Robert Coote steals the show

I've been watching the (bootleg) complete "Rogues" series (found it on ioffer.com). I'm loving it, and it confirms what I remember from seeing it as a grade schooler in its original run: the real star of the show is Robert Coote as Timmy.

Despite the star power of rotating protagonists David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Gig Young, Coote, who was in almost every episode, was the glue that held the series together. His Timmy was a perfect P.G. Wodehouse-style English fop who also happens to be a world class thief, con artist and disguise master. The relatively-bland leads are always chasing after some romance or other, but its Timmy who keeps focus on the caper.

The show easily could have been a misfire without the Timmy character and an actor like Coote to portray him. As it was, Robert Coote more than anyone else made this into one of the most fondly remembered of lost TV classics.

(Btw, don't feel guilty about watching The Rogues on bootleg. Life's too short to wait for the powers that be to make up their minds to release it on disc.)