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Recently, I switched my service provider to Verizon - so my TV line-up and program channels are all new and different. One night the other week, I started to flip through the channels to see what was there.

I discovered that I was now getting the "American Life Channel" and knew they used to show I SPY, but no longer do. But they do have "Mission:Impossible" and "Remington Steele" ... which is far better than nothing. I remember the details of very few episodes of either show, so they will be fun to catch. (They are showing the Martin Landau-Barbara Bain "Mission:Impossible" era now.)

Well, lo and behold as I flipped to the very next channel I heard some very familiar voices ... and there they were - Kelly & Scotty - right there on my TV screen!!! I had stumbled onto the "FamilyNet Channel"!! And "I SPY" was there waiting for me - glad I was watching at the right time and the right place, because I would never have thought to do a search for it. I had no idea "I SPY" was being aired on any channel.

The program listing only says "I SPY with Bill Cosby" ... (sorry Bob) - with no other information, no episode descriptions or titles, nothing. So I went to "FamilyNet's" website and found that I SPY is on most nights at 9 PM and 12 PM.

Except for our reviews here on the FORUM, and when I am hunting down some screen captures, I haven't watched many episodes recently. And I usually watch the DVDs on my computer screen - so it was delightful to see Kelly and Scotty up there, full-sized, on my TV screen!! Unfortunately, the first episode I caught, THE BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN, was on - and as charming as the beginning was (Kelly & Scotty getting out of Casablanca and meeting up with Zarkas posing as a cab driver in Athens), the second half of the story with Andreas and his father was really lame and made little sense. But I LOVED seeing the taxi scene with Zarkas and our guys, especially after hearing those great audiotapes Jimmy shared with us - with Harold Stone complaining in no uncertain terms about the lousy car not working ... and then the story of his not being "overly happy" about having to ride on that donkey!!











Then I remembered someone, late in the summer, had posted something on the FORUM letting us know that I SPY was back on TV - and just like a "SALE" sign displayed on a storefront (which you "never" notice until you are going in there to shop), I didn't pay much attention to the news, because the station was not being carried by my cable service.

"FamilyNet" is an odd venue for I SPY - it's motto is "Values-based programming" and it has LOTS of religious programming, including most of the commercials. SO, I guess we can conclude that they are using Kelly as their "thou shalt not" example .... and that someone in their programming dept. is a big fan.

This is their "blurb" on the FamilyNet site ...

"Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) and Alexander Scott (Bill Cosby) pose as a professional tennis player and his personal trainer but are actually spies for the United States. This whimsical adventure show departs from it's rival shows of the 1960s espionage genre with more true-to-life characters. Rather than being impervious to harm, Robinson and Scott have feelings, get hurt, and even doubt the validity of their role as spies."


What I am enjoying - is watching "Mission:Impossible" and seeing how many guest-stars they shared with "I SPY." I know some of you made a list awhile back. But in the few days I've watched, I've seen Alf Kjellin, Will Geer, Roy Jenson, and Albert Salmi, etc. so far. Desilu definitely knew how to use good talent, as SO many guest-stars appeared on "I SPY," "Mission:Impossible," and "Star Trek."

It is interesting to watch "M:I" next to "I SPY." "M:I's" stylized formula holds up very well, but you never really connect with the main characters. They appear as these interesting "actors" that re-appear in different ensemble stories - becoming chameleons for their assignment in each episode. Scotty and Kelly, on the other hand - their interaction, their banter, their relationship - are what makes "I SPY" so appealing and adds that personal connection. Their stories appear far more "real" than M:I; their "real" locations totally shine compared to the soundstage sets of "M:I;" and except for their great theme at the opening of "M:I," their music sounds much the same to me, compared to the wonderful, exciting, and ethnic-flavors of the music our great Earle Hagen infused I SPY with each and every week.


Do lots of you get "I SPY" and "M:I" on TV? .... AND how do you compare "I SPY" and "Mission:Impossible"??





