Sunday, November 2, 2014

What Might've Been: The Champions (1968)

A trio of secret agents are bestowed with enhanced senses and other powers by an equally secret tribe in the Himalayas. Such was the concept of ITC's 1968 series, The Champions. Unfortunately, the series lasted just 1 season, and aired in the US on NBC.

Most audiences are familiar with Stuart Damon from his later work on General Hospital, but this was his first series. Damon had also appeared in a production of Cinderella with Lesley Ann Warren, as memory serves. Here, he plays Craig Stirling, a pilot and agent for the multi-national agency, Nemesis. William Gaunt & Alexandra Bastedo co-star.

Here is the intro:

 

As we've documented, very few ITC series lasted more than a year (The Saint & Danger Man, aka Secret Agent, being two exceptions of note). To be honest with you, I haven't been able to fathom exactly why.

No rating.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

I'd heard oif this series but never saw it.

It sounds a bit like the 90s series, The Sentinel. Except the main character acquired his powers via some South American mysticism, rather than Asian.

hobbyfan said...

Seems to me Sentinel wasn't as original as they'd like us to believe. I'll cover that one another time.

I had heard of the Champions, too, and I remember that it had been in syndication for a time in the 70's. WNBC in NYC had Champions and My Partner the Ghost (aka Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)) at different points, per listings in the Daily News back in the day. You'd think The Champions would've returned in reruns in the 80's to cash in on Stuart Damon being on General Hospital, but no.