Are the Avengers British TV show DVD sets out-of-print?*

The Emma Mega-set, and the earlier 2 disk boxes from all eras...

Just finishing watching my 2 disk boxes (about 7 of them) and was surprised at the prices being asked for even them on Amazon

 

Yes, they've been OOP for some time now. I'm hoping for a Blu-ray release, similar to what was done for The Prisoner.

 

That would be a good strategy.

Tho I don't think there wasa mega-set for any of the other Lady Avenger series.

However, as I'm about to delete my modest collection, I think I'll expect more than a couple of bucks for it at a used video store

 

If your system will accept PAL, then ALL the extant Avengers episodes have been re-released in the UK this year. They have been remastered and are FAR superior to anything that has been released previously. There have been some errors on some of the sets however, but they have all been / are being corrected by the publisher.

As Shawn1968 says a Blu-ray release would be nice, particularly as the restoration was done in HD, but nothing has been announced yet.

 

Not sure if anything has been released in the US, but in the UK, Optimum Home Entertainment have been releasing the seasons individually, up to Season 6 so far.

'The Complete Avengers 50th Anniversary Edition' is due for release March 2011.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Av...ef=sr_1_3?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1293039728&sr=1-3

 

I've been wanting to go back to these, so I might have to bite the bullet and go for these UK sets of The Avengers (and The Saint!)

 

Still working my way through the monochrome episodes of The Saint. I started with the colour episodes & worked back!

 

A blu-ray set of the first Emma Peel series has been in the works for a while but nothing announced yet..............

 

Hmmm. A misnomer if I've ever heard one. Complete? Bwaahahaha!

I've seen a few Cathy Gale episodes and every single Emma Peel and Tara King episode, as well as the New Avengers and that horrible Avengers movie. I am interested in seeing series 2 and 3 and the 2.5 surviving episodes of series 1. So, maybe I'll spring for the set when it is released.

 

The surviving episodes from the first season is interesting but doesn't resemble what you've come to know from the Cathy Gale episodes (depending on where you came in) and are nothing like the later Emma and tara episodes.

They tend to be more straight ahead serious type of dramas. It's a pity that most of them don't exist any more because the 2.5 episodes I saw were kind of interesting and I would have liked to see how the series developed with time having never seen them before this set.

 

I'll be curious to see what they do on the aspect ratio. Didn't somebody say that Space: 1999 was done in 16x9?

If they used scans from the original camera negatives for The Avengers, I betcha they could get more area on the left and right if they framed it carefully. I mastered a half-dozen of the Danger Mans for Carlton/ITC about 10 years ago, and even though they were just B&W fine-grains, the quality was pretty amazing. TV shows shot on film can hold up very well, provide they're stored properly.

 

Not for home video--they did the 16 x 9 for TV airings; the U.S. and UK Blu-rays are the original aspect ratio and presented pillar boxed.

They actually look quite stunning.

 

Ah, that's good to know. I get real nervous when studios remaster this stuff and make a lot of changes. Heck, I've lobbied for the original mono mix as an extra track, when they want to put old movies out with a 5.1 remix. I think they should always give the viewer the choice on how they want to enjoy the film.

 

The filmed spisodes do look stunning, but they screwed up the sound on the Series 5 set. They decided to pitch correct the voices for PAL speed up, but pitched the wrong way, so instead of pitching down 4% they pitched up 4% instead, meaning that Steed & Mrs Peel speak 8% too high and sound like they've been on helium....

It also affects the first episode of the Series 6 set (The Forget-Me-Knot)...

However, Optimum have recognised the cock-up and you can send your discs to them for replacement with corrected versions. Hopefully the "Complete" set will include the corrected discs.

 

You're right, it is weird seeing Roger Moore getting younger! I just prefer the colour episodes, so started with them first.

Back then everyone did drive weird looking cars though! Cars now are so boring, in comparison!

 

That's horrific! Does nobody every listen to this stuff before it gets shipped? Idddddiots...

BTW, "cock-up" means something completely different in the U.S. *ahem*

 

When I saw some of it on TV way back then, apart from the plots which then didn't seem so campy to a young teen, I was more intrigued by the gear Emma and Steed wore. Now it is the scenery and the props - yes, the same buildings and rooms over and over again - but did they shoot on weekends to have minimum normal traffic about . Anyway, I love those country laneways.

Another thing that got to me as I've watched 30 or so episodes in the last month or so, is saying, what different role did that fellow play in another episode? or am I vaguely remembering the face from some British movies of the era.* And did the Avengers invent the Steel Bowler? or did Oddjob? And in a recent discusssion of Clockwork Orange, did the idea of the Droogs outfit come from The Avengers? (the Tara-era episode Super Secret Cypher Snatch).

* The Too Many Christmas Trees episode features the star of Dead of Night.

 

OK, thanks - I didn't realise!

 

Do you mean Patrick Macnee? Roger Moore was in "The Saint".

 

I was talking about The Saint, in reference to an earlier post. See post 8.

 

Ah my bad I misunderstood. I have a funny story to relate however even though I know the difference between Patrick Macnee and Patrick McGoohan when I first met the latter I called him by the former name because, well, I was starstruck. When I apologized for the mental slip, McGoohan replied "We Patricks all look along".

Never met McNee but I would probably accidently call him McGoohan and if I ever met Roger Moore no doubt I'd accidently call him Sean Connery.

 

Funny thing, both of those quintessential British actors were American citizens--Patrick McGoohan by birth (born in Queens in 1928) while MacNee became a naturalized American citizen in 1959.

 

Yep. I found it curious that MacNee became a U.S. citizen worked in the film biz here and then went back to England where he found fame and fortune.

I'm assuming that McGoohan had dual citizenship because of his birth and parents.