The Prisoner-related stories
Posted Oct 26th 2009 6:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.
Why didn't somebody tell me that they were going to release
The Guardian on DVD? I really liked that show. I don't know if the show is being released because Simon Baker and
The Mentalist are a hit or if it has been in the works long before that, but it's a nice surprise.
- The Barbara Stanwyck Show - Vol. 1
- Battlestar Galactica - The Plan
- CBS News Sunday Morning - On The Road with Charles Kuralt: Set 1
- The Diary of Anne Frank - Miniseries
Continue reading New TV on DVD releases this week
Posted Sep 25th 2009 12:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
IFC has a marathon of The Prisoner all night.- At 8, CBS has the season premiere of Ghost Whisperer, followed by the season premieres of Medium and Numb3rs.
- NBC has the season premiere of Law and Order at 8, then new episodes of Dateline and The Jay Leno Show.
- FOX has the series premiere of Brothers at 8, the the season premiere of Dollhouse.
- There's a new Smallville on The CW at 8.
- PBS has new episodes of Washington Week, NOW, and Bill Moyers Journal.
- MyNetwork TV has a new Smackdown! at 8.
- Nickelodeon has a new episode of The Troop at 8.
- Also at 8: Disney has a new Phineas and Ferb, followed by a new Suite Life on Deck.
- At 8:30, Cartoon Network has a new Ben 10: Alien Force.
- At 9, USA has a new Monk, then a new Psych.
- BBC America has a new Friday Night with Jonathan Ross at 9.
- At 10, HBO has a new Real Time with Bill Maher.
- History Channel has a new Lock 'N Load with R. Lee Ermey at 10.
- E! has a new episode of The Soup at 10.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
After the jump, the late night talk shows.
Continue reading What's On Tonight: Brothers, Law and Order, Medium, Smallville
Posted Aug 26th 2009 6:04PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Reality-Free
Back in the Old Days, before cable ruled the air, Americans only got to see Brit television (most notably,
Doctor Who, but also
The Prisoner and
Monty Python's Flying Circus) via their local PBS station.
Now, thanks to the magic of YouTube, we can revisit those days when the only on-air Comic Cons or Cosplays were the folks at PBS (or whatever public access station was available) dressing up and embarrassing themselves in front of a camera in an effort to get donations. The most interesting aspect is that the low-cost special effects they used to get donations were the same as those used on
Doctor Who at the time.
I sincerely hope the folks behind these videos are watching them right now and cringing, praying for the ground to swallow them up. More likely, the people behind them are the ones who put them on YouTube in the first place.
Continue reading Doctor Who and PBS - Flashback!
Posted Aug 19th 2009 3:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, OpEd, Reality-Free, British TV
While we're anxiously -- and optimistically -- awaiting the AMC remake of the classic Patrick McGoohan spy series
The Prisoner, filmmaker
Christopher Nolan has abandoned a big screen version of The Prisoner. Nolan reportedly will concentrate instead on a third
Batman movie.
Continue reading Nolan chooses another Batman over The Prisoner
Posted Jul 25th 2009 5:22AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Reality-Free, British TV, Comic-Con
It's always daunting to remake a classic. In TV circles, it doesn't get much more "classic" than
The Prisoner.
In a press conference at
Comic-Con International Friday, the cast and creative team from AMC's six-episode remake discussed the rigors of re-envisioning Patrick McGoohan's landmark show.
Series stars Jim Caviezel and Jamie Campbell-Bower joined writer Bill Gallagher to greet the press after presenting a nine-minute trailer for the show to a packed Comic-Con panel.
Continue reading The Prisoner looks to escape the odds - Comic-Con Report
Posted Jul 23rd 2009 8:03AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Reality-Free, British TV, Comic-Con
In every episode of
The Prisoner, the heroic Number SIx would shout, "I am not a number. I am a free man!" Thanks to AMC's booth promoting the new updated
Prisoner, everyone at Comic-Con can be a number.
