Death of a Role Model

(Revised 01/04/2023)

Sometimes, I have to admit that my timing really sucks. Had I known that Patrick McGoohan would pass shortly after posting some videos in his name, I would never have done it. I'll let others eulogize Ricardo Montalban - they can do it better than I - but McGoohan's passing hits particularly close to home for me. Like many of my generation, I watched television when I was a lad. A lot. And so, when scanning the channels for some piece of entertainment, I came across The Prisoner and began watching. At times, my father and I - who never really had a cozy relationship - would watch together and talk about the show. It was a bonding thing, but I took on McGoohan as a pop culture role model in many ways. 

Perhaps, in fighting my father's authoritarian nature, I adopted the philosophy of "I am not a number - I am a free man!" (Both my parents came of age in the 1960s, so some of that defiant stance runs through my veins). Even in high school, when a (now) recently deceased theology teacher decided to condescend to me, claiming my hair was 'mousy' and asking if he could call me Draco (don't ask), I asked him if I could call him "baldy."

Best damn detention I ever served. 

 When it was reshown on Channel 50 back in the 1980s, I started watching it again, staying up late until the wee hours of Sunday morning (since they wisely showed it after Channel 11 showed Doctor Who). I reconnected with its themes - a man who made a decision and took charge of his life while bristling at authority. Tweaking it when needed, never backing down from a fight. Exiled to an isolated village (or, in my case, seven years in St. Louis), trying to fight conformity, to introduce new ideas...and always feeling like it was returning to the beginning. But I've always come back - in fact, while adjusting to life in Chicago after moving back, 

I liveblogged the show (and revised the posts for my Patreon page - subscribe now for access). Even though there were some memories that didn't quite hold up, many of them...did. I remembered why I loved the show, even though I hadn't watched it since then. (EDIT - I wrote about it for the new defunct Comic Related website and have watched it again thanks to free services like Shout Factory TV and Tubi) 

But now, it's hard to believe McGoohan has passed - mostly because The Prisoner, in the end, is one of the more life-affirming shows. Despite its reputation as being a dense philosophical treatise...in the end, it's about a man who defiantly declares his existence, who takes on the establishment, and finds some form of freedom in asserting his identity. Number 6 helps us realize that we should always act to avoid being pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered.

Our lives are our own.