MovieChat Forums > The New Avengers (1978) Discussion > Did the first set of credits ever air as...

Did the first set of credits ever air as filmed?

posted 14 years ago by photoenthusiast
11 replies | jump to latest

As most NEW AVENGERS fans are already aware, there are two distinctly different sets of opening titles. The first starts on a blank set (similar to the Rigg color series, only her background was blue-ish/white, and these are a murky green), and then immediately gives way to a series of action scenes from the first two or three episodes. The second is the more widely used computer generated set, with animated sillouhettes that disolve into the stars, ultimately becoming the stylish lion with the union jack design.

Did a DIFFERENT version of the first titles ever actually air? I've recently seen one of the official AVENGERS calendars, and one page is made up of still frames from the opening credits. In addition to all three as seen through a crystaline looking circle, there are also shots apparently filmed but to my knowledge NEVER transmitted. One shows Gambit with gun drawn, framed through that same circle. Another shows Purdey, and she is shown reclining within the circle. The calendar text only states that these live action credits were shown a few times before being replaced with the computer generated ones, but I wonder if they in fact EVER aired, at least with these unusual solo shots. Anyone out there know?

"Holy one-track Bat-computer mind!"

[–] profh-1 13 years ago

Interesting... the opening shot thru the circle always suggested to me the Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson credits. I figured that, along with the notes from their theme song, they wanted to remind the audience of the new show's connection with the old, before moving on to the "new". Makes me wonder if they ever actually put together a full set of credits in that style?

CBS in America ran THE NEW AVENGERS 3 times (1978-79, 80-81, 84-85) and the entire series has NEVER been seen here since. The 1st time, CBS REMOVED the opening credits from EVERY episode! So I never even saw the opening credits at all until 2 years later, when they "put them back". (THE CBS LATE MOVIE began by showing reruns of NBC MYSTERY MOVIES. The opening theme for that anthology was never shown, they would cut straight to each individual series' opening credits. But when they started running OTHER series, like THE NIGHT STALKER or THE NEW AVENGERS, they also cut out the credits. In the case of THE NEW AVENGERS, this was particularly annoying, as the theme song was several minites INTO each story!)

Kinda makes me glad I didn't get a VCR until late 1979. If I'd had one earlier, ALL my episodes of this show would be missing the theme song.

[–] photoenthusiast 13 years ago

Yes, I remember those CBS credits - or lack of - very well! It was definitely irritating, because I had built up such expectations for the show, being a huge fan of THE AVENGERS (both the Rigg and Thorson years). The whole family stayed up just to watch the very first episode. Then at 11:30, a very confusing thing happened. The new theme music played, but the visual that accompanied it was the CBS LATE MOVIE logo, an animated, sort of psychedilic 5 pointed star, while the announcer declared "Tonight on CBS, a double feature!". This was followed by a cut up version of the credits which included the CBS announcer naming the stars, over a combination of the computerized figures mixed in with some live action scenes (and some of these were only ever used in the CBS version, too, such as Steed holding someone at umbrella point, and another shot of him as seen through a car windshield).

Then there was a jarring cut to unrelated scenes from the evenings second feature, with the resultant change of theme music. Finally, it cut BACK to the NEW AVENGERS credits along with the end of the theme music. It was so badly done, that I assumed we were simply watching a fast paced preview for the show, and that the real opening titles were still going to play. They didn't, though. This was how the show aired all year, all too disappointing given how stylish and classy the original show's opening credits had always been. I eventually figured out that in THE NEW AVENGERS, they always opened with some sort of dramatic action and freeze the frame, at which point one should have then seen the opening titles, followed by the scene unfreezing and the episode continuing. Sometimes the opening titles were so poorly edited out, that you'd actually hear the start of the theme before it got cut off!

In any case, eventually CBS did air the show as intended, so I got to see both sets of credits. However, they REALLY messed up when they aired the original AVENGERS series. Those credits were absolutely butchered, but that is another (unfortunately similar) story.

"Holy one-track Bat-computer mind!"

[–] profh-1 13 years ago

Oh my God... I have NO memory of what you describe, but I have no doubt that's exactly what they did. I saw every episode of the 1st and 2nd runs, but only a few of the 3rd, playing catch-up.

I had a VCR by the time of the show's 2nd run (late 1980). I was all set up to tape "THE EAGLE'S NEST", looking forward to it all week. The night of the show, something made me turn the TV on about 10 minutes early. To my HORROR, the show had ALREADY started. I slammed the tape into the VCR and hit record. But I was missing the first several minutes of the show. As it happens, I got the tape running exactly as Steed walks into Stannard's apartment and gets hit on the head. I was so pissed at CBS. It's bad enough when a show is running late, HOW do you start 10 minuutes EARLY???

A few weeks later, they moved the show from Fridays @ 11:30 to Mondays @ 12:40. They REALLY didn't want people to see this. In the process, my favorite episode of the entire run, "FACES" (one of the few times Purdey lets down her guard and we KNOW she really cares about Mike), got SKIPPED. Later on, they also skipped "CAT AMONGST THE PIDGEONS". Also, 'THE TALE OF THE BIG WHY", there was a "CBS News Special Bulletin" right in the middle of the story, and they kept the film running! So I'm still missing a few minutes in the middle of that story.

