THOSE GREAT 60'S TV SHOWS

Even more exciting than running home from school to watch the daily dose of DARK SHADOWS was having to wait a whole week for the next episode of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. I was a bona fide spy-crazed teenager back then and you didn't have to look too hard for any number of secret agent TV shows on nearly every major TV network. The team of Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) were my favorites by a long shot. It's not a stretch to say that U.N.C.LE. was a smash hit. It's popularity reached "across the pond" as this TV magazine from the UK attests.

Included in this issue of WTVA PRESENTS PRIMETIME (Vol. 1, No. 8, Spring 1984) is a reminisce of a number of popular shows, including U.N.C.L.E., THE TWILIGHT ZONE,and THE PRISONER. Also included is an article by Kim Newman on the UK's creepy 1977 series SUPERNATURAL and features on THE INVADERS, gaslight (the old-fashioned streetlamp type) detective shows and a very interesting interview with Brian Clemens. Clemens was a Hammer Films director, screenwriter and TV producer who created and/or contributed to such cool British series like THE AVENGERS, DANGER MAN (which later became SECRET AGENT in the U.S.), THE PROTECTORS (starring Robert Vaughn!), the UK THRILLER series and THE PROFESSIONALS.

Time to open Channel-D and start reading!

THE OCCULT WORLD OF PATRICK McGOOHAN'S 'THE PRISONER'

Back in the seventies, I worked at my friend's father's office machines store just a few blocks from the beach in Santa Monica, CA. "Office machines" in those days meant typewriters and calculators. It was my first sales job and I was eager to please.

My very first customer was on one fine Saturday, when in walked a gentlemen whom I instantly recognized. I spent the next hour or so trying my best to sell this man a portable typewriter that he wanted to take with him "on safari". It was well past lunchtime, my blood sugar was dropping, and I was trying desperately to maintain my poise.

I finally closed the deal, when my customer decided on a Royal portable. I believe the bill came to $100 and change, and he walked away a (I'd hoped) a satisfied customer. The customer's name? Patrick McGoohan!

One of the quirkiest, but engaging television series of all time remains THE PRISONER. The brainchild of actor the aforementioned Patrick McGoohan, each episode of the 17-episode series, shot in the quaint little resort town of Portmeirion Village, Wales, built upon the other to create, by the end, a head-spinning, psychedelic narrative that served up more questions than answers.

In the October 2017 issue of FORTEAN TIMES, author Brian J. Robb "opens up the secret world" that was under the surface of the series. Mr. Robb explores the occult elements of the show that were ever-present but not always recognizable.