And ... I finally watched a "Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode on Hulu.com. I really haven't taken much advantage of HULU or TRUVEO, but they have lots of great shows for free out there. Anyway, I watched "The Cherry Blossom Affair." I chose this one because it guest-starred France Nuyen. Now I really like Ms. Nuyen, and black-turtlenecked Illya was as cute as I remembered him, but the story was really idiotic, slow, campy, and hard to get through. I left and came back to it twice. Now all series have good and bad shows, but comparing my recent encounters with "I SPY," "Mission:Impossible," and "Man from U.N.C.L.E" .... "I SPY" was so far superior (of course, I am totally prejudiced here)! And it still just amazes me that "I SPY" has the smallest following today in "retro-fans" compared to these others ???????? Any opinions as to why??


As always,

Tatia



~ ~

Hi Tatia!

Billy Bob Rover and I once had a discussion about how comical Mission Impossible frequently was because, unlike I SPY, it was plagued with such a low budget. I can't think of an episode that wasn't shot on the Paramount lot or within a twenty mile radius of that studio. Almost every week, L.A.'s Griffith Park filled in for any rural settings the script may have called for. The plots always seemed to be taking place in some ficticious Eastern European country and they always seemed to have a foreign-looking police "paddy wagon" lettered "Polizai" that somehow would be an integral part of the plot.

To be fair, there are several I SPY episodes that were produced on a shoe-string budget and filmed exclusively at the Paramount backlot, in addition to having a hokey, hard-to-believe plot. I'm thinking along the lines of NIGHT TRAIN TO MADRID and CASANOVA FROM CANARSIE, among some others.

Since I've had an interest in trains over the years (I work for a railroad) there is one episode from the first season of Mission Impossible entitled, appropriately enough, "THE TRAIN", that really stands out in the technical error department. Of course, the plot takes place in (surprise) a ficticious Eastern European country, but I could readily determine that everything was filmed at the Union Pacific East Los Angeles rail yards. Seeing American-style locomotives and cars attempting to appear like something you'd see in Europe (and crudely painted and lettered as such) had me laughing the one and only time I saw the episode, which was only about FORTY TWO years ago! There was even a discussion about it on a railfan-oriented bulletin board. See:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1705039

That's perhaps the biggest reason why I like I SPY. They actually spent some MONEY on each episode and didn't try to film an entire TV series about two globe trotting spies in Southern California. The Man From UNCLE was afflicted with this same disease. It's certainly a mystery to me why those series have a bigger following than I SPY.

Russ Conway

Hi Tatia and Russ!

At its best I like Mission: Impossible very much. It is one of the few TV shows from that era that I watch today. I watched a lot of TV in the sixties (not so much today). Most of those shows provide, at best, a short rush of nostalgia, but I can't hang in there very long. I Spy, of course, is in the first (select) group. The Man from UNCLE is in the latter group.

I agree with Russ that there are many aspects of Mission: Impossible that are silly. For me, the silliest is the way the folks in other countries speak English, only with accents usually not found in nature. If I could change one thing about the show, I would have them drop the accents. It's understood they are working in a foreign country. We are happy to believe the IMF team can speak their language perfectly. Just speak unaffected English as if we in the viewing audience have the use of a magic translator. You do get used to the accents though sometimes, particularly in the case of Leonard Nimoy in his time on the series, they approach the outré.

In the best Mission: Impossible episodes there is a cleverness to the plotting and a cool visual style that I really like. You are watching and wondering: Why are they doing that? What's Barney up to in that elevator shaft? Why is Cinnamon acting so guilty? Is that supposed to happen? And then it all comes together and it can be exhilarating. I particularly like it when the target of the scheme realizes in the end he's been tricked into doing the IMF's bidding, and sees them in the final moment with all disguise and pretense stripped away.

