Mrs. Peel -- You're Needed!

One of the great television shows was The Avengers. Say "Avengers" now and everyone immediately thinks of the Marvel version with Cap, Shellhead, and the like. But in the 60's it wasn't so automatic. The Avengers was a British television show which caught the fancy of the up-and-coming Baby Boom generation and tapped into the appeal of espionage shows and films. It became a feeder system for the more high-profile James Bond series when its stars began to leave show up in different Bond movies. When Honor Blackman left the show to play "Pussy Galore" in Goldfinger she was replaced by Diana Rigg who partnered with the implacable Patrick McNee. As John Steed and Mrs. Emma Peel, the duo captured the hearts and imagination of a generation. Ms. Rigg tapped into a whole lot more. 

Like Blackman before her, Rigg was often dressed up in skin-tight leather, a look that captured the fancy of young men and in many ways defined the aesthetic of the super-spy genre. (I'm talking to you Jim Steranko.) As Emma Peel, Rigg presented a powerful woman capable of physically defeating nearly all the opponents she faced, even the guys. She was almost always the smartest person in any room and she and Steed helped protect Britain and greater world from a host of bizarre threats. 

Also, like Honor Blackman, Rigg would eventually leave the show for the Bond franchise in Her Majesty's Secret Service. She played Bond's ill-fated wife Tracey in the one starring poor old George Lazenby. 

Emma Peel was in two seasons of The Avengers, the first in black and white. The second brought glorious color to the show in order for it to succeed in America if possible. Of the two seasons I'm a terrific fan of the first B&W one, which has a nifty balance of real suspense and utter strangeness. Our two heroes really feel that they are under threat and that what they do actually matters. There is a degree of silliness of course, and the chemistry between Rigg and McNee is incredible. They flirt but never does one think they will get romantically involved. For one thing it's "Mrs. Peel", her husband having gone missing some years before. She was originally Emma Knight, and she took over her father's business and made it thrive. She was a super-smart woman taking no guff in an utterly sexist world, which she made use of due to her beauty.  

In the second season the show goes color and while still entertaining, it loses its edge. The stories became more and more silly and any sense of threat to the main players was utterly unthinkable. They'd get kidnapped, hit, shot at, and whatnot but never do you think anything really bad will happen. Like many a TV protagonist Peel and Steed get knocked on the noggin a lot, without any seeming serious consequences. (Thank you Moe, Larry, and Curly!)  Weirdly they also stopped using guns for all practical purposes -- a strange habit for such dangerous work. According to what I've read Rigg had to be coaxed back onto the show after discovering she was being paid woefully compared to the gents on the show. In a bit of reality-no-stranger-than-fiction she was a powerful woman who demanded a better situation and to some extent she got it. The Avengers and Emma Peel inspired many pop-culture changes such as the ones featured this month -- such as Diana Prince the New Wonder Woman and Natasha Romanoff the Black Widow. She helped to make women less damsels in distress and more dangerous darlings. 

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