Happy 50 to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

simmytbone · 12-31-2014, 11:26 PM

Hey guys,

It's time to take you back to 50 years ago this fall:

NBC introduced us to The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. which aired on NBC from September 1964 to January 1968, has often been described as television's version of James Bond, but it was much more than that. It was, quite simply, a pop culture phenomenon. Although its ratings were initially poor early in the first season, a change in time period and cross-country promotional appearances by its stars, Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, helped the show build a large and enthusiastic audience.

At the peak of its popularity, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was telecast in 60 countries and consistently ranked in the top ten programs on U.S. television. Eight feature-length films were made from two-part episodes and profitably released in the United States and Europe. TV Guide called it "the cult of millions." The show received 10,000 fan letters per week, and Vaughn and McCallum were mobbed by crowds of teenagers as if they were rock stars. U.N.C.L.E. was also a huge merchandising success with images of the series' stars and its distinctive logo (a man standing beside a skeletal globe) appearing on hundreds of items, from bubble gum cards to a line of adult clothing.

The show had a little something for everyone. Children took it seriously as an exciting action adventure. Teenagers enjoyed its hip, cool style, identifying with and idolizing its heroes. More mature viewers appreciated the tongue-in-cheek humor and the roman a clef references to real-life political figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Eva Peron, interpreting it as a metaphor for the struggle common to all nations against the forces of greed, cruelty and aggression.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. redefined the television spy program introducing into the genre a number of fresh innovations. Notably, the show broke with espionage tradition and looked beyond the Cold War politics of the time to envision a new world order. The fictional United Network Command for Law Enforcement was multinational in makeup and international in scope, protecting and defending nations regardless of size or political persuasion. For example, a third season episode, "The Jingle Bells Affair" showed a Soviet premier visiting New York during Christmas time, touring department stores and delivering a speech on peaceful coexistence at the United Nations, twenty-two years before Mikhail Gorbachev actually made a similar trip.

The show also broke new ground in re-conceptualizing the action adventure hero. Prompted by a woman at the BBC he once met who complained that the leads in American series were all big, tall, muscular and, well, American, producer Norman Felton (Eleventh Hour; Dr. Kildare) decided to vary the formula. His series, developed with Sam Rolfe (co-creator of Have Gun, Will Travel) teamed an American agent, Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) with a Soviet one, Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum). Each week, they were sent off on their missions (called "affairs") by their boss, Alexander Waverly, a garrulous, craggy, pipe-smoking spy master played by Leo G. Carroll.

Neither the suave Solo nor the enigmatic Kuryakin were physically impressive. They were instead intelligent, sophisticated, witty, charming, always polite and impeccably well-tailored. Sometimes they made mistakes, and often they lost the battle before they won the war.

What made U.N.C.L.E. truly appealing was the way it walked a fine line between the real and the fanciful, juxtaposing elements that were both surprisingly fantastic and humorously mundane. For example, as they battled bizarre threats to world peace like trained killer bees, radar-defeating bats, hiccup gas, suspended animation devices, and earthquake machines, the agents also worried about expense accounts, insurance policies, health plans and interdepartmental gossip.

While the series showed that heroic people had ordinary concerns, it also demonstrated that ordinary people could be heroic. During the course of each week's affair at least one civilian or "innocent" was inevitably caught up in the action. These innocents were average, everyday people--housewives, stewardesses, secretaries, librarians, school teachers, college students, tourists, even some children--people very much like those sitting in U.N.C.L.E.'s viewing audience. At the start of the story, they often complained of their boring, unexciting lives--lives to which, after all the terror and mayhem was over, they were only too happy to return.

By contrast, U.N.C.L.E.'s villains were fabulously exotic and larger than life. In addition to the usual international crime syndicates, Nazi war criminals, and power hungry dictators, U.N.C.L.E. also battled THRUSH, a secret society of mad scientists, megalomanic industrialists, and corrupt government officials who held the Nietzschean belief that because of their superior intelligence, wealth, ambition and position, they were entitled to rule the world. A number of prominent actors and actresses guest starred each week as either villains or innocents, including Joan Crawford, George Sanders, Kurt Russell, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (who appeared together pre-Star Trek in "The Project Strigas Affair") and Sonny and Cher.

The U.N.C.L.E. formula was so successful that it spawned a host of imitators, including a spin-off of its own, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. in 1966. Starring Stephanie Powers as female agent April Dancer and Noel Harrison (son of Rex) as her British sidekick, Mark Slate, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. took its cue from the wild campiness of the then-popular Batman rather than from its parent show. Although it featured many of the same elements of Man, including a specially designed gun and other advanced weaponry and the super-secret headquarters hidden behind an innocent tailor shop, Girl's plots were either absurdly implausible or downright silly and the series lasted only a year.

