'The Avengers", "The New Avengers" and Beyond!

After eight years, "The Avengers" returned for two seasons totaling twenty-six episodes in all. "The New Avengers" again had Patrick MacNee as John Steed and, fortunately, also had Brian Clemens also returning as chief producer. Two new characters were added to the series. Gareth Hunt, who in the role of Mike Gambit (hell of a last name, mate ) took over some of the fighting and car chases now that John Steed was past fifty and a bit less limber. The woman in question was the leggy and limber Joanna Lumley, supplying M"em-appeal" as Purdey (hell of a first name, eh what?)

Ms. Lumley (pictured above) also went on to make a even bigger splash as the frequently inebriated and always self-centered Patsy Stone, a hilariously viper-tongued "bit past-it" fashion designer on "Absolutely Fabulous" opposite the writer/actress Jeniffer Saunders. For this and other "services to her country" Ms. Lumley became Dame Joanna and was thus the second former "Avenger" star to earn Dame Commander status.

Oh, but back to the actual series. CBS picked up the series this time, but never gave the show a prime time slot. It did air on Friday nights at 11:30 opposite NBC's ratings juggernaut, "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" and against whatever Geraldo Rivera specials they were scraping by with after hours on ABC. I remember the show had a certain flair to it, although it often played more like a regular melodrama, a British " Starsky and Hutch" as it were, than the cavalier flair of the original series.

Brian Clemens himself said that the original series, at its height, "was a humorous show with serious overtones and the new show was a serious show with humorous overtones." There were more dramatic stunts and fewer witty lines. But part of the trouble was that the times and tastes had changed. It had been almost ten years since the original show had been off the air and the spy/diabolical mastermind craze had become a bit old-fashioned to viewers. Audiences probably wanted a "tougher" show, with greater dollops of violence. "The Avengers" was heading in that direction toward the end of its original last year already.

Still there were some good episodes, and the regulars were likable. Unfortunately the show wound up expiring in the second short season. Perhaps the lack of a prime-time slot on the lucrative US market was a factor. Production of the show left the UK for France and then it was off to Canada for the last episodes, no doubt for economy's sake.

One definitely good thing about the series was that its return to production sparked interest in the original series. CBS began running the older "Patrick and Diana" shows again on late night national television. This boost also brought out of mothballs the other 25 monochrome episodes with Steed and Mrs. Peel. I finally got to see samples from that 1965-6 season in syndication on Channel 20 in San Francisco. I thought the stories were equal if not better than the color ones and confirmed my belief that "The Avengers" was more than just an interesting show from my youth; it had a style and delicious epicene chemistry seldom if ever equaled even in theatrical movies from Hollywood's Golden Age .