Another frustration was somewhat my own fault. I'd been taping shows for about a year by then, and normally, without commercials, you could fit 5 episodes onto a tape (at the "medium" or LP speed). NOT this show. Near the end of "HOUSE OF CARDS" (another favorite of mine), the TAPE ran out! I had to run down the hallway in the middle of the night, grab a fresh tape and slam it in. I wound up missing only about ONE minute of the story.

4 years later (1984), I taped the stories I was missing, or missing bits from. CBS screwed the show AGAIN. A double-butcher job: they sped up the film, AND, cut scenes. Just to fit in more commercials. (It was still an 80-min. time slot, so you can figure out how many commercials they were running.)

For "HOUSE OF CARDS", I eventually had to "copy-edit" together a complete version, from 3 DIFFERENT tapes. The short, 1-minute middle section being recorded 4 years after the other 2. I often wish I had much better equipment.

[–] photoenthusiast 13 years ago

Thanks for that story, it was amusing (albeit frustrating for you at the time, obviously!). I was in high school at the time, and my family did not own a VCR, but my best friend did - one of the first BetaMax home video recorders. He often taped shows I really wanted to see more than once (The Return of the Saint, the pilot for The New Original Wonder Woman during it's very first syndicated repeat, Elvira's Movie Macabre and much more - what a great guy!).

Naturally he also taped The Avengers and The New Avengers for me, too. However, I accidentally erased the opening of The Avengers credits - the ones I mention above that were so horribly chopped up and edited down to nothing. And by the time he recorded The New Avengers, they were showing them with the correct opening titles in the correct spot, so I have no visual record of the CBS Late Night hatchet jobs on either program. At the time, I didn't care, because I really hated their version of the credits anyway, but now I wish I had them just for the oddities sake. It would be ideal Youtube material!

"Holy one-track Bat-computer mind!"

[–] John-367 13 years ago

"The second is the more widely used computer generated set, with animated sillouhettes that disolve into the stars, ultimately becoming the stylish lion with the union jack design."

It wasn't computer generated animation, it was hand drawn animation shot on a rostrum camera. I recall visiting Hugh Gordon's animation studio on Wardour Street which did the work.
Computer animation at the time, and for some time later, looked very obviously "computery" and not at all like the New Avengers titles.

[–] photoenthusiast 13 years ago

Thank you for the insight, that is extremely interesting! I'm not sure which interview I was thinking of when I posted the inquiry, but I'm pretty certain the phrase 'computer animated' was employed - of course, it may well have been an interview that had been mis-translated, or the speaker could have been mistaken. Either way, you have provided a unique bit of trivia, which is the name of the studio that did the work!

"Holy one-track Bat-computer mind!"

[–] John-367 13 years ago

I suppose that it's not entirely inconceivable that a computer might have been used to aid in making the "morphing" effects easier, with the final image being produced by hand. I'm not sure of the state of the art in CAD design at the time but I don't think that it became relatively commonplace even in major design companies until the 1980s.

[–] profh-1 11 years ago

The first set of opening credits I remember seeing that were entirely computer-generated 3D were the Sylvester McCoy credits for DOCTOR WHO (seasons 24-26). I read about them in DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE, where they described how much time it took to render each frame of film. I did a little calculating, and based on how long the credits were, I figured it took them at least 6 WHOLE WEEKS to animate the credits!! (I'm sure they could do it a lot faster now.)

Some people apparently don't like those credits, but I never get tired of watching them.

[–] lgreatoreau 7 years ago

Brian Clemens says it's computer generated in Dave Roger's Avengers book.

[–] kducklin2 9 years ago

Only two sets of titles ever aired.

The live-action version was filmed first, to help sell the series as an action-adventure in the USA. The animated (not computer-generated) version was filmed second, and replaced the live action version in later episodes shown in the US.

In the UK the animated version was used from the very beginning (although a couple of early episodes retained the US titles when shown in re-runs). The present UK DVD version was presumably struck from the original US broadcast copies, as most of the early episodes sport the live action titles.

I imagine that the other shots to which you refer were publicity stills.

"Duck, I says..."

[–] photoenthusiast 9 years ago

Yes, I'm sure the shots I mentioned, showing the stars through that crystalline looking circle, are publicity photos. However, I'm positive they filmed live action bits at the exact same time, beyond what we ultimately see in the credits as aired, (the close-up of Steed, which pulls back to allow Purdey and Gambit to step in).

Years ago, I saw an interview with Patrick Macnee on YouTube. I THINK it was for a French television program, but I could be wrong, and I have never seen it since. But they showed live footage, not a still photo, of Purdey on that green set, doing a spin and a kick. I immediately wondered why it seemed familiar, because I knew I'd never seen this before. Then I realized it was exactly the same footage that was used for her animated silhouette in the second version of the credits! So somewhere, there IS footage, probably of Gambit drawing his gun and aiming at the camera, as well. But I am now convinced that these bits, obviously filmed for use in the title sequence, are just un-used clips, the raw footage they decided not to incorporate, for whatever reason. Too bad, it looked like a fun set of credits.

"Holy one-track Bat-computer mind!"