I Spy (1965 TV series)

I Spy broke ground in that it was the first American television drama to feature a black actor (Cosby) in a lead role. Originally an older actor was slated to play a fatherly mentor to Culp's character. After seeing Cosby performing stand-up comedy on a talk-show, Sheldon Leonard decided to take a chance on hiring him to play opposite Culp. The concept was changed from a mentor-protégé relationship to same-age partners who were equals. It was also notable that Cosby's race was never an issue in any of the stories, though on occasion oblique references surfaced (such as in the second-season episode "One Of Our Bombs Is Missing," in which Scott jokingly said that he would "join the Klan," if it would help them recover a lost atomic bomb). Nor was his character in any way subservient to Culp's, with the exception that Culp's "Kelly Robinson" was a more experienced agent. (Culp revealed in his audio commentary on the DVD release that he and Cosby agreed early on that "Our statement is a non-statement" regarding race, and the subject was never discussed again.) As a strait-laced Rhodes Scholar fluent in many languages, Cosby's "Scotty" was really the brains of the team. His partner was the athlete and playboy who lived by his wits.

Culp as Kelly Robinson with Jeanette Nolan, 1966

I Spy was a trailblazer in its use of exotic international locations in an attempt to emulate the James Bond film series. This was unique for a television show, especially since the series actually filmed its lead actors at locations ranging from Spain to Japan, rather than relying on stock footage. Compare with the more recent series, Alias, which also utilized worldwide settings but rarely filmed outside the Los Angeles region. Contrast the extensive use of location shooting with I Spy's contemporaries on CBS Mission: Impossible and NBC The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which were mostly filmed on the Desilu and MGM back lots, respectively. Location filming is expensive and requires significantly more planning than studio filming, but the resulting quality was key to I Spy's success. Each season the producers would select four or five scenic locations around the world and create stories that took advantage of the local attractions. Episodes were filmed in Hong Kong, Athens, Rome, Florence, Madrid, Seville, Venice, Tokyo, Mexico City, Acapulco, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Morocco.

The success of the show is primarily attributed to the chemistry between Culp and Cosby. Fans tuned in more for their hip banter than for the espionage stories, making I Spy a leader in the buddy genre. The two actors quickly developed a close friendship that mirrored their on-screen characters, a friendship that would last until Culp's death in 2010. The show also coined unique phrases that, briefly, became catchphrases, such as "wonderfulness". Wonderfulness was used as the title of one of Cosby's albums of stand-up comedy released concurrently with the series. Cosby also occasionally slipped in bits of his comic routines during his improvised badinage with Culp. (In one episode Scott, being interrogated under the influence of drugs, says his name is Fat Albert.) Many details of Cosby's life were also written into his character. Scott does not drink or smoke—while Kelly Robinson does both. There are frequent references to Scott's childhood in Philadelphia and attending Temple University (Cosby is sometimes seen wearing his own Temple sweatshirt), and in the "Cops and Robbers" episode, Scotty returns home to Philadelphia to revisit his old neighborhood.

The two main characters are Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott. They have been operating together as a two man team for a couple of years when the series begins. It is indicated that Robinson is a few years older and has been in the Department longer than Scott (however a third season flashback episode shows them going through initial training together, so that aspect of the backstory changed a little).

Robinson is an internationally ranked and modestly well known tennis player, but not a professional player. this was in the pre-Open era of international tennis and the major championships were for amateur players only, so Robinson ostensibly travels the world as a "tennis bum", playing tournaments and hobnobbing with celebrities and politicians. It is his cover for his espionage activities. He is a graduate of Princeton University and a veteran of the Korean war where he was an infantry platoon leader as a lieutenant. He was a track and field athlete as well as a tennis player in his school years. Kelly's age and childhood background are inconsistently dealt with during the series. If a Korean War veteran, he'd be about 35-37 during the run of the series. In one episode he is said to be originally from Ohio, but in others he calls "the West Coast" his original home. In one episode he states that his father was a military lawyer and was involved in prosecuting German war criminals after World War II. In another episode it is indicated that he was orphaned before he was an adult and spent time with an aunt and uncle living on a farm in an unspecified location, possibly the Central Valley of California. He runs into a former love interest from time to time, and states that he ended the most serious romantic relationship of his life in order to enter into his intelligence career. He can be emotional and hot-headed at times, but can also be cold and ruthless when needed.

Scott is an intellectual, a graduate of Temple University, where he starred on the football team, and is a Rhodes Scholar. He is a linguist who seems to have studied multiple foreign languages in his educational years. He is approximately 29 year old during the series and was recruited into the intelligence community by a college professor. He grew up in urban Philadelphia where his mother and sister still live and he writes to or calls his mother frequently. He is usually the more level headed of the two agents and less emotional, but when he does become emotional he can be very despondent or display a violent temper. He is proud of his accomplishments and acknowledges the fact that the US has issues it could improve upon, but is a very loyal and patriotic American.

Both agents often question the morality of their profession and ponder the impact the life they lead has on their psyche and their soul. The two me are very close, often referring to one another as being like a brother. Yet they both seem to wonder what kind of life and family they would have had if they had not gone into the espionage world.

