Hard to believe Linda is 21 years old.
She has the maturity of a woman in her mid to late 20s.
One thing. Linda is very sexy in the 1968/69 episodes. But what happened to her face...it went all long!!
Back in '68 when Tara took over for Emma I didn't like her one bit. Because she wasn't Emma. But on re-viewing that last season I've come to appreciate Tara and Linda Thorson although Tara is still a tad too comedic. As to her physical change, both she and MacNee were put on diet pills as tptb thought they looked a bit too well-fed.
It'd make a good headline--"PLAYBOY KILLS WIFE WITH CHAMPAGNE CORK!"
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Barbara Steele would have been a fascinating choice given her status as a star of fright flicks. I wonder if she ever read for the role? That would be some footage to see!
It'd make a good headline--"PLAYBOY KILLS WIFE WITH CHAMPAGNE CORK!"
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Yes , Linda apparently had an hang-up when she was young because people were unkindly making her notice she could have not made her way into one of her predecessors' catsuits . I know that as a form of revenge she declared she was "bringing back the bosom on tv" when she was approaching to replace Rigg . Funny quote ! I can see why Linda was already annoyed before starting to work , since childish Emma Peel fanboys were sending her hate mail saying she could have never replaced their sweetheart . So she was taking many diet pills along with Pat . By looking at the young Diana and Linda one would have guessed that , growing older , the first one would have become anorexic while the second one would have become very overweight . Actually it was exactly the opposite ..
How is it that Barbara Steele got mentioned ? Was she considered for the role of Tara ?
Linda Thorson should have gone another year as Tara King, like both her predecessors, but the money was no longer there. America took to her far better than the Brits did, and provided virtually all the financing once Emma Peel was aboard. Of her 33 episodes, I would list only 3 that cannot be recommended, "Invasion of the Earthmen," "Have Guns-Will Haggle," and "Homicide and Old Lace" (the nearly unanimous choice for worst color episode). Linda's batting average was just as solid as Diana Rigg's, there was no dropoff in quality. Not bad for a series that lasted 161 episodes!
Barbara Steele as Tara King, I can't picture that.
But damn, what I wouldn't give to see Barbara Steele as a villainess in an Avengers episode! She did do that small role in Night Gallery (came out of retirement to do it in fact) so why not?
I know that the three finalists for the role of Tara were Tracey Reed , Mary Peach and of course Linda . In order to select Rigg's ideal successor all three of them had to take a driving , running and fighting test ( the first one being the funniest since Diana didn't even have a driving licence at the time ! )
Linda did better than the other two overall and that's how she got the part .
Mary Peach later played Astrid , a leather-wearing , karate-chopping Cathygalesque character in "Doctor Who" . I think she could have been interesting , I liked her performance as one of Joe Lampton's colleagues in "Room at the Top" . She also played Milady De Winter in a mini-series about "The Three Musketeers" starring Jeremy Brett and Brian Blessed , but I remember I didn't find her to be that menacing .
Hard for me to make any kind of judgement about Tracey Reed . She was certainly beautiful in "Doctor Strangelove" , but that's the only thing which was required of her in that movie .
I wonder if Barbara Steele really tried to get the role of Steed's new partner or if she didn't even know someone wanted her to play it ( which sounds more likely ) . She certainly needed some kind of career resurrection at the end of the 60's . Her husband James Poe ( it's ironic that she was married to a writer named Poe , isn't it ? )had written the role of Alice in "They Shoot Horses , Don't They ?" for her and , had she played it , her career would have certainly taken a different route . But I'm more glad that the role actually went to the sublime Susannah York , who went on to give one of my favourite acting performances ever .
I agree that Mrs.Steele would have made a fine Avengers villainess . She also appeared in an episode of "I Spy" in 1966 , so she could have done it .
"Linda Thorson should have gone another year as Tara King, like both her predecessors, but the money was no longer there."
It's all the fault of the IDIOTS at ABC! They had a hit when the show was on Friday nights at 10 PM (that's when I got hooked watching the color Emma Peel episodes). Then it disappeared...
...at some point, I suddenly discovered it was now on Monday nights at 7:30. But I had already missed maybe half of them. If FANS of the show don't know when it's on, how is anyone else supposed to find it? Especially when they deliberately put it up against the #1 show on the air at the time? It's like they just deliberately KILLED it.
I think it would have been very interesting to see how Linda Thorson would have continued to develop as an actress, considering how much she improved during the time she did have on the show.
Now if they would have just done fewer episodes where she was made to be completely helpless for most of the story... (I can't bring myself to watch those anymore)
Apparently, the network thought it a wise decision to sacrifice a foreign-made show to the dreaded time slot, rather than a home grown production. I looked over their schedule for the color episodes, and found that the last 8 Emma Peels and the initial Tara shows (15 in all) were broadcast nonstop in production order from January-May 1968, then waited for the fall of 1968 before airing the remainder (Britain didn't get to see Tara at all until September '68). Television networks were all powerful back then, now nothing to bother about. THE AVENGERS still have 137 1/3 out of 161 episodes, from December 1960 to March 1969, a very impressive run (though shamelessly abandoned by its native Britain by 1966).
"I take pleasure in great beauty" - James Bond