THE PRISONER, Rejected 1st theme.

[HONCH123]

I bet It was that Monty Bergman....Rubbish,Rubbish,Rub­bish......Boring ,

[floouk]

f***ing awful!!

[ShannonFAVsongPG]

it wasn't dark enough--too upbeat. it would make a good theme for another show

[MartianMarvin007]

this sounds like a cross between danger man and hawaii five o, then at the end it become all like patton, but then it goes back to five o...

[strangeyoungman]

Awesome song, bad fit.

[gary7vn]

I was shocked to see that you still had your notes, after all these years.

Did you have any sense of how good the show was going to be?

[gary7vn]

Amazing bit of history. The Prisoner was a great great show. The score, as chosen was superb. Thanks for posting this!

[spacefan1962]

I've been a fan of the Prisoner since Ch4 showed it in '84 and never knew there was this theme. Thank you for the video - this is fascinating stuff. Flippin awful and completely unsuitable but fascinating all the same!

[SomethingSea1]

Patriotic French Prissy who holds his head high with nose upturnt. Nausiatingly uptight and entitled.

That's how this music sounds.

[KapStuf]

I think they were right to reject this music. Though it may have fitted with 'Living in Harmony' :-).

[Craig0225]

Fascinating. Great for a Prisoner junkie!

[PhilStopford11]

Remember this was the 60's. Check out other 60's prog theme tunes, this fits in. NEVER on the Prisoner though!

[dyollmurd]

Truly god awful!

[mowriter]

Almost workable. Way too many high strings, the horns work, and the main theme with the minor chord transition works somewhat.

[Glinkaism1]

Excellent and rare documentation! This is a valuable thing you've done! Thanks so very, very much! Cheers! There are some very nasty people here. Please ignore them!

[princeofdaftness]

very like theme to the Big Country, now round up some deputy's and go find the bad guys yee harr

[addick1965]

yee-har!!

[Renagade70]

That one was for westerns. It won't work.

[JFinSD2]

Man.....Glad this one was rejected......Really Really Bad. As others have commented, sounds like a very bad Western theme.

[Gail940]

i think this was intended for a american market very cowboy, and without reading i thought i was actually listening to a version of the big country and other snipits yes this was developed for the american market, and no it would never have caught on as a cult theme, listen to what was actually chosen from start, i doubt there was anything around like it at the time, and it hits you instantly, yes they chose the right theme in the end

[DarkSk1es]

That really sucked donkey balls. If they'd stuck with that it'd never have developed a cult following. I'd have switched off the moment I heard that.

[WannaBeatle]

even though it really doesn't 'fit'(other people's opinion) I think it would have been good if gotten used to hearing. I enjoy the military like march of it. who knows,

[pearvert]

It just doesn't fit at all...

[coyran]

ITS NOT RIGHT....... NOOOOO!

[lilPat]

LOL can't be right XD

[TheStupidrule]

It completely lacks the gravitas of the events seen and the series as a whole. Thankfully, the song they ended up using for the show worked much better. This opening would have lead me to think it was a silly adventure show.

[SpudIllusionPictures]

lol it's not at all sinister! Thanks a lot though!

[flippinecc]

Sounds like the music therapy they give you in The Village Hospital : (

[kenfig]

sounds similar to the Big Country

[cosworth6nut]

@kenfig I agree - thought it sounded familiar

[SylvioGoncalves]

Sounds very much like Farnon' The Champions.

[MELONMOVIES]

this is really bad!

[Cleg145]

Thank heavens they didn't choose this version, it's awful. All it needs is some coconuts for the noise of non-existent horses!

I'm not even entertaining the new 2010 "re-make"

[wires1936]

Rediculous theme tune

[theflyingmusician1]

Now that is truly awful....

[cheesehoven]

It shows you how important music is. Had that been used, the series would probably have bombed.

[gersound1]

No Joke for sure. I have been a sound editor for films for more than 25 years, and this Gentleman pre-dates me by at least three decades. Every word he says rings true. Not the hottest topic on the internet I agree, but for those who think they would like to work in the film busines, this is how it works.

[ryoushii]

I listen to this and expect to see a herd of cattle and cowboys riding the range going hee yah.

Might have made a good secondary opening for the Harmony episode.

[histrion2]

I can see why they rejected this one. Doesn't fit the tone of the show at all.

