The Man From UNCLE - on its way apparently! - Page 2

I think I'll pass on that dual-role Burr story, Dan!

But I don't believe CBS' "experiement" of making that sole Perry Mason in color, simply because that episode was shot in 1965. Experimental color broadcasts were done by CBS and NBC coast to coast in 1953 and 1954, when shows normally in black & white were televised in color -- including The Jackie Gleason Show and The Red Skelton Show. I used to have some old TV GUIDE issues from that period.

The first season of GUNSMOKE in color was the same year The Avengers and countless other series went color (1966 to 1967), and it was one of the most powerful seasons in GUNSMOKE's long history in terms of plots and guest stars!

But in the case of The Avengers, I regard the premiere season with Diana Rigg (also the first shot on film, which is actually the fifth season) as equally entertaining as her second year.

Never The final season does have its share of bizarre episodes, but it also has some very good ones also. In short, the series was canceled early on in that season, and the writers knew it. Having nothing to lose, they stretched their imaginations quite a bit. Having said that, I'm glad the show never made it to a 10th color season. Aside from the fact it looked beautiful in B&W, a show that runs that long runs the risk of having to recycle plots and storylines to keep things moving. Besides both Burr and Hopper had gained so much weight the show would have had to go widescreen to show them in the same scene.

Steve

Ha ha ha! Well, it didn't seem to matter with Ironside and Burr did that show for eight years. Then he turned up as a panelist on Match Game.

Too bad TV series shot in a widescreen aspect ratio didn't become a reality until the mid 1990s, beginning with the short-lived C-16 on ABC.

I disagree. Although the 1967 season of the Avengers was still good, the show got noticably campier with the introduction of color. The prior B&W seasons were a touch grimmer and more realistic -- not Danger Man realistic, but more than, say, the Invisible Man episode from 1967 (which I think exemplified the show's camp). Not putting down the B&W or color Avengers -- I like 'em both. But if forced to choose, I'd have to say the writing was better in B&W.

As much as I liked the Mrs. Gale episodes (and Honor Blackman is one of my favorite actresses from that era), the only problem I have is that it seems the original B & W videotapes of her shows weren't preserved. What I first saw on A & E in the early 1990s were filmed kinescopes. The images are on the grainy side and the audio is even worse. Were the DVD releases of that period of The Avengers the same? A & E put those out on video. As far as the Ian Hendry shows go, I've only see one here in the U.S. and they too were originally taped.

There was plenty of camp in the one season the series was filmed in black & white, including the man-eating plants episode. But it really has nothing to do with switching to color as I see it. Just that the writers run out of original ideas and like to up the fantasy and sci-fi elements. But again that happened with Rigg's first season (1965-66).

The Wild Wild West got wilder as the series progressed. There was a show that all kinds of behind-the-scenes problems (a number of producers) in its first season. By the second year, things got under control even before creator / Producer Michael Garrison's untimely death in his own home and Bruce Lansbury took over a permanent producer.

I forgot to mention with The Avengers that being shot on tape in the early years as it was, that it was technically limited in what they could convincingly do.

Like any show at that time done on videotape it had to be shot like a stage play for TV, with a technical director instead of a DOP. The pre-Diana Rigg episodes are "talky" and the primary shortcoming is that they rarely went outdoors. When they needed to, I'm not sure but it looks like they used Film for those shots and then transferred the film pieces to tape for the final product.

"Police Surgeon" with Ian Hendry & Patrick Macnee was intended as a serious drama, but when it became The Avengers after only 6 episodes, it got increasingly (but gradually) lighter in tone. That's even more apparent when Honor Blackman replaces Ian Hendry. The first true male / female espionage duo has to have humor between the leads...even if it was intended to remain platonic. But by the time Honor left in 1964, and after a 1 year break in production plus the move to film AND the increasingly popularity of fantasy shows (Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, etc) explains the shift. NOT because of switching to color film at that time. That was coincidental.

By the way, the 3rd and final season of My Favorite Martian was shot in color, and it's really no different than the black & white episodes. But shows like WWW, Bewitched, Jeannie, and countless others actually improved as the seasons passed.

-- Jeff, I've got "The Case of the Dead Ringer" ready for you, just in case!

-- Why was the one episode shot in color? The show was struggling somewhat against a color powerhouse (Bonanza) in its final season, but why shoot just the one ep in color? I thought the book which I cite below mentioned the "experiment" factor, but I may have read that somewhere else.

-- It's a little-known fact, but the 10th season of Perry Mason would have premiered with a special episode shot in Ultra Panavision starring Burr, Orson Welles and Victor Buono and titled "The Case of the Two-Ton Trio."

-- I don't think Perry Mason really jumped the shark, either, even in the final season. I got a kick out of "TCOT Dead Ringer," actually, and the outrageous final episode, "TCOT Final Fade-Out," is surely among the best swan songs in TV history. "The Perry Mason TV Show Book," quoted at www.perrymasontvseries.com, mentions how the cast and crew learned of the show's cancellation in November 1965 and how the writers "delivered several bizarre plotlines" afterward.

Since we're going in so many directions and away from the original intent of this topic (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) I'd like to add one more thing of interest: A trivia question: What was the first prime-time TV series with regular characters to feature a story arc? Hint: It wasn't a soap opera!

Well, both Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey in their last seasons features story arcs. That would have been 1965-66. I can't really think of anything before that except Peyton Place which started in 1964 and was a soap opera.

OK, I'll tell ya.....Never mind the doctor shows. Think westerns: The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp was the earliest that I know of, and that was 5-part series finale in 1961. It was the story of The Gunfight at O.K. Corral retold yet again! How many shows from that era even had finales? This one had a five-parter to boot, some 22 years before M*A*S*H did the same thing!

To get back on topic, does anyone have an idea when we might see UNCLE DVDs?

Bump- Any news on this being released ?

Some very good discussion here from some folks that really know their stuff.

I got into some difficulty of the George Reeves thread for declaring my passion to collect the first season on DVD. I kinda asked for it though by bashing Ellsworth and his shows somewhat. So I won't make that mistake again on any other threads...where I think only a portion of a series is worth collecting.

I feel the same goes for "The Man From Uncle"..."Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"...."Wild Wild West"....and others where the writing/format is superior early on....albeit black and white.

I also got into some difficulty about wishing to have the "option" of collecting some of the "black and white" portions of TV series in color...like the first season of Bewitched offers...on the George Reeves thread...so I won't go there either. Most of my TV on DVD collection is black and white.

I really enjoyed the discussion on "The Fugitive" as that may be my all-time favorite as the stories are very well written with Dr Kimble always intersecting the lifes of other folks...telling the stories of these other folks so well with just enough "chase" to keep us interested. Aren't we all glad that this series was concluded and concluded so well?

The Avengers discussion was also very interesting. Color seems to bring out more outlandish plots in many series and many of them suffer in content as a result but I agree that color did not diminish the the Riggs' Avengers. Loved both seasons.

Anyway...keep up the good work guys.