Upcoming Spy DVDs: The Avengers: The Complete First Season

Yes, you read that right: the complete first season.  But I'll get to that in a moment.  Many U.S. spy fans have probably noticed by now that all of the A&E Avengers sets have now gone out of print.  (And are, in come cases, quite pricey on the second-hand market.)  That's because A&E has lost the license to the series.  We've been patiently waiting for someone else to pick it up and hopefully port over all of the amazing special features that Optimum Entertainment has been creating for their recent UK re-releases (including copious commentaries, interviews and assorted other goodies), and now such a contender has emerged: Shout! Factory, who put out high quality releases of many cult TV shows and have stepped in to pick up licences on more than one occasion when one of the big studios gives up after a season or two.  And unlike A&E, who started with the color Emma Peel seasons, the plan is for Shout! Factory to begin at the beginning, with the very first season, in which Patrick Macnee's secret agent John Steed was paired not with a leather-clad lady, but with male police doctor David Keel (Ian Hendry).  I think two and a half of these gritty, black-and-white, shot-on-video episodes have previously surfaced on DVD, but the rest were all believed lost forever thanks to that atrocious British television practice known as "wiping," in which classic television shows were taped over with no thought whatsoever given to posterity. (It was viewed as a disposable medium.)  Anyway, it seems that Shout! Factory have located the entire run of Season 1 episodes in an unlikely place: America.  And strangely in the vaults of a company called ITC. 

I'm not talking about the British TV production company ITC, though, who produced such classic spy adventure series in the Sixties as Danger Man, The Saint and The Prisoner.  (Although there is a surprising connection, as I'll get to in a moment.)  That ITC was a rival of ABC (Associated British Corporation), the UK production company behind The Avengers.  The ITC in question was an American company, the Independent Television Company.  This ITC was the result of a merger between TPA (Television Programs of America), the US company responsible for the spy series Special Agent 7 along with several co-productions with the British ITC (confused yet?) in the late Fifties, including The New Adventures of Charlie Chan and the Peter Graves Western Fury (which is being released on DVD this month by Network in the UK, as previously reported) and oilman-turned-TV producer Jack Wrather (Lassie).  Even though it's long been believed that ABC didn't attempt to crack the American market with The Avengers until the filmed Emma Peel seasons (the second of which was shot in color specifically for this market), this turns out not to be the case.  Wrather made a deal as early as 1961 to import the series in its very first season; the plan was to syndicate it the way Wrather had done so successfully in the past.  (Clearly, he was a man of good taste!)  Unfortunately, shortly after making that deal, he sold his entire stake in the American ITC to... you guessed it... the unrelated British ITC!  At that point, ITC honcho Lew Grade made an uncharacteristic decision putting personal grudges ahead of sound business practices, and put the kibosh on the American Avengers distribution deal because of a rivalry he had at the time with ABC exec Howard Thomas.  And so The Avengers would never reach American shores until half a decade later, with the color Emma Peel episodes.  Fortunately for us, what did reach American shores were videotapes of the entire season, which remained in Wrather's Texas headquarters and stayed in his family after that.  Shout! Factory tracked them down entirely serendipitously while preparing to begin their Avengers releases with Season 2, and altered their plans accordingly.  It is expected that Optimum will follow suit in the UK.  For the complete story, including information on special features, be sure to head on over to TV Shows On DVD.  It all sounds great, doesn't it?  If only it were true.  Sadly, this was all written on April 1, and it is not true.  Well, it's true that A&E's license has expired, but the rest is all wishful thinking.  Still, it would be nice if Shout! Factory took over the license, wouldn't it?  And it would be really nice if somehow the first season of The Avengers and all that other great British television that got wiped were discovered somewhere...