Been watching a few episodes a day over the last couple of weekends.

My set covers years 1965–1967, and I'm about mid-season into 1966 right now.
I haven't seen many of the black and white episodes before. I remember seeing
a few as a kid—my dad would watch it—but I am more familiar with the 1967 season
in color, and the later episodes with Linda Thorson (Tara King). These were shown
on A&E I don't know, 15–20 years ago?

Anyway, I still like them immensely, and Diana Rigg is too cute for words in these.

Oddly enough, I recently started watching THE AVENGERS dvd's, too. I had actually only seen the show once before (I think) - and I don't remember much about it. Still...I like spy shows, and this one always looked like fun.

I started with the Honor Blackman episodes. Blackman's first season was okay. The Steed and Cathy Gale characters were fun, but the plots were fairly standard. Now, I'm on Blackman's second season. This one's a little uneven, but it's better than the last season, and the writers are getting more inventive.

I do look forward to the Diana Rigg episodes, but I'm a little ways away from those yet.

Ah, just saw a Touch of Brimstone for the first time with the Hellfire Club.
It was hard not to think about the X-Men during this episode.

I have never seen episodes before Emma Peel. There is very good chemistry, I believe between Steed and
Peel. In the first 1965 Peel season, Peel is a little insulting to Steed; nothing too nasty, just a little comment
here and again. Mostly it's a jest at his expense, but this quickly softens and becomes more of endearment.

I also liked Tara King, and thought the relationship between her and Steed was also pretty good, and I look
forward to obtaining these episodes in the future when I finish the Peel set. Got a great buy on 17 Peel DVDs
two Christmases ago for around $35 from Deep Discount. They were also discounting the Tara King epsiodes
at the time—about half normal price. I would have gotten them, but the Tara King disc sets weren't complete.
I saw them too late, and it looked like a discount clearance sale on them.

I wasn't planning on getting the the earlier 1961-1964 series, but maybe one day.

Still, perhaps not. I like the lightness of the Avengers that I know, the wit and mild humor.
I'm not sure that stepping back to Honor Blackman and earlier ages would appeal as well for
me. I hear those are more serious harder-edged stuff. Even through the 1965 discs that I
have and already into 1966, I'm seeing the slight move toward the science fictiony elements.
It'll be awhile yet, I suspect, until it gets more to the Spy-Fi that I grew up with, but evidence
of the move has already been shown with the alien plant episode, and the Cybernauts.

That's more my speed.

Blast! Definitely looks like all of the Tara King episodes have been discontinued long ago
on DVD and are commanding collectors' prices. I should have bought what I could when
I could. I guess I'll keep my eye out for an occasional bargain, and/or hope the discs get
rereleased later on.

the Tara king episodes are getting a release her in april £42

Hmmm. I think Series 6 was released here as five sets of two discs each.
I see the new set is only 8 discs,

I really hope they do an NTSC set in the States.

I just watched a nice send up of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode entitled
the Girl from Auntie. Not much Emma Peel in this one as Steed spends most
of the episode with another fake Ms. Peel.

However, despite not seeing much of Peel in this episode, we do get to see a
surprising amount of her: lovely body-stocking bird outfit for Diana Rigg here:

This was one show that my Dad never missed back in the day. My Mom, not so much.

I think I understand why, now.

I guess that M(an) Appeal, huh?

I've now seen the first five episodes with Diana Rigg, and you know...I'm getting hooked. These are definitely better than the Honor Blackman episodes. Forty-five years later, the Diana Rigg episodes remain very watchable and a HELL of a lot of fun.

THE AVENGERS became a completely different show when Rigg joined. Oddly enough (or maybe not so oddly), the show actually had a more adult sensibility when Blackman was on it. The Rigg episodes seem much more kid-friendly, and I'm going to guess that that's deliberate. Mind you, I'm sure that many dads tuned in as well - just to watch Diana Rigg. In any case, the Rigg episodes are more breezy and fun. They also have much better production values than the Blackman episodes, which often seem like miniature stage plays. Finally, the Rigg episodes are much more "comic booky" - featuring cool cars, killer robots, extended fight scenes and villains with death rays.

A couple of the Rigg episodes that I've seen veer close to 1960s camp at some points. In one episode, the villains build a bomb disguised as a department store. In another, there's an eccentric millionaire obsessed with trains, and Emma Peel is tied to the railroad tracks as the villains try to run her over in a kiddie carnival train ride! Still...the show generally avoids the in-your-face whacky slapstick of, say, the BATMAN tv show (which debuted in the year following the first Emma Peel AVENGERS episode.). You can tell that this is a mid 1960s series, but there's a British flavor to the proceedings.

All that said - I do genuinely wonder how the earlier Honor Blackman episodes would compare if they had had the same production values. Who knows? They might have been just as good as the Rigg episodes, albeit with a different approach.

Dads definitely tuned in for Rigg!
I'm fairly certain that when they switched to Ms Peel, they also switched to using film
instead of video tape. This allowed them to lose the stage and take it outdoors.
And "comic booky" is generally a plus in my book.

Sadly, I've had to put the watching on hold. Been far too busy the last few weeks.
But, it's probably better that I watch them more slowly than race through them anyway.

Wikipedia says that you are correct.










Hey, I never said it was bad.

The Diana Rigg episodes are certainly more watchable, but that's not completely due to Rigg. It's mostly because those episodes were shot on film and are of generally higher quality.

I enjoy the comic booky approach, but I enjoy more realistic spy stories, too. That's why I think it would be interesting to see a higher quality version of the Blackman years. Then you can more accurately compare and contrast the two different approaches to the material. The Blackman episodes really can't compete with the Rigg episodes, but...if those earlier episodes had been shot on film, then who knows? We might then see both eras very differently today.

I have never seen a Blackman episode, but I agree. Her episodes suffer from production
values and being forced to film mostly on sets. Who knows how her episodes/stories
would have been if the early episodes had the increased budget that Rigg got?

Hopefully, I'll get another chance at getting the non-Peel episodes in new DVD releases.

As already noted, the Blackman episodes are much slower-paced and feel more like stage plays. If you can get past that, then there ARE some standout episodes. The best ones are from the third season (1963-1964), and personally, I'd avoid any pre-Season 3 episodes altogether.

The GOOD news: Cathy Gale is not Emma Peel, but she's a great character in her own right. She's tougher, more sarcastic and less of the "refined English lady" that Emma Peel is. I'm not saying that she's better than Emma Peel, but she's better than a lot of Emma Peel fans will give her credit for being.

Heh. Those same Emma Peel fans give me the stink eye when I mention liking Linda Thorson.