1960s

THE AVENGERS & THE 1960'S

The Swinging 1960's

• What do you know about the 1960's
• Lots of music
• Protest

• Where do your impressions come from?
• Films and newspapers (media)

• What had been happening in the UK during the 40's and 50's?
• World War 2

Research Task:

Most Famous Bands:

• The Beatles
• The Rolling Stones
• Led Zeppelin
• The Who
• Pink Floyd

Famous Sports People:

• Muhammad Ali
• Willie Mays
• Wilt Chamberlain
• Johnny Unitas
• Jim Brown

Political Leaders:

• John Fitzgerald Kennedy
• Robert F. Kennedy
• Martin Luther King
• Richard Milhous Nixon
• J Edgar Hoover

Main Three Youth Group Fashions:

• Mods
• Hippies 
• Youth Culture

Science/Technology Developments:

• The First Video Game Console
• The First Computer Mouse
• LED's (light emitting diodes)
• Dynamic Random Access Memory (RAM)
• UNIX

Info:

• Rock was the main genre in the 1960's
• In 1965, the Labour party was in power and the PM was Harold Wilson
• The moon landing happened in 1960's
• The Vietnam war was happening in the 1960's (1955-1975)
• People were protesting about nuclear development and spies from other states
• In the 1960's, 89% of women who were in their early 30's had their children living with them.

The Avengers:

The ITV created The Avengers. The target audience were adults (15 and over). It was mainly aimed at the working class. The first airing program of the avengers was 7th January 1961. The UK finale was 30 December 1961. There were 6 seasons made. the last aired episode was the 21st April 1969. They paid $2 million for series 4. 

Extended Questions

• With the extra $2 million from the American company would increase the quality of the content. This would make the production values, editing, camerawork and locations available better than what they were previously.
• In series 4, John Steed was played by Patrick Macnee, an english-american film and television actor, and Mrs Emma Peel was played by Diana Rigg, an english actor.
• As the ITV was seen as a working class channel, the show, the Avengers, catered mainly to the working class but also to the upper class individuals too. The show also catered to both males and females as primarily, it was a spy drama so it would appeal to males but also the fact it included a female as a main star, taking on the roles of a male in television at that time (fighting and spy-work). This would also attract females to the show as they would be able to relate to the female in question while they watched it.

The Extended Budget

When a film company receives more money (in this case $2 million), production quality can go down hill (as seen in the walking dead) or it can improve, like in the Avengers case. Improvements included:

• Better cameras and quality
• Better locations (not just filming in studios)
• Better props and vehicles (helicopters and cars)
• Better music (having sounds and music tailor made to the show)
• Editing quality also improved through better access to editing facilities and hiring better people