Thursday, June 4, 2015

COZI TV now airing Tara King era

I just noticed last night that COZI TV has been airing the Tara King (played by Linda Thorson) episodes of the 1960s British TV series The Avengers -- at the ungodly hour of 1am (Eastern time) weekdays.  The Tara King era is my all-time favorite era of the program, and one that is unjustly overlooked.  (You can read another blogger's appreciation of the era here.)

COZI's TV schedule on their website only lists episodes up to June 17th, so assuming that "Split!" (on June 2nd) was the first of the Tara King episodes that they have aired in this current round of reruns, then that means they will be airing "You'll Catch Your Death," "Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40?", "Legacy of Death," "They Keep Killing Steed," "The Interrogators," "The Rotters," "Invasion of the Earthmen," "The Morning After," "The Curious Case of the Countless Clues," "Love All," "Stay Tuned," "Take Me to Your Leader," "Fog," Who Was That Man I Saw You With?", "Homicide and Old Lace," "Thingumajig," Requiem," Take-Over" (my all-time favorite Avengers episode!), and "Pandora" in late June / early July.  And then that will be it for the Tara King era... presumably COZI will go back to the beginning with the Honor Blackman episodes after that.

(UPDATE, 6/25/2015):  I've updated the below broadcast schedule to reflect the recent additions found on COZI's site.)

Unfortunately, COZI edits the episodes down to fit in more commercials.  I thought that the editing of the episodes on A&E (circa 1990, when I first started taping the show off TV) was bad, but this is worse, where even the writer-director credits at the beginning have been cut as well as the entire end-credits sequence!  It's better than nothing, I suppose, though.  The DVDs of the Tara King era aren't cheap, even in the secondary market like eBay, and Hulu doesn't have any of the Tara King episodes on their site (aside from the final Diana Rigg story, "The Forget-Me-Knot," which introduced Tara King). 


Here are the Tara King episodes they have on their schedule so far:

Tuesday, 6/2/2015:
Split!

Wednesday, 6/3/2015:
Get-a-Way: Three Russian spies escape from a seemingly escape-proof Monastery, each by ingesting a Lizard vodka that makes the agents seem invisible.

Thursday, 6/4/2015:
Have Guns - Will Haggle: Steed believes a Colonel from Africa may be responsible for the disappearance of three thousand stolen army rifles, as the Colonel is planning a revolution.

Friday, 6/5/2015:
Look- (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers... : Directors of the Capitol land and Development Company are being killed; the clues left behind at the scene lead the Avengers to believe that a clown.

Saturday, 6/6/2015:
My Wildest Dream: When a member of the Acme Precision Combine is murdered by a supposed sleepwalker, John Steed and Tara King venture to a clinic who may be programming killers.

Tuesday, 6/9/2015:
All Done with Mirrors: Suspected of leaking secrets from Carmadoc Research Establishment and under house arrest, Steed must watch helplessly as Tara goes in with a new partner.

Wednesday, 6/10/2015:
Super Secret Cypher Snatch: A secret leakage from Cypher HQ and an agent's disappearance are investigated by Mother's group, but everybody at Cypher HQ claims nothing has happened.

Thursday, 6/11/2015:
Game: When several of Steed's former army colleagues die suddenly Steed discovers a complex plot devised by a man they all court-martialled.

Friday, 6/12/2015:
False Witness: A trusted agent's loss of three partners in quick succession is cause for worry when he's partnered next with Steed in an attempt to convict a blackmailer.

Saturday, 6/13/2015:
Noon Doomsday: Gerald Kafka, ex-head of Murder International, hatches a high-noon revenge plot against Steed for sending him to prison exactly seven years previously.

Tuesday, 6/16/2015:
Wish You Were Here: Miss Tara King checks into a Country hotel to investigate their odd practices, including not permitting many of their guests to check out.

Wednesday, 6/17/2015:
Killer: The department is desperate to find Remak, but a succe
ssion of agents on his trail have turned up dead, and Steed must work with a new partner.

Thursday, 6/18/2015:
The Rotters: Members of the Institute of Timber Technology are killed by assassins for standing in the way of a deadly plot hatched by WormDoom; a chemical is threatened.

Friday, 6/19/2015:
The Interrogators: A foreign agent goes in disguise of Colonel Mannering discovers and puts to use an ingenious method of obtaining secret information from various British agents.


Saturday, 6/20/2015:
The Morning After: A sedated Steed, who's after super-spy Merlin, wakes to martial law, firing squads at large and a nuclear bomb holding the government ransom.


Tuesday, 6/23/2015:
Stay Tuned: Steed suffers a serious case of deja vu when he loses weeks from his life and evidence of things he has done but couldn't not possibly remember.


Wednesday, 6/24/2015:
Fog: A modern day "Jack the Ripper" is on the loose, targeting members of an international disarmament conference by stabbing them with a sword stick.

Thursday, 6/25/2015:
Who Was That Man I Saw You With?: A sinister mastermind is looking to start World War III, and does so by following around Tara, who is tasked with testing the security of a top-secret computer.

Friday, 6/26/2015:
Pandora: While shopping for antiques, Miss King is abducted, and wakes up in a room decorated in furniture from decades before; Kidnapper won't let go of the past.


Saturday, 6/27/2015:
Thingumajig: A little black box is responsible for the deaths of a team of archaeologists excavating a site underneath a church; the vicar, an old friend of Steed's.


Tuesday, 6/30/2015:
Take-Over A married couple, friends of Steed, are visited by a sinister organization who plants explosives in the couple's throats and force them to a peace conference.  


Wednesday, 7/1/2015:
Bizarre: Steed is sent to investigate strange happenings that supposedly happened in a snowy field; Helen Pritchard claims to have seen a man who was presumed dead.


After this episode, the channel will begin running the early 1960s episodes of The Avengers, many of which featured Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale.  Those broadcast dates are listed as follows:


Thursday, 7/2/2015:
The White Dwarf: A famous astronomer begins having threats on his life after he predicts a small star could be responsible to the certain destruction of Earth.
(Season 2, ep. 21; orig. airdate: Feb. 16, 1963)


Friday, 7/3/2015:
Bizarre is listed on site (see above, 7/1/15)


Saturday, 7/4/15:
Mission to Montreal: Steed and Doctor King take a trip to North America on an ocean liner to track down a stolen piece of American microfilm containing important information.
(Season 2, ep. 5; orig. airdate: Oct. 27, 1962)


Tuesday, 7/7/15:
Man in the Mirror: After her camera and film are stolen at the fair, Venus recovers one rolls of film and makes an unusual discovery in one of her photographs.
(Season 2, ep. 22; orig. airdate: Feb. 23, 1963) [with Venus Smith]


Wednesday, 7/8/15:
Dead on Course: While investigation a plane crash in Ireland, Steed is lead into the Shamrock airport and a convent; Doctor King performs autopsies on the passengers killed.
(Season 2, ep. 14; orig. airdate: Dec. 29, 1962)

    


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