Not all, or even most of the Mission: Impossible episodes attain that lofty standard and then they fall flat. The recurring characters are essentially indistinguishable and spend most shows inhabiting other "fake" characters. Other than the fact that they seem to like each other and will risk their lives for each other, there isn't much interest there. I Spy had a number of substandard or even silly scripts, but Kelly and Scotty are always a joy to watch. So when I'm exiled to a desert island for crimes against propriety, I'll take my I Spy DVD collection, but Mission: Impossible may not make the cut.

As Tatia mentioned, it's rare to watch a Mission: Impossible and not encounter someone who also made an I Spy appearance. The last Mission: Impossible I watched was an episode called "Terror" from season four. It featured both David Opatoshu and Ron Feinberg who played Rudy Zugman and Cesare respectively in "Tonia". The episode also featured Arlene Martel who never graced I Spy, but co-starred with Robert Culp in the wonderful "Demon with a Glass Hand" from The Outer Limits. You are probably wondering how this could get even better. It does because I also discovered (thanks to IMDB) another actor to put on the I Spy - Mission Impossible - Star Trek triptych.

Over three years ago now, Herbie and I, in tag team fashion, found all the actors we could who appeared on all three shows.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/172251/thread/1118474955/Off+the+wall+trivia+question

Here is the final list we arrived at:

Warren Stevens
Antoinette Bower
Byron Morrow*
Arthur Batanides
David Opatoshu
Madlyn Rhue*
Ricardo Montalban
George Takei
Michael Strong
Roy Jenson
Michael Forrest
Malachi Throne
Lawrence Montaigne
Marianna Hill
Robert Sampson

I put asterisks on those actors whose Mission: Impossible appearances were in the post Martin Landau/Barbara Bain era. However, much as the asterisk next to the 61 home runs Roger Maris hit in 1961 was eventually removed, there is an executive committee meeting scheduled to hear arguments about removing these asterisks. I'll pass along the findings. Anyway, we can add one more name to the list: Makee K. Blaisdell, also known as: Makee Blaisdell, Blaisdell MaKee, Blaizdel MaKee, Blaisdell Makee, Blaisdel Makee, Blaizdell Makee, Blaizdel Makee, Blaisdel McKee and Blaizdel McKee. He appeared in "Return to Glory" as "sniper", and two Star Trek episodes: "Space Seed" (as Spinelli) and "The Changeling" (as Singh). In the Mission: Impossible episode I just saw he got to play "guard". Welcome to the club Makee, or whatever your name is.

Jimmy

Hi Jimmy & Mr. Conway, sir,


Enjoyed both your postings ....

Uh-huh, I agree Jimmy! I am entering the stage where it is a bit grating that the "Mission:Impossible" force are all such phenomenal language experts and fluent in such a "plethora" of Eastern European languages. Good enough to fool the top echelon of any government. Of course, you always wondered about Peter Lupus' character, and the reason for his minimal speaking parts. Guess he needed a few more Berlitz lessons in mastering "Outer Moldanavian" or "Lower Karastanastan" (or whatever fictitious country they were visiting next. )





But as Jimmy pointed out, M:I's sophisticated, stylized version of a "sting" operation was very well done! And you were always waiting in anticipation for Martin Landau to pull off his mask at the end, so the poor schlemiel bad guy could see that he had been totally had.

And add to that Barbara Bain, who was always so cool and elegant and aloof - by the time they got to Lesley Ann Warren in their more "hippy-ish" episodes, things had gone far downhill - but Lynda Day George did a nice job at the end, though Barbara Bain's classy Cinnamon outdid them all.

One of the reasons that I so enjoyed that Dick Van Dyke "Diagnosis Murder" episode DISCARDS, with all the old 60s spies, was Barbara Bain's cool as a cucumber performance as an older Cinnamon Carter. She was the only one in the cast who was able to use her character's name, though the other characters were easily identifiable as their 60s persona, just with a name change. Really enjoyable episode ....







