Episode 150: Tara King Era
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Production completed: 5 Nov. 1968
UK Premiere (London, Season 7): 29 January 1969
US Premiere (New York, Season 4): Scheduled for 27 January 1969, but pre-empted—see
Trivia for details
In
an attempt to escape capture by
Steed and Tara, quadruple-agent Merlin releases a new sleeping gas, but is knocked out as
well. The three awaken a day later to a deserted town under martial law. But while the
outside world thinks that the army is there to de-fuse an old atom bomb found buried in an
embassy building, they're actually installing a new one!
IMHO |
Mind you, the teaser might make you cringe, as someone wearing
a clown mask does something naughty—making three episodes to begin the same way.
But fear not—things improve quickly. A cross between "The Hour
That Never Was" and "Sleeper," this episode
demonstrates once again that we can get along just fine without Ms. King, who spends the
whole of the hour asleep. Almost good
enough to rate an Honorable Mention, but sadly, like its New Avengers
counterpart, it tends to run in place rather than get anywhere—even Brian
Blessed can't bellow it along.
Trivia |
So, when exactly did this episode premiere in the US? It was scheduled for 27 January 1969, but got pre-empted at the last minute by the annual Bing Crosby Golf tournament. So far, a precise date is eluding even TV historians. David Schleicher, who cracked the case for the real US premieres of "The Murder Market" and "Escape in Time," puts it like this:
"A look back at The Avengers' 1969 US summer schedule is a disheartening experience for every fan of the show. It demonstrates how cavalier, and even disdainful, ABC's attitude toward the show had become. After repeats of only four arbitrarily-chosen Tara King episodes (not even "Game," generally acknowledged a King high point, is included), the network spends the rest of the summer broadcasting (for the third time) 13 Emma Peel episodes from the 1967 season!
"Even so, the series is pre-empted three times by various specials, and the last six episodes shown, from 18 August until 15 September, were not even identified by ABC in time to make that day's TV listings page in The New York Times which is, incidentally, located in the same city as ABC's flagship station, where the broadcasting decisions were being made. At least ABC refrained from playing schedule tag with the show and kept it on Monday evenings at 7:30 PM until the bitter end, when it was ignominiously replaced on 22 September by Music Scene (anyone remember that one?) which even opening week guests The Beatles could not save from almost instant oblivion.
"And here's the rub: it's those last six unnamed episodes that are preventing me from cracking this case once and for all. If my original claim is correct, one of them is "The Morning After," making its belated US debut. However, ABC's scheduling pattern suggests that more Emma Peel episodes were included there. The Times listings for these dates all do state "The Avengers (R) [for rerun] Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg" with no further information. I even backtracked on the microfilm files to review the Sunday full-week listings, which are identical to the daily listings, providing no episode information at all."
*This unofficial subtitle is by Yours Truly.
On Location |
Deserted London was actually St. Albans, Watford, and Old
Hatfield (with thanks to Tony McKay).
Best Line |
Steed: "Sock it to me." Yes, he really said that, at
the beginning of the tag, as a dig at The Avengers' American television competitor at the
time, Laugh In.
Tag |
Tara arrives at Steed's bearing a gift from Merlin: A box of luminous dust. "When you gotta glow, you gotta glow." (Groan... no wonder Laugh In trounced them in the ratings.)
Thanks go to Greg Brown and Roy Green, who informed me of an effect I was unable to appreciate owing to a poor off-air video copy: the sound of a single clapping hand, which was the trademark close of every Laugh In show, can be heard just before Steed makes his "Sock it to me" remark.
