Cover to one of Jon Burlingame's Man From U.N.C.L.E. soundtracks released in the 2000s.
Adapted and updated from a Sept. 22, 2014 post
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. debuted Sept. 22, 1964, with the telecast of The Vulcan Affair on NBC.
The series had false starts. First Ian Fleming was a participant, then after several months, he wasn't, bowing out to pressure from Bond movie producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. Fleming's participation extended from October 1962 until mid-1963. Then there was threatened legal action from Eon Productions stemming from the show's original title, Solo.
In turn, the series got a new title and the legal problems eventually went away. A gangster named Solo died the most spectacular death among hoodlums invited to Goldfginer's Kentucky stud farm, a change from earlier drafts and from Fleming's original novel. (Adrian Turner's 1998 book on Goldfinger details the changes in the movie's script.)
Rough Start
Nor did U.N.C.L.E. get off to an easy start. Airing on Tuesday nights, it was up against The Red Skeleton Show on CBS, which nearly led to cancellation before a mid-season switch to Monday nights.
But the audience discovered the series, eventually ensuring a renewal for a second season for 1965-66, which would be its highest-rated campaign.
Executive Producer Norman Felton (1913-2012) faced other challenges.
His developer-producer Sam Rolfe (1924-1993) departed after the first season and things weren't quite the same, certainly not as consistent.
Various other producers — David Victor, Boris Ingster, and Anthony Spinner among them — put their own stamp on the show with varying degrees of success. Major contributions were made by writers such as Alan Caillou (who arguably shaped the Illya Kuryakin character), Dean Hargrove, and Peter Allan Fields.
The series also resulted in eight movies edited from the TV series (many with additional footage) for international release: To Trap a Spy, The Spy With My Face, One Spy Too Many, One of Our Spies Is Missing, The Spy In the Green Hat, The Karate Killers, The Helicopter Spies, and How to Steal the World. A few even got U.S. releases.
Time Takes Its Toll
Few of the creative personnel are still with us. Frequent U.N.C.L.E. director Joseph Sargent died in December 2014, three months after the show's 50th anniversary. Star Robert Vaughn died in 2016. David McCallum passed away in 2023, days after his 90th birthday. Fred Koenekamp, who worked as director of photography on U.N.C.L.E. which got him movie jobs, passed away in 2017. Writer Peter Allan Fields died in 2019.
Dean Hargrove
There are still survivors. Dean Hargrove, 85, in a long interview in March 2019 with the Writer's Guild Foundation provided some insights into the show. He acknowledged it put him on the map, setting up a long and successful career as a TV writer-producer.
The franchise is in limbo. A 2015 movie based on the series wasn't a financial success. There was talk of trying to get a sequel going but there's no sign much is happening.
Hargrove, in his 2019 interview, said studio Warner Bros. may have simply waited too long to do a movie version.
Regardless, U.N.C.L.E. this year marks an important anniversary. Before U.N.C.L.E., there were unsuccessful attempts at American spy TV shows. For example, Five Fingers in 1959, starring David Hedison and Luciana Paluzzi, lasted only 16 episodes.
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