[LordZontar]

"I knew Pat was going to hate it". An understatement.

[RJOatmeal]

Fit for a Western. Maybe.

[shivercanada]

Hahaha! No.

The melody Is in major,that alone makes it a bad fit from the get go.

[wilbermusicman]

Some parts of it sound more spy-like but defninitely not No. 6-like.

[klaatu42]

Sounds like the theme for a show where the characters from Dallas perform a corporate merger with the Beverly Hillbillies, who take in the Waltons as boarders, and open a Wild West theme park... all turned into a spoof done by The Young Ones.

[ryoushii]

@klaatu42 LMAO

Great synopsis of the show this travesty of a theme belonged to.

[solreavir]

favorited lol gonna sample da sh8 outta dis

[KnockoffNigeI]

You should listen to Ron Grainer's Omega Man score.

[bigcountrygeorge]

it wouldnt of worked

[bdruckus]

not at all!!!!

[bc1969214]

Guess this could have been a one episode use for Living in Harmony.

[thecollector1138]

This is a beautiful piece, but, dang, I've never laughed so hard since the end of Dr. Strangelove. It's so incongruous! When Pat McGoohan pops out of the Lotus 7 I expected him to start singing "Zippity doo dah, Zippity ey! My, oh, my, what a wonderfull day!"

[enemyofbohemia]

When the music first started I half expected to see a map of the village with a hole burning through it.

[kurtb8474]

@enemyofbohemia I agree.  I was waiting for John Wayne to come riding down the tunnel on a horse.

[bdruckus]

HAHAHAHA

[bradshawvincent]

wow this is terrible...sounds like a cowboy theme tune!

[ineedathneed]

yes, it's a disaster. thank god it didn't make it.

[jannikmeissner]

@bradshawvincent That why it was REJECTED. I love the version that made it in the movie though.

[MalignantRacist]

Shows how close this show was to being a complete flop.

[MrsSuratt]

Wow. This is so wrong in so many ways. But, of course, Patrick "went through the wall" and got things squared away.

[ccie12933]

Sounds like a lead-in to a bad local TV news show.

[CaptainRon0001]

if john williams were retarded this would be his score

[ineedathneed]

what do you mean IF John Williams were retarted? Haven't you heard his music?

[CaptainRon0001]

John Williams is an awesome composer with alot of power, and the way he writes music is brilliant, but I said (this sounds like John Williams if he were retarded) aka danny elfman.

[paullubliner]

@CaptainRon0001 As my 17 year old just said aloud, John Williams is retarded. He is an excellent plagarist and that is all. As stated elsewhere, You are all sheep.

[dididiabolik]

Yikes - this sounds like a western.

[Bluebarb1]

lol o this is terrible

[gaygeezer1949]

it sounds like a third rate theme of an AMERICAN spy show.the british were MUCH BETTER then that

[miliamince]

In a Lotus 7, you can actually go under those barriers...he was being very polite in taking a ticket considering he was resigning ;)

[paullubliner]

Yes, I've actually done it.

[paullubliner]

Styreen is quite correct, the rest of you ARE ALL SHEEP!

[galinneall]

It is sooooo 60s! It's exactly what you would expect from a typical second-rate detective/adventure t.v. series, which the composer probably thought he was writing it for. Problem is that the Prisoner wasn't a typical series and couldn't use typical music. "The Age of Elegance" fit perfectly.

[kurtb8474]

Ugh!

[AlastairBallentyne]

thank fuck they didn't go with this one!

[altfactor]

This was so "wrong".

The theme they ended up with was the best possible choice.

[PoloniusBent]

Think this would have been better suited to a sort of Whicker's World-type travel show.

[staberind]

Yeeeeeehaw!!  ride 'em Pat!

[ohghodthisisdross]

[gtrfinger]

Had to turn this off. Sorry. Is this a joke?

[Pmg6portmeirion]

No joke, thanks for the comment.

[th4397]

Well it was shite music for the prog.........

[CaptainChirac]

I find it very boring. And that means a lot coming from me.

[MissStranded]

It does sound boring , too jolly too.

[TooleMan87]

It has remnants of Holst's "The Planets" mixed with some kind of adventure theme, totally inappropriate. The composer should have been shot the day before he composed this rubbish.

