Call to Arms
Taken on their own, the title sequences provide a good sense of the chaotic state
of the studio at the time. The first seven episodes feature the "shooting gallery"
opening and closing sequence, which was shot about three months into production
by Harry Booth for Clemens and Fennell after their return.
The "fields of armor" opening and "card trick" closing sequences
came about six months later, and were shot by Robert Fuest for the fourth
U.S. season.
These titles were then subsequently grafted onto all of the first seven episodes
for transmission in the U.K. with the inexplicable exception of "Split!." This explains why some U.S. fans may be confused by what they see on the
videos—they remember seeing several episodes with the "shooting gallery" titles when the series originally aired,
yet don't find them on the videos, which are derived from the post-title-switch U.K. film masters.  By
the way,
the cards used in the closing credits were produced exclusively for either the Magic
Circle,
Britain's society for magicians, or Davenport's Magic Shop (7
Charing Cross, Underground Arcade, The Strand, London, Telephone:
020-7836-0408, Fax: 020-7379-8828).
And John
Wade was the man who did the tricks.
Likely in an effort to create room for more advertising, the
U.S. saw fit to take a chainsaw to the "fields of armor" sequence, shortening it by
more than half. Here are the gory details.
The original UK version is ~49 seconds long and consists of 18 shots:
1. Fade up to still-life of sword, flag and
bowler, super text: The Avengers in Color," fade to black. Music: drum roll.
2. Fade up from black to suits of armor against sky. Music: theme.
3. Steed crouches down.
4. Closeup of suit of armor.
5. Steed turns and raises shield, sword hacks rose off of shield,
still-frame, super text: "The Avengers."
6. Close-up of helmet.
7. Steed strikes a "jabbing" pose with his brolly, suit of armor
falls over.
8. Helmet pops open to reveal flowers, Steed selects a flower, still
frame, super text: "Starring Patrick Macnee."
9. Steed looks and smiles.
10. Tara rises up out of the grass.
11. Steed punches helmet off of suit with his brolly.
12. Tara runs through doorway, catches flowers, still frame, super text:
"And Linda Thorson."
13. Closeup of Tara smelling flowers.
14. Steed pops up from behind headless suit of armor.
15. Tara runs along bridge wall.
16. Tara runs between two rows of suits of armor.
17. Steed pushes headless suit of armor over and greets Tara.
18. Suits of armor against sky, super text: "Produced by Albert
Fennell, Brian Clemens."
The US version is ~23 seconds long and consists of 10 shots:
1. Fade up to still-life of sword, flag and
bowler, super (larger) text: "The Avengers in Color." Music: theme.
2. Cut to suits of armor against sky.
3. Steed raises shield (don't see Steed), sword hacks rose off of shield,
still-frame, super text: "The Avengers."
4. Helmet pops open to reveal flowers, Steed selects a flower (no still
frame), super text: "Starring Patrick Macnee."
5. Steed looks and smiles, continue to super text.
6. Tara rises up out of the grass.
7. Tara runs along bridge wall, super text: "And Linda Thorson."
8. Tara runs between two rows of suits of armor, continue to super text.
9. Steed punches helmet off of suit with his brolly (theme music is
chopped here).
10. Suits of armor against sky, super text: "Produced by Albert
Fennell, Brian Clemens." |
