Avengers (TV series)

The idea of ​​"Avengers" appeared in September 1960 , when producer Sidney Newman regretting the unsuccessful show of the series "Police Surgeon", decided to create a new project. Having worked out the character of the main character, who was to be played by the same Jan Hendry , he created his assistant - John Steed, a government agent. His longtime friend Patrick McNee has already been outlined for the role of assistant. The reason for the decision to introduce the second character in the series was mainly the result of increasing the duration of the series from half an hour to an hour and Sydney realized that it would be difficult for Jan to capture the interest of the viewer alone.

Patrick did not have to persuade for a long time, although he had already worked for several months as a producer of a documentary series about Winston Churchill , he agreed to the role. A good salary and a secondary role are all that could be enticed to a novice producer. With Ian Hendry it was even easier, he himself understood the bankruptcy of the series, so he was glad to accept the new proposal. When the series was closed after 13 episodes, the Avengers were born. It happened in November.

The first video of Avengers took place on December 20, 1960 from the Hot Snow series. The series opened with the following scene: one of the members of the criminal group gets into the surgery department and mistakenly delivers white powder in a sachet to Dr. Keel's office. The hero (Dr. David Keele) at this time is talking with his bride Peggy, preparing for the wedding (previously it was mistakenly believed that the first shooting scene showed the death of the hero's bride at the hands of drug dealers) ^[1] .

On the same day, a commercial was shot in which Patrick McNee, Ian Hendry and Ingrid Hafner (the actress who played the role of Dr. David Keele's assistant) were shown. The art footage of this video was included in the intro for the first season.

On December 27, rehearsals began for the first two episodes of the series, which make up a common plot - David Keel and secret agent John Stead were looking for the killers of the doctor’s bride. As expected, revenge happened in the last scene of the second episode. Hence the name of the series Avengers.

"Hot Snow" was shot on December 30 on a videotape and shown on January 7, 1961 in the central and northern part of England. The premiere in London took place only on March 18 of the same year. Actor Patrick McNee (John Steed) first appeared in front of the viewer in the middle of the episode, where David Keele met him on the doorstep of Dr. Trading's apartment.

At first, the character of John Stead did not have all that spy kit that viewers are used to seeing on the screen. Instead, there was the usual long cloak and coat that he wore along with the main character, Dr. David Keel. Around February 1961, Sidney Newman suggested that Patrick create another entourage for Steed, which was successfully introduced after he appeared in a bowler hat and umbrella in his studio the next day. Actually, this was the reason for the beginning of the popularity of the secondary character in the series.

39 episodes of the first season were planned. Plans were foiled in the fall due to the crisis at the studio and the remaining 13 scenarios were decided to be postponed to the second season. 9 scenarios were used for episodes with Martin King and Venus Smith, others were redesigned and launched with Katie Gale.

During the filming of the first season, it was obvious that the minor character - John Stead - was more successful with the audience than the main character - Dr. Keel, so the producers decided in episode 27 to add an assistant for him, singer Venus Smith, and to devote more time to the adventures of a secret agent . David Keel was to become only a henchman, and then completely sink into oblivion. Ian Hendry seemed to feel this, and while the crisis continued, he quit the studio.

Thus, Steed became the main character since season 2. Preparation for filming began in April 1962 , after the crisis ended. After filming the discarded 3 scenarios of the 1st season with the first assistant agent Martin King, Steed finally met a permanent partner in the person of Katie Gale. Casting for her role was carried out during the filming of episodes with Dr. King. The producers decided to get some time to think about choosing an actress, and as soon as the candidacy was chosen, they quickly fired the actor and replaced him with Onor Blackman .

At the same time, an actress was found for the role of Venus Smith, which was an alternative to Katie Gale. After the television shows it was clear that the audience sympathy was on the side of the latter and then the choice was made. Honor Blackman became the only partner of John Stead for the remainder of the second and the entire third season.

From 1960 to 1969, 6 seasons were shot, comprising 161 episodes.

The first 3 seasons were videotaped and staged as a television play . The subsequent ones showed the series as a spy game show filmed on film .

