Manly Men from U.N.C.L.E.

One of my favorite TV shows when I was a wee lad was the highly-successful spy series, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. For Christmas, 1965(?) I got an U.N.C.L.E agent kit with convertible pistol-turned-rifle and a triangle badge, along with one or two U.N.C.L.E. paperback books. Later, I bought U.N.C.L.E. comic books. I’d have to dig through some boxes to find them, and if I do I’ll scan some pages.

Twenty years later, in ’87, U.N.C.L.E. comics were published under license by none other than Paul Howley. Paul even co-wrote a book about U.N.C.L.E. collectibles, called The Toys from U.N.C.L.E. Memorabilia and Collectors Guide.

The complete The Man From U.N.C.L.E. series is being released today on DVD. Season 1, episode 9, is memorable, not only for featuring Werner “Colonel Klink” Klemperer, but for the pairing of two actors who would later work together on another show.
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6 thoughts on “Manly Men from U.N.C.L.E.”

  1. P.S. Damn! Paul, Next time I’m in New England, I’m making a beeline to your store, with my daughter Molly in tow. She’ll snap up all the anime! 😉

  3. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Get Smart were 2 of my favorite TV shows as a little kid. It’s hard to believe how old Robert Vaughan and David McCallum are now but bless ’em, they’re still active! In the 60’s my dad gave my sister a tape player that played these little miniature 8-track cartridges that had 2 tracks with 2 songs each. I can’t think of what the player was called, but you could turn a knob to play channel 1 or 2. One of the tapes she had was of David McCallum singing. She also had little cartridges by Frank Fontaine and Trini Lopez. Now, of course, we wish we’d have kept the player and tapes instead of giving them away but as a kid you never think of future value and sentimentality! The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was replaced by Laugh-In, but that’s another show I loved! “Sock It To Me!”, “You Bet Your Sweet Bippy!”, “Here Come Da Judge” and “Ver-r-r-y Interesting” were all phrases from Laugh-In we kids would say and drove our parents crazy with! 🙂

  4. Paul — Amazon.com has the new box set of the complete series for $140. I’ve always thought of UNCLE as being one of the influences for Mission: Impossible. Having McCallum in the mix was a smart move, because he brought in the girls, as my sister’s comment attests.

    We didn’t have a color TV until late summer ’67, so until then every show was in b&w anyway, as far as I was concerned. My father recalls that the RCA color console he bought cost $450. The CPI inflation calculator says that’s $2950 in today’s dollars!

    Ya know, I can’t think of a single 60’s spy show that wasn’t good. “I Spy”, “Secret Agent” (Danger Man in UK, Secret Agent Man in the Johnny Rivers song), “Wild, Wild West”, “Get Smart”, “The Avengers”, etc. Not a loser in the bunch, which is quite surprising.

  5. Doug,
    Wow! I didn’t know you were an Uncle fan too! I don’t know if you know it, but Time-Life released the entire series on DVD last year. I was asked to provide some of my memorabilia for a bonus feature on the DVDs but since I didn’t know the man who asked for my stuff, I declined. My good friend, Brian Paquette, co-author of our book “The Toys From Uncle” helped out by providing photographs of some toys. He got “screen credit” on the DVDs and a free set of the DVDs too! I should have done it…the DVDs cost $250 when they were first released…I’ve heard the entire set will now be about $150. Well worth it, by the way! The first season is the best. Black and white and a good mix of moody and humor. Second season is in color and some episodes are quite good. Third season is terrible…very influenced by the campy Batman TV show starring Adam West. The fourth season is VERY serious…many fans think it was too serious. After half a season of this serious version, Uncle was cancelled and replaced with Laugh-In.

  6. OMIGAWD, how could I have forgotten?. Long before Richard Harris, there was … Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) ! Every preteen girl at Silvermine School in Norwalk, CT with half a brain was insanely in love with him! Doug, do you remember how they used to sometimes play music over the PA system during lunch? One time they put on David McCallum Sings! and Cathy Smith, Lee Ellen Andreasson and the rest of were all just dying! I think Cathy said something like “Kiss me now, Illya!”

    As per the clip, a veritable feast for the eyes: young actors, bad acting (never Vaughn, who is now relegated to selling sleazy compensation insurance on local TV ads! “Tell them … YOU MEAN BUSINESS!”) Even Nimoy looks dashing, though his accent stinks. Shatner is appalling! Strangely, I had a dream about him last night. You must have been posting thiis while I was sleeping. 😉

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