The Avengers Forever: Website News Archive

	Website News Archive December 2002

Happy New Year. 31 December. My wishes to all for a peaceful and prosperous '03. If nothing else, it looks as if we should at last see the completion of the series on DVD. As a kind of New Year's Day present, here is something for which many fans have been clamoring: The Original Avengers Font! This is a TrueType font that should work on most all PCs and MACs. Note that it is a "work in progress" that may see modifications and improvements in the months ahead (it's been years since I've created a font, and I'm just a wee bit rusty). Here's a sample of the character set. Enjoy! Also: Luca Fratnik would like to alert Italian fans that the Emma Peel color series is being aired Monday through Friday at 10:50 AM on the Italian TV network La7. "All the episodes are fully dubbed in Italian and in gorgeous color," he notes.

A gift from Anna. 29 December. Almost but not quite too late, Anna Romanelli of Italy has offered up a holiday gift for Italian (and Italian-speaking) fans.

Sleuthing. 27 December. The first update for the Police Surgeon site in many a moon involves The Avengers regular guester Edwin Richfield: a photo caption at the ABC Television site confirms he did appear in the series, but does not indicate which episode. By process of elimination and some guesswork, "Under the Influence" seems to make the most sense; hopefully this will be verified someday. In other news, I found an interesting article on the "forgotten Avengers girl" called Steed's Venus and her Blue Beaver.

Ho, ho, ho! 25 December. The last Tara King R1 DVD set from A&E is ready for pre-order in the United States and Canada. (If you already ordered it directly from A&E, Santa will be bringing it along sometime around New Years.)

Happy holidays! 24 December. I just love this wonderful image, done by the wonderful Carlos (Los Vengadores) Pagés of Argentina, who gives thanks to Norman Rockwell.

Happy Holidays from all of us at TheAvengers.TV

MOO. 23 December. Please don't have a cow. After having struggled literally for years to come up with a means of organizing episodes, and having finally settled on Production Order, I have found that the old "Six or Seven" argument page was morphing into a bloated rationalization for the "weird" way things are done at TAF. Since all of the old arguments seem to have finally died down and most folks have gotten used to the Production Order scheme, I decided to formally convert the old "Six or Seven" argument page into the Ministry of Order (MOO), with the Six or Seven part split off. I have also added the MOO page organization table to all of the episode indices. Hopefully this will answer most questions in advance, and hopefully this will be the last time I mess around with any of this mumbo jumbo.

Marathon! 22 December. Don't forget the New Years Day Avengers Marathon on the Mystery Channel. Eli Mansour has kindly provided the schedule—please see AvengerNews for the details. Eli (who is 11) also spotted another Acronym: the IBPC, and he has compiled The Differences Between "Don't Look Behind You" and "The Joker". Well done, Eli!

Come again? 20 December. What did Emma whisper to Steed in "The Forget-Me-Knot"? Several fans have made suggestions, but "Dame Diana Rigg 'ologist" John Orleanski and his friend Eric Diethorn took a high-tech approach to the problem. Using sophisticated audio analysis equipment (they happen to work "in the biz"), they sampled the sound during Emma's whisper and subjected it to serious scientific scrutiny. The results are not (yet) conclusive, but preliminary analysis indicates that the most likely contender is "Are you the man who dallies with me?" I personally find it interesting that, first, Diana Rigg in fact whispered anything intelligible at all (instead of just mouthing nonsense words), and, second, there are fans who will go to such lengths to find out what it was!

Still more glimpses into the past. 18 December. Look for 29 additional images (bringing the total to 60) illuminating the following David Keel episodes:

I've got mail. 17 December. Plenty of new reading material. Start with a marvelous review of "The Town of No Return" by Daniel, follow with a delightful essay on "Purdey and Me" by Phoenix, toss in some unusual trivia by Anthony Durrant for "Pandora," and finish off with November visitor comments. Plus, two more David Keel faux screen grabs have been added: the top image in "Brought to Book" and the second one down in "Hunt the Man Down."

Egghead speak. 13 December. Remember how Steed cheated on the Ransack test in "The Master Minds"? He had answers written on his shirt cuff. But what exactly was written on that cuff? As it happens, Avengers fan James Warren, an ex-Navy man trained in navigation, was perfectly suited to provide the answer.

Bits and bobs. 10 December. Mostly trivia: Andreas Schneider on subtle differences in "The Joker" as it appeared on German television; D.P. Paré on the significance of character names in "The Curious Case of the Countless Clues"; Margaret Warren on "roughing it" in "The Town of No Return"; James Warren on the meaning of "Ransack" in "The Master Minds"; and there is a new visitor review of "Invasion of the Earthmen" by Cassandra Elise. Also... not having anything to do with anything, but I had so much fun messing about with the David Keel images that I applied the same techniques to all remaining non-DVD screen grabs, which includes about a dozen Cathy Gale and a handful of Tara King episodes. They will, of course, be replaced with proper images when these episodes are at last released on R1 DVD come the new year.

More glimpses into the past. 6 December. Eight new images have been added to David Keel era pages, bringing the total image count to 29. All images, both new and existing, have been processed to look like really low-tech screen grabs (point Brownie at TV and shoot). This is as much to have fun as it is to disguise the wide range of source image quality. The new bogus grabs have been add to:

It's that time of year. 5 December. Recently some visitors have noticed that TAF no longer has any sound files. Where'd they go? They were pulled to make room! As you have seen, TheAvengers.TV sites are constantly growing and improving, plus we have exciting new additions planned for 2003. Unfortunately, we are literally out of space on our web host (in fact, we've run over the limit), and so we will need to purchase additional space soon so we can continue to provide the quality content you've come to expect. You can help TheAvengers.TV get the extra space we need. With the Holiday Shopping Season upon us once again, many folks will be taking to the internet to order their gifts. If you are a regular Amazon.com customer, or would like to become one, you can help support our family of websites by making your online purchases using the following links. Remember, anything you buy supports TheAvengers.TV (but if you're looking for Avengers stuff, don't forget The Avengers eStore). Thank you!

On location revisited. 2 December. The next major TAF overhaul that had been planned after Flats was On Location, finally complete today. All of the pages now feature "before" screen grabs to compare with larger, clearer "after" images. Enjoy a brief stroll through Avengerland!

Relaunch fever continues. 1 December. After Alan and Alys Hayes, now it's Carlos Pagés' turn with Los Vengadores! Carlos has rebuilt every page from scratch (even the stuff that doesn't look new is new), with all new graphics and images, all new text, and whole new sections, plus lots more that he can't remember just now. With 220 fabulous pages to explore (and another 165 at the Avengers on the Radio), Avengers fans have their surfing cut out for them. Bravo, Carlos!