You Are # 6 The Prisoner Returns

Last night I met an employee from AMC Cable Network. Bridget and I discussed the new show coming out The Prisoner. Actually it is a remake from the 1960's cult classic of the same name. Oddly the day my new Grandson was born was the day Patrick McGoohan the creator and actor in the series died. He was 80. The show was what we then called a summer replacement show on the CBS television network. It ran for 2 or 3 summers so different it was. Only 17 episodes were made. It concerned a man placed in a place called The Village. A prison for former intelligence workers. The essential theme was we will take care of you here , you must give up your individuality and fork over the INFORMATION they wanted. Everyone was assigned a number , Mcgoohan's character was assigned #6. This series was a revolution in a revolutionary time. Even to a kid from the small town of Schodack NY. 12033. My main friends Ron and John were fans as well. We would joke about how our High School , Maple Hill was similar. You know, it was. We were all assigned a number, our academic group number. It was more of an expectation number. The higher your group the better your chance at success or so was thought by the powers that be back then. I can't tell you how oppressive a place Maple Hill High School was back then. Many students from that era I have talked to have remarked as much. What you were was molded. Some might say warped. Numbers. So when this new version comes on cable I may get flashbacks to a time and place that forced a rebellion. It really did effect me in my later career as I was never as happy a jailor for omrdd in NYS service as they would have perferred. To end with a quote from that original series: I will not be pushed , filed , stamped , indexed , briefed , debriefed or numbered.....I am a free man. Now I feel so much better having said this.