Classic TV Themes: The Avengers / The New Avengers скачать в хорошем качестве

Classic TV Themes: The Avengers / The New Avengers

'The Avengers' has a different general meaning now than it did in the 60s, when it was cool, stylish John Steed coupled with the mod magnetism of Emma Peel, one of tv's great pairings. Of course the show didn't start that way, and didn't end that way either, and we've got the entire collection of opens and credits for your viewing pleasure. 00:00 The Avengers begins: It was a vehicle for Ian Hendry, who teamed up with Patrick Macnee to avenge a murder. Hendry left after one season and there were several new partners for Steed until they settled on Cathy Gale, memorably played by Honor Blackman with her leather, 'kinky boots'. and martial arts. The theme by John Dankworth, as you will hear, was a jazzy little number but not the music that would define the show. 01:19 Diana Rigg: The show was sold to ABC in the US and the show changed from studio-bound videotape to using 35mm film and real locations. Steed was the dandy with a deadly umbrella, Emma was the mod 'talented amateur' as described in the prologue (seen here) filmed for US viewers unfamiliar with the premise of the show. The black-and-white opens and closes were montages of still images. The new theme, by Laurie Johnson, was an instant classic; one story is that it uses the chord changes from Cole Porter's 'Why Can't You Behave?' but I don't hear that. 03:45 Color: With the success of the B&W series the show moved on to color. Stories got even more fantastic, while the color camera absolutely loved Diana Rigg. The opening and closing were now a sort of pantomime with Steed and Emma striking various fighting poses, and Diana Rigg's memorable method of uncorking a champagne bottle. Pitch-corrected to compensate for 'PAL speedup'. 06:11 Tara: When Diana Rigg left the show one of the producers selected his then-girlfriend: Linda Thorson. It was a rough start but she quickly grew into the role of Tara King and made it her own. Laurie Johnson gave the theme a refresh, adding a trumpet line that became the Tara theme. Bad scheduling in the US (the new pair was a hit in Europe) would eventually end the series. The first set of episodes had a target-themed open/close, styled in the manner of the color Rigg titles. Later episodes used a suit of armor motif with Steed and Tara romping in the outdoors. Unfortunately, the target open/close has been eliminated from almost all the early episodes, and the one where the open is still there ('Split!') oddly has the audio from the suit-of-armor open attached to it. We've edited the 'Split!' open to remove the incongruous sound of a sword swishing, and restore the missing gun shot (without it the hole in the hat gag doesn't quite make sense). That's followed by the knight-in-armor open/ending (though I like the target version better; in fact it may be my favorite of all the Avengers openings).NOTE: A new restoration of the target, or 'shooting range', titles/credits has been posted here, with all the incorrect passages fixed, with superior audio and video quality::    • TV Theme Restoration: The Avengers (T...   10:22 The New Avengers: This 1976 semi-sequel brought back Macnee along with Gareth Hunt as Gambit and Joanna Lumley as Purdey. It was more serious, less spoofy, with Purdey and her motorcycle continuing the 'Avengers' tradition of spectacular female leads. Laurie Johnson's theme starts with the 'Avengers' fanfare, but segues to the driving, contemporary sound of an action thriller. Early episodes used a series of clips in the opening titles; later ones used pictures of the leads and some crude animated outlines. Yeah, I like the first titles better than the later version, but they're both here so you be the judge. Pitch-corrected. Enjoy this visit the world of The Avengers!