the champions
zoepaulpenny
Posts: 15,951 Forum Member
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i used to love watching this when i was a lot younger, just watched an episode on itv4 and what bad acting there is anyone else watch this now or used to.????/
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zoepaulpenny
Posts: 15,951
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Yes, the acting may be wooden ( MsBastedo particularly), but its great fun , her hair looks like a living hell to maintain, and the colours are quite trippy. But its so much fun! I love the way they recycle the same set over and over , and had two or three episodes in submarines just to save money on the sets.
Complete nonsense, highly entertaining and with the best theme tune EVER in TV history ( other than Starsky and Hutch).
she actually pops up in Batman Begins , she's at wayne's party and introduces him to Ras Al Ghul .
who didn't? lol.
The best plots were the preposterous ones. My fave Champions ep was the one with the completely fake police station .......
Also miss Jason King
http://images.easyart.com/i/prints/rw/lg/2/3/Celebrity-Image-Peter-Wyngarde-237578.jpg
Lew Grade!
"From its inception, Grade wanted ITC to provide fare that could be used to crack the lucrative American market, which he did so successfully that ATV won the Queen's Award to Industry for Export Achievement three times. Eventually Grade became almost as well known as his projects, renowned for his prodigious office hours (from 6 AM to 7.30 PM), dancing the Charleston at his sumptuous press junkets, his gargantuan Havana cigars and Samuel Goldwyn-like witticisms (asked how much two plus two make, he apparently replied, "Are you buying or selling?"), most of which were doubtless apocryphal."
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/482705/
Just to be pedantic , The Persuaders and Jason King are both 1970's shows
But I agree , the ITC shows of the 60's and 70's were the best thing on tv back then and thats why they are still on more than 40 years after production despite ITV's best attempts to bury most of them when they were first screened and even moreso when they were repeated.
They've certainly fared better than any of the ITV peaktime dross that was screened at the time and we've already got 2 on Bluray - The Prisoner and Space 1999 so let's hope The Champions is next
There is an excellent dvd boxset of The Champions which includes a documentary reuniting the 3 leads for the first time since they made the show.
Worth buying just for that .
Whole family could enjoy them. Its all police stuff on telly these days
the protectors
man in a suitcase
the baron
the zoo gang
anyone remember any more?
ITV were not interested in them really and buried them when they could.
ITC made them predominantly for international sales and while The Saint was a hit none of the others really made any impact on the key US market.
So ITC made them as long as they could .
The Persuaders actually went to real foreign locations instead of back projection and it cost a fortune but although it was popular all over the world it didn't work in the vital US market which is why there was never a second season.
Once the action adventure boom died out ITC made Space 1999 as a co-production with Italian tv .
After Space they had one last go at action adventure with Return of the Saint , again in collaboration with Italian tv but it didn't work and being forced to film in the boring towns and countryside of Italy for some episodes certainly didn't help.
Back then the IBA frowned upon using ITV money to boost the coffers of individuals like Lew Grade and ITC and it was this blatant pandering to the US market that was part of the reason that the IBA forced all the changes at ATV that resulted in Grade being kicked out and ATV morphing into Central.
It was the next step down from taking the franchise away - something they didn't have the balls to do at the time with any of the network companies.
Only 5 years.
Although Space didn't appear until 1975 production started in 1973 and despite being the most expensive UK tv series ever made at the time ITV wasted it and refused to network the show with some regions taking the ludicrous decision to screen it directly opposite Dr Who.
The second series was treated even worse.
After it became apparent that the appointment of US producer Fred Freiberger had lead to the show being almost a live action cartoon with silly monsters it got dumped .
A couple of regions refused to show it at all and those regions only ever got to see it for the first time 20 years later when it was shown on BBC2.
Most regions aired it on weekend mornings or afternoons .
Parent company ATV showed it in kids hour on Thursdays at 4.45 - if only kids shows had that budget these days.
Seemingly at a loss to know where to put it Yorkshire tv showed a run of some episodes in an 11pm weeknight slot.
Danger Man 1960
Danger Man 1964
Gideons Way
The Saint B&W
The Saint colour
Randall & Hopkirk
Department S
The Adventurer
Jason King
The Persuaders
Return of the Saint
ITC did make several other filmed series but they were less well known and in B&W so like Gideons Way had all but vanished by 1970.
ITC also made all the Gerry Anderson shows from Supercar to Space 1999 with the exception of Into Infinity that was made for US tv in between the 2 seasons of Space 1999 and with largely the same crew as season 2
ITC were a fantastic TV company and highly underrated for their achievements of so many smash hit shows.
They knew how to make a show where the edits and bad effect didn't matter as it was the show that gripped you. Nowadays it's great special effects, shame about the story and characters.