TV’s ‘U.N.C.L.E.’ was ’60s sensation
“The Man From U. N. C. L. E.” is imperfectly remembered as a James Bond rip-off. It was, of course, more — with its more-brains-than-brawn heroes, its endless string of “Affairs” (the titles of each episode after the first), and its dreamy Russian co-lead in prime time during the Cold War. The series now being rebooted for the big screen by Guy Ritchie and company was a cultural happening all its own — and even bore the imprimatur of Ian Fleming himself.
After its 1964 bow, the show developed its own sphere of influence. It preceded other popular spy serials such as “I Spy,” “The Wild, Wild West” and “Get Smart.” As Robert Anderson points out in “The U. N. C. L. E. Tribute Book,” the 1980s Kate Jackson series “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” echoed the show’s frequent device of an “innocent young middleclass woman being drawn into espionage,” but as its basic premise.
At the peak of “U. N. C. L. E. ’s” popularity, star Robert Vaughn (as American Napoleon Solo) says he and co-star David McCallum (as Russian Illya Kuryakin) received up to 70,000 fan letters a month. The Beatles reportedly asked to meet Vaughn when they came to America in 1966.
Like eventual ratings nemesis “Batman,” the show collected an impressive array of guest stars, including Joan Crawford, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, and the first onscreen pairing of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock — William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Writers included Harlan Ellison and Robert Towne.
All this for a show that to survive, essentially had to prove it wasn’t just an American Bond.
Series creator Norman Felton, an executive producer for “Dr. Kildare” and “The Eleventh Hour,” was asked to examine travelogue writings (“Thrilling Cities”) by 007 creator Ian Fleming for possible development into a TV series. Felton instead dreamed up the embryonic basis of “U.N.C.L.E.” He met with the author anyway, and Fleming came up with names for two characters — Solo and April Dancer, who would headline a short-lived spin-off, “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E,” starring Stefanie Powers and Noel Harrison.
Bond? Not James Bond
Though NBC hoped Fleming’s tenuous connection would be the show’s Midas touch, a lawsuit by the producers of the Bond films forced the network to publicly deny any connection to those movies. Fleming submitted a signed statement that “U.N.C.L.E.” bore no resemblance to his books or their film adaptations. He reportedly sold the rights to the characters Solo and Dancer for one British pound (about $2.50 at the time).
Sam Rolfe, who wrote the pilot and co-created “Have Gun, Will Travel,” played a key role in developing the complex world of the show, including the organizational structure of international peacekeeping agency U.N.C.L.E. and its nemesis, the wicked T.H.R.U.S.H.
According to a 1964 promotional booklet, T.H.R.U.S.H. is “never seen, but its presence is always felt.” If only they had known that better oral hygiene and antifungal medications could banish the threat.
Those press materials promised “U.N.C.L.E. will … discover why the tractor ordered by a Siberian farmer turns out to be a walking, mechanical monster … or … connect a strange packet of birdseed with a Central American revolution.”
Forward-thinking
This is 1964, so those materials’ description of the organization as being staffed by “brisk, alert young personnel of many races, creeds, colors and national origins” was pretty forward-thinking. It specifies that Solo “tends to view all men as equals unless their behavior proves them otherwise” and is “equally democratic in his attitude towards women.”
Vaughn was 31 at the time of his casting as Solo. He had received an Oscar nomination for “The Young Philadelphians” (1959) and was best known for “The Magnificent Seven” (1960). After the series, Vaughn wrote “Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting” (1972), originally his doctoral dissertation in communications at the University of Southern California. His best-known post-“U.N.C.L.E.” films are probably “Bullitt” and “Battle Beyond the Stars” (like “Magnificent,” a kind of remake of “Seven Samurai”).
Illya Kuryakin was played by little-known Brit David McCallum, who unexpectedly became a heartthrob. Originally a minor character, Illya became such an equal partner, it should have been called “The Men From U.N.C.L.E.” McCallum has stated he worked to maintain the character’s mystery, even removing any background that would come up in scripts.
The series stumbled out of the gate, up against the popular “Red Skelton Show.” TV Guide’s Cleveland Amory called it a “take-off which doesn’t come off ” in his initial Jan. 16, 1965, review. He also asked whether Rolfe was secretly working for
T.H.R.U.S.H. He reconsidered later, but not before TV Guide published a response letter from one David Rolfe:
“I think you are a THRUSH member trying to kill everyone who works on U.N.C.L.E. I also think you are trying to kill me by writing those boring articles in TV Guide.”
David was the then-9year-old son of Sam Rolfe.
The show was boosted by an aggressive promotional campaign involving its stars, no doubt helped by McCallum, the mysterious “Russian” with the blond Beatlesque mop top. It became a huge hit, spawning the “Girl” spin-off, merchandising including plastic replicas of its idiosyncratic guns, numerous soundtrack albums and no fewer than eight theatrical films. The movies were generally culled from two-part episodes of the show, and most weren’t released stateside.
The series lost its way in its third season, going all-out for camp in a mugging war with “Batman.” As the original “Casino Royale” theatrical film, in which the likes of David Niven, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen and Ursula Andress play variations on a Bond, showed, that genre and that tone are an uneasy mix. Melissa McCarthy’s current “Spy” successfully integrates comedy and espionage, largely because it doesn’t resort to camp.
Judging from the trailers (the film did not screen by press time), Ritchie’s big-screen origin story looks more like the suave first season than the goofy third or deadly serious fourth. Beefcake is in abundance, with Superman (Henry Cavill) and the Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer) stepping into the shoes of Solo and Kuryakin, respectively.
It’ll be up to audiences to decide whether the film should launch a new big-screen franchise, or cry U.N.C.L.E..