His talking to the viewer/tv audience spoiled it...

Not only that, but my pet peeve is when the halo would show over his head at the episode beginning and he raised his eyes like he was looking at it. Fortunately he didn't do it after, I think, the first season.

Well, in the books, Simon Templar was a sometimes poet and philosopher and that is how the series paid homage to that fact of the character. By the way, Leslie Charteris, the creator, loved that part as it showed that The Saint really was, at the time, a really different kind of "hero". Templar looking up at the halo really showed Templar's dislike of that attention that was brought upon him in the books. The novels always implied Templar never really liked that nickname and Roger Moore, who sometimes looked disdainfully up at it, hints at that quirk of Templar's.







Be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove

One of my favorite parts of the show was waiting for someone to introduce Simon Templar and see the halo above his head. I also loved how he talked to the audience. Magnum PI did the same thing in a different way. Tom Selleck would always do voice overs during parts of the episodes. I thought it made the show even better than it already was and is.

I don't agree. Addressing the audience can be a very effective dramatic device. Shakespeare uses it, especially in plays like Richard III, where the villainous Duke of Gloucester - later king - tells the audience what he is going to do and then does it.

The Saint is a loner. So we see him sitting alone outside a cafe with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee. He has no one to talk to, so he talks to the viewers at home. He says something about the place he is in, and gives little descriptions of the events happening around him that provide the atmosphere. I find that very effective indeed.

As to looking up at the halo. I was approached by one of these chuggers (who approach you in the street so that the charity they represent can garnish a regular donation from your bank account.) To prevent this, I told him I worked as a fundraiser for a charity (true), and regularly donated to three other charities (also true). The chugger then called me a saint; and, yes, I looked up at my halo.

That's known as "breaking the fourth wall", a common artifice in films.

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I loved the whole "breaking the 4th wall" thing. Frankly, this makes the show all that more loveable.

But shows aren't for everyone...and that's a good thing. For me, I wish there were more shows that were as fun as The Saint and some of the other oldies.

I actually liked it when Simon talked to us just for a few moments. A nice lead into the story.