Hi there,

Where is everybody?? I hope on some exotic location vacation ...

It's pretty hard to have a FORUM when you are just talking to yourself.


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So, stop on by, even if it's just to say hi!!! Lurkers, that means you, too!




And here are 2 topic starters that Bob G. once suggested, that somehow got waylaid because some event happened.





He wrote ...

--Being such fans of the show, how would "we" make a particular episode better (if we could, that is).

--How's about if I SPY existed TODAY, what differences would we see in the manner in which our operatives...well, operate?


Sounds intriguing! Any takers???






As always,

Tatia



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Episode 1: Kelly is in a speedo the entire episode

Episode 2: Kelly travels to Phoenix, AZ where a physician/professor has gotten into some spy trouble, by accident, to help her out. Kelly is injured in Phoenix, and nursed back to health by said physician.

Episode 3: Kelly meets an old friend who is NOT in trouble or a traitor.

Episode 4: Kelly goes back to Uncle Harry and Aunt Alta and has a nice week long vacation there, with no trouble occurring, and continues to have them be back of his life.

Episode 5: Kelly meets a woman on vacation who is NOT in on a plot; she's just a nice, woman happy with temporary sex and he has a good time with her. He goes back to Scotty for an assignment and then Kelly winds up having to kill her twin, dear brother who is in on some plot.

Episode 6: Kelly and Scotty get a pay raise and an increase per diem!

Episode 7: Kelly and Scotty are able to stop a US corporation from its plans to illegally pollute some village in a poor country in its attempts to grab a valuable mineral out of the ground, which isn't political, per se, but nicely humanistic.

Episode 8: Kelly and Scotty wind up killing 10 bad guys and then feel full of angst and despair, until a couple of pretty women walk over to them.

Episode 9: Kelly goes back to Phoenix, AZ.....



Mona

Episode 10: Kelly gets tired of the hussy in Phoenix and returns to San Francisco--this time without that pesky Nuyen woman hanging on his arm--where he decides to devote his life to making a female editor happy. (Hell, he'd hardly have to get out of bed, except so that I could admire him in the shower from time to time. I do love a man who knows how to wear a towel.)




Regards--

So glad to know you are still out there!

Well now, I had intended to take the high road here when I brought up this topic ....

I was going to say something mundane along the lines of "Guess what cell phones would have done to all those storylines with phone booths and pay phones!!" HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EVERYBODY" wouldn't have happened at all if the guys had cell phones along.




















But we seem to have wandered off into far more fun territory ....


Now I have to decide after seeing all these great postings, whether to follow Jonathan and pursue a more intellectual and/or political contribution - or - follow my sisters-in-arms with a more - ummm - "hands-on" approach??





Hmmm - such decisions .... ?????






Well now, after much deep soul-searching, thought and deliberation, and a thorough analyses of past storylines, here's my suggestion in answer to "What could have been done to make the episodes better"??



And the answer is .....




"Have Scotty and Kelly always go shirtless"!! (and just don't write any episodes taking place in Alaska).










O.K. O.K., I guess to enhance and elevate the intellectual appeal of the show,
we can throw in a Tuxedo episode now and again ....





And for more on this subject, check out this past posting and be sure to see Bulwer-Lytton's slideshow following it ... Again for your own safety and the safety of others, please follow all the warnings included in this posting to the letter ....


http://www.network54.com/Forum/172251/message/1221603120/


And ladies, Kelly may stop over in Phoenix, Boston, and San Francisco, but he always, always comes home to headquarters in Washington, D.C.






All my very best,

Tatia




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Tired of the west coast, Kelly next heads to Boston to and inspires a young, struggling writer to finish her novel.




Sweeping her away to a quiet place on the Cape where he helps heal her broken heart in his own special way:





That's my idea. I do sense we've drifted off topic-- not that there's anything wrong with that!


Maya

Now, this is an interesting one to sink our teeth into. I warn, some might consider this response to be politically controversial.

I see Scotty and Kelly changes between last year and this, to be honest.

An "I Spy" series set during the Bush Administration would probably have our guys being a lot more frustrated, and shows with a lot more political content, due to what intelligence professionals called "Stovepiping." This was the practice by which people at the very top of our government decided for themselves, based on their own agendas, rather than the standard vetting process of layer upon layer of intelligence professionals, which "ground-level" intelligence was important or credible to them, and brought it directly into decision-making. I'm not making this a Republican-vs-Democrat or Conservative-vs-Liberal issue, please understand. It's a competent-intelligence-gathering issue. I see a lot more ending like that of "It's All Done With Mirrors:" a cynical Kelly and Scotty shaking their heads in despair as their superiors scrwe things up for political reasons.

An "I Spy" set this year would, I think, remind me of the new "Star Trek" movie you can catch in the theaters right now: It would be a series about starting over, about recovering from catastrophe and trying to fix things and correct courses in the process. I see them sympathetic to Russ/Gabe, and troubled by the number of their colleagues who committed crimes like torture under the previous regime in charge, and are now too busy trying to cover themselves to pay the kind of attention to the intelligence coming in that it really needs.

I also see Scotty and Kelly, all through these periods, sort of rolling their eyes in disgust at being aimed almost exclusively against Al Qaeda, as if there are no other threats to American interests. Then, of course, there are their missions in Iraq, which are even further from defending us against real threats.