By its third season, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. had also become infected by the trend toward camp and though the tone was readjusted to be more serious in the fourth season, viewers deserted the show in droves. Once in the top ten, the series dropped to sixty-fourth in the ratings and was canceled mid-season, to be replaced by Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.

This was not the end of U.N.C.L.E., however. Because of concerns about violence voiced by parent-teacher groups, the series was not widely syndicated and reruns did not appear until cable networks began to air them in the 1980s. Nevertheless, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was not forgotten. Nearly every spy program that appeared during the ensuing decades borrowed from its various motifs (naming spy organizations with an acronym has become a genre cliché,). The Scarecrow and Mrs. King expanded the premise of U.N.C.L.E.'s original pilot episode into an entire series, and even non-espionage programs as diverse as The A-Team and thirtysomething continued to make references to it. In 1983, Vaughn and McCallum reunited to play Solo and Kuryakin in a tv-movie, Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair.

Man From U.N.C.L.E. also had different TV Themes for each season and the 1st Season had Solo standing behind a Bulletproof Glass

and also, during the 3rd Season, it seemed that Man From U.N.C.L.E. wanted to out do Batman by having some elements which went from being serious to being more comical

and plus, Robert Vaughn has went on the Guest Star in numerous TV Series such as Bonanza, Police Woman, Trapper John, M.D., Diagnosis Murder, The Nanny, Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU

He also starred in the Final Season of The A-Team and today, he is still staying active and he also starred in the amc series HU$TLE

But also, David McCallum has also Guest Starred on numerous TV Series and he went on to star in NCIS a series from the Creator of Magnum P.I., Tales of the Golden Monkey, Airwolf, Quantum Leap and J*A*G

Man From U.N.C.L.E. is still popular and their are lots of Fansites for you to checkout

and plus, reruns were shown on Pat Robertson's CBN (now abc family), Ted Turner's TNT and Turner South and Goodlife TV and now, MeTV

and so, here's to 50 years of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

God Bless You All

Robert Vaughn & David McCallum as Napoleon Solo & Illya Kuryakin

Barbara Moore as Lisa Rogers in the show's Final Season

The U.N.C.L.E. Lady entering Code 20-A in the episode "The Brain Killers Affair"

Yvonne Craig aka Batgirl as Maude Waverly

and now, here are some Video Clips of U.N.C.L.E.

Check'em out:

Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 1 w/Solo, Illya and Mr. Waverly Introductions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjmOkqU6Roo

Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 1 Opening w/Solo standing behind the Bulletproof Glass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEtUiRkOnZ8

Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 1 Opening w/Solo coming behind the Bulletproof Glass talking to the audience in "The Deadly Decoy Affair"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-7Dq-oGYfs

Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 1 Closing from The Giuoco Piano Affair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4udkF_iIg4

another Season 1 Closing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpLoywxm5qo

Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 2 Opening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLH_ovNosSA

Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 2 Closing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujMw4anHXxE

Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 3 Opening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKs1So89OV8

Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 3 Closing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-3NjFLQYng

Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 4 Opening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuTWxTl4Atw

Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 4 Closing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1M7raAES68

Man From U.N.C.L.E. Openings Featuring The Pilot Opening "The Vulcan Affair"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_NytrnoI_Q

Man From U.N.C.L.E. Clip from "The Vulcan Affair" the Pilot Episode in Color
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x35...e-vulcan-affai

Man From U.N.C.L.E. Fan Made Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_NHKW_2lMI

The Man From UNCLE: Behind The Scenes of a TV Classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_NHKW_2lMI

Robert Vaughn discusses getting cast on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W86qjGRiuiw

Robert Vaughn discusses his character on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVzgZVwyvys

Robert Vaughn on the premise of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py7mvdwaaas

Robert Vaughn on the fans of Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin from The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-3wMLipB0U

HarryWild · 02-08-2015, 02:20 AM

I been watching it now on H&I network! It comes on at Noon and I just forgot how tongue and cheek the dialog is! I took it more serious when I saw it as a kid. I laughing out loud now! Total 180 degree change in attitude!

I thinking of buying the complete DVD series when it goes on down in price from $180! It was down a while but then went up again. Same with Mannix!

