O.K.

We've checked in with our favorite episodes, what about your FAVORITE I SPY LOCALE ???


SO many wonderful, wonderful places to choose from ....









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~ ~ ~ ~ All my best,

~ ~ ~ ~ Tatia




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Oh wonderful Tatia, all those beautiful screencaps prove it is impossible to choose a favourite I Spy locale.
If I'm pressed for an answer, I might say Mexico.
Best examples being, of course, Bet Me A Dollar and Crusade To Limbo.
But comparing it to all the other beautiful scenes from Tatia, So Long Patrick Henry, The Loser, Affair In T'Sien Cha and No Exchange On Damaged Merchandise would be crazy.

Love the shots from Pinwheel. The man wears a nice shirt.

Like I could choose

Though I have to say those Aztec pyramids are hard to beat... except maybe by Mykonos, or the Acropolis, or San Francisco in some shots, or that aerial tramway in Palm Springs... And there's no place like Hong Kong or Mexico for crowd scenes... except? Maybe? Hmmm...

It is hard to beat our Adonas (Kelly) in Greece in Laya...
Amazing ruins and beautiful scenery...

I wasn't sure how to choose, but then I realized the only possible answer as to my favorite locale is: Kelly's navel in that first shot on the beach from "A Gift from Alexander"! (This grouping of photos is rather Kelly-centric; I do know that in some episodes, my favorite locale would be Scotty's back jeans pocket, preferably the right one ....)

Excellent question, Tatia!

I do like your interpretation of the question, allthinky.

And yes, Folkie, I agree - this question is a "Mission: Impossible" ...

I couldn't decide from SO many wonderful location choices, either.

Since recently watching I SPY on Familynet most evenings, I find myself drawn to and focusing in on the beautiful location photography ... talk about being "transported away"!!!!

And I glaze over when seeing ALL those wonderful places one can travel to ... and, as Bulwer-Lytton has highlighted in her "I SPY Fan Manifesto," I do plan trips trying to see all these amazing places around the globe that Scotty and Kelly "adventured" in - as my (and others) THEN & NOW photos can attest to ... )

But if I had to narrow it down a bit, I am totally mesmerized when it comes to the WAR LORD's hidden, exotic temple ... (supposedly set in Burma, but actually filmed in Spain), but who am I to quibble about a little latitude and longitudinal changes? Whatever and wherever it was, that locale WAS magic to me and evoked every nuance and emotion it was designed to bring about.











I guess I am drawn to the Asian locations ... I adore the romantic waterfall and misty gardens of Toshugu shrine in TATIA, the bustle and exuberance of Hong Kong, the magnificent views from Victoria Peak and the floating restaurants and crowded marketplaces.

But then there are those amazing colors of the Greek episodes - the incredible blues of the Mediterranean waters and sky ... the ancient ruins of the Parthenon ... the sunbaked white-washed houses and walkways of Mykonos ... they certainly provide a place to take your breath away ...

And we can't overlook the sights and sound of Sevilla and the magnificent Pavilion buildings Kelly strolled along with Boris Karloff .... and then the Mexican episodes with the intricate gates and beautiful gardens at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City, and the colorful boats in the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco in BET ME A DOLLAR, and the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon from CRUSADE TO LIMBO ... and THEN there's Venice ...

O.K. I give up!!!

I can't do it!! There are just tooooo many wonderful places that Kelly and Scotty
and Sheldon and Earle and Fouad took us to - for me to pick a favorite!!


Let's here from some others of you ... what are "your" favorite I SPY locales???


~ ~ ~ ~ As always,

~ ~ ~ ~ Tatia



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Actually Tash my favorite Locale is Anywhere YOU are. As long as you wear that Blue Ensemble. IHPL

Tokyo and Hong Kong, if I had to choose.

Over the last few days, in the odd moment here and there, I've tried to come up with a favorite I Spy location. All the images Tatia posted are pretty wonderful, each in its own way. I am kinda partial to places I've actually visited like San Francisco, Acapulco, Rome, Venice, Mykonos, Delos and Athens. Even though I've lived a two plus hour drive from Palm Springs for a long time, I've never been there. However, looking again at Tatia's images, I think maybe I would vote for the Toshogu Shrine, where Tatia (the OTHER Tatia) and Kelly "spent an idyllic day together" (to quote our Tatia). I know Bob, she's not wearing the blue ensemble, and is having a "bad hair day" (again quoting our Tatia), but the setting is magnificent.

Jimmy

I'd have to go with the Orient as my favorite setting, though I'd be hard put to choose between Japan and Hong Kong. They're both downright magical, as far as I'm concerned.

Regards--

Hello again.

An impossible question, indeed, but Venice is my favorite. I actually like the Italian episodes. They're part of what inspired me to study Italian, although that has proved to be an extremely slow process.

Ciao,
Maya

Love your portrait, girl spy. Nice to see you back from your extended undercover mission to . . . oops, I'm not at liberty to divulge that information.

Regards--

Thanks B-L. Did Kelly and Scotty ever make it behind the Iron Curtain? It's very interesting, especially the visit to the Kremlin... Um, I've said too much.

