We live on San Simeon Drive. It's named after a San Simeon Ranch that used to be in this area. The Spanish had a nice custom of naming things after saints. In this case, the namesake is Saint Simeon the Stylite, a Fourth Century ascetic saint who achieved notability for living 37 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo in what is today's modern Syria.
Since we ditched the idea of dish/cable television, Shari and I converted to the internet. We already had subscribed to Netflix and Prime. We exchanged DirectTV for a subscription to Britbox.
Much of the time we simply watch YouTube. It's amazing what you can find on YouTube — intelligent documentaries, house buying in the British and French countryside, travel programs, early music concerts, old movies and television shows. We've watched all the Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and many of the Sherlock Holmes television programs with Ronald Howard.
I remember watching television as a kid in Australia. By golly, the original Aeroplane Jelly commercial is on YouTube. Just search for it. The 1950's Robin Hood series starring Richard Greene is there, as is Jet Jackson — but neither has aged that well.
One day I searched "The Saint". Shari vaguely remembered the TV show. I have specific memories watching the program in Sydney on the family boob tube — in glorious black & white. Which it is.
We ran out of The Saint episodes that we hadn't seen. Although many of the 114 episodes (six seasons, 1962 to 1969, go figure) are on YouTube, only about a dozen are watchable. Most are in a strange, unwatchable format posted, no doubt, by the copyright owner: a frustratingly small screen set within a distracting background screen.
Frustrated, I searched online for DVD's. They exist. The entire The Saint series on 33 (thirty-three) DVD's. Prices from $44 to $150. We went with $44 via eBay. No problem. Less than a week later, I ripped all 114 episodes and loaded them onto my external hard drive.
We dial up an episode at whim on our big screen TV through our Roku USB input.
I have to be honest. I never liked Roger Moore in his later role as James Bond. He always seemed out of shape.
When I first searched for The Saint on YouTube, I was curious why we liked the show so much in Australia. Well, Roger Moore as Simon Templar is dashing and debonair, lithe and svelte. No question. His expressions are timeless; the stories are always light, entertaining, and have a good ending.
Each show begins with Simon's introductory monologue to the camera, then someone recognizes him by name. Camera re-frames on Simon to leave space above his head where a halo suddenly appears. Simon looks up, as if at his own halo, and smiles. Theme music plays. The episode is introduced.
Although almost all episodes were shot in English studios, camera crews took establishment footage from all over the world to create a masterful illusion of international intrigues in London, Paris, Rome, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Costa Brava, Cannes (of course), Canada, Bahamas, New York, Athens and Cornwall. It's fun just to see vintage 1960's cars, trucks and buses on the roads.
Simon Templar is a gentleman who doesn't back off from a fistfight, and who is never taken in by a beautiful woman.
Simon drives his Volvo sports car (license plate ST-1), plays opposite beautiful women and cunning men, has an obligatory fist fight or two in each episode (much more convincingly playful than Roger as Bond), and, against all odds, mischievously solves the problem of the day in a very honorable, gentlemanly, and unexpected manner — nay, even saintly.
So here at San Simeon, we have become enamored of The Saint Simon Templar. We also like living on a small dead-end street named after Saint Simeon the Stylite.
Coincidence?
