A few more additional thoughts

Becca, clearly your thoughts on this matter prove that you are a compassionate and understanding human being, a very rare thing indeed. I, as a writer as well, though a writer of screenplays and TV, not a journalist, also know the feeling of someone taking the words you've labored over and struggled to craft and then change them around to suit their concept of the character you created. However, I also know that in TV, especially TV of the 1960s, writing was something of an assembly line - I also think that in the case of "I Spy", 99.9% of the scripts written were of the typical disposable network standard of the day.

I do not wish to impune Mr. Frankel's accomplishments, whatever they may be, but from what I could see, he was hardley David Mamet - who will kill you if you deviate one syllable from his text, but then again, he's got a Pultizer - but I imagine on an emotional level, it made him angry that the stars of the show felt the need to "improve" his words with their own. But let us remember, no less an accomplished wordsmith than Woody Allen encourages his actors to improvise on his stuff if they feel they have something better.

In the case of Bob and Bill, I think the evidence is on the screen. The improvisations they came up with were not only superior to anything they were given on the printed page (with the exception of Bob's 7 scripts), they were years, some might argue decades ahead of their time in terms of a level of intimacy and perfomance on television. In fact, I think something that must be re-iterated over and over, is the singular phenomenon that is "I Spy" - Never before, or since, I imagine, though please correct me if I'm wrong - have the stars of a network primetime series made the decision to cast aside their episodic scripts in place of improvising. It remains to me, an astonishing event in the history of television and it pains me that "I Spy" is not celebrated alongside other TV series of the time such as "Star Trek", for that very reason.

I think Becca, you are giving Mr. Frankel too much the benefit of the doubt, but that is to your credit. One can learn from your willingness to see both sides of the story. But as one who knows RMC intimatly, it is safe to say that for the most part, he and Bill thought the scripts were pretty much disposable. That does not diminish Mr. Frankel's hurt and rancor, which, as you pointed out, is completely understandable.

What is interesting to note, is that the scripts that Bob wrote have a minimum of "banter". It is pretty obvious, when you listen to the dialogue, that he crafted each line carefully. I daresay he is a writer who would be quite upset if an actor went "off book". But in his case, I think he would be justified. Another interesting side note, I read an early draft of one of the many "I Spy" feature film scripts that Bob wrote over the years and I noticed the one thing he could never successfully re-create in his scripts was that spontaneous banter between Kelly and Scotty. It is chemistry, pure and simple, something that cannot be captured on the printed page, but can only exist when these two creative forces are together.

So I don't wish to ruffle any feathers and I salute your sober assessment of two divergent opinions, but as a fan of the show, I must disagree that Kelly and Scott were ever excessive in their deviations. I think if anything, it simply pointed up the weaknesses inherint in the scripts.

MBF