They wanted "Information." They never got it...

YouTube · Post by **Menolly** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:28 pm

Fare thee well, Number 6...

Patrick McGoohan was No. 1 as 'Prisoner's' Number 6

Post by **sindatur** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:50 pm

Terrible day for SciFi Geeks; losing he and Ricardo Montalbon in the same day.

Post by **matrixman** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 12:37 am

Agreed, it's a black day. Even though I've never seen (a whole episode of) The Prisoner, I'm well aware of the show's iconic status.

Ironically, I remember Patrick McGoohan best for his role as the Keeper of the Prison: the tyrannical warden in Escape from Alcatraz.

Post by **lurch** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 2:44 am

#6 in his Morgan fades into history...

" The Prisoner" is free.

Post by **danlo** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:20 am

Gods, I'm flabbergasted, what a brilliant actor, a renaissance man, a creative genius. At 10 years old I watched (Secret Agent/Dangerman), I fell absolutely in love with The Prisoner-no show has ever come close since except maybe LOST. This guy was a true visionary he butted heads, produced, rewrote scripts and selected music. Braveheart wouldn't have been half the movie it was without him as the vile Edward the Longshanks. McGoohan could have played Lord Foul if he set his mind to it, and I think he's my best choice ever for that role. I've lost one of my first real heroes...

Post by **matrixman** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:54 am

Wow, McGoohan meant that much to you, huh?

Maybe I should give The Prisoner another look, if I see it in syndication.

YouTube · Post by **Menolly** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 2:27 pm

mm...
I love The Prisoner.
It is one of my top all-time favorite shows.
But...

Perhaps for you it would suffer from not aging well.
Oh, The Village still entices,
and the whole manipulation concept intrigues.
But overall it is still a cold-war era concept.
And perhaps that will make the show difficult for you to relate to.

The other thing is nostalgia. The show was so innovative for it's time. That also may not be as apparent today...

Post by **matrixman** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:58 pm

Menolly wrote:mm...
I love The Prisoner.
It is one of my top all-time favorite shows.
But...

Perhaps for you it would suffer from not aging well.
Oh, The Village still entices,
and the whole manipulation concept intrigues.
But overall it is still a cold-war era concept.
And perhaps that will make the show difficult for you to relate to.

The other thing is nostalgia. The show was so innovative for it's time. That also may not be as apparent today...

Not sure why the show didn't catch on with me, because as a kid I watched nearly everything on TV, new shows as well as old. It might simply have been that reruns of the Prisoner were slotted at the wrong time for me.

It's true that not many Sixties-era TV shows are on my all-time favorites list, but I can name Get Smart, The Avengers, and of course, Star Trek.

And how could I forget Laugh-In?

Oh well, in time I may still come to fully appreciate the Prisoner.

Post by **sindatur** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:34 pm

matrixman wrote:
Menolly wrote:mm...
I love The Prisoner.
It is one of my top all-time favorite shows.
But...

Perhaps for you it would suffer from not aging well.
Oh, The Village still entices,
and the whole manipulation concept intrigues.
But overall it is still a cold-war era concept.
And perhaps that will make the show difficult for you to relate to.

The other thing is nostalgia. The show was so innovative for it's time. That also may not be as apparent today...
Not sure why the show didn't catch on with me, because as a kid I watched nearly everything on TV, new shows as well as old. It might simply have been that reruns of the Prisoner were slotted at the wrong time for me.

It's true that not many Sixties-era TV shows are on my all-time favorites list, but I can name Get Smart, The Avengers, and of course, Star Trek.

And how could I forget Laugh-In?

Oh well, in time I may still come to fully appreciate the Prisoner.

The only place I've seen the Prisoner run is PBS stations, being that it's a British show. So perhaps it just wanted shown on regular broadcast channels in your area?

Post by **lurch** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 2:25 am

Sindatur..Gooney over at Lost says hi!,,and what was shown on the american PBS stations was actually probably the best version. Why?...Okay,,CBS ran the original episodes in '69. Then some years later.. the Canadian Broadcast re-aired the episodes but they added a short commentary on the end of each episode. It was like thematic dissection. Then PBS stations ran those episodes,,with NO commercials..the Best. For me.. while it was Cold War era,,the exploration was larger than that context and what was being explored on the thematic level is still applicable today. " The Prisoner" is Art. Its production values may not be up to today's LOST , but the expression is timeless.

From my perspective what is also Very Important,,is that sucha " artsy" show was aired on commercial TV. True.. it wasn't aired during " regular season."..It was a summer replacement I think,,on CBS. A Big complaint at that time was that commercial TV was being blasted as a Vast WasteLand.. a potential never realized. Marshall Mc Cluhan(spl) was testifying in front of Congress about what he saw as a wasteland. ( an side..to this day I can remember Arty whats his name in Laugh-in standing there with a sunflower in his hand and saying just..".Marshal McCluhan..What ar ya doin?" ) Anyway, so perhaps CBS had a moment of conscious and floated the show to see what would happen. Basically it was too heady for the average american audience. I know I didn't get " it" until some years later watching the PBS version.

