Goodbye, Patrick McGoohan

Possibly the coolest actor who ever walked, Patrick McGoohan, died on Tuesday at age 80. It's gratifying to see that the vast majority of notices of his passing put The Prisoner right there in the headline. Most everything he did was great, and he was always very effective, but The Prisoner, which McGoohan co-created, produced, and (on some episodes) wrote, and directed, was what made him a visionary. If you haven't seen it (there are only 17 episodes), AMC has made it available for viewing (as part of what I can only imagine is a very unfortunate decision to remake it). One question fans have always speculated on is whether The Prisoner is somehow a continuation of McGoohan's previous series, Secret Agent. For my money, there's only one thing you need to know. The lyric to Secret Agent's theme song stated, "They've given you a number and taken away your name." One of the main catch phrases of the Prisoner is the insistence by McGoohan's character, known only as Number 6, "I am not a number! I am a free man!"

As just a point of personal preference (it is my blog, after all), I noticed on one of my earliest visits to Mrs. Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk's house (when she was still pre-Mrs. Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk, of course) that she was the proud owner of a Number 6 badge. It's not true that I married her just for that badge, but it certainly didn't hurt.