And Russ, last night on my "I SPY Channel," they showed "A Few Miles West of Nowhere." This was never one of my favorites, but it was so much fun looking for all those great sites you "Then & Now-ed" from Crestline/Bracket for us.


http://www.network54.com/Forum/172251/thread/1200297378

And Jimmy - congratulations on your discovery of "Makee Blaisdell, Blaisdell MaKee, Blaizdel MaKee, Blaisdell Makee, Blaisdel Makee, Blaizdell Makee, Blaizdel Makee, Blaisdel McKee or Blaizdel McKee" - you are definitely in contention for the "UNKNOWN GUY Award of the Year." Of course, your excellent bit of "trivia undercovering" puts you in direct competition with "Jean G" and her "yellow sweater coming in the right door, and a blue sweater going out the left" revelations.

Keep up the good work gentlemen!! Anyone have any other M:I - I SPY views to share with us?


All my very best,


Tatia



~ ~

I have to admit I've watched very few UNCLE episodes. The show simply never resonated with me, unlike, of course "I Spy". I found Solo to be mostly arrogantly smooth and smarmy, and he's not that handsome to me. As for Ilya, I'm not really looking for a nice guy who's a little cute to watch. I found very little complexity in either character, and without much wit and banter outside of Solo's little Bondish one-liners, and with the obvious genre of "camp" being played out in the series, it simply fell flat to me. It completely confounds me what anyone saw in the saw.

While being filmed on location in "I Spy" set it apart, that wasn't the draw for me. I don't particularly judge the episodes or parts of episodes by whether it was studio or foreign shot. Sure, it's grand seeing the foreign locations, but isn't it really Robinson and Scott who we follow, and not necessarily their passports? It did lend wonderful credibility to the show having them actually travel around the world, as their sort of trouble shooting spies would do, but if much of the bantering and wit took place in hotel rooms on not on the streets of Hong Kong, it still worked for me.
In Kelly we have a guy who is emotionally somewhat well, not really unbalanced, but, say, scarred. We get inferences of an unhappy type childhood where their may have been money, but perhaps not much love and nurturing, as least not for as long as Kelly would have, I believe, wanted or needed it. His need for Scotty is, I think, more than Scotty's need for him, as Scotty has a wonderful family back in Philadelphia, and Kelly has no one anyway (well, he probably reconnects with his aunt and uncle after "Home For Judgment"). His vices of drink and women aren't pathological, per se, but certainly do indicate a slight problem with both. Scotty's anger at being an intelligent black man in a racist country, with probably an alcoholic father, sets up his personality to be the more reserved and private one but his deep friendship with Kelly I think allowed him to grow and discover his silliness and humor.

I did not see any type of complexity in Solo and Ilya myself, but I may be flawed in my analysis due to having given up on UNCLE to early. From the first episode I saw of "I Spy" I was hooked, though.

Plus, of course, Robert Culp was at his HOTTEST during that show. And how often did Solo take off HIS shirt or walk around in a towel?

Why is "UNCLE" more popular than "I Spy"? I have no idea.

Mona

I prefer I SPY over UNCLE as well, but I think the draw with UNCLE is the more James Bond type of feel to it. That's not MY draw to it, but is just an observation over all. I remember being a kid and I could not stay up and watch these shows because they were on too late, but when I visited grandma's house, she would let me. I watched UNCLE and thought it was neat, though I don't know why. I watched I SPY and KNEW why I thought it was great. So with I SPY, I think that the reasons to love it are obvious... and UNCLE just sort of has that appeal that you can't explain fully. I know that I would not go out of my way to watch an episode of UNCLE, but would for I SPY.

I never felt the two characters in UNCLE really had the chemistry together that Bill and Bob did (and still do).

