Dennis Spooner - Post-ITC

Post-ITC

After his contract with ITC lapsed Spooner entered a period of genuine freelance work for the rest of his career. His scripts were accepted on shows such as Bergerac and The Professionals. Nevertheless, as had been his motivation for joining The Baron—and, really, that of ITC boss Lew Grade—Spooner still longed for some success in the United States. To this end he rejoined Brian Clemens. In 1973 Clemens had begun Thriller, an ATV/ITV anthological mystery show that was shown in the United States under the title ABC Mystery Theatre. Spooner wrote only two episodes of the show, but he was one of only two writers other than Clemens himself to have done so. When Clemens made his next assault on U.S. television, The New Avengers, Spooner played a much larger role: he and Clemens wrote the overwhelming majority of the scripts. So great was Spooner's contribution to New Avengers that, if considered alongside his work for the parent programme, it makes him the third-most prolific writer for The Avengers, and second only to Clemens for the length of his association with the programme. While this gave Spooner the greatest continuous work of his latter career, neither it nor Thriller led to a long-term presence in the United States. He continued to try to break into the American market, but sold only one idea to a prime time network show: the third season Remington Steele episode "Puzzled Steele" gave story credit to Spooner, Clemens and scriptwriter Jeff Melvoin.