12-31-2014, 11:26 PM	#1
simmytbone Member Senior Member Join Date: Apr 17, 2009 Posts: 1,514	Happy 50 to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Hey guys, It's time to take you back to 50 years ago this fall: NBC introduced us to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. which aired on NBC from September 1964 to January 1968, has often been described as television's version of James Bond, but it was much more than that. It was, quite simply, a pop culture phenomenon. Although its ratings were initially poor early in the first season, a change in time period and cross-country promotional appearances by its stars, Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, helped the show build a large and enthusiastic audience. At the peak of its popularity, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was telecast in 60 countries and consistently ranked in the top ten programs on U.S. television. Eight feature-length films were made from two-part episodes and profitably released in the United States and Europe. TV Guide called it "the cult of millions." The show received 10,000 fan letters per week, and Vaughn and McCallum were mobbed by crowds of teenagers as if they were rock stars. U.N.C.L.E. was also a huge merchandising success with images of the series' stars and its distinctive logo (a man standing beside a skeletal globe) appearing on hundreds of items, from bubble gum cards to a line of adult clothing. The show had a little something for everyone. Children took it seriously as an exciting action adventure. Teenagers enjoyed its hip, cool style, identifying with and idolizing its heroes. More mature viewers appreciated the tongue-in-cheek humor and the roman a clef references to real-life political figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Eva Peron, interpreting it as a metaphor for the struggle common to all nations against the forces of greed, cruelty and aggression. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. redefined the television spy program introducing into the genre a number of fresh innovations. Notably, the show broke with espionage tradition and looked beyond the Cold War politics of the time to envision a new world order. The fictional United Network Command for Law Enforcement was multinational in makeup and international in scope, protecting and defending nations regardless of size or political persuasion. For example, a third season episode, "The Jingle Bells Affair" showed a Soviet premier visiting New York during Christmas time, touring department stores and delivering a speech on peaceful coexistence at the United Nations, twenty-two years before Mikhail Gorbachev actually made a similar trip. The show also broke new ground in re-conceptualizing the action adventure hero. Prompted by a woman at the BBC he once met who complained that the leads in American series were all big, tall, muscular and, well, American, producer Norman Felton (Eleventh Hour; Dr. Kildare) decided to vary the formula. His series, developed with Sam Rolfe (co-creator of Have Gun, Will Travel) teamed an American agent, Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) with a Soviet one, Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum). Each week, they were sent off on their missions (called "affairs") by their boss, Alexander Waverly, a garrulous, craggy, pipe-smoking spy master played by Leo G. Carroll. Neither the suave Solo nor the enigmatic Kuryakin were physically impressive. They were instead intelligent, sophisticated, witty, charming, always polite and impeccably well-tailored. Sometimes they made mistakes, and often they lost the battle before they won the war. What made U.N.C.L.E. truly appealing was the way it walked a fine line between the real and the fanciful, juxtaposing elements that were both surprisingly fantastic and humorously mundane. For example, as they battled bizarre threats to world peace like trained killer bees, radar-defeating bats, hiccup gas, suspended animation devices, and earthquake machines, the agents also worried about expense accounts, insurance policies, health plans and interdepartmental gossip. While the series showed that heroic people had ordinary concerns, it also demonstrated that ordinary people could be heroic. During the course of each week's affair at least one civilian or "innocent" was inevitably caught up in the action. These innocents were average, everyday people--housewives, stewardesses, secretaries, librarians, school teachers, college students, tourists, even some children--people very much like those sitting in U.N.C.L.E.'s viewing audience. At the start of the story, they often complained of their boring, unexciting lives--lives to which, after all the terror and mayhem was over, they were only too happy to return. By contrast, U.N.C.L.E.'s villains were fabulously exotic and larger than life. In addition to the usual international crime syndicates, Nazi war criminals, and power hungry dictators, U.N.C.L.E. also battled THRUSH, a secret society of mad scientists, megalomanic industrialists, and corrupt government officials who held the Nietzschean belief that because of their superior intelligence, wealth, ambition and position, they were entitled to rule the world. A number of prominent actors and actresses guest starred each week as either villains or innocents, including Joan Crawford, George Sanders, Kurt Russell, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (who appeared together pre-Star Trek in "The Project Strigas Affair") and Sonny and Cher. The U.N.C.L.E. formula was so successful that it spawned a host of imitators, including a spin-off of its own, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. in 1966. Starring Stephanie Powers as female agent April Dancer and Noel Harrison (son of Rex) as her British sidekick, Mark Slate, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. took its cue from the wild campiness of the then-popular Batman rather than from its parent show. Although it featured many of the same elements of Man, including a