The Man From U.N.C.L.E. 1964 to 1968

[BAYLOR]

Ive got series on dvd and begun watching this show of which I hadn't seen episode in nearly 50 years . People tlak about Western being the popular genre on tv back into 60's . Well , Almost as popular were the various Spy tv shows like . The Avengers , The Will Wild West I Spy, Get Smart Mission Impossible. This genre was launched because of the success of the James Bond films

Ive just started to watch the episodes and even as old as this show is , Its still fun to watch spys Napoleon Solo * Robert Vaughn and lllya Kurykin David MaCallum lead by the boss Alexander Waverley (Leo J Carroll) as they wage war against their ache nemesis, the evil organization Thrush .


Thoughts ?

 

[JunkMonkey]

I remember whatching it as a kid and enjoying it. I pretty soon cottened on that Even though it announced the location as PARIS or BERLIN after a whip pan and frantic bongo beat it was still the same three street set but with different 'local' cars parked on them.

All I can really remember about them now is that in one of the later feature length episodes Yvonne 'Batgirl' Craig takes her top off while sunbathing...

 

[Parson]

Boy, I loved those shows as a kid. I thought Illya was so cool! They looks so debonaire and yet were so dangerous, it was a revelation to me. (But I was about as sheltered as sheltered could be. I wasn't allowed to watch movies. My sister and I finally convinced my folks that it would be okay if we were very picky about what we saw when I was 16. I don't think I saw a James Bond movie until i was in my mid-twenties, so I had only the vaguest notion about a James Bond movie. And by that time I'd read many of the books.)

 

[paranoid marvin]

Spy tv shows were definitely at the peak of popularity in the 60s. Back then even the more serious shows had a light hearted element to them; something that feels lacking in the more serious, 'realistic' programmes of today. One of the great things about many shows from the earlier era of tv (up to the late 80s) was a sense of escapism from the horrors of what we would see in the news.

 

[Danny McG]

"Open channel D"

 

[Robert Zwilling]

For awhile it seemed like there was a good spy show of some kind on just about every day of the week. I think Secret Agent and Get Smart were both on Sat. There was also Girl From Uncle, never saw that one.

 

[Vladd67]

For awhile it seemed like there was a good spy show of some kind on just about every day of the week. I think Secret Agent and Get Smart were both on Sat. There was also Girl From Uncle, never saw that one.

Ah yes The Girl from UNCLE in her never ending battle against THRUSH.

 

[farntfar]

I used to buy the Man from Uncle comics sometimes too.

It was ridiculous the sort of pseudoscience we used to accept and be scared of in these programs.
I'm thinking particularly of the bad guys reducing a bunch of politicians to piles of powder round the peace conference table, which batman was able to reverse, by pouring water back onto the ashes using a pipette and some rubber tubing which was labelled a "bat-humidifier" or something.
(This might have been the film?)

The men from UNCLE had a similar thing with great scientists having their brains drained of all their knowledge over the telephone, leaving them as mindless idiots. Napolean and Illya were able to put their thoughts back by calling them again and playing them the tapes of their thoughts.

 

[BAYLOR]

For awhile it seemed like there was a good spy show of some kind on just about every day of the week. I think Secret Agent and Get Smart were both on Sat. There was also Girl From Uncle, never saw that one.

The Girl From Uncle wasn't very good, lasted only one season.

 

[Parson]

Secret Agent had the absolute best theme song. I loved singing the song and thinking about what it'd be to live such a life.

There's a man who lives a life of danger.
Everyone he meets he stays a stranger.
and every move he makes,
Another chance he takes.
Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow.

Secret Agent Man,
Secret Agent Man,
They're giving you a number
And taking away your name.

Swinging on the Riviera one day.
Lying in a Bombay alley next day.
You let the wrong word slip,
When kissing persuasive lips.
Odd are you won't live to see tomorrow.

*All from memory. I probably got something wrong.

 

[Ursa major]

it was still the same three street set but with different 'local' cars parked on them.

It was the same with Roger Moore's The Saint.

 

[Astro Pen]

Uncle (Sam) vs. Thrush (TheRussians).

It was a teenaged while before I cottoned on that the names were a wordplay.

 

[JunkMonkey]

For Danny,

 

[Vladd67]

It was the same with Roger Moore's The Saint.

At least the Saint had a decent car, Ive seen episodes of Danger Man where he was driving a Hillman Imp.

 

[Vladd67]

Secret Agent had the absolute best theme song. I loved singing the song and thinking about what it'd be to live such a life.

There's a man who lives a life of danger.
Everyone he meets he stays a stranger.
and every move he makes,
Another chance he takes.
Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow.

Secret Agent Man,
Secret Agent Man,
They're giving you a number
And taking away your name.

Swinging on the Riviera one day.
Lying in a Bombay alley next day.
You let the wrong word slip,
When kissing persuasive lips.
Odd are you won't live to see tomorrow.

*All from memory. I probably got something wrong.

As Parson remembers it

And how we know it here in the UK

Secret Agent Man,
Secret Agent Man,
They're giving you a number
And taking away your name.

A foreshadowing of the Prisoner perhaps?

 

[Astro Pen]

As Parson remembers it

And how we know it here in the UK

Secret Agent Man,
Secret Agent Man,
They're giving you a number
And taking away your name.

A foreshadowing of the Prisoner perhaps?

The British Danger Man theme, like the phenomenal Prisoner theme is unsurpassable.
How they ever allowed that American version, sounding like something out of an Austin Powers parody, is beyond comprehension. It goes completely against the semi noire style of the series.
(sorry Parson )

 

[JunkMonkey]

I
I'm thinking particularly of the bad guys reducing a bunch of politicians to piles of powder round the peace conference table, which batman was able to reverse, by pouring water back onto the ashes using a pipette and some rubber tubing which was labelled a "bat-humidifier" or something.
(This might have been the film?)

It was the film.

 

[Parson]

And how we know it here in the UK

This song sounds like the beginning of a game show or something. It can't hold a candle to the American version. (Sorry @Astro Pen)

 

[Ursa major]

he was driving a Hillman Imp

Well, he didn't want to be as conspicuous as Simon Templar loved to be.

This song sounds like the beginning of a game show or something. It can't hold a candle to the American version. (Sorry @Astro Pen)

Sorry Parson, but that Secret Agent theme is naff... but speaking of numbers and names being taken away....

You'll be telling us next that the theme of the original The Prisoner isn't up to the standards of that of its remake (a show I didn't watch beyond the first episode...).

 

[JunkMonkey]

Just went and watched The Karate Killers a movie that rehashed a two episode story into a feature. It was pretty meh. A couple of nice moments but, on the whole, not as much fun as I was expecting.