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Someone mentioned that Roger Moore starred as a “Maverick” while Jack Kelly was going thru a contract dispute
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Then James Garner was in the more recent movie of “Maverick” with Mel Gibson
That was a pretty darned good movie
It kept the humor and developed a good western movie storyline
The best actor in it was the Indian - forget his name
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Unlike the movie “Wild Wild West” which was a PC social revisionist project
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“The Prisoner” was not an ABC, NBC, CBS - network TV broadcast show
CH13-PBS I believe
[“The Prisoner” was not an ABC, NBC, CBS - network TV broadcast show]
You have finally solved the reason I am unfamiliar with it!!
““The Prisoner” was not an ABC, NBC, CBS - network TV broadcast show”
I hate to date myself...but my recollection is that The Prisoner was
originally broadcast on CBS as a “summer replacement”, at least in
my hometown in Oklahoma.
Sadly, about the only Internet evidence I can find is about CBS declining
to broadcast one episode (due to drug-use issues). (URL and excerpt below)
And I will say that the first time I saw The Prisoner, years after the
original run, was on a PBS station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner
“The network, CBS, stated that their refusal was due to the episode’s
depiction of drug abuse, which many fans claimed was also seen in
other episodes.”
The Prisoner aired on CBS as a summer replacement series in either the summer of 1968 or 1969, at least the NY City station. That was a network owned station, in fact their flagship, so it would probably have been available to all CBS affiliates. I remember watching all 17 episodes that summer with my older sister. That's also how I can date it, as '69 would have been the last summer she spent at the family home before going off on her own.
Unlike the movie “Wild Wild West” which was a PC social revisionist project
Robert Conrad, the original James West from the TV Series, objected to Will Smith taking the part. It wasn't because he was black, but because they had always done their own stunts on the TV show. He considered it what set the show apart. He had the broken bones to prove it. He knew that there was no way Smith would be doing the same kinds of stunts and fights as he had done. He said that there was only one working actor he could picture as James West in the movie: Jackie Chan. He figured that Smith could play the Artemus Gordon part. I think that would have been a much better movie.
I've heard a story from a friend connected with film making that Jackie Chan heard of Conrad's remarks and liked the idea. Since he couldn't do Wild Wild West he decided he'd do his own western / buddy picture, which is where the idea supposedly came from for Shanghai Noon. Interesting idea, true or not.