Robinson is usually called by his first name, Kelly, by his friends, while Alexander Scott is most often called “Scottie” by his friends.

Cosby as Alexander Scott

I Spy was a fixture in the popular secret agent genre of the 1960s—a trend that began with the James Bond films. By 1965, virtually every studio was producing secret agent TV shows, films, and spin-off merchandise. What set I Spy apart from contemporary programs such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Avengers, and The Wild Wild West was its emphasis on realism. There were no fanciful 007-style gadgets, outlandish villains or campy, tongue-in-cheek humor. Although Culp and Cosby frequently exchanged breezy, lighthearted dialog, the stories invariably focused on the gritty, ugly side of the espionage business.

Occasionally the series produced purely comedic episodes such as "Chrysanthemum," inspired by The Pink Panther, and "Mainly on the Plains" with Boris Karloff as an eccentric scientist who thinks he's Don Quixote. However, most episodes dealt with more serious subjects (e.g., heroin addiction in "The Loser") and did not shy away from ending on a somber note. It was also one of the very few American dramatic television series of the 1960s (The Twilight Zone was another) to set an episode in the then-taboo region of Vietnam. The 1966 episode was "The Tiger," written by Robert Culp, and during filming a romance ensued between Culp and Vietnamese–French guest star France Nuyen. The two were married the following year, and Nuyen went on to appear in several more episodes.

The espionage plots were, with a few exceptions, realistically set in the Cold War and the real life geopolitics of the mid-1960’s. They often specifically referred to their opponents as “the Russians”, or “the Chinese”, or other Communist Bloc countries of the time. Only rarely was a fictitious city or country used as a plot device. The espionage plots were almost always plausible – with a couple of comedic exceptions – and actual Cold War events were frequently alluded to or used as the basis for a plot. Other contemporary geopolitical factors that appeared in certain episodes were Arab nationalism and the idea of a potential Jihad, domestic terrorism within the United States itself, Neofascist organizations, and escaped war criminals from World War II.

The name of the espionage unit they worked for was never specified. In one flashback episode, it is established that all agents took their original training at The Presidio Army post in San Francisco, and that the agency was NOT the CIA but was in fact “more military than the CIA”. At least two episodes begin with them receiving a briefing at the Pentagon, they frequently refer to the Pentagon as the ultimate headquarters of their organization, and they are often seen receiving their instructions from uniformed, high ranking, military officers - with all branches of the military - Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force - showing up in such a role. In one episode, they are being briefed at the beginning by British military officers. However, they also seem to be answerable to the State Department as well, frequently getting instructions from civilian administrators at or from the local American Embassy in the nation they are operating in. In at least one episode they directly refer to the American ambassador as someone who can assist them. The fictional agency they work for is usually called “The Department”, and while it seems to be sort of a cross between the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA, its actual identity is left to the imagination of the viewer.

The two agents sometimes engage in standard espionage activities like interrogation of defectors and assisting friendly agents returning from enemy territory. However, the two main characters themselves are only twice shown operating behind the Iron or Bamboo Curtain and once in Viet Cong controlled territory. They spend all other episodes operating in the US itself or, more often, a country allied to the U.S. NATO allies Greece, Italy and British Hong Kong; U.S. ally Japan; OAS member Mexico; and U.S. unofficial (at the time) ally Spain are all locations where a storyline is set. Likewise Morocco, which was a technically neutral, but pro-West country at the time, is the setting for a few episodes. They cooperate with British, Japanese and Greek intelligence officers in various episodes and with local police officials in others, but largely their activities are unknown to the local authorities. The two agents are often seen uncovering and eliminating Soviet Bloc or Chinese espionage activities in Western nations, or uncovering a traitor in their own organization. Such activities would technically make them Counter-Intelligence agents. Occasionally they are involved in fighting against narcotic smuggling or thwarting a coup attempt against a friendly ruler. In a few episodes they are not actually on an assignment at all but have an adventure related to their personal lives, such as helping keep Scotty’s foster-daughter's boyfriend out of trouble with the Italian police, or dealing with the angry family of a soldier who had served under Kelly in the Korean War years before and had been killed in action. While the two agents are frequently involved with attractive women who factor into their assignment, they rarely become involved with an innocent bystander who is accidentally swept up into the situation as was the usual plotline of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Top-billed series star Culp wrote the scripts for seven episodes (one of which he also directed), including the show's first broadcast episode, "So Long, Patrick Henry." Prior to joining I Spy, Culp wrote a pilot script for a proposed series in which he would have played an American character like James Bond. He took the script to his friend Carl Reiner, who recommended he meet with Sheldon Leonard, who was in the midst of creating I Spy. This script was eventually rewritten by Culp and produced as the episode "The Tiger." In the DVD audio commentary for the "Home to Judgment" episode, Culp reveals that his seven episodes were the only ones filmed exactly as written. He wrote them to establish a specific dramatic tone and level of quality for the other writers to follow. Nevertheless, Culp and Cosby were often dissatisfied with the frivolous and formulaic scripts they received and rewrote most of their dialog and improvised a great deal during filming.

