It’s #Bond_age_TV time again, and I had planned to start Man from UNCLE season 4 this month with The Prince of Darkness Affair two-parter, but life has a way of disrupting plans. Christopher Lee’s passing hit us all so hard, we had to celebrate his life with The Man With the Golden Gun. It was, as always, enjoyable to watch Christopher Lee ooze charm and menace as Scaramanga. I wanted to use #Bond_age_TV to celebrate his legend as well, but the question remained how to do it. He never appeared in Man from UNCLE, so there was no episode I could turn to. The Prince of Darkness Affair would be somewhat fitting, but not what I wanted. I wanted the man himself. Luckily, plans were afoot which made my choice of episode easy.
With Season 4 being UNCLE’s last, I’ve had to work on plans for what was to come after. My short list of replacement series really only consisted of one show: The Avengers. In terms of 60s spy cool, it has few equals. John Steed and Emma Peel are two of the quintessential 60s TV characters, and display a Britishness James Bond would envy. Indeed, The Avengers have arguably as much of a Bond pedigree as UNCLE does, if not more. The Avengers was a logical choice for #Bond_age_TV, and it feels right to move on to it after UNCLE. Christopher Lee appeared in The Avengers twice, his first appearance being in Never, Never Say Die, which aired on Mar. 31, 1967. So I’m pleased to announce that The Avengers will be making their #Bond_age_TV debut this week as the first episode of our livetweet.
The second episode of this week’s livetweet remains Man from UNCLE season 4, but it too sets the tone for what comes after UNCLE on #Bond_age_TV. This week’s episode is The Master’s Touch Affair, which features another name familiar to Bond fans: Jack Lord. He plays Mandor, a high-up THRUSH traitor who is selling out his organization to UNCLE. I’d initially planned to show this episode after UNCLE season 4 concluded its #Bond_age_TV run because Lord is playing a huge part in my post-UNCLE plans. The year after The Master’s Touch Affair, Lord began what is arguably the most successful of the 60s spy shows: Hawaii Five-0. Though ostensibly a police show, Five-O had the spy genre covered as well, blending the two together into a TV juggernaut that paved the way for future Hawaii TV productions. I’m pleased to announce that, once UNCLE is done, Hawaii Five-0 will be taking the 10 pm livetweet slot, following The Avengers.
So this Wednesday, please join me as we celebrate the past and look to the future with a special Avengers/UNCLE livetweet event. It features Christopher Lee in Never, Never Say Die at 9 pm EST, and Jack Lord at 10 pm EST in The Master’s Touch Affair. The hashtag for both shows will be #BondageTV.
Hello again, everyone! We’ve finally reached the end of season 3 for Man from UNCLE, but do we have a treat in store for us. This week on #Bond_age_TV we’re livetweeting The Five Daughters Affair, parts 1 and 2! A scientist discovers the means of creating gold out of seawater, but dies before UNCLE can secure the secret. The scientist has sent parts of his formula to his daughters living all over the world. It’s a race against time as Napoleon and Illya look to collect the formula before THRUSH can get their hands on it. Like the expansive storyline, this movie also boasts one of the larger guest casts in UNCLE history. Herbert Lom (The Pink Panther) guest stars as Randolph, the THRUSH agent after the formula. The cast also features Joan Crawford (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), Kim Darby, Jill Ireland, and Terry-Thomas. Finally, to top off this cast, the episodes feature not one, but two, Bond villains: Curd Jurgens (The Spy Who Loved Me), and Blofeld himself, Telly Savalas! I hope you’ll join me this Wednesday, May 13th for The Five Daughters Affair! Use the hashtag #UNCLEtweet!
This Wednesday April 29th at 9 PM EDT marks our April installment of #PrisTweet. We’re about to hit the halfway mark of the series, and this month promises to put the fi in “spy-fi.” This months two episodes take a look at 2 beloved 1960s Sci-Fi Tropes.
First up at 9 PM we have The General.
The Village is treated to a brand new program called Speed Learn, which claims to be able to teach an entire Undergraduate Degree to an individual in a matter of minutes. It’s taught and managed by someone known only as The Professor and sponsored by a mysterious figure known as only The General. Well, at least it’s a nice change of pace from calling everyone a number!
After an escape attempt from the village by The Prof and further interrogation by Colin Gordon’s Number 2, The P discovers a radio with a message denouncing Speed Learn and it’s eventual mind-control capabilities, and subtle homoerotic tension with the radio’s current possessor Number 12. P and 12 vow to discover who The General truly is and to put at stop to it’s antics. It being the keyword, considering The General turns out to be an evil AI, which predates HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey by a couple years. (Fun fact: McGoohan and The Prisoner shared MGM Borehamwood studios with none other than Stanley Kubrick himself during the production of 2001!)
Next up at 10 PM we have Nightmare On The Village with A,B and C.
After The P foils his attempts in the previous episode, The General, Colin Gordon’s Number 2 gets a second chance at breaking Number 6 – this time with mind altering drugs and a machine, which allow him to manipulate Number 6’s DREAMS. With the assistance of Number 14, they program 3 individuals from Number 6’s past to slip into his dreams, aptly named A, B and C, to pump 6 for information regarding his resignation. All of these dreams seem to occur at a fancy dress party, held by Madame Engadine. Always nice to see Black Tie McGoohan in his could-have-been-Bond splendor.
So please, join us on twitter for a Dreamy Party on Wednesday April 29th at 9 PM EDT. Use and follow the hashtag “#PrisTweet.”
“They’ve given you a number and taken away your name.”
The above quote is part of the chorus from Johnny Rivers’ hit Secret Agent Man. A song that peaked at the number 3 position on US Billboard Charts in 1966. It was an easy hit – the guitar riff was unforgettable and the lyrical content glamourized a subject that was very en vogue at the time – espionage. Super spies with their cool cars, gadgets and adventures in exotic locals with equally exotic women. Considering the cultural behemoth that it was, it’s reasonable even among the glut of imitators to attribute the song and source of the most prevalent tropes in Spy-Fi Television and Cinema to James Bond. It’s a fair assumption, but it’s not an entirely accurate one. In the case of Secret Agent Man, it’s downright incorrect.
It is true that James Bond creator Ian Fleming struggled to make his character a proper film sensation in the 1950s, barely culminating in a 1954 CBS television production of Casino Royale with Barry Nelson as “Jimmy” Bond. Fleming collaborated with Kevin McClory and Jack Wittingham on a screenplay called James Bond, Secret Agent in 1958. The results of that collaboration are well known and have plenty of commentary. Thankfully due to Fleming’s persistence and input, by 1960, television finally had a proper super spy to call its own.