Season 1 (1961) 26 episodes

• Dr. David Keel & John Steed (23 episodes)
• Dr. David Keel (2 episodes)
• John Steed (1 episode)

Season 2 (1962-1963) 26 episodes

• John Steed & Martin King (3 episodes)
• John Steed & Venus Smith (6 episodes)
• John Steed & Katie Gale (17 episodes)

Season 3 (1963-1964) 26 episodes

• John Steed & Katie Gale

Season 4 (1965-1966) 26 episodes

• John Steed & Emma Peel

Season 5 (1967) 24 episodes

• John Steed & Emma Peel

Season 6 (1968-1969) 33 episodes

• John Steed & Tara King (32 episodes)
• John Steed, Emma Peel & Tara King (1 episode)

The popularity of the episodes of Tara King in France led to the filming of a champagne brand with Thorson and McNee in French television in 1975. The success of advertising, in turn, stimulated the French interest in financing new episodes of the Avengers.

The result was the New Avengers series, in which Patrick McNee appeared with two new partners: Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt) and Purdey-Shotgun ( Joanna Lumley ). The new episodes aired on ITV in the UK (in 1976-1977), TF1 in France (season 1 in 1976-1977, season 2 in 1979), CTV in Canada, and CBS in the United States (1978- 1979). The last four episodes were completely produced by Canadian sponsors and filmed in Canada, which is why they were sometimes called New Avengers in Canada.

Petersburg - Channel Five

The “ Fresh Wind ” TV company, as part of the “Good Morning” program, showed the 5th and 6th Avengers seasons on the Petersburg-Fifth channel every weekdays from December 2, 1994 to February 28, 1995 . On March 1, 1995, the series was broadcast by Teleexpo (replacing Fresh Wind). From December 2, 1994 to February 1995, the series aired at 11:09. Starting February 21, the schedule changed, and the broadcast time shifted to 9:07. In connection with the murder of Vladislav Listyev, the show was discontinued.

It is known that the television channel Petersburg-5 during the period of January 17 - February 3 broadcast the following episodes: Split, Everything is done with the help of mirrors, You will find your death, Abduction of a top-secret cipher, End of the day at noon "," Death of an inheritance, "" They endlessly kill Steed, "" Who is the person with whom I saw you. "

• February 20 (no show).
• The mission is extremely unbelievable - February 21, 1995
• The Good Bad Man - February 22, 1995
• Forget-me-not operation - February 23, 1995
• Fog - February 24, 1995
• The Murder and the Old Ladies - February 27, 1995
• Requiem - February 28, 1995
• Pandora - March 1, 1995 (last show)
• March 2 and 3 (delivery canceled)

The TV channel Petersburg - Channel 5 also showed episodes Unrivaled Seven, The Return of the Cybernote, The Treasure of the Dead, You Have Just Been Killed, Invasion of Earthlings, and Something Like That. The last two episodes were not broadcast on TV-6.

TV-6 Channel

The TV-6 channel broadcast The Avengers from October 1, 1995 to September 25, 1996 . With a few exceptions, the episode was first shown on Sundays , around 4 p.m., and on Mondays , around 12:00, and from March 21 - on Thursdays , around 19:00, and Fridays , around 9:00. The last episode aired on Tuesday September 24 at 6:55 p.m. and was probably repeated the next day at 8:55 a.m.

Again, as before, all color episodes were not shown.

Other TV channels

In many cities of Russia, the series went on local television channels that relayed the programs of the TV-6 channel.

From April 27, 1996 to May 27, 1997 the TET channel (until January 1997 under the name TET-A-TET) showed the 5th and 6th season of the series with the original voice acting from the Film-Export studio. The show began with the Fear Traders series (Emma Peel) and ended with the Capture series (Tara King).

Since April 28, 1996, the local television channel 10 of the city of Rivne began broadcasting color episodes of the series on Sundays.

Since April 28, 1996, the broadcasting of color episodes of the series also began on the television channel, which was shared by the television networks of the Black Sea Broadcasting Company and Unika-TV.

