Hello again, everyone! I’m happy and excited to begin #Bond_age_TV’s latest look back into the heady world of 60s spy shows. The ending of Man From UNCLE made the future of the genre uncertain. American society was changing, and disenchantment with spies and foreign intrigue was translating into series getting cancelled. TV producers had to adapt or die. To that end, the spy shows were being blended with another TV mainstay: the cop show. Shows like Mission:Impossible started focusing instead on Organized Crime within the USA, as opposed to foreign governments. But the idea of battling foreign agents didn’t go away completely. In September of 1968, a show appeared which would find a perfect mixture of the spy show/cop show dynamic: Hawaii Five-0.
As a series, Hawaii Five-0 had the best of both worlds. It was primarily a cop show, featuring a crew of cops who worked in the exotic backdrop of Hawaii’s big island, fighting crooks and Organized Crime. At the same time, it could expand itself out into the world of the spy show by bringing international intrigue to the islands. This is laid out from the very beginning of the series, starting with the pilot TV movie, ‘Cocoon.’ The film features Steve McGarrett (as played by Jack Lord), investigating the supposed accidental death of an old friend from the Navy. Along the way he comes across the man who would become his archnemesis, Chinese agent Wo Fat (played by Khigh Dheigh). They would face one another numerous times over the run of the show, which turned out to be one of the longest running cop shows on TV. ‘Cocoon’ first aired on September 20th, 1968, and it was the start of what would turn out to be a 12-year run on TV, which would only be surpassed by Law & Order over 20 years later. This coming Wednesday, #Bond_age_TV is proud to invite one and all to livetweet the movie that started it all, starting at 9pm EST. Use the #Bond_age_TV hashtag. Be here. Aloha!
