By the time its third season rolled around, The Avengers was British television's most popular action-adventure series, and had gained an international reputation thanks to its tongue-in-cheek plot convolutions and the innuendo-laden rapport between its two leading characters: erudite, bowler-hatted secret agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and his "talented amateur" partner, the sexy, leather-clad martial arts expert Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman). However, the series had not yet been sold to the United States -- and indeed would not make the trip across the big pond until season four, by which time Honor Blackman had been replaced by Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel. Originally telecast in the U.K. from September 28, 1963, through March 21, 1964, the 26 hour-long episodes in The Avengers' third season were in black-and-white, and originally videotaped. Most of the surviving prints (which were not distributed in the U.S. until over two decades after their initial telecast) are in kinescope form.
by Hal Erickson
synopsis