Maya

Hi Maya,

So nice to know you are still with us!!

And speaking of the Kremlin, this is from Sheldon Leonard's book
And the Show Goes On - Limelight Editions, 1995.
I highly recommend it, lots and lots of stories and background on I SPY.





While Sheldon was scouting countries to film I SPY in ...

"MOSCOW, RUSSIA - "The Soviets were a different story (than China). They had fine laboratories, in some respects more advanced than ours. Their motion picture studios were also more advanced than most of ours, because they had been built later and weren't burdened with obsolescent equipment. They were, on the whole, more "state of the art" than our comparable facilities."

"Frankie (Mrs. Leonard) and I took ourselves to Moscow, armed with letters of introduction. The Soviet Film Agency and related departments knew all about me. They knew about "I SPY." Since the series was based on espionage, and since the natural opponents for our guys in the spy business were guys on the other side of the Iron Curtain - from Russia or its satellites - "I SPY" had been thoroughly scouted by the various Soviet information services. They didn't like it. I didn't blame them. Their guys were always the losers." (Bet they fought over the job of who got to watch "I SPY" at the KGB and Politburo headquarters! "No Boris, it's my turn today, you got to watch yesterday! You go watch the American Embassy windows!")

"I proposed that the Soviet filmmakers join me in developing stories that emphasized the benefits of cooperation between the great powers, and soft-pedaled the rivalries. After all, we shared a common goal - survival - and our survival, the survival of the while human race, depended on peace."

"I wanted to do stories that made it clear that is was in our common interest to link hands in the fight against terrorism, against nuclear proliferation, and against provocation."

"They applauded my proposal, and promised that I could expect full cooperation. Naturally, there would be certain conditions. They would have to have collaborative rights in plot development. I considered that a reasonable condition. They wanted to appoint 2 writers to work with my writers, but they agreed that the right of final approval of the script and its content would rest with me. They stipulated that we were to use Russian labor in all categories, except cast, director, producer, and department heads - head cameraman, head electrician, etc. I foresaw difficulty there. My department heads would want to work with their own people. I was sure some compromise could be worked out. The stipulation didn't seem to be a deal-breaker, but I wanted a little time to think about it."

"While he was into negotiating, the Leonards went to the Pushkin Museum, Leningrad, the Hermitage, and took every opportunity to do some sightseeing. Their guide was a middle-aged lady named Sonya, who was indispensable since so few people spoke English."

"Our hotel accommodations were surprisingly lush for such a Spartan country. We had a big, well-furnished suite in the Rusya Hotel, overlooking St. Basil's Cathedral and Red Square. Right beneath our window was Lenin's Tomb, with its perpetual line of worshippers, stretching away for hundreds of yards, come to view his marvelously preserved body."

"One night, in the privacy of our suite, Frankie and I were discussing the possibility of visiting the town of Bershad, in the Ukraine. I had been told that my grandparents, on my father's side, had emigrated from that village. They had, in fact, drawn their surnames from the name of the village. We decided that we would enquire about the possibility of visiting it."

"The next morning, when we met Sonya, she greeted us saying, "I asked about visiting the village in the Ukraine, and the officials tell me that it will take 3 weeks to arrange for permits. You are scheduled to leave before that, so I'm afraid your visit there will have to wait until the next time you come to Russia."

"We hadn't mentioned our desire to visit the village to her. We hadn't mentioned it to anyone. The only place it had been mentioned was in our suite."

"What conclusion was I to draw?"

"From then on, we were very careful about what we talked about in our suite."

"As days passed, we became increasingly aware of a characteristic of the communist system. Working people below the level of officialdom were, on the whole, unmotivated. Nobody worked very hard. Why knock yourself out? You weren't going anywhere, and nobody was going to fire you."

"Service in the hotels and restaurants was lousy. It took from 2 to 3 hours to get dinner served. I could imagine the state of Leon Chooluck's nerves while his company had 2 or 3 hour lunches. An unwelcome question entered my thinking, and demanded an answer."

"I took a typical "I SPY" script to the studio production office, and asked the department head to break if down for me and schedule it. Two days later, I got his answer. He had scheduled it for 19 days. In Greece, we filmed such a script in 8."

"Well, it had seemed liked a good idea at the time."

"Regretfully, I said goodbye to Russia."


So, no Kelly and Scotty bopping around Red Square and the Kremlin ...
Now THAT would have been something to see - right in the midst of the Cold War!!!


You can find more excepts from Sheldon's book on Jason's old I SPY site ... thank goodness it is still up.

http://ispy65.tripod.com/id27.htm


~ ~ ~ ~ All my best,

~ ~ ~ ~ Tatia


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I for one am thankful they didn't shoot in Russia. It would have been too easy for some overzealous official to imagine that playing spies actually meant being spies and incarcerate our boys for real. Then we would have had to send Maya behind the Iron Curtain to get them out!

Regards--

In terms of the big picture, I'll take any country, no favorites.

In terms of very specific locales, I'll take Kelly's bed, with him in it, and without his jammie top on.....

Mona