The Saint w/Roger Moore (in black & white)

I recently saw several B&W episodes of the 60s " THE SAINT " series with Roger Moore , not the later colo(u)r ones , on a " retro TV " channel here in the United States .

What US network showed them back in the day ?

I don't believe there was much original hour-long series syndicating back then .

My impression of the show was that it was a James Bond clone , but , based on these ones - No .

Maybe that came when the " Swinging Sixties " really hit , which I suppose these JUUUSSST predate .

About 15 years ago I saw the Val Kilmer feature remake and read the novelization of it , I've never read Leslie Charteris' original prose stories , which were apparently such a brandname that the title card:

THE SAINT by LESLIE CHARTERIS " precedes the card for Roger .

The show was UK-filmed - Was ( later- ) Lord Lew Grade involved with it ?

The Saint is an " international vigilante/playboy " or some sort , but he's hardly a " spy " - there's no Commie-bashing in the episodes I saw , which " spy " would appear to suggest !!!

Replies

Emerkeith Davyjack July 14, 2011 at 8:11pm

...In the Eighties , Malibu Graphics/one of its sister companies reprinted several issues of a 50s?? The Saint syndicated newspaper strip , under some generic title like SPIES & PRIVATE EYES or whatever , suggesting that they were jumping onto P.D. stuff . I had a couple of issues and I have some more hopefully waiting for me :-( in storage that I bought relatively cheap recently at Comic Relief in Berkeley before they colsed down this year !!! Charteris apparently did do basic stories for the comic strip...
Emerkeith Davyjack July 14, 2011 at 8:24pm

...I believe I actually did search to see if I'd entered this before , but it didn't reach me , if so !!!!!!!!!!!

Well , I've given more details and invoked a comics manifestation and seen more episodes , so , let's make this the 1.25 post !!!!!!!!!!!

Howeves , I say a coupla things there that , perhaps , I can avoid repeating here . Again .

I didn't actually start into any spoiling there , either !!!!!!!!! So...
Emerkeith Davyjack July 15, 2011 at 4:46pm

...For name actors as guest stars , one episode had Shirley Eaton as the star guest...Another one had a " teenage daughter of the house " who I thought was rather charming...she was Jane Asher (billed about eleventh) !!!!!!!!!!!
ClarkKent_DC July 15, 2011 at 11:01pm

I have a few issues of those The Saint newspaper comics from Malibu Graphics. They were quite enjoyable.
Emerkeith Davyjack August 2, 2011 at 11:34am

...At another , more specifically about old movies & TV , board the suggestion was made that some actors' voces may have been dubbed ( For the US version ??????? ) , and an example of a well-known actress who appeared on the series having a fairly different voice in her part here on this show pointed to...
Henry R. Kujawa August 2, 2011 at 4:55pm

I'm currently watching 3 English shows from the early 60's in rotation at dinnertime:

THE AVENGERS (currently watching the 2nd season)

SECRET AGENT

THE SAINT

Checking the IMDB, I see SECRET AGENT was run in a completely different order from what my PBS station did. THE SAINT, meanwhile, was run apparently at random on Secaucus' NJ's Channel 9. I recall it took me several runs before I finally got all the B&W episodes. Together with THE UNTOUCHABLES (which I only ever got 75 episodes of), it was one of the shows that really began to burn me out of videotaping.

One result of watching and taping the show in no particular sequence is, today, I watched "STARRING THE SAINT", in which Ivor Dean played a film studio lawyer-- some time before he took over the role of Chief Inspector Claude Eustace Teal. I've already re-watched several Teal episodes with Dean, so seeing him as someone else, while a different actor plays Teal, can be a bit confusing.

They're always talking about "The FAMOUS Simon Templar", and this story had a movie studio wanting to do a story based on his life, but Roger Moore always looks too young to me to have HAD whatever kind of career he's supposed to be "famous" (or "notorious") for. It's probably his BEST acting ever, though. I really wish they'd have done a series of big-budget SAINT films in the 70's, instead of wasting everybody's time having Moore do such a BAD impersonation of "James Bond", a part he was totally wrong for.
Emerkeith Davyjack August 2, 2011 at 8:35pm

...FWIW , Wikipedia's article on the Saint , Henry , lets us know hat the Elstree series appears to have " watered down " who the Saint is supposed to be a bit from the books !!!!!!! ( Film-wise , there were many pre-TV era " B "-level Saint movies . )