Those I SPY Connections Are Everywhere ....

Hi!

The other day someone was mentioning the original "Peyton Place" movie with Lana Turner. I don't think I've ever seen it, though I do remember something of the TV series with Mia Farrow and Ryan O'Neal. So when I got home I looked up the movie and found this ...






In case you can't make out the name next to Lana Turner's, it is Lee Philips .






At first his name only rang a little bell in my head, but he did look sort of familiar .... and since we all know EVERYTHING is connected to I SPY, I checked on one of the Episode guides and lo and behold, there he was!!


Lee Philips played Kelly #2 in "Will the Real Good Guys Please Stand Up"!!


I always thought Hari Rhodes did a great job as Scotty #2, but Kelly's clone wasn't quite as perfect for me, though he certainly did a very admirable job. I think, looking back, that perhaps I just didn't want to accept the idea of ANYONE else ever playing these roles. Culp IS Kelly and Cosby IS Scotty - and that's it!!!!

But while capturing these screencaps, I re-watched a bit of the episode, especially the "training" of the imitation duo, and I have to say that both Hari Rhodes and Lee Philips really were very, very good!




















I love the comment by their Russian trainer after the "pick-up" scenes. Commenting on Imitation Kelly copying Kelly's moves, he congratulated him by saying something like "That's it - lewd, disgusting - Perfect!!"


Of course, all this just whetted "Information R Us" Tatia's quest to find out more ...


Here's what I found out about Lee Philips ...

Sober, good-looking dramatic actor, who worked on Broadway in the 1950s, on film (played Dr. Michael Rossi in Lana Turner's version of "Peyton Place" (1957), and on TV in "Marty" and "Twelve Angry Men" who switched gears midstream to become an Emmy-nominated director, directing classic 1960s and '70s TV shows, including several episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," "The Waltons," and "M.A.S.H." among many others, including an episode of "The Bill Cosby Show" (1969) - the series where Cosby played Chet Kincaid, the high school gym teacher. Mr. Philips died in 1999.


Here's Mr. Philips' IMDB page:

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0680097


AND in the "He's Worked With Everyone Out There Twice" category, I SPY wasn't Mr. Philips only encounter with our Mr. Culp .... I also discovered that he was the director for the made in Australia movie The Blue Lightning (1986). This was the Sam Elliott movie where Bob plays this great over-the-top, charming, though mad, Irish villain, Lester McInally. Truly a wonderful villain ...








And while we are on the subject of "Will the Real Good Guys Please Stand Up," we can't leave out mentioning the lovely and beautiful Anna (or Ahna) Capri as "Jolie."





These publicity photos were up on eBay awhile ago ... and still come up now and again.








Here's her IMDB page:

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0135622


And there was a section about Ms. Capri in Tom Lisanti's book "Femme Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973" that was on Google books ... starting on Page 86 ...


http://tinyurl.com/5qngv6


And to round out the "Will the Real Good Guys" cast, Henry Wilcoxon, Jolie's father, Laslo Gagni ... "was given the lead role of Marc Antony in Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra (1934). It would prove to be the beginning of a long relationship with DeMille, he would become a familiar DeMille character actor and DeMille's associate producer in the later years of DeMille's career."

And Hari Rhodes - a.k.a. Scotty #2 .... did lots of TV guest starring roles from the 1960s to 80s, with a continuing role in the series "Daktori." He also worked with Culp and Sammy Davis Jr. in General Electric Theater's "The Patsy" in 1953 and with Culp again, with them both guest-starring in the excellent Sam Peckinpah series "The Westerner." The series starred Brian Keith as an itinerant cowhand who keeps on the move - often encountering the darkness in men's souls in his travels. Of course, the series was cancelled after one season - way ahead of its time. The episode Hari Rhodes and Culp were in was an adult, dark, well-written story called "Line Camp" (1960) - written and directed by Tom Gries - who also directed I SPY's "The Trouble with Temple" and "Magic Mirror" which Mr. Culp comments on in the I SPY DVDs. (Told you - EVERYTHING is connected to I SPY!! )

If you are interested in more, here is Hari Rhodes IMDB page. He passed away in 1992:

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0722440


and his Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Rhodes


O.K. I'm all "informationed-out" here for the moment ....

BUT, we'd really love to hear from more of you out there - what are your favorite episodes or least favorite, what was it about I SPY that captured you, who were your favorite guest stars, or anything Culp or Cosby related?? ... This is a FORUM and we really would love to have an exchange of ideas and comments and opinions. Let's hear from you!!



All my best,

Tatia


P.S. What's the next episode up for review, Jimmy, so we can all start watching?? (I still have some LAYA things, I need to post from the last review ... )




~ ~