[npc223]

a bit harsh, perhaps?

[felixjazzage]

I like the theme, but it's way off the mark for the tone of "The Prisoner."

[cravaloid]

Sounds like a theme song to a British western

[tubian323]

I agree, it's way more like a western theme than a spy/sci-fi theme.

[BicycleSeatSniffer]

The theme seriously sucks, it would suit a down market porno Weston.

[AnitaLife27]

Good music, but not for this. It sounds like a Big Country Western theme, so not there. Ron Grainer is just dag good, there's no contest!

[ultraprobe96]

One for the spitoon !

[obamadidit2008]

good enough for bond. totally bad for the prisoner

[solord]

Good theme, but totally wrong for The Prisoner. It's way too big: The theme overwhelms everything, including the opening visuals. It's not subtle at all. It definitely sounds like something out of "Blazing Saddles,""The Magnificent Seven," "Giant," or "Goldfinger" for that matter.

Again: This would work as a good theme for some other TV programme but it would have absolutely sucked as the theme for The Prisoner.

Be Seeing You!

[keithsmove]

what the hell is this crap?

[51pogo]

Not bad as a theme, but this "Big Country" not right for the Prisoner. May have worked for a modern military-type movie how about M-CIS besides something like The Wild, Wild West.

Ron Grainer's theme matched the mood, the tension, the atmosphere of the series, was truly inspired work! If this had been used, I don't believe the series would have been as popular, despite the excellent script work and performances.

[Chiggs58th]

They made the right choice. This theme sucks big time! Sounds like the theme to a tv western.

[HellNight7]

OMG this theme is bad, really bad.

[siempra78]

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS DALLAS CRAP!?!

This is supposed to be a slick, edgy, conspiracy thriller from the 60's not a high heeled, hoe down with shoulder pads...Robert Farnons hang your head in shame and return to your "incidental" music whence you came!!

I will now have to listen to the CHOSEN theme again to un-sully my ears...urgh!

[nickhirst999]

Yes it's truly awful!  Try out my dubbing of Ron Grainer's original version onto the standard opening titles. It's interesting!

[brabon1]

UGGGGH

doesnt fit at all

[styreen]

Interesting to think how successful the series would have been had this music been used.

It's good to be able to hear this just to know what could have been. Equally fun would have been to be able to see the reaction if this theme had indeed been used and the original theme were posted here as the alternative. Would an equal amount of people have reacted as negatively to it as they do now to this version merely because that would then have been the version they grew up with?

Kind regards.

[FranZabich]

Blazing Saddles?

[jeprice08]

I'm going to be quite honest with you and you can ridicule me all you want, but I liked it. I mean the music, the beat and all, but I agree that it wouldn't have worked as the theme song for that show. Neither would the second one work, although it's pretty good too.

[slappy6817]

Sounds a bit like the theme to "Ben Casey". I expected him to show up in the opening credits pushing a gurney into the O.R.

[ryoushii]

Boy, that has all the dread and foreboding of a cherry lollipop. Yeah, it is defifntely the Big Country theme. Talk about lack of imagination.

[nrq9000]

It failed when the Ponderosa wasn't outside the window.Then again,it failed when it started.

[mikem2302]

Thank God for Ron Grainer!!!

[SoloPilot6]

Yee haw! Who is Number One? HOSS CARTWRIGHT!

[0bverse]

That's a really good, atmospheric track... but TOTALLY unsuitable!

As well as 'The Big Country', anyone else hear a bit of the Bond incidental music in there? (plays over the speedboat chase in 'From Russia with Love' and many other sequences.)

[adminkoff]

Fascinating bit of history. Thanks for posting!

[saskabush2006]

Eek! That might have worked on the Living in Harmony western episode, but for the TV series itself? I'm not a huge fan of the better known "first unusued theme" by Albert Elms, but it's infinitely better than this one!

[plusbabs]

That would have been awful!

[EdOscuro]

It would've been hilarious if they used this theme for Living in Harmony.

[verbusen]

I said to myself thats the music to Big Country! Then the editor said the same thing and I patted myself on the back, lol. Amazing how important a thing like music is to the success of a film, they did a great job with the theme music that was picked, it's awesome!

[charlieboy7t5]

Hit or Miss  MISS

[geishasha]

Cowboy music? You have got to be kidding me...