In the mid-1990s, the studio voiced the 5th and 6th season of the series for showing on Russian TV.

• John Steed - Dmitry Matveev
• Emma Peel - Marina Levtova
• Tara King - Natalya Gurzo
• Mom - Alexander Belyavsky

The series was also voiced by: Igor Taradaykin , Marina Konstantinova , Alexander Ryzhkov, Boris Bystrov , Vladimir Konkin , Yuri Sarantsev , Vladimir Vikhrov , Alexander Rakhlenko , Sergey Chekan, Artyom Karapetyan , Dmitry Polonsky , Elena Astafyeva and others ...

When the series began broadcasting on TV-6 on October 1, 1995 , on Mondays, instead of repeating the current series, 7 episodes of the sequel to the New Avengers series were shown. Only from the episode How to Kill Correctly , a rerun on Mondays began, initially from the previous series of the series.

Many episodes of the color season with Emma Peel were shown in truncated form in Russia. There were no epilogues, inserts ("Mrs. Peel needs our help") and several fragments.

Uncut episodes:

• “Time to hide”
• "Who is who???"
• The Return of Cybernote
• “Treasures of the Dead”
• "Good bad man"
• “The mission is extremely unbelievable”

All episodes of season 4 (26) were translated into Russian in 2003 by V. Sonkin.

In the fourth episode of season 4 of Death at bargain prices, at about 28:20 in the center of the frame you can see a small figure far from the cult British television series Doctor Who .

The series has been shown in more than 120 countries:

• France : Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir (Bowler hat and leather boots)
• Germany and Austria : Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone (Together with an umbrella, charm and bowler hat) ^[2]
• Italy : Agente Speciale (Special Agent) ^[3]
• Spain , Mexico, and South America : Los Vengadores (Avengers)
• Portugal and Brazil : Os Vingadores (Avengers)
• Netherlands : De Wrekers (Avengers) ^[4]
• Turkey : Tatlı - Sert (Lovely - Severe)
• Greece : Οι Εκδικητές (Avengers)
• Israel : הגומלים (Avengers)
• Finland : Herrasmiesagentti (Agent gentleman)
• Poland : Rewolwer i melonik (Revolver and bowler hat)
• Romania : Răzbunătorii (Avengers)
• Bulgaria : Revenge (Avengers)
• Yugoslavia : Osvetnici (Avengers)
• Slovenia : Maščevalci (Avengers)
• Taiwan : 復仇者 (Avengers). From October 1971 - 1973, episodes with Emma and Tara were shown in the evening every Thursday at 10 p.m.
• South Korea : 아 벤저 (Avenger)
• Thailand : เพื่อน ใจ สายลับ (Spy Kid) for seasons 1-3, ขวัญใจ สายลับ (Spy Daughter) for seasons 4-5, กลอย ใจ สายลับ (Cutie Spy) for season 6
• Hong Kong : 雌雄 神探 (Detective and female detective)
• Iceland : Skelegg skötuhjú (couple with humor)
• Japan : お し ゃ れ (秘) 探 偵 (Gallant secret detective) for season 4, ス パ イ (秘) 作 戦 (Spy secret strategy) and 事件 を あ ば け (Disclosure of incidents) for seasons 5-6. In some regions, the series was called ペ ア で 捜 せ (I'm looking for a couple), 秘密 ス パ イ 作 戦 (Spy Secret Mission) and 私立 探 偵 ス テ ィ ー ド (Private Detective Steed) for seasons 5-6.

• " New Avengers " ( English ) - continuation of the series
• Avengers (film)

• The Avengers Forever US site.
• The Avengers Declassified English site.
• Mrs Peel ... We're Needed !: The Avengers Australian Site
• Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone German site
• Chapeau Melon et Bottes de Cuir , Le Monde des Avengers French Sites
• Purrr Belgian site
• Deadline Archives
• Deadduck Magazines and Comics
• Avengers on the Radio Radio Series
• Avengingtaglines Multimedia
• Forum in English
• Yahoo Fan Club
• Steedumbrella / Steadumbrella Russian site - a large Russian site.