The Prisoner Nummer 6
The
sediments at the bottom of television: series and serials, omnipresent
and almost as infinite as the medium itself. Few only were successful
in touching the underside of our attentiveness.
UNWAHRSCHEINLICHE GESCHICHTEN ("Improbable Stories") was one
that did, the classic TWILIGHT ZONE.
Anything associated with the expression TV-magic
applies to this.
Phantastic
television of the sixties, among other things, is one conjuring formula:
"Be
seeing you!" or
L'année dernière
au Village:
Contributing
authors:
(German knowledge required)
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FRANK
T. BITTERHOF |
SPEEDLEARN
FEEDBACK
Your
website (even in
translation) stands out as one
of the best for an English
reader. I have researched Prisoner internet sites rather thoroughly, and
in putting together a syllabus for a class
on The Prisoner, I knew that I would include materials from
your site. I am impressed
with the wide range of
materials you consider but also with the depth of analysis you offer.
You engage the spirit of Prisoner, and that is the
most critical contribution
anyone can make.
Prof. V. Ziegler, DePauw
University, Indiana, USA
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40
YEARS NUMMER
6:
Commemorating the time when TV programmes were introduced by a (mostly) female announcer. Before the start of each episode viewers were given a short synopsis of the basic premise of the series. To be followed by the formulaic coda, "Tonight, from our rather off-beat spy-series NUMMER 6, we are presenting you the episode..." The series was shown on Saturdays around midnight and in no particular time slot or running order, with long intervals in between episodes. Of course, as is known, only 13 episodes were dubbed into German. The German debut of the remaining four (no dubbing this time) was as late as 2006 when the DVD set was published by Koch-Media. During the Summer Olympics of 1972 in Munic seven (of scheduled eight) episodes were screened again by ZDF, the eighth being cancelled after Palestinian terrorists had attacked the Israeli team. It wasn't before the mid 80s when NUMMER 6 was given a rerun on German TV sets. This time the 13 German episodes were aired. But this event passed almost unnoticed by the public because commercial station Sat1 could be watched only by those happy few with access to cable TV. In 1989 and in 1992 NUMMER 6 received more attention thanks to the arrival of satellite TV. In its 1991 winter issue no. 26 former SIX OF ONE magazine Number Six published the short message (see below) on the German screening of THE PRISONER. The 1991 rescreening had been truncated for some reason. There were also nightly or early morning repeats of the episodes.
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THE PRISONER is unique within the scope of television series. Looking back, what is most astonishing about it is that it was commerical entertainment. That's what made it a flop at first. Basically, the series is a torso, unfinished or brought arbitrarily to an end. The creative force in front of, behind it and above all was principal actor and co-producer Patrick McGoohan.
Hardly anyone working in the TV business before had been endowed with such an amount of money per episode to work with and, at the same time, been given carte blanche regarding freedom for his artistic decisions. There is lots of mysterious stuff in it, some of it made enigmatic intentionally, some strange things mixed up with contemporary citicism of the media and society. Which must also have been at odds with late 60s tastes and feelings. At the centre of it all it's the role of individualism in the age of information. An good deal of Kafka was also inserted in some of the scripts. Continue reading...
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INDEPTH: THE PRISONER (2009) 
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