June 1, 1968 –
The British television series The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan, had its American premiere on CBS-TV, as a summer replacement for a Jackie Gleason series, on this date.
“Rover“, the menacing white balloon that acts as a surreal sentry in The Village, was supposed to have been a large robotic machine. During the filming of the first episode, it was supposed to travel across water on a pair of rails hidden under the surface. The machine fell off the rails and into the water, damaging the motors inside. Just then, a weather balloon passed by, and Patrick McGoohan came upon the idea of “Rover” being a large white balloon that traveled by itself. The reason the cast stands still as Rover wanders past is because the balloon is being pulled by a wire. The shots were then run backwards, and edited into the film (In one episode, smoke can be seen drifting back into a chimney in the distance as Rover passes by). Impressively for a last-minute improvisation, Rover has remained disquietingly menacing and believably futuristic as a sentry drone while the surrounding technology in the series has dated noticeably over the decades.
The Haus of Dcaligari 