Sat 3 Sep 2022
A TV Episode Review: THE AVENGERS “Mr. Teddy Bear†(1962)
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[4] Comments
THE AVENGERS “Mr. Teddy Bear.†ABC (Associated British Corporation), UK, 29 September 1962 (Season 2, Episode 1). Patrick Macnee (John Steed), Honor Blackman (Mrs. Cathy Gale). Guest cast: Michael Robbins, John Ruddock, Michael Collins. Written by Martin Woodhouse. Director: Richmond Harding.
This was the first appearance of Honor Blackman as John Steed’s new partner in crime-solving, Cathy Gale, and it’s a good one. The villain of the piece is a notorious assassin for hire with a penchant for the dramatic and flamboyance in carrying out his tasks. Prime example: the episode begins with the death of his latest victim by poisoning on live TV.
Playing to the killer’s obvious ego, Steed comes up a plan. Set himself as bait in a plot which would have Mrs Gale as Mr. Teddy Bear’s latest client. (The name comes from the man’s communicating with his clients via a radio hidden in a stuffed “talking†teddy bear.)
The most common way a new leading character is introduced in a TV series nowadays is to have him or her having just been hired and needing to be mentored by the old guy that’s been around a while. Not so here. It is as if Cathy Gale has always been there. No introduction takes place. The somewhat flirtatious banter between the two leads is exactly that: relaxed and friendly, and a trademark of series from Day One.
To that end, one other reviewer of this episode wondered if the two leads spent their nights as well as days together. The characters I mean. Come on. Obviously some people want to know more than I do.
I also read an interview with Honor Blackman that was conducted much later on in which she was asked about this episode. She said she didn’t remember it very much at all. It was just a job, was her reply. No more than that. Who knew then that The Avengers was going to become such a worldwide phenomenon?
September 5th, 2022 at 8:30 pm
Blackman’s Cathy Gale was more independent than Mrs. Peel when it came to Steed. They don’t always see eye to eye and there is a certain amount of tension between them in later appearances. She sometimes resents being used and objects to Steed’s ruthlessness.
If they are sleeping together, it is obviously a contentious relationship. Gale seems at times to resent Steed’s duplicity (he is much darker in these early episodes than later more an elegant thug than simply elegant, a public-school type gone wrong) and devotion to the job and advocate a more human approach.
For at least the rest of this season she is not Steed’s only assistant, with a girl singer and a young doctor rotating with her in the role.
She’s a cool customer, but far less tongue in cheek than Mrs. Peel and her banter with Steed far more adversarial.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:50 am
Some further backgound, quoting from Wikipedia:
Series 2–3 (1962–1964)
Production of the first series was cut short by a strike. By the time production could begin on the second series, [Ian] Hendry had quit to pursue a film career. Macnee was promoted to star and Steed became the focus of the series, initially working with a rotation of three different partners. Dr Martin King (Jon Rollason), a thinly disguised recreation of the Keel character, saw action in only three episodes, which were produced from scripts written for the first series. King was intended to be a transitional character between Keel and Steed’s two new female partners, but while the Dr King episodes were shot first, they were shown out of production order in the middle of the season. The character was thereafter quickly and quietly dropped.
Nightclub singer Venus Smith (Julie Stevens) appeared in six episodes. She was a complete “amateur”, meaning that she did not have any professional crime-fighting skills as did the two doctors. She was excited to be participating in a spy adventure alongside secret agent Steed (although some episodes—”The Removal Men”, “The Decapod”—indicate she is not always enthusiastic). Nonetheless, she appears to be attracted to him, and their relationship is somewhat similar to that later portrayed between Steed and Tara King. Her episodes featured musical interludes showcasing her singing performances. The character of Venus underwent some revision during her run, adopting more youthful demeanour and dress.
The first episode broadcast in the second series had introduced the partner who would change the show into the format for which it is most remembered. Honor Blackman played Dr Cathy Gale, a self-assured, quick-witted anthropologist who was skilled in judo and had a passion for leather clothes. Widowed during the Mau Mau rebellion years in Kenya, she was the “talented amateur” who saw her aid to Steed’s cases as a service to her nation. She was said to have been born on 5 October 1930 at midnight, and was reared in Africa. Gale was in her early-to-mid 30s during her tenure, in contrast to female characters in similar series who tended to be younger.
Gale was unlike any female character seen before on British TV, and became a household name. Reportedly, part of her charm was because her earliest appearances were episodes in which dialogue written for Keel was simply transferred to her. Series scriptwriter Dennis Spooner described about this detail: “there’s the famous story of how Honor Blackman played Ian Hendry’s part, which is why they stuck her in leather and such—it was so much cheaper than changing the lines!” In “Conspiracy of Silence”, she holds her own in a vociferous tactical disagreement with her partner.
September 6th, 2022 at 11:13 am
In between the conclusion of the Honor Blackman shows and the arrival of Diana Rigg, there was, however briefly, a single episode (and a bit) of Elizabeth Shepherd — beautiful, extremely gifted British actress, who is still with us and living in the United States, who was found for reasons unclear found wanting
September 6th, 2022 at 11:42 am
A name new to me. Thanks, Barry!
Quoting from http://theavengers.tv/forever/bio-shepherd.htm
“Her involvement with The Avengers was unplanned in its brevity. After filming all of “The Town of No Return” and part of “The Murder Market,” it was announced that she was fired. There is no shortage of rumors as to why, but the consensus seems to be that she simply was not right for the part of Mrs. Emma Peel. Add to this an extravagant wardrobe, a tendency to rewrite dialog on the set, and a general lack of television experience, one might understand why the producers elected to take the costly and risky course of re-casting the part, and history shows that the choice of Diana Rigg was worth the risk.
“In answer to one of the most frequently asked questions, it is unknown if any of the original footage of Elizabeth Shepherd as Emma Peel still exists. For a while rumors were circulating that Canal+ still had some in their vaults, but there has been no official word one way or the other.”