# Coronet Blue **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronet-blue/795744 "2017-09-07T16:46:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronet-blue/795744/1 "2017-09-07T16:46:55Z")
The sixties cult show is finally on DVD _fifty_ years after it aired. One of many “Fugitive-inspired” shows, this one dealt with “Michael Alden”, a man with amnesia searching for his own identity while trying to elude would-be killers. I remembered the show fondly and picked up the complete series (only 13 episodes). One thing about watching these old shows is you get to see a lot of folks “on their way up”. Watched a single episode with Richard Kiley, David Carradine, Candace Berger (God, was she beautiful), and John Voight. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronet-blue/795744/2 "2017-09-07T18:06:44Z")
I remember the show on its initial run, and am surprised that it took this long. If you look at the Wikipedia site, it tells you the Big Secret about his identity and why he couldn’t solve the riddle himself, but I ain’t tellin’ Another of those late weird 1960s shows distributed by ITC, like _The Prisoner_. I still remember their animated DNA-like logo at the end of each episode. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GRqcv3cLmk) ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronet-blue/795744/3 "2017-09-07T18:12:45Z")
[quote=“CalMeacham, post:2, topic:795744”] I remember the show on its initial run, and am surprised that it took this long. If you look at the Wikipedia site, it tells you the Big Secret about his identity and why he couldn’t solve the riddle himself, but I ain’t tellin’ Another of those late weird 1960s shows distributed by ITC, like _The Prisoner_. I still remember their animated DNA-like logo at the end of each episode. [/QUOTE] Petition for Frank Converse to return for the long-awaited finale. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronet-blue/795744/4 "2017-09-07T18:15:11Z")
From IMDB Trivia: > [@](#): > > “Coronet Blue” creator Larry Cohen, in his autobiography “The Radical Allegories of an Independent Filmmaker,” explained the mystery behind the series’ title/catch-phrase. “When the Brodkin Organization took over the series, they wanted to turn it into an anthology… so they played down the amnesia aspect until there was nothing about it at all in the show. It was just Frank Converse wandering from one story to the next with no connective format at all. Anyway, the show ended after seventeen weeks and nobody found out what ‘coronet blue’ meant. The actual secret is that Converse was not really an American at all. He was a Russian who had been trained to appear like an American and was sent to the U.S. as a spy. He belonged to a spy unit called ‘Coronet Blue.’ He decided to defect, so the Russians tried to kill him before he can give away the identities of the other Soviet agents. And nobody can really identify him because he doesn’t exist as an American. Coronet Blue was actually an outgrowth of ‘The Traitor’ episode of The Defenders (1961).” However, anyone who has seen the show knows that the amnesia aspect was in fact NOT played down (one episode had Alden declining a golden opportunity to learn the truth about himself - or at least a good part of it - on moral grounds concerning the way the information became available to him). Other facts are that thirteen episodes were all that were filmed, and that from first air date to last is only fourteen weeks - fifteen potential weekly air dates if you include those at both ends, but only eleven of the episodes were aired; in any case, Cohen’s “seventeen weeks,” made in a BOOK wherein he presumably had plenty of time to check and be certain that he got such fundamental facts correct, is indefensible. All this calls the validity of the entirety of his statement into question. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronet-blue/795744/5 "2017-09-07T18:49:39Z")
Converse is 80 years old. But that sure would beat Lynch bringing back “Twin Peaks” after 25! ---
**Author:** ![drmark7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ba8739/32.png) [@drmark7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drmark7)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronet-blue/795744/6 "2017-09-08T06:06:07Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8zQkneVRwow/maxresdefault.jpg "Lenny Welch - Coronet Blue - Kapp: 712") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zQkneVRwow) One of the BEST little-known TV themes! By LENNY WELCH, who sang “Since I Fell For You” and the original “A Taste Of Honey.” Give it a listen… It’s AWESOME!!!