Okay, my own choices,
10.** The Champions**.
13. The Invaders (YEAH! This fueled my paranoid fears for months as a kid.)
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Dear Arizona Mike,
Cordial greetings and a very good day.
The Champions (1968-9) - what a splendid show and made at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, here in the UK. It starred Stuart Damon, William Gaunt, Alexandra Bastedo and Anthony Nicholls. Mr. Damon is actually an American and back in those days it was quite usual to have an American actor in your cast to help sell the show to the US networks. The series producer was one Monty Berman who had previously co-produced, along with Bob Baker,
The Saint TV series, starring none other than Sir Roger Moore, who would later go on to have several outings as 007 (James Bond).
As with
The Saint and other ITC productions, budget constraints meant that there was very little location shooting on *The champions *and stock footage was mostly used for establishing shots. It worked jolly well at that time when a many people still had black and white TV sets and so could be easily fooled by some clever editing. Nowadays such low production values would not stand up to scrutiny and exterior action done on the studio lot could not so easily be pulled off. People used to say to Roger Moore that he was a jolly lucky fellow to be able to go to all these foreign locations around the globe when filming
The Saint. He would disappoint them by saying “if only” and reveal that stock footage and ‘plates’ were routinely used to give the impression that he was in say Monte Carlo or some South American country etc. So ‘Simon Templer’ hardly ever stepped foot outside of the UK, except for the very final two part episode when the cast and crew went to Rome for principal photography. But in those days none of this mattered too much because the superb acting ability more than compensated for any poor production values. Today, if you took away special effects and CGI, TV shows would probably fall apart because the amateur acting would certainly not be enough hold them up.
Is it any wonder, dear friend, that the
The Champions and other distinguished ITC shows such as
The Saint, The Baron, Department S, Randall & Hopkirk Deceased, The Prisoner and
Danger Man have all acquired cult status and have seen DVD releases. I myself have all these shows on DVD, except
Danger Man. and can truly say that I never tire of them, even though I watch them regularly. Each time its as if I am watching the show for the very first time. Moreover, these superb TV shows are good clean fun for all the family and are free from profanity and gratuitous violence.
Finally, dear friend, I remember well that Quinn Martin show, *The Invaders *(1967), starring Roy Thinnes (have that entire series on Region 2 DVD). Simply tremendous and it was the Quinn Martin production that followed hot on the heels of the celebrated *Fugitive *series starring, of course, David Janssen, which I am currently watching on Region 1 (have a multi-region DVD player). This was television at its very finest, but the moral and cultural deterioration would gradually take its toll and TV shows and their producers would push the envelope further and further. Enter the deplorably bad TV shows which are foisted upon us today with their dreadful nerd humour and ribaldry, to say nothing of the brutal violence. Give me
The Champions, The Invaders and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea anytime, old chap. Warmly commend these shows to today’s younger generation, for I think that they will be jolly amazed at just how well they stand up after all these years and will see why they remain so popular with so many people. Go on give them go.
God bless.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax:tiphat:
