The Saint

Starring: Roger Moore, Geoffrey Keen, Arnold Diamond, Aubrey Morris, Lois Maxwell
First Aired: February 9, 1969
Number of Seasons: 6
Estimated Production Cost: $100,000 per episode*

In 1920, Leslie Charteris invented the character of Simon Templar, a Batman-like superhero who assists police officers in solving criminal cases. The Templars have served as the inspiration for a variety of television episodes, novels, and films, with The Saint being one of those shows. The American television network NBC broadcasted the British spy thriller series as part of their summer lineup. It filled the hole left by another show earlier in the evening. The Saint turned out to be an extremely profitable venture for ITC. It ran for 120 episodes and brought in $450 million (adjusted for inflation) for the network in its first season. The majority of the episodes of the show were shot in black and white because color television was only a few years away at the time.

The Saint

Thunderbirds

Starring: Sylvia Anderson, David Holliday, David Graham, Matt Zimmerman
First Aired: September 30, 1965
Number of Seasons: 2
Estimated Production Cost: $962,000 per episode (adjusted for inflation)
Thunderbirds were yet another popular British television show. Sylvia and Gerry Anderson, the owners of the production business AP Films, were responsible for the creation of this science fiction series. The ITC program had a massive budget of about $1 million per show, which made it the most expensive show ever. This was due to the use of special effects in the presentation, which did not feature any human actors. Thunderbirds made use of “supermarionation,” which is a type of electric marionette puppetry that is quite advanced. Scale models were used to create the special effects segments for the film. It only lasted two seasons since it couldn’t be sustained on a commercial basis. Following the rejection of the show by American networks, despite the efforts of Anderson’s funder, Lew Grade, the show was canceled.

Thunderbirds