Sixty Years Ago The Avengers Arrived in the United States

As my long-time readers know, my favourite TV show of all time is The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed and his various partners over the years (Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale, Diana Rigg as Emma Peel, and so on). It was sixty years ago, on March 28, 1966, that The Avengers made its American debut on ABC. At the time I was a baby and even if I hadn't been, in 1966 the Columbia-Jefferson City market did not have a full-time ABC affiliate. I wouldn't see it until one rainy Sunday afternoon when one of the Kansas City stations was showing its reruns in syndication. I think the fist episode I was probably "The House That Jack Built", although it could have been "From Venus with Love". Either way I was hooked.

The Avengers had debuted in the United Kingdom on January 7, 1961. At that time, it starred Ian Hendry as Dr. David Keel, who became partners in fighting crime with a mysterious figure named John Steed (Patrick Macnee). When I an Hendry left the show, Patrick Macnee became its star and the show would centre on John Steed and his partner of the moment: Venus Smith (Julie Stevens), Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), and Tara King (Linda Thorson).

The show proved to be a smash hit in the United Kingdom, so much so that television networks in the United States even took notice. As early as December 15 1963, when Cathy Gale was John Steed's partner, The New York Times devoted an article to the show. NBC expressed some interest in The Avengers, but expressed its doubts that such an outré series, especially on so British, could succeed in the United States. The producers finally secured a deal with the American Broadcasting Company, consistently the third rated network, to begin showing The Avengers starting on March 28, 1966. The fourth series of The Avengers would be the first to air in the United States and the first to star Diana Rigg as John Steed's partner, Emma Peel.

Since American audiences were unfamiliar with the idea behind The Avengers, a prologue was added to the opening of the show with John Steed, Emma Peel, and a murder victim on a chessboard. The prologue explained precisely who John Steed ("top professional") and Emma Peel ("talented amateur") were and what they did: "Extraordinary crimes against the people and the state have to be avenged by agents extraordinary. Two such people are John Steed, top professional, and his partner, Emma Peel, talented amateur - otherwise known as The Avengers"

The Avengers was not necessarily a hit in the Nielsen ratings in the United States, but it received positive notices from American critics and developed a cult following. It received a good deal of coverage in the American press, with a Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and other publications all publishing articles on the show. The Avengers was also featured on the cover of TV Guide, and the magazine would devote articles to the series during its run. The Avengers was nominated for Emmy Awards during both the 1965-1966 and 1966-1967 seasons: the Emmy for Outstanding Dramatic Series and Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series for Diana Rigg as Emma Peel.

The fourth season of The Avengers was in black-and-white. Its fifth season would be in colour. It was one of the condition of ABC in the United States that The Avengers make the change from colour. While it would be a few years before British broadcasters would make the shift to colour, the change to colour was already well underway in the United States when The Avengers debuted here. Indeed, the 1966-1967 season would be the first in which ABC's entire primetime schedule would be in colour.

Unfortunately, the sixth series of The Avengers would be its last, and it was this largely the fault of ABC in the United States. For the 1968-1969 season ABC placed The Avengers in what was possibly the worst time slot of the 1968-1969 season. The Avengers aired opposite two top rated shows: Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In on NBC (the no. 1 show for the season) and Gunsmoke on CBS (the no. 6 show for the season). As a result ratings for The Avengers plunged and ABC cancelled it in February 1969. Without the funding from ABC in the United States, Thames Television (the ITV franchise holder that produced The Avengers) simply could not afford to continue with it. The show then ended its original run in 1969.

Of course, it would go onto a fairly healthy run as a syndicated rerun in the United States, which is where I first saw it, and presumably many other younger Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers like me first saw it. Since then it aired on CBS Late Night in the Eighties and then on Encore Mystery in the Nineties. In the United States, The Avengers is currently on several streaming services, including Tubi, Pluto TV, Plex, Amazon Prime Video, and Fandango at Home. Every surviving episode has also been released on DVD.

The Avengers has remained my favourite TV show ever since that rainy Sunday afternoon when I was a child. I am currently re-watching it and I still love it as much as I did then. I really don't know the extent of its impact on me. In addition to growing up known I was English in descent and being a fan of The Beatles and other British Invasion bands since childhood, it is probably much of the reason I am an Anglophile and why I love British television so much. Without The Avengers, I might never have discovered Danger Man, The Saint, Adam Adamant Lives!, The Prisoner,, Red Dwarf, Midsomer Murders, and many of the other British shows I love. At any rate, I know I am not the only American who still loves The Avengers. It remains a very popular show sixty years since its arrival here.