966), The Brothers (1973), Strangers (1980), Target (1977) - all UK TV shows apart from Batman.
I'm up through episode 3 of the 2nd and final season of Harry-O. The Fugitive is probably my favorite old show. Harry-O isn't nearly as good, but I still like it.
The wild Wild West on Pluto TV Those fights scenes are great stunts etc Every episode 1 or 2 big fight scenes I saw a TV interview where red West (Elvis buddy) got 60 stitches in his head. One episode Conrad falls 10 or 15 feet on his head. That ended season 3 a few episodes early That must have been the most physical show on tv Lots of great episodes wild plots etc
Taxi episodes. Andy Kaufman was unique in his comedy. Episodes where he becomes a playboy or Alex or the strange Tony Clifton are great. His behavior was so strange I'm surprised he wasn't fired .
Avengers S04. Black and white. Not as I remembered, more playful, bordering on camp. I like Diana Rigg. Emma Peel, however, is not Cathy Gale. Life On Mars S02. Buckle up. I moved Sweet albums into rotation.
Been watching soooo much Miami Vice. insane show. equal parts absurdity and groundedness almost PER episode. maybe my favorite show of all time
I just finished season 12 of Dallas and this was really a drastic downturn in the quality of the writing. I'm guessing that adding Larry Hagman as an executive producer forced changes to the J.R. Ewing character making him much nicer (!) and more a victim (!) of people who hated him. In the entire season he just pulled a few sneaky business tricks on people. Where was the vindictive J.R. who was always thinking of revenge? Hell, the season had him marry the "lil country mouse" he met in the redneck town he was kidnapped in and he actually treated her fairly well. Who is this guy? There were dozens of subplots that go absolutely nowhere, most of them romantic therefore of little interest. The business subplots peter out after a few episodes and worst of all the season ends with Bobby and J.R. working together to rebuild Ewing Oil. These two have never worked together for more than four episodes in the entire series. Then you have Ewing enemy Cliff Barnes working for Ewing Oil, then you feel like you're watching some kind of bizzaro world version of Dallas. I kept waiting for a backstab but it never happened. They tried to have Ewing frenemy Carter McKay (played by ex-movie star George Kennedy) try to be the source of Ewing problems but the character was inconsistent. I won't go into the drug smuggling plot and I definitely won't go into the laughable amnesia subplot that apparently justified keeping South Fork in the series while the Ewings were traveling to Germany and... the Soviet Union (?). The only good thing is that it's amazing to watch this series go from a typical quickly shot 1970s show with every cheap set blasted with flat light to a very good looking show with complicated and expressive light setups and very cinematic camerawork.
Avengers - great stuff! Man-Eater of Surrey Green is brilliant. I've got the Network Blu Ray of all the Cybernauts episodes with a beautiful restoration of the series 4 episode complete with contemporary advert breaks! I might add just to be a smart-**** that Cathy Gale is no Dr David Keel (Ian Hendry)! A friend of mine gave Honor Blackman a lift to an interview recording session in London for an extra on one of the Network DVDs. Since she's no longer with us I suppose it's OK to say that she was complaining that her daughter was dating a black man. Not an attractive thing to hear - the racist attitude, not the dating choice. As for Mrs Peel, when we got a new cat I suggested that name to my wife so I could ask "Can Mrs Peel sleep in the bed with us tonight?" The idea was not accepted but the missus proposed Purdey as an alternative which worked on more than one level so that was a good move. Sadly Purdey is no longer with us but we still have a black and white moggie called Steed! I recently re-watched the whole of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. I prefer the first iteration with John Sim - the period stuff is so well done - but by the end of Ashes to Ashes it does rather jump the shark. There's rumours of a new series I believe? Could be interesting... it would give Philip Glenister something more to do than all those documentary voiceovers. He's a good actor whose profile seems to have suffered of late.
Have the Ian Hendry episodes surfaced? Always wanted to see several of those. I must confess I had a fondness for Venus Smith (Julie Stevens), although Steed used her callously.
Some episodes from the first two series are available. Here's an amazon link: Amazon.co.uk Another episode was found which was put out more recently: Amazon.co.uk They are very different in tone to the later series, basically crime stories. Worth a look though.
Yes, that is what I have watched. Thank you. S02 really feels like they were "finding their feet" with three different partners. Because it was live, the camera work is dodgy, although I love how they rally through technical issues, such as tottering scenery or stumbles. The first seasons lack the camp and silliness that dominate the Rigg and Thorson years. I suspect producers were latching onto the "Batman" phenomenon. The same thing happened with "Man From U.N.C.L.E." and "Wild, Wild West". Two other shows my brothers and I dropped once they became so juvenile. "Strange Report" made the best decision, quitting after one season.
I never saw Strange Report until recently and loved it. Many shows became silly after more serious B&W starts - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and especially Lost in Space which became the Will and Dr Smith comedy show to its detriment. I do enjoy early live telly. Dr Who was a triumph considering they were working under the same conditions as early episodes of The Avengers. Entirely off topic (well there's a tenuous Avengers and Who connection which made me think of it) I was talking to the owner of our local garage yesterday who showed me a 1973 E-Type Jag he is restoring which was first owned by William Hartnell's second cousin Norman Hartnell, the late Queen's dress designer!
He might have come close with that infamous incident where he refused to break character as Tony Clifton and disrupted shooting an episode (which is recounted in Man on the Moon). On the other hand, it was either Tony Danza or Jeff Conaway who defended Kaufman by mentioning that he always had all of his dialogue memorized and never blew a line (which, in television production, I suspect can carry an actor a long way).
He surely did, did the Stack Ness-- in fact, when I first got the all-in-one DVD, the early episodes seemed very talky and boring, to the point where I thought I would give up on it. Fortunately, I did not, and stayed with it for the long haul, and had plenty of entertainment to enjoy in it (it was action-packed and riveting and worth seeing, IMO), even in that much-maligned fourth and final go from 1962-63.
