The Daily Ping

About five years ago, Pinger dave introduced me to The Prisoner. This outstanding 60s British show ran for 17 episodes and most recently has aired sporadically on A&E and the Sci-Fi Channel. Patrick McGoohan played “Number Six,” a former spy who was abducted and put on an unescapable island by an unknown group trying to extract information from him. As typical as it might sound, The Prisoner was probably the least typical television show to ever air, especially when you consider the large bubble that served as the island’s security guard, the constantly shifting “Number Two”s (the second-in-command of the island), or the absurdly tiny car that McGoohan drives during the opening sequence.

There’s so much to like about this series, and now it’s more easily accessible than ever, available on DVD through A&E Home Video. Currently there are four sets available, totalling eight DVDs and 14 episodes. The final set with the remaining episodes will be released in October. The best price available seems to be from DeepDiscountDVD.

There is a “Prisoner Appreciation Society” (linked above) as well as a conference held on the island in North Wales that the show was filmed. There is quite a following for the show; in fact, The Simpsons recently referenced The Prisoner (pretty heavily) in one of their episods, and even got Patrick McGoohan to do a guest voice spot. It would do you good to hunt down some episodes of this incredibly creative show… I’m glad that Dave lent me his videos in college, or else I would have never known anything about “Number Six.”

Be seeing you… -ram