Hello again from Germany!

I'm back again to say that I JUST RECEIVED MY "I SPY BOOK"!!! (Now I am one of few people - or perhabs the only one? - in Germany owning it!) I ordered it on amazon.de and it was shipped to Germany from Great Britain so I had to wait for two long weeks till I could hold it in my hands. But this book was really worth waiting and paying the price (inluding shipments of € 3.- I paid all in all € 39,60 - I think this is really fair, isn't it?).

Reading the first few pages about the history of the spy genre in literature and especially television, I could feel what Tatia called "the 'wonderfulness' of the 'I Spy' book". It's really a hit!

But let me come to something different which has always been very interesting for me - the credits of the series. In the credits, we can see Kelly's eyes in different colors watching over some short scenes (in black-and-white) from the actual episode. When I saw "Blackout" as a child, I started to wonder why the scenes used in the credits were not of this, but mixed of several previous episodes. Now owning the German DVD box sets, I see that this was not the only episode where the credits were made this way. I think the last episode to show only scenes from itself was Tatia's favorite "The War Lord".

Is there any expert out there who can tell me just for interest why the producers didn't make the credits individually for each episode in the second half of season #2 and in season #3? I know it's nothing important, but it's a question I have asked myself often so I'm curious what you "I Spyer's" have to say - or write - about it.

And then there is something I didn't understand when I read Sheldon Leonard's thoughts about "I Spy" (I only read the excerpts from his book "And the Show Goes on..." published on an "I Spy" fan page):

Leonard is writing about a man who was told to "down a pint of ale in an English pub". The scene had to be shot six or seven times so the man was completely drunk after the filming. My question now is: In which episode of "I Spy" did this happen? I have now seen all the episodes but couldn't find this scene! Did I understand something wrong? Was it in another film Leonard made and not in "I Spy"? Or was this scene cut out in the German version of the series? Please help me, fans!

For help, here is a short extract from Leonard's book:

"…In England, I remember when we were shooting in the garden of a rural pub. We had hired a well-known British actor who in the course of the scene was required to down a pint of ale. We couldn’t fake it with cold tea, because the foaming head of the brew was very visible to the camera. The cameras rolled. The actor swilled down his pint of ale. As the last drops trickled down his throat, the camera operator yelled, 'Cut! It’s no good. A cloud came over the sun, and the light changed. We need another take.'"

Thanks for all

Pally the Kid

Hi Paully,

Thank you for your enthusiastic review of the I Spy book. Linda and I wrote it for people like us - true fans of the show - and it pleases us greatly to know that the book is being appreciated.
As to your questions, I wish I had answers. In researching the book, with all the people we interviewed, and all the documents we searched through at NBC, USC, UCLA, as well as private collections, including those of Associate Producer Ron Jacobs, we still didn't find answers to a few questions that were nagging at us - and the two you brought up were certainly among them.
I'm guessing that the reason for the change in the opening credit sequence, two-thirds the way through the second season, was because some of those last episodes from that year didn't have as many fist-fights and other action-oriented sequences as earlier episodes did - so a decision was made to sprinkle in clips from the past. By season three, Art Seid was the new head of the editing department, and Seid had some ideas of his own as to how to reduce costs (I Spy was the most excpencive series on TV then, and Sheldon Leonard was starting to worry about the escalating costs), as well as find a way to get episodes cut faster and delivered to the network well in advance of their scheduled airings. By eliminating the specialized opening sequence, half a day's worth of post production time could be saved.
Regarding Leonard's memory of shooting in an English pub, it never happened - at least not with I Spy. As stated in the book, plans had been made, and scripts written, to be shot in England for the Fall of 1968, but those were scrapped when I Spy abruptly ended (I'll make you read the book you now own a copy of to learn the reason why). My guess about this mysterious bar scene was always that Leonard was confusiong this, which may have been shot for another show (although we could find no evidence of any such show being made) with all the location shooting he did for I Spy. Or maybe he was remembering a scene written for one of the scripts to be shot in England, and somehow imagined that he actually saw it shot.
If anyone out there knows a better answer, or even theory, I'd love to hear it.
Best, Marc Cushman

Hi Paully and Marc. I remembered one anecdote about a drunk actor from your book Marc. The actor is Stacy Harris who is not English, though he was born in Canada. The episode is “One Thousand Fine” shot in Acapulco. On page 131 Robert Culp had this to say about a scene at an outdoor café with Stacy Harris:

“We were at this outdoor café and Stacy Harris got terribly drunk. He wasn’t paying attention and he drank too much. It was like he couldn’t even play the scene. It was really weird. Then there’s the camera in front of him, and he had to deliver. I remember feeling sorry for him. I was a little pissed off, but it was really unfortunate.”

Could this be the incident Sheldon Leonard was thinking of?

Jimmy

Jimmy, I think you are absolutely right on this. Sheldon wasn't one to make things up, but, with all the adventures he took, and all the various TV shoots he over-saw, he was prone to get things wrong now and then. I found numerous instances in his book where he got details upside down regarding certain things, mixing up episodes, the sequence of events, dates, etc.

You masy very well have just solved a riddle. "One Thousand Fine."

Now if we could just get an answer as to why they messed with the opening title sequence. I'll check with a couple of the I Spy people I know and see if they have an answer to that.

Best, Marc.

Sheldon Leonard produced a couple of half-hour series in England around 1971 in co-production with Lord Lew Grade's ITC outfit. They were both short-lived, but one was called FROM A BIRDS EYE VIEW and the other was SHIRLEY'S WORLD.

Might he have been getting confused and referring to one of these?

Hi Simon,

Our responces to Jimmy just crossed in cyberspace. Sheldon did do some work in England, as you pointed out, but I think those were stage bound productions. My money is on Jimmy's theory, that Sheldon - having travelled and filmed all over the world - was remembering the incident in the bar in Mexico and somehow connected it to England.

We'll never know for sure, but it seems a damn good theory.

Marc.

Paully, Jimmy, Simon, and whoever else may be interested:

I contacted Ernest Frankel, who also talked with Earle Hagen, and both actually knew the answer to the question about the opening credit sequence and why, for the tail end of Season Two and all of Season Three, they switched from showing clips from "tonight's episode" to, instead, clips from past episodes.

It had nothing to do with reducing editing time or saving money, or any feelings that any episodes lacked enough action sequences. I was wrong with all my guess-work (and therefore very happy that guessing didn't make it into the book).

The reason: Art Seid, head editor at the time, approached Sheldon, Mort Fine and David Freidkin with concerns that too many of the plot points for "tonight's episode" were being given away in the opening title sequence, and it would be better to let the audience be surprised by what was yet to come.

I'm sorry they made that change, and I don't agree with Art's thinking, or with Sheldon, Mort and David for agreeing with that thinking, but at least we now know the reasoning behind the shift.

Best, Marc Cushman

Thanks so much for finding out the answer! It sure is interesting to know why they made that change after all these years I can understand the thinking behind it.