Appendix A
Page 1 of 6

Transmission and Production Date Resource

Why are there so many different opinions about what constitute bona fide transmission dates? One problem is that the episodes rarely premiered on the same days, or even in the same order, across all of the United Kingdom; some regions never even saw certain episodes except in re-runs.

The other problem is that books on The Avengers have proven somewhat unreliable. There's nothing wrong with Dave Rogers' dates per se, except that they cover his local region (Midlands). No one had bothered to question this until recently, and so his guides have been adopted by many as the "universal standard." Among other things, this has led people to mistakenly believe that Tara King premiered in the UK in January 1969, when in fact she appeared on London screens nearly four months earlier!

The UK transmission dates chosen for this website are based on the London schedule. US transmission dates are based on the New York schedule. "Master" date tables featuring production dates and various UK and US transmission dates are available for reference:

David Keel | Cathy Gale | Emma Peel | Tara King | The New Avengers

Other Transmission Dates: Transmission dates are available for Italy and Germany.

Notes on Seasons: Much debate still swirls around how the Emma Peel and Tara King seasons are best organized. For more on this sticky issue, please refer to the Ministry of Order.

Information Sources

The following individuals have provided invaluable aid in building this resource:

Chris Bentley is well known among fans as the Master of Ceremonies for the annual "Dead Man's Treasure Hunt." He provided the production information for The New Avengers.

Alan and Alys Hayes have been painstakingly researching the issue of broadcast dates for the London area, where they live, as well as for other regions. They have provided the bulk of the UK transmission dates, with the assistance of David Hamilton and Mike Noon. Alan also provided valuable feedback on the most useful date table structure.

John MacDonald of Williamstown, MA compiled the season 5A & 5B rerun dates by reviewing microfilmed copies of The New York Times. Many (but not all) of the episodes were double-checked by reviewing concurrent issues of The Chicago Tribune.

Andrew Pixley lives in the UK and has worked with Dave Rogers on various projects. His invaluable contribution to the encyclopędia has been more accurate production dates for the Emma Peel era, particularly the monochromes, for which the studio information no longer exists.

David Schleicher is an "Avengerologist" from New Jersey who has provided US airdate information for various books over the years. He is currently researching some elusive Tara King episode US airdates.

Margaret Warren, who lives in California, was the catalyst in correcting misconceptions regarding "The Murder Market" and "Escape in Time." It was long believed that these episodes were not part of the original lineup in the US. Turns out all the books are wrong.

An excellent online resource on the history of the Independent (Commercial) Television sector in Britain is Independent TeleWeb.

All materials copyrighted per their respective copyright holders.
This website Copyright © 1996-2017 David K. Smith. All Rights Reserved.
Page last modified: 5 May 2017.

Top of page
Table of Contents