sixties spies and sci-fi (1 Viewer)

Does anyone here like the old sixties spy and sci-fi t.v. series like

-Dangerman, aka Secret Agent (with Patrick McGoohan)

-The Prisoner (spy/sci-fi also with Patrick McGoohan)

-The Avengers (especially the Diana Rigg series)

-UFO (the Gerry Anderson series)

-The Man from Uncle (American spies)

-Wild Wild West (old west spies and sci-fi)

-Mission Impossible (more American spies)

-Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (underwater adventure)

I am sure there are more than mentioned here, but these are the ones I have seen or about to see...

Thanks for any comments...

Hard to go wrong with any of these shows and all of them, with the exception of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." have at least one season released on Region 1 DVD. You should add to your list "The Time Tunnel," which is a very entertaining one season time travel series that paved the way for shows like "Quantum Leap" and "Sliders" and was released in its entirety by Fox last year.

I'm a big fan of the Patrick McGoohan shows, especially The Prisoner (it's interesting that there are plans for both a new TV series and a film to be directed by Christopher Nolan). If You also like Danger Man/Secret Agent, I would also recommend The Saint--not quite a spy series, but it more than makes up for it in adventure and intrigue. I haven't seen UFO before, but I know that it's a precursor to Anderson's Space: 1999, a favourite of mine. Mission: Impossible is a classic, but I haven't seen it in years, so I'm hesitant to buy the S1 set--then again I was in the same situation with Wild Wild West and I didn't regret buying the S1 set!

I couldn't imagine anyone regretting the purchase of M:I S1, but I suppose it is possible. To the list of 60s series centering on spy/intrigue, take note of "Man in a Suitcase" and "The Baron", both excellent single season shows that lamentably, are available only as R2 or R0 PAL format releases. I do have the entire "Danger Man" series on DVD and it is a firm favorite of mine.

Yeah, I forgot a few. Some of which are currently unavailable for region 1.

Next on my purchase list is The Saint Megaset.

Yeah, The Time Tunnel is cool and its a fully released set (both seasons).

I did not wait for the entire set of Secret Agent before buying them individually as I did for UFO (individual sets) (and paying more than if I had waited for the entire megaset). I did buy the Avengers Emma Peel megaset though, and saved. I might buy the Avengers Honor Blackman and the final season as well.

I am debating about Man From Uncle 1st season, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Mission Impossible 1st season.

I already have Wild Wild West 1st season (I watched it last summer, and plan to watch season 2 this coming summer, I like to watch westerns in summer).

Thanks for the response...

The first season of M:I was so much fun to watch. You cannot go wrong with it, i promise!
All good shows in your list sean.

Don't forget I Spy, the best of the sixties espionage shows. All three seasons, or 80-odd episodes, are available from Image, albeit in weirdly packaged box sets. Great series, though.

All great shows that you mentioned -- but may I add Get Smart to the list. Sure, its a comedy, but it also had a lot of cool gadgets, stories of worldwide espionage and a hell of a lot of style.

thanks for the input,

I forgot to mention The Twilight Zone, Star Trek and Outer Limits (sci-fi)... maybe they're a given.

Yeah, Get Smart as I remember (when I watched it on tv as a youngster) was fun, and I-Spy is a good one too.

respectfully, Sean

Rick says it all for me, Sean, especially M:I S1....right, Mike?

I have the Secret Agent/Danger Man Megaset and am about 2/3 through the set. As most here know, it's getting re-released at a good price with the 1st season that was originally aired only in the U.K. included in the new set that the original Megaset didn't have included in it. However, I'm not going to "double-dip" and get the new one then sell my existing set elsewhere. I had to think about that for a bit but I'm satisfied with the original Meg-Set. That one also includes the last 2 color eps of the series as does the new release set.

I recently bought the Saint R2 Megaset, thanks to a great tip from a fellow-HTF'er (thanks to Mike ) on where to get that one at a great price and it's great. I'm still early into the set but it sure brings back some faint memories when my Dad watched these when they originally aired in the states. It's watching a "pre-007" Roger Moore in this series. I bought the B/W set. Here's the link to the UK NETWORK site for the Saint set: (it's R2/PAL)

http://www.networkdvd.co.uk/product....28&PROD_ID=428

I also have both "New Avengers" sets from the 70's. For some reason, I seem to like that series more than the original Avengers series. However, if I take a chance on the (orig) Avengers set I think I'd probably enjoy the series since I'm a Patrick MacNee fan as well.

I have "Voyage..." S1 both volumns. Still viewing in progress. I recommend the 1st season for sure. I'm not certain about (me) gettng further seasons of this series since S2 and later seasons have a differrent "flavor" after S1. You might want to read the "Voyage" thread to get more info.

I'm also a big "WWW" fan. I didn't wait for the studio season release for S1 (I bought the S1 DVD volume sets from Columbia House) but I'll get the S2 set.