Convention visitors can visit AMC's costumed staffers to obtain their own fictional identity and join the world of
The Prisoner.
Fans become official residents of The Village (the show's mysterious city) and receive a photo ID badge identifying them by number only.
Continue reading AMC turns all Prisoner fans into numbers - Comic-Con Report
Posted Jul 7th 2009 10:03AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Reality-Free, British TV, Comic-Con
He is not a number. He is a free man -- and he's coming to Comic-Con.
The stars of AMC's mini-series remake of
The Prisoner are headed to San Diego's mega-convention. The new Number Six, Jim Caviezel, will join Jamie Campbell-Bower (
The Twilight Saga: New Moon) and Lennie James (
Jericho) for a panel and preview of the six-part series.
The Prisoner tells the story of a retired spy who finds himself abducted and spirited away to a mysterious Village where nameless authority figures struggle to break his mind and spirit while he battles to escape. The show is known for its moral and existential themes as much as its sharp writing and distinctive art design.
Continue reading The Prisoner will be free to appear at Comic-Con
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 7:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Video, Reality-Free
It's going to be hard to remake a series as famous and specific as
The Prisoner. It was so weird and of its time that they're going to have to do something really different with it. Purists will probably immediately hate it, while people who have never seen the original will wonder what all of the fuss is about.
After the jump is some behind the scenes footage from the six-part miniseries. It features interviews with stars Jim Caviezel, Ian McKellan, Jamie Campbell-Bower, as well as several behind-the-camera people. I didn't realize that the show was filmed in Namibia and in Cape Town, South Africa, which is going to stand-in for New York City (gah).
Continue reading Behind the scenes of AMC's Prisoner miniseries - VIDEO
Posted Jan 14th 2009 1:11PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Video, Celebrities, Obituaries, Reality-Free
Just the other night I was watching the
Simpsons episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes." It featured a spoof of
The Prisoner, and Patrick McGoohan even reprised his role as Number 6 in the episode. McGoohan didn't do a ton of television, so it was really cool that he decided to lend his voice to the episode. I wonder how many fans of the Simpsons had no idea what the references in the show even meant and were just confused by it all.
McGoohan died in Los Angeles yesterday at age 80.
Continue reading Patrick McGoohan dead at 80 - VIDEO
Posted Jan 7th 2009 7:04PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
As a promotion for its upcoming broadcast of the remake of
The Prisoner starring Jim Caviezel and Sir Ian McKellan, AMC is allowing people to
view the entire original series on its website for free. Patrick McGoohan stars in the series he co-created.
I cannot recommend watching this series enough, especially if you haven't already. I picked up the 40th anniversary DVD set with no regrets. It was quite revolutionary for its time and used a lot of story devices that were unheard of on television back then (such as having an entire episode be a story told by Number Six to a bunch of children). And let us not forget the signature attack-balloon, Rover.
I doubt the remake mini-series will hold up to the original as it was really a product of its time, but Ian McKellan is an excellent actor and his involvement is enough to pique my interest. I suspect that, much like many of the remakes nowadays, this will bear only a superficial resemblence to the original.
Posted Sep 12th 2008 2:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, Reality-Free
One of the greatest TV mini-series of all time was
I, Claudius. It was riveting TV and every time it's been repeated since it premiered in 1976, I've watched it religiously. The Robert Graves novel about the Roman empire, including the mad Caligula, is now set for a remake.
Director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot) will be helming an adaptation of I, Claudius with Nye Heron and Sheridan penning the script.
At this point, the project seems headed to the big screen. That would be a plus insofar as the set design and lush look. However, one of the benefits of the 1976 version was the length. It was 13 episodes, a hour each (sans commercials). That meant the complexities of Graves' novel -- and there were dozens of them -- not to mention the enormous cast of characters, could be played out.