I suspect that the major reason that "I Spy," fairly or not, gets short shrift in the attention department is its realism. While both "UNCLE" and "Mission" were heavily gimmicky and romanticized in their portrayal of espionage, "Spy" was grittier -- no exploding tape recorders or communicator pens. No secret headquarters or black-and-white expository sessions. It showed the spy business for what it was, and the picture was fairly bleak. For better or worse, audiences who truly wanted to "escape" into a fantasy world, tended to do so in the worlds of Napoleon Solo and Jim Phelps (and dare I add Jim West), rather than Kelly and Scotty.

For me, "Spy"'s number one, but "Mission" runs a close second. I loved the concept, and more often than not the execution. And as a devout Leonard Nimoy fan, it was wonderful to see him doing two seasons as non-Spock with such delicious elan. I know that the purists prefer Landau and Bain, but to me, they were oddly one-note. And with their departure, "Mission" began to vary its format a little bit more ... operations would go awry, and sometimes episodes would commence "mid-mission," and the tape sequences were possibly missing altogether.

I have the complete series of "Man from UNCLE," and have watched a couple of episodes, but doubt that I'll have the patience for the entire run. I love Robert Vaughn in his "Columbo" appearances and in "Hustle," and David McCallum's a joy in "NCIS," but frankly it has dated more poorly than "I Spy" and "Mission: Impossible." I don't have either of the above mentioned cable channels, but I find myself watching more and more TV on DVD these days, and as long as I have all 82 "Spy"s and the "Mission" DVDs keep coming, I'll be a happy camper.

Hey Bill,

Nice to hear from you again!

Yes, I agree with what you said - "I suspect that the major reason that "I Spy," fairly or not, gets short shrift in the attention department is its realism."

I'm sure that the fun, campy, cool, and other-worldly nemeses and situations faced by the other "Super 60s Spies" out there appealed to many, especially during the bleakness of the Vietnam era.

You mentioned Jim West, well let's not forget to throw in Steed & Mrs. Peel, and Max and 99, too!

Kelly's and Scotty's enemies were far more real than THRUSH or SMERSH ... or threatening robots or "The Craw" or Dr. Miguelito Loveless and his delightfully insane creations, or whatever "megalomaniacal mad scientist of the week" those other spies encountered. "I SPY" certainly had a far more realistic feel to it, especially enhanced by actually being in all those wonderful locations.

Escapism is great - and all of these other shows had their own patented versions of it. As you mentioned. "Mission:Impossible" had a great concept and executed it ever so smoothly. That was their formula and style, and they did it well. And as I mentioned, from my recent viewing, it does hold up well. But their characters didn't have any depth - and certainly no warmth - and nada in the humor department. It was like watching a play, and you never felt any connection to it.

I also found recently watching "The Cherry Blossom Affair" on U.N.C.L.E. to be a most interesting experience. I remembered the show fondly (well Illya in his black-turtle neck, at least), but I hadn't seen an episode in years and years. And as I mentioned, it was really difficult to watch the whole way through. I'm sure there are probably some episodes I might still find to be fun, but the whole flavor of show felt dated, not very interesting, and it all felt pretty gimmicky with little substance or storyline.

The one spy show out there that was far darker and realistic (and arrived earlier) than "I SPY" was "Secret Agent Man" (a.k.a. Danger Man) - bringing us John Drake's cold, smooth, unemotional countenance to the TV screen from the British Isles. I think that because this show was so dark, that I loved "The Prisoner" even more when it came out. Watching cool and completely-in-charge John Drake encounter the inexplicable and unexplainable on that very strange island in that very strange community was always a delight. Yes, #6 was supposed to be John Drake, boys and girls!!







O.K. - putting ALL that aside ... what about NOW? With the nostalgia craze rabidly fueled by new DVD releases of old shows (and those Retro-channels popping up on cable stations), shouldn't "I SPY" with its more adult, realistic tone, have a far broader appeal to a "baby booming, nostalgia-loving" generation (who by any glance at a calendar should all be adults by now)??