As far as waiting for R1's in general, all I can say is that the best purchase I've made was buying my region-free PAL/NTSC DVD Player. I have only a few R2/4 sets in my collection but the PAL sets play flawlessly on my player and, without a timer, I can't detect the PAL "speed-up" issue as some can.
Then again, I also can't seem to detect the "time-compressed" S1-4's of the "Combat!" series release from Image. It's, to me, a similar issue with the PAL vs NTSC human-detection phenomen: If I were to watch and compare with 2 TV's, I'm sure I'd see/hear a difference. It varies with the individual as to what you can hear or see when comparing to R1 sets. The downside in purchasing R2/4's is that you can't lend or view them at (most) friend's homes unless they also have an R-free conversion player. That's why I bought my Mom one of those last year I wouldn't trade the time spent with Mom watching a PAL set for anything She really loved another R2 set (released in '03 in the U.K. , still no R1 release) with me.

Jeff,

Yeah, I have all the Dangerman (Secret Agent) R1 releases... including the first series of half-hour episodes (its worth getting to see the very early 60's episodes before the hour long episodes released in the megaset). I started collecting the Dangerman dvds one at a time when they first came out (if I would have waited I could have bought the megaset cheaper, but I enjoyed gettin them early years ago).

The Saint megaset is available in the R1 format in the U.S. too.

I have been waiting to get a region free player (I think I will get a portable one so that I can take it on the road with me when I travel or hook it up to a larger tv, I used to live in Seattle and I went to the famous ScareCrow video rental store there, where they have really hard to find out of print various region dvd's, vhs, pal, and laserdiscs for rent). The only UK dvd I have is They Live which has a commentary track by Director John Carpenter and Roddy Piper that the US version doesnt have. I watched it in Seattle in 2005 and then bought it through the net a year later. I have been meaning to get a region free player ever since, so that when I travel back to Seattle, I can watch hard to find dvd's without having to rent a region free player from ScareCrow video.

There is a movie guidebook from ScareCrow video which gives reviews for very hard to find and interesting international, cult, movies (from Sasquatch press books). I would suggest it to anyone as an invaluable guide.

I have a good amount of wishlist dvd's but cant think of them as of this moment.

From one 60's film enthusiast to the other, enjoy!

respectfully, Sean

Sean,

Thanks for the info on the rare movies/DVD's. I'll check that out!

The Saint Megaset that I have is only (as far as I can see) available in R2 from the U.K. This is the B/W set and not the later color Megaset. It contains the earlier (different) eps than the color Megaset. I had thought about getting the later color set as well but I passed on it since the earlier B/W eps are considered the best of that series. I guess it's a matter of opinion on that (as well as everything else ) For example, most purists would consider me an :alien: for preferring the "New Avengers" to the original series I have to at least rent that original Avengers set to try them out for myself.

I wasn't aware of that. I'll have to check into this.

I wouldn’t. Yes, there are few clunker episodes (“Gnaws” comes to mind), but mostly “The New Avengers” is an excellent series that really was never given the appropriate showcase in the U.S. (it played as part of the “CBS Late Night Movie” in the late 1970s). Fans of the original series tend not to like it for several reasons . . . the fantasy elements of the original series are downplayed and the action-adventure elements are played up, and the introduction of a third character, Gareth Hunt as “Mike Gambit,” means less screen time for Patrick Macnee’s “John Steed” character and, well, there is no “Mrs. Peel,” though she makes a second season cameo appearance. But many of the scripts are very well written and entertaining and Joanna Lumley’s “Purdey” character is a lot of fun to watch . . . “The New Avengers” is an overlooked, but worthwhile series. Anyone looking for a good deal on season 1 of this series can find it here:

http://www.hamiltonbook.com/hamilton...oducts/6061877

Not sure about the New Avengers (never watched it), but I do recall enjoying The Return of the Saint (or whatever it was called) starring Ian Ogilvie in the late '70s/early '80s. Lots of good location shooting and I.O. made a decent lead. Is this available in R2?

Doug, it's available in R2. Here's the link to the page at Amazon U.K.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Return-Saint...?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

I've never seen this series. Sounds interesting. I may check this out out soon.

Return Of The Saint is also available from it's publisher, Network, linked in Jeff's earlier post. They have periodic sales. One pound these days is equal to $1.95 so the 24 Return of The Saint episodes, with postage would cost about $100. I hope to get Return, eventually. Ian Ogilvy narrated an extra documentary on the Saint Complete Monachrome Series.

Say Jeff, don't forget the 39 half-hour Danger Man episodes are still available in a stand alone set from A&E. $59.97 at deepdiscount. Fun show peppy theme song. I was surprised how the half-hour format made it seem similar,to me, to Dangerous Assignment.

I too am a fan of the New Avengers. Steed was Steed, Purdey was wonderful, and Gambit was a capable fellow. I thought the writing of the show was very inventive, especially when the three Avengers would arrive at the same location or solution to the mystery from three separate sets of clues.

-I have "The Prisoner" & "The Avengers" (The Diana Rigg Box) & "UFO" and the 1st three VTTBOTS boxes. I'd love to have "The Man from Uncle"!

Jeff_HR, there's a lot of us that "second" that motion! "Where's a TV/DVD Legal Eagle when we need one?" When....if? the legal issues get cleared we'll see UNCLE on the shelves.

Sad to report that Gareth Hunt, "Mike Gambit" of "The New Avengers" passed away on March 14th of cancer. BBC News story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6449881.stm

Some pictures from Mr. Hunt's career can also be found at the BBC site here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6450217.stm