Continue reading I, Claudius set for remake
Posted Aug 5th 2008 2:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, TV on the Bigscreen, Reality-Free
We all know that studios go ga-ga for big screen movies based on TV shows. Even if they tank, there seems to be an unending appetite to bring a beloved (or even semi-beloved) TV show to a theater near you:
The Fugitive,
Charlie's Angels,
Transformers,
The Beverly Hillbillies,
Serenity (
Firefly),
The Simpsons,
South Park,
The Flintstones,
The Jetsons...the list is endless. Now Den of Geek has a list of
23 shows that studios are planning to bring to the big screen.
But this list is really incomplete in so many ways. We've all heard that
Magnum, P.I. might get the movie treatment, but this list only says that Matthew McConaughey might star and doesn't mention other people who have been rumored to have been attached to it in the past, including Ben Affleck and George Clooney.
Continue reading Coming to the big screen: Magnum, Wonder Woman ... and V?
Posted Jun 30th 2008 9:20PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Casting, Reality-Free
I don't know how they keep doing it; AMC that is. Not only have they brought us stellar series
(Mad Men) after stellar series (
Breaking Bad), but now they've managed to snag two big-time Hollywood names to join the cast of their remake of one of the smartest shows in television history. What
started as rumor, that even we at TV Squad had a hard time believing, is now fact. Both
Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellan have been cast in AMC's remake of The Prisoner. Caviezel is set to fill Patrick McGoohan's shoes as the titular "Number Six," while McKellan will step into the role of "Number Two."
AMC's
The Prisoner is scheduled to be a six-part mini-series. It hasn't been made clear if those six parts are one hour, two or a combination of both, but either way the original wrapped up in 17 so there's no reason to think we can't get a satisfying tale in six installments. With casting of the two principals announced, it's actually safe to say now that this thing might really get made. AMC is cruising right along with their original programming, and after forty years, I think we're due a re-imagining of this classic series. And unlike
the disastrous The Andromeda Strain at A&E, I have faith that AMC won't let me down ... don't let me down, AMC!
Continue reading McKellan and Caviezel captured for AMC's remake of The Prisoner
Posted Jun 10th 2008 12:01PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
Some details have been released regarding the new mini-series series
remake of The Prisoner, the cult 1960s series starring Patrick McGoohan. For now, these should be treated as rumors.
Supposedly, Jim Caviezel will play the Prisoner known only as Number Six, and Sir Ian McKellan is set to play the jailer known as Number Two. Six episodes will be produced and John Jones will direct.
This report sounds too good to be true. It's doubtful that either Caviezel or McKellan would slum it to a television mini-series from the movies they've been making. On the other hand, McKellan has put in television appearances before (such as
Extras).
While I'm a fan of McKellan's work, wouldn't it be more loyal to the source material if multiple actors played Number Two? I'm just saying.
Shooting begins at the end of August (and scheduled to air next year). At that point, we'll see if the report is accurate.
UPDATE 6/30/2008: AMC Television
has officially announced this series.
[via
AICN]
Posted Feb 11th 2008 10:23AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on DVD, Contests and Giveaways
The giveaways continue today! Not only are we giving away three copies of
The Smurfs season one, volume one on DVD today (plus the
two iPods we're giving away, courtesy of Tava)
, we've also got three copies of
The Complete Prisoner - 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition DVD Set for three lucky, random commenters. The set is available in stores now (
save up to 60% on The Prisoner and other DVD titles.)
To enter, simply leave a comment below before 5:00PM Eastern, Friday, February 15, simply telling us why you'd like to own the set. As always, we'll randomly choose three winners amongst the eligible entries. Some other details:
- To enter, leave a confirmed comment below stating why you'd like to own The Complete Prisoner on DVD.
- The comment must be left before February 15, 2008 at 5:00PM Eastern Time.
- You may enter only once.
- Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
- Three winners will receive a copy of The Complete Prisoner - 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition DVD Set (valued at $99.95).
Click here for complete Official Rules.
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