of all times was "Combat," with Vic Morrow. I also liked "The Gallant Men," and "The Rat Patrol."

It was aired on PBS once a week.

It took me so long to find someone else that remembered seeing it that, for a while, I thought I imagined the whole thing.  Kind of funny given the context of the premise of the show!

For all the legions of fans of current shows like 'Lost', 'The Prisoner' was the daddy of them all.

I will be interested to see if the re-make is any good.  I may have to actually buy a TV.

Re: OK, another off-topic post, but this one is NOT political

Actually that remake's been in the can for a year or so. I know over the years there has been talk of a Prisoner remake. If memory serves, at one stage a movie was mooted with Mel Gibson as Number Six.

As a big fan of the original series I'm reserving judgement until I've seen the newer version. Generally, I'm not a big fan of remakes since they are seldom as good as the original. Afterall, why fix something that ain't broke?

For me, the best remakes are the ones that borrow elements of the original and try not to duplicate. It will be interesting to see if they can capture any of the quirky, oddball tone  of the original, although there will only ever be one Number Six for me!

You can catch most of it on You Tube if you are intersted.

Be see'n You.

to write a kick-ass song about it!

Hey wait a minute.... Maiden's mascot is named Eddie... coincidence??

-- Modified on 9/23/2009 1:55:08 PM

Interestingly, McGoohan wanted to do only 6 episodes (a mini-series) but the BBC wanted a full season (which at that time could have been up to 30 episodes but they wanted 24) so they settled on 17.

I read Christopher Nolan was interested in doing a big screen adaptation but that never panned out.

The timing of the show's release was perfect, exactly one week after the final episode of "The Fugitive" (starring David Janssen, and based on a combination of Les Miserables and the Sam Sheppard murder case in Cleveland--despite Roy Huggins' denials).

"The Prisoner" helped to fill the vacuum left by the ending of "The Fugitive" and the answer to the mystery was always right there in the opening credits.

"Who is Number 1?"  "You are Number 6"  had a drastically changed meaning with the insertion of one simple comma:
"Who is Number 1?"  "YOU ARE, Number 6."

Thanks for the walk down Memory Lane, Eddie, and thanks for the heads up about the new series.

Looks lame.

You need a different #2 in each episode otherwise, it's just not THE PRISONER.

Re: OK, another off-topic post, but this one is NOT political

Great find, Eddie!  I was a fan of "The Prisoner" as well.  As a young kid, being able to watch this show, followed by "Doctor Who" every Saturday night on PBS made me who I am today...of course that was before I discovered women and porn!  

Thanks for the "Head's up!", Eddie. As a young teen, I loved trying to figure out all the twists and turns of the original show. It was actually first aired in the U.S. as a summer replacement series (on CBS, I believe) long before it ran on PBS over here. Guess the (commercial) network suits figured they had nothing to lose in running such a show in that time period. One that they felt was way too intelligent, sophisticated, and intellectual for the masses of the "great unwashed" to which they normally cow-towed. Of course it's even worse today, what with the dumbing-down of the American public and the current twin plagues of "reality" television and endlessly cloned crime-oriented series (thank goodness for "cable networks" - and porn!).

Best regards,
Speed Racer

P.S., One of my favorite episodes of "The Simpsons" is the one where they spoof "The Prisoner"... "see you on the Island!"

-- Modified on 9/24/2009 9:50:22 AM

According to SlashFilm, the pre production of the new prisoner is pretty far along.  Not sure if it has a listing on the Hollywood Stock Exchange yet.