I understand the "realism" factor as an explanation for then (though "I SPY" did really well THEN) --- but what about NOW? Why isn't "I SPY" far more popular or receiving far more attention today, compared to those other 60s spy shows? I have to go with Chuang-Tzu here and his immortal and all-purpose - "It is a great mystery to me ..."






Thanks for a most interesting posting, Bill, Hope you'll stop by more often.

Any others out there with an opinion on this ????


All my best,

Tatia



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...but I think that that very depth and realism is a big part of it. I think we post-modern ironists want our 1960s nostalgia to be campy, so we can feel superior to our younger selves. We can laugh at our youthful naivete in watching U.N.C.L.E., we can dig on the pop-art surrealism of Steed and Peel, we can chuckle at teh over-the-topness of James West's foes...

But then we tune in "I Spy" and we are stoill challenged by the darkness of "Magic Mirror" or "Home to Judgment," the ugliness and cynicism of "It's All Done With Mirrors" ("I wish to defect!" "And we'll take him, too, do you know that?") and it's not that comforting sense that we're smarter than we were. Indeed, it's that for all our supposed modernism, in many ways we're more naive today than we were those generations ago. The Boy King of Khadra and Bobby Saville would have sneered side-by-side at Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush claiming the Iraquis would be hailing us as liberators.

As a member of Generation X, I can safely say that cynicism comes quite naturally to people my age. We grew up in the time of American hostages in Iran and Watergate (the story first broke 3 months after I was born) We are quite wary of being sold a rosy version of how things are in an attempt to cover up what is really happening. I find reality refreshing- it can be good or bad as long as it's more or less honest.







It's that very reason that led me to watch "I Spy" as a kid. Unlike other spy shows and James Bond movies, Kelly and Scotty dealt with some pretty gritty stuff. Lines of good and bad were blurred; the American government was not always right, and people did get hurt out in the world. It seemed more real to me because not everything was all shiny and happy.







Don't get me wrong: fantasy and silly and a hero jumping off a building unscathed have an important place, too. Everybody needs a break, and some people don't want reality at all. But as for me and my friends, who've only watched the show in reruns, the depth and realism of "I Spy" appeals to us, and I believe the substantive quality of the show is going to keep "I Spy" alive.

Indeed, not a lot of time these days, a 16 month year old with her first (sort of) comprehending Christmas experience is eating up a lot of time...but I think there were key reasons M:I and MFU have bigger cults than I SPY

A) Mission Impossible seemed to have a better syndication run -- growing up as a kid in NYC in the 70s and early 80s, they showed M:I a lot, whereas I never saw I SPY until I rented a video in the early 90s....

B) M:I's theme is more famous and legendary, and kept the show in mind even when it wasn't in sight...

C) Then Cruise's movies brought it back to the forefront, where Eddie Murphy's I SPY film died a (justifiably) quick death...

as for M.F.U.

a) it was more of a kid's show when a lot of the baby boomer tastemakers were kids, meaning I know a lot of people who were 10-15 when the show first came on who loved M.F.U...I SPY was indeed more "realistic" and adult, and I think a lot of the stuff we love is stuff we love from our childhood...so kids were more impressed with the more silly Uncle stuff than the more character-driven I SPY stuff...

B) while I didn't see it much in syndication, the "movie" versions (where they pieced together a few episodes to make movies for foreign theatres -- I wonder why I SPY never tried this?) did play often on local t.v. -- so again, there was no I SPY presence in NYC from 1975 onward as far as I recall, so the next generation didn't have a chance to latch on during reruns, whereas I did watch and love M:I & MFU...

just some largely unsupported theories, but there they are!

I believe the only attempt from I SPY to provide a "movie" was the episode: TO FLORENCE WITH LOVE (which was edited to a two-parter for the TV series).

Was this ever released theatrically anywhere, like Turkey or Romania or wherever they'd pass these things off as movies?