The Avengers

You think only silent movies from before the thirties were lost? Each new medium has to find its way and television wasn't always the HD 3D multichannel marvel that it is today. Once upon a time it was a one channel black and white blurry wonder.
As a matter of fact, no doubt viewers were more starry-eyed than we are today, no matter what the screen displayed. You may know that originally, programs were mostly broadcast live, with no way to tape them. What you may not know is that some of the shows you still know today and may have bought on DVD started in these conditions. Consequently, early episodes of well known series are lost.

After a while a primitive way to record these shows was designed : filming a video screen onto 16 mm film. This device called "kinescope" was mostly used to be able to air a New York show on the west coast. Except for this purpose, the potential of keeping a record of these shows was not readily apparent to contemporary producers, just like it had been at the time of early cinema.
Betty White tells in her autobiography that her husband Allen Ludden jokingly referred to her as a star of the silent days of television.

The three first seasons of The Avengers were shot on video and wiped. We are accustomed to see the reruns of season 4 to 7, which were shot on film. Season 2 to 3 were kept on 16 mm film with the kinescope process.

What about season 1? Well... Believe or not it is almost entirely lost. 2 episodes (Episode 6, Girl on Trapeze and episode 15 The Frighteners), the first of which doesn't even feature Patrick Macnee, were rescued from oblivion over time. The first episode was also partially recovered. 22 minutes survive.

If I asked you to whistle the theme song, you'd probably think of that one:

But the original theme song was that one:

For soundtrack enthusiasts, the good news is, after many CDs featuring the music of Laurie Johnson (which admittedly composed the music for the bulk of the episodes), the score for the few last season episodes composed by Howard Blake is finally available from Silva Screen. Until recently the master tapes were believed lost. Someone must have sent them a note: "We're needed".
More pictures on the Facebook page!
That's all for today folks!