The Show that made the Whole World say...

For a period during the 1960's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was the number one show in the world.  It certainly was with me.  I no longer wanted to be a cowboy.  I wanted to be a secret agent. and talk through my pen.  For four years my Mom couldn't find a pen in the house that wasn't in pieces.  My cousin Gordy was into U.N.C.L.E. so big that he built U.N.C.L.E. headquarters in his basement with panels of blinking Christmas tree lights.   The show had no profound lesson that changed my life.  It was total escapism, it was just fun.  The great thing about being eight  years old is that that's all a show has to be.  And it's still fun to watch today.

Forty years after the end of U.N.C.L.E. both Robert Vaughn and David McCallum are back on top in the hit shows Hustle and NCIS.  Both may run longer than U.N.C.L.E. did...but perhaps without the worldwide impact.

In 1983 a very good, if not great, depending on your perspective, reunon movie was made.  THE RETURN OF THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.   I ran it a few times for this review, and in the world of reunion movies, which are often stinkeroos, RETURN was a gem.  Michael Sloan loved the show and nailed the tone and mix of action, humor and character.  A common and perhaps valid criticism was that Napoleon and Illya did not have enough scenes together, for their chemistry was terrific as always.  After viewing my collection of episodes I learned that giving them separate tasks in a given affair was far from uncommon.  They also threw a lot of money at it, shooting on location rather than on back lots.  "The Fifteen Years Later Affair" compares well to the best episodes of the series.  On my personal scale of satisfaction it gets an A-.

If the series had followed the tone and chemistry of the pilot, both shows might have continued for a long time.  Tone and balance were the essential elements of U.N.C.L.E.  Following the BATMAN model to new levels of silliness in GIRL led to the eventual demise of both.  The unfinished fourth season of MAN reversed the tone to an almost unbearable seriousness.  It was too little too late.

This iconic photo captures the spirit of the show in one picture. In RETURN an 8 by 10 hung in Solo's apartment.  As in the series it was used in the credits.

The premise of the series was based on the film NORTH BY NORTHWEST, in which Leo G. Carroll played a character  very similar to Alexander Waverly.  Each week an innocent would get tangled up in the war be-tween good and evil waged between U.N.C.L.E. and their arch foe, THRUSH.

We would like to thank the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement without whose assistance this web page  would not be possible.

Cousin Gordy gave me a tire guage that in ojur minds resembled a com-municator.  I would flio the guage up and open Channel D to my heart's con-tent.  Now tire guages are just tire guages and that's just a little bit sad.

The stellar success led to a pilot episode for THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E.  Mary Ann Mobely (who also later lost the role of Batgirl) starred as rookie agent April Dancer and Norman Fell as veteran Mark Slate.  They were great but in going for a "hip" look, Stephanie Powers and Noel Harrison got the roles.  One has to wonder how the show as origi-nally cast and conceived would have done.

Leo G. Carroll doesn't look too happy about being caught in a turkey.  It had the talent to be as good as MAN.  It didn't help that during the fights the star was usually hiding behind something.  With a little vision and some decent writing it could have been great.

Carroll's crusty Waverly was a perfect counterpoint to the suave Napoleon and enigmatic Illya.  Like Neil Hamilton's Commissioner Gordon his role added a needed element of realism.

There were countless U.N.C.L.E. pro-ducts.  The easiest and cheapest to collect are these paperback novels.  The best were written by David McDaniel.  This picture was used on many items and is probably my favorite.

Of course the best way to experience U.N.C.L.E. is by watching the original episodes and happily there are several ways of doing so.  A select number of episodes, including the pilot and most of GIRL can be seen online for free at In2TV.  The 23 vol. video set released by Turner in 1990 can purchased piecemeal on ebay or on Amazon.  And finally, the whole series and tons of extras has been released on DVD and is available for the first year through Time-Life.