specially designed gun and other advanced weaponry and the super-secret headquarters hidden behind an innocent tailor shop, Girl's plots were either absurdly implausible or downright silly and the series lasted only a year. By its third season, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. had also become infected by the trend toward camp and though the tone was readjusted to be more serious in the fourth season, viewers deserted the show in droves. Once in the top ten, the series dropped to sixty-fourth in the ratings and was canceled mid-season, to be replaced by Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. This was not the end of U.N.C.L.E., however. Because of concerns about violence voiced by parent-teacher groups, the series was not widely syndicated and reruns did not appear until cable networks began to air them in the 1980s. Nevertheless, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was not forgotten. Nearly every spy program that appeared during the ensuing decades borrowed from its various motifs (naming spy organizations with an acronym has become a genre cliché,). The Scarecrow and Mrs. King expanded the premise of U.N.C.L.E.'s original pilot episode into an entire series, and even non-espionage programs as diverse as The A-Team and thirtysomething continued to make references to it. In 1983, Vaughn and McCallum reunited to play Solo and Kuryakin in a tv-movie, Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair. Man From U.N.C.L.E. also had different TV Themes for each season and the 1st Season had Solo standing behind a Bulletproof Glass and also, during the 3rd Season, it seemed that Man From U.N.C.L.E. wanted to out do Batman by having some elements which went from being serious to being more comical and plus, Robert Vaughn has went on the Guest Star in numerous TV Series such as Bonanza, Police Woman, Trapper John, M.D., Diagnosis Murder, The Nanny, Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU He also starred in the Final Season of The A-Team and today, he is still staying active and he also starred in the amc series HU$TLE But also, David McCallum has also Guest Starred on numerous TV Series and he went on to star in NCIS a series from the Creator of Magnum P.I., Tales of the Golden Monkey, Airwolf, Quantum Leap and JAG Man From U.N.C.L.E. is still popular and their are lots of Fansites for you to checkout and plus, reruns were shown on Pat Robertson's CBN (now abc family), Ted Turner's TNT and Turner South and Goodlife TV and now, MeTV and so, here's to 50 years of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. God Bless You All Robert Vaughn & David McCallum as Napoleon Solo & Illya Kuryakin Barbara Moore as Lisa Rogers in the show's Final Season The U.N.C.L.E. Lady entering Code 20-A in the episode "The Brain Killers Affair" Yvonne Craig aka Batgirl as Maude Waverly and now, here are some Video Clips of U.N.C.L.E. Check'em out: Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 1 w/Solo, Illya and Mr. Waverly Introductions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjmOkqU6Roo Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 1 Opening w/Solo standing behind the Bulletproof Glass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEtUiRkOnZ8 Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 1 Opening w/Solo coming behind the Bulletproof Glass talking to the audience in "The Deadly Decoy Affair" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-7Dq-oGYfs Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 1 Closing from The Giuoco Piano Affair https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4udkF_iIg4 another Season 1 Closing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpLoywxm5qo Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 2 Opening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLH_ovNosSA Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 2 Closing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujMw4anHXxE Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 3 Opening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKs1So89OV8 Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 3 Closing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-3NjFLQYng Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 4 Opening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuTWxTl4Atw Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Season 4 Closing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1M7raAES68 Man From U.N.C.L.E. Openings Featuring The Pilot Opening "The Vulcan Affair" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_NytrnoI_Q Man From U.N.C.L.E. Clip from "The Vulcan Affair" the Pilot Episode in Color http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x35...e-vulcan-affai Man From U.N.C.L.E. Fan Made Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_NHKW_2lMI The Man From UNCLE: Behind The Scenes of a TV Classic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_NHKW_2lMI Robert Vaughn discusses getting cast on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W86qjGRiuiw Robert Vaughn discusses his character on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVzgZVwyvys Robert Vaughn on the premise of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py7mvdwaaas Robert Vaughn on the fans of Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-3wMLipB0U
	__________________ Lisa Marie Varon, Lisa Moretti, Jazz, Lilian Garcia & Dawn Marie The Fab 5-Underrated, but AWESOME in my book Atlanta Falcons: RISE UP Last edited by simmytbone; 03-05-2015 at 01:59 PM.

02-08-2015, 02:20 AM	#2
HarryWild Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Sep 16, 2012 Posts: 454	I been watching it now on H&I network! It comes on at Noon and I just forgot how tongue and cheek the dialog is! I took it more serious when I saw it as a kid. I laughing out loud now! Total 180 degree change in attitude! I thinking of buying the complete DVD series when it goes on down in price from $180! It was down a while but then went up again. Same with Mannix!