For its Time.. everything as Metaphor, was avante and showed that the Media could deliver if any so chose to use it that way. That kind of expression wasn't just for Big Movies. Twilite Zone and " The Prisoner" opened the possibility up for shows like Twin Peaks, " Ed" and now LOST and even Eli Stone( which I hear, isn't be renewed) and the few other bandwagon shows like Mars, Jericho, etc. All of them now and whatever the future brings, owe alot to " The Prisoner". " The Prisoner" showed that a mind stretching, thoughtful, artsy show could be entertaining and hold some kind of audience. To this day,, there are still active Fan Clubs of the Prisoner. I am hopeful and sure that 50 years after LOST leaves the airwaves..there will still be fan clubs.

Post by **matrixman** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 7:59 am

I don't recall what channel The Prisoner was shown on around here, but lurch says it was the CBC, and I'll go with that.

As for LOST: I'm glad to hear that it's a high quality series, but I never followed it. Looks to be another television phenomenon that I just never got into. Just like I never got into Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But then, I've been (mostly) out of touch with prime time episodic TV since the Eighties.

lurch mentioned The Twilight Zone, one of the best shows in the history of television. I totally forgot to add it to my list of 60's favorites. (Though in checking I see that the show technically began in 1959.)

Post by **Cagliostro** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 7:05 pm

Hey...if you want to watch it, just go ahead and watch it.

I got into it about 6 years ago or so thanks to netflix, and became a huge fan. I still say it is one of the best shows that ever was on television. It starts like a normal television show, but it does move into the world of metaphor, which is why so many people hated it once it all played out. I think it is brilliant, and the next to last episode ("Once Upon A Time") is one of the best things I've ever seen. I have the whole series on DVD now, and set subtitles on for this episode.

McGoohan was a brilliant man, and will be missed.

Be seeing you, Patrick!

Post by **CovenantJr** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:27 am

matrixman wrote:
Menolly wrote:mm...
I love The Prisoner.
It is one of my top all-time favorite shows.
But...

Perhaps for you it would suffer from not aging well.
Oh, The Village still entices,
and the whole manipulation concept intrigues.
But overall it is still a cold-war era concept.
And perhaps that will make the show difficult for you to relate to.

The other thing is nostalgia. The show was so innovative for it's time. That also may not be as apparent today...
Not sure why the show didn't catch on with me, because as a kid I watched nearly everything on TV, new shows as well as old. It might simply have been that reruns of the Prisoner were slotted at the wrong time for me.

It's true that not many Sixties-era TV shows are on my all-time favorites list, but I can name Get Smart, The Avengers, and of course, Star Trek.

And how could I forget Laugh-In?

Oh well, in time I may still come to fully appreciate the Prisoner.

The Prisoner is a work of genius in many ways, but it's also one of the most horrendously flawed series I've ever seen. If you decide to give it another go, be prepared to see more than one series' share of terrible episodes. That's the thing with The Prisoner, though: it veers from brilliant to poor from one episode to the next, particularly towards the end.

For the record, Hammer Into Anvil would be my choice of episode, followed by Checkmate and Schizoid Man.

Post by **matrixman** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:50 am

Thanks for the recommendation, Cov!

And Cag, thanks for the link.

I'll get to it when I get to it, as they say. (The curse of the internet - and Google - is that it's become too easy to find stuff.)

Post by **Zahir** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:00 am

True story.

Friend of my brother is a huge fan of The Prisoner. Years ago, he was on a bus tour of Wales and fell asleep on the bus. Okay. But while he was napping, the bus pulled into Port Merion--the place where they filmed the exteriors for the show. Nobody wanted to disturb his sleep, so they tiptoed out of the bus.

A few minutes later, my brother's friend woke up. And screamed.

HE HAD FALLEN ASLEEP AND WOKE UP IN THE VILLAGE!

YouTube · Post by **Menolly** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:28 pm

Zahir wrote:HE HAD FALLEN ASLEEP AND WOKE UP IN THE VILLAGE!

*giggle*

The stop had to have been listed on the tour's itinerary...no?

Post by **sindatur** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:52 pm

Zahir wrote:True story.

Friend of my brother is a huge fan of The Prisoner. Years ago, he was on a bus tour of Wales and fell asleep on the bus. Okay. But while he was napping, the bus pulled into Port Merion--the place where they filmed the exteriors for the show. Nobody wanted to disturb his sleep, so they tiptoed out of the bus.

A few minutes later, my brother's friend woke up. And screamed.

HE HAD FALLEN ASLEEP AND WOKE UP IN THE VILLAGE!

LOL, that had to be one heck of a jolt. Being an American, I was always fascinated by "the Village"

Post by **CovenantJr** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:59 pm

Zahir wrote:True story.

Friend of my brother is a huge fan of The Prisoner. Years ago, he was on a bus tour of Wales and fell asleep on the bus. Okay. But while he was napping, the bus pulled into Port Merion--the place where they filmed the exteriors for the show. Nobody wanted to disturb his sleep, so they tiptoed out of the bus.

A few minutes later, my brother's friend woke up. And screamed.

HE HAD FALLEN ASLEEP AND WOKE UP IN THE VILLAGE!

I live about half an hour's drive from Portmeirion. I need to go there again sometime.

Post by **matrixman** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:55 pm

Good story, Zahir!

Post by **Endymion9** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 5:28 am

Did any of you ever read the Hearts in Atlantis story where the boy and girl used the "I want information" line? Great book, especially that part of the story.

I loaned the book to a friend at work who had never watched The Prisoner and that sequence made no sense to her though.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

They wanted "Information." They never got it...

They wanted "Information." They never got it...