......they discover....has operatives in Phoenix, AZ....




Mona

I was wondering through the forum and saw this post and I have thought about the same thing. What would spies like Kelly and Scotty do as intelligence agents in our current time?

Part of what made I Spy so fun with the other spy shows is that is had the allure of credibility. Real spy work is dull. But this was set at the Cold War where propaganda ploys were considered important ans stealing secrets.

In reality most of the spies good and bad were simply being in a position to pass information through dead drops and such. Most of the secrets stolen have always been from the US.

Hanson in FBI counterintelligence was a perfect spy. He past all the polygraphs and kept a steady stream of information to the Soviets and Russians. He sid it for the money but really more for the thrill of getting one over his coworkers and winning. It was the challenge that he liked.

We never had the spies like Kelly and Scotty traveling the world. Really most are like a spy who was a dockworker. A person in a menial job that tells of ship movements.
There are people who still do that though they may not be government agents. Trying to figure out the Russian Navy and army movements to the Georgia conflict were done by a bunch of reporters and amateurs who just had a network of sources and putting the pieces together.
The Russian invasion of Georgia was a surprise in that it happened on the first day of the Olympics but the actual intent was figured out about 4 months before and was foretold.

I know that the American Embassy in the USSR was riddled with taps and that we had to abandon the new building because it was so compromised. My father told me about the globe that was given to US Ambassador and was in his office that has a Russian bug.

The best I was told about was the twig that was bug in the garden of the Chinese Embassy used to gather intelligence.

Real spies never carried guns and shot people. That would get you known and arrested fast.

The current humint are in Pakistan giving locations for the Predators to hit the Taliban. They are locals. Americans tend to stand out.

I heard of one operation about 2 years back at the Khyber Pass where a set up for the supplies trucks to Afghanistan was set for ambush and then ambush in return and that was an intelligence win.

The agents that were in Afghanistan after 9/11 were set up with a donkey, horse or camel, laptop, cash and a sat phone. They made the deals with the local warlords to fight against the Taliban and it worked mostly.

I heard that in Afghanistan the agents trying to get cooperation have to figure what the tribal leaders really want. Most tribal leaders want things that are not easily seen as American.

GPS units were hot. Batteries are a hot item for trade.

Most troops movements are detected with satellites with verification from locals on the ground that call it in or use email.

The Church committee destroyed the humint ability of the CIA and we have used more fancy money schemes at Treasury to disrupt networks and detect AQ operations.

Kelly and Scotty may work in Hong Kong to disrupt the Chinese intergration. They may work in Azerbaijan to get the pipeline deals for the US and mess up the Russian deals.
I could see them setting up an embarassing sting on the Russian to screw up their image in the Caucasus states.

Working with Israeli agents to run agents in Iran and Counter Intelligence by setting up stings passing bad programming that screws uo the missile launches. Making sure that hardware that allows US control it or screws up a launch. I know that we had many software with back doors that were taken by the Russians. Regrettably that software was only used to run Russian subways.

The current CIA is in hunker down mode and the field is keeping quiet. They have to be to be safe from political ill winds from the US and problems against our enemies.

I know this is a late answer to the excellent questions posed earlier, but I've been thinking hard on the ways our show would be different if in production today. Besides having Kelly in Boston, I can't think of a particular episode to change, but I do wonder how the show would feel if it had the production values of today's show. The X-Files is the first show that comes to mind. Imagine having sets without the gray plyboard that followed our Kelly and Scotty around the world. Or perhaps because the show's strength and focus were the characters, such modernizations would be irrelevant.

For the second part of the question, I've done some studying of spying for my own novel, and it seems espionage is divided into three categories: before the Cold War, during it, and after. Kelly and Scotty would be operating in a post cold war world with all new rules. Not having Col. Benkovsky (I doubt that's the right spelling, sorry) around as much would be a disappointment, but I'm guessing Kelly and Scotty would be dealing more with bad guys like Sorgi rather than a government organization.

Plus, their jobs wouldn't be quite as secure. In recent years, our government has shifted its focus away from human intelligence in favor of technological spying, although this may change as governments are realizing that no matter how good their satellites are, you still need boots on the ground to get the job done.

Well, that's my very verbose answer. It's 4:30 am and I've had a lot of coffee.

Maya

Great observations, Maya ...

I think the real espionage world has changed dramatically after 9-11, exactly because of your comments that spy satellites can only provide so much information. Agents need to be involved, on the ground, in one-on-one observations and encounters. The problem is that freckled-faced red-haired Andy from Indiana is not going to have an easy time infiltrating the Taliban or terrorists organizations around the world - where everyone is a cousin or brother.

And in the drug trade and trafficking around the world, this holds true, too. You're right, Sorgi would be doing well in the world of international crime, and probably leading a similar life-style today with his yacht and wealth.

If you haven't made a trip down to the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. you really should. There are lots of excellent exhibits covering many of these subjects, including the history of espionage, women in espionage, current spies, famous spies, spies in wartime, disguises, misinformation, and even spies in the entertainment world (yes, Kelly and Scotty are there! ) They also have a great gift/bookstore attached. And they offer fascinating lectures at different times. The museum was developed by the people who did the "Rock n Roll Hall of Fame" and ex-CIA and KGB operatives - a perfect combination.



http://www.spymuseum.org/





And lots of good luck with your novel, keep us posted.

As always,

Tatia



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