DailySkew

What The Prisoner and Patrick McGoohan mean to the DailySkew

Based on my own experiences, as a child not having a father, I was more prone to being impressionable to things or always looking for male role models. One major influence in my life was a family friend named Warren. Skilled in chemistry, mathematics, biology, physics, logic, mortgages, and interest rates, he also loved baseball, Superboy, Dr. Strange, The Twilight Zone, The Outerlimits, Star Trek, westerns, obscure movies, and reminded me of Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four. He came over one Saturday afternoon and watched a “Prisoner Marathon” with me, my mom, and grandfather on an old New York UHF channel.

He said he watched The Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan) in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s. My mother had also been previously exposed to Patrick McGoohan in Secret Agent and The Prisoner back then as well. So, as a very young lad, I watched…and watched…and watched that marathon all day and night, although I didn’t see every episode, and I didn’t see the last episode. Warren had passed The Prisoner to a new generation.

As an enthusiastic youth, I would always look at the TV Guide for showings. Sometimes PBS would acquire the rights. Other times even more obscure channels would broadcast them at insane times. I had to wait years later before I actually viewed all 17 episodes in order on VHS tape.

One thing I learned in short order, unlike my other hobbies or interests, no one outside my family had ever heard of The Prisoner. A PBS documentary featured The Prisoner Companion, and the narrator told me about how this was a cult show. A lot of people today call shows “cult”, but The Prisoner is truly a CULT show. None of my friends at school, camp, neighborhood, or their parents ever heard of it.

Thus I was amazed- and thrilled- to pick up The Prisoner Files book when Warren brought me to his friend’s comic book warehouse. It featured in-depth analysis of the symbolism of the show, and tried to answer the unanswerable questions that the show asked every week: “Who is Number Six?” “Why did he resign?” “Where is the Village?” “Who is Number One?” “What does all of this mean?” etc.

In 1985, in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #2 had Batman mention The Prisoner to The Joker. Writer Marv Wolfman had been exposed to it, too. A lot of sci-fi and comic book writers have been exposed to it. The borrowed themes are obvious when reading the British comic book writers. The theme of Man vs Society, the music, location, stories, weirdness, sci-fi technology, and, of course, Patrick McGoohan’s acting influenced many people over the years.

DC even came out with the official sequel mini-series to the TV show, however, I was disappointed that they chose to interpret the show literally, and although there are good scenes, it never really hit home to me. However, it did lead to dialogs between my comic book shop guy- Pat Short (half Filipino) and me about The Prisoner. It turned out he was a huge fan, too.

I eventually joined a Prisoner Appreciation Society when I was around 13. Moving to a new state, and starting high school- not to mention having no male role models in real life anymore, as my grandfather passed away and Warren remained in NY, was stressful for me. So reading newsletters about how other people interpret the show was great. Additionally, PBS in Florida would play the show around 1 or 2 AM Friday or Saturday nights. I was up, of course.

As a Freshman, I bought Number Six’s shoes, and tried my best to be clever, mysterious, and quirky like he was. I was already paranoid, so that was easy. In summer camp years earlier, I had pretended to be Spock, so assuming identities was easy for me.

I got a PC with a dialup modem and went into Seflin in the early 1990’s and the first thing I did was look up The Prisoner on the newsgroups. Sure enough, there were thousands of fans, sharing theories. I printed some out and sent them to Warren by mail. I taped the music on my cassette tape and played the music over and over again. Eventually, PBS lost rights.

In college, I continued to follow The Prisoner discussions on the Internet. I downloaded MIDI files of the themes, and finally got some WAVs. Still none my classmates ever heard of it. There was some empowerment knowing the secret knowledge I had.

I ordered The Prisoner video tapes every month when I got back from an aborted college career. So for 17 months, my mom and grandma watched an episode and discussed each one. At this time, the main Internet news was rumors about The Prisoner movie, which never materialized.

I always applied the messages of The Prisoner to my every day situation, along with other lessons I had learned in life. When a high quality DVD Box Set was finally made, I bought it, and watched each one in order again.

Whereas I was unsuccessful in getting any of my friends to dig The Prisoner (my grandmother was the only person whom I exposed it to successfully), I finally found a friend that did appreciate it- Tony Vahl. At that time, we had already discussed Enneagram, mental prisons, The Matrix, comic books, sci-fi TV shows, etc., so this was right up his alley. It was a bonding experience, and he, as I, learned something new with each episode. He was impressed with how different the show was, and how it was ahead of its time, in addition to how it defied all labels- it’s not really sci-fi, spy, adventure, or action. Everything was debatable, since Patrick McGoohan’s only “rule” of the show was: it’s subject to YOUR interpretation, there is no right or wrong. It’s an allegory.

That was my last “run” in terms of campaigning for someone else to watch the episodes. Tony was the last. Like the Enneagram, you either want IT or not, and I’m not selling it anymore. The thing about watching the show is that if you like to talk, get food, go the bathroom, look away, walk in and out of the room without pressing pause, you’re going to be missing a clue and ask a million of questions, thus ensuring that you are not listening. ( I went through a bunch of people who weren’t into it, kinda like when I expose someone to the Enneagram, and they forget their number.) If you don’t like shows from the 1960’s or British actors, it’s not your thing. It you get hung up on continuity and contradictions, you’re gonna need to pass. If you want a clear resolution- or ANY resolution, you’re going to be let down. There’s a reason why it’s a CULT show (although it has achieved iconic status in England.)

By the way, just because some people feel the show is over their heads, and I here I am talking about allegory and symbolism, don’t think this show is complex; at it’s core it’s pretty simple- a secret agent resigns, gets kidnapped, and wakes up on an island where people go who know too much. Period. In fact, McGoogan himself said it wasn’t subtle.

In a future post, I will discuss the allegory. For now, with the recent news of Patrick McGoohan’s passing, I just wanted to let everyone know what he meant to me- and thousands of other fans- even though I never met him in my life. I feel like I do know him. He kept the same high moral standard of his characters in real life. In many ways, he is The Prisoner.

Unlike other British stars, he never sought the spotlight, and just wanted his creativity to be judged on its own merits- nothing more, nothing less. He was anti-Hollywood in terms of exposure and taking roles just for paychecks. Getting him to appear in a movie was tough. He lived an honorable life. He knew inquisitive people would appreciate his work, and analyze it. He didn’t care about the mainstream. A lot creative geniuses see the world through different lenses. Some songwriters and authors are like that. They create something original, never seen before, and never seen after. They offer an innovative perspective about reality and society, and offer you a chance to think about it, with no obligation. Patrick McGoohan made viewers THINK in a non-pretentious way.

With Patrick McGoohan’s passing, ironically many new people are starting to ask questions about The Prisoner, and there is finally going to be a new Prisoner TV show on AMC in November, it looks like the torch will be passed once again.

numbersix@dailyskew.com

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