• First-time actor Bill Cosby won three consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1966, 1967 and 1968 (becoming the first African-American male actor to do so). Robert Culp was also nominated in the same category for all three seasons of I Spy.
• Eartha Kitt, who played a drug-addicted cabaret singer in "The Loser" (written by Culp), was nominated in 1966 for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama.
• In 1967 Culp was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in a Drama for his third-season script "Home to Judgment."
• In addition to writing the theme music, Earle Hagen composed an original musical score for many episodes of the series, often flavored with the ethnic music of the Far East, Mexico or the Caribbean. Hagen received Emmy nominations for all three seasons of the show and won for the "Laya" episode in 1968.
• I Spy won as "Best Dramatic Series" at the 1967 Golden Globe Awards for its 1966–1967 season.

A number of original novels based upon the series were published, most written in the mid-to-late 1960s by Walter Wager under the pseudonym "John Tiger." The I Spy novels were published by Popular Library:

• I Spy (1965, no book series number on cover)
• I SPY #2: Masterstroke (1966)
• I SPY #3: Superkill (1967)
• I SPY #4: Wipeout (1967)
• I SPY #5: Countertrap (1967)
• I SPY #6: Doomdate (1967)
• I SPY #7: Death-Twist (1968)

The following tie-ins, not by Wager, were also published.

• Message From Moscow (1966) by Brandon Keith. This was a hardcover novel published for young readers by Whitman.
• I Spy (2002) by Max Allan Collins – novelization of the motion picture remake

Gold Key Comics also published six issues of an I Spy comic book between 1966 and 1968.

• I Spy: A History and Episode Guide to the Groundbreaking Television Series by Marc Cushman and Linda J. LaRosa

Unlike many television series of the time, every episode of I Spy received an original score – as was the case with the other shows from Sheldon Leonard, like The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Earle Hagen, Leonard's regular composer, wrote the main theme and scored most of the episodes (collaborating on three with Carl Brandt; Hugo Friedhofer, Nathan Van Cleave, Robert Drasnin and Shorty Rogers also wrote music for the series).[1] During the show's run, two albums of re-recorded music composed (except where indicated) and conducted by Hagen were released.

Music from the Television Series I Spy (Warner Bros. WS-1637):

1. I Spy (1:57)
2. Tatia (3:00)
3. Hi Yo Scotty (2:42)
4. Angel (2:44)
5. Away We Go To Tokyo (2:25)
6. Rickshaw Ride (2:50)
7. Away We Go To Mexico (2:18)
8. Ah So! (2:16)
9. The International Set (2:23)
10. Another Kind Of Blues (2:46)
11. Fiesta Del Sol (2:05)
12. The Wonderfulness of You (2:23)
13. Made In Hong Kong (2:17)

I Spy (Capitol ST-2839):

1. I Spy (2:10)
2. Over The Wall (2:15)
3. Montezuma's Revenge (2:25)
4. Islands In The Sea (3:06)
5. The Golden Age (2:08)
6. The Voice In The Wind (Earle Hagen and Gene Lees) (2:58)
7. To Florence With Love (Hugo Friedhofer) (2:20)
8. Sophia (2:40)
9. Rots Of Ruck (2:20)
10. There's No Escape (3:40)
11. Domingo (2:25)
12. The International Set (2:21)

In 2002 Film Score Monthly released a limited-edition disc of original soundtrack music from the series.

1. "So Long Patrick Henry": The Defector/Main Title (1:05)
2. Hong Kong/Elroy (1:25)
3. What's the Trouble? (1:05)
4. Keep Running/You Lose (4:10)
5. That's My Man (1:27)
6. Stop That Plane (2:25)
7. The Whistle Blows (2:14)
8. "007" (:45)
9. End Title (:52)
10. "The Time Of The Knife": Tokyo/Jean and Kelly/Jean's Pad/Trailing (6:19)
11. Oops, the Troops!/Away We Go/Shiftycraft/Dead for Real (3:32)
12. "Turkish Delight": Away We Go to Mexico/Bye Bye Scotty/Rapido/On the Road Again/Trunk Store/Chicken Hearts/Lt Hernandez (5:14)
13. Taxi Tour (2:01)
14. Japanese Trick/Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow/How About That/Babe, With Rocks (5:15)
15. End Title (:38)
16. "The Warlord": Burma/The Chase/And On and On/Of Some Value (9:14)
17. My Lord/She Is Chinese (4:47)
18. Prelude to Dreamsville/The General Dies (4:12)
19. Down the River (1:55)
20. "Mainly On The Plains": The Plaza/Main Title (3:19)
21. Don Silvando/Blonde Gothic/Travelin'/Sighted (3:37)
22. Don Quixote II/Attack/Upsy Daisy (4:45)
23. My Professor, the Nut/Wild Stuff/Goodbye Crooks (3:55)
24. Don Strikes/So Long, Don (2:41)
25. End Title (:38)