The Man From UNCLE?? (2 Viewers)

[michael_ks]

Richard Shores, Robert Drasnin, Lalo Schifrin, Morton Stevens and Walter Scharf were the other composer workhorses for the series. I can't think of another tv show that had so many original scores written for it.

 

[Jeff#]

Which of those men composed the third season music? Much of the scores heard in 1966-67 recycled the soundtrack of the Batman series, a contemporary to U.N.C.L.E.

 

[michael_ks]

I'll have to refer to my making of "Uncle" book, but I believe Fried and Drasnin did the bulk of the scoring in season three. I did leave out composer Nelson Riddle. He provided the score for one episode in season three, which exec. producer Norman Felton was very displeased with due to its being derivative of the "Batman" sound. Oddly enough, it was recycled within season three episodes on at least two other occasions. Fried, by the way, mimicked his "Gilligan's Island" sound to some degree, particularly in the episode "The My Friend the Gorilla Affair".

 

[Bert Greene]

Ouch! Don't mention the "My Friend, the Gorilla Affair!" Is my memory incorrect, or wasn't that episode atrociously bad? One of the lowest points of the 3rd-season, which had a hefty share of clunkers? Anyway, I'm happily looking forward to this upcoming 1st-season release. I haven't really seen the series in a long, long, time... even though I do have a few episodes I taped off of CBN, ages ago.

 

[michael_ks]

This one and "The Abominable Snowman Affair" were probably two of the most notorious episodes of all. Watching the opening segment of "The Vulcan Affair" (pilot for S1) one would never, ever expect the series to sink to the level of silliness that these two segments did. The third season is a mess and I'll have to abstain from collecting it, but the series redeems itself in the fourth (half)season when the show got back to basics--and I certainly welcome its release on DVD.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Does this mean they also have the rights to "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E." I wouldn't mind having it as well. I have only seen a few of those episodes.

 

[Michael Alden]

I don't believe they do. The problem with that show was that it was done the same year as 3rd season MFU and also fell victim to NBC's orders to "camp it up". So, rather than being a tough, sexy agent similar to Emma Peel, April Dancer wound up being more like Lois Lane, always needing to be rescued. It would have been interesting had the series been done in a style similar to the earlier UNCLE seasons.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I found all the Seasons of Uncle except for the 1st to be Campy. Yes maybe there was more camp in Season 3 but it was there in Season 2 and 4 as well. That is part of the charm of the show IMHO. I found it to be a clever satire of the James Bond films of the time.

 

[Jeff#]

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. did actually have at least one episode that was down to earth: "The Little John Doe Affair" with Wally Cox and Pernell Roberts. It's also interesting because Cox played a villain instead of his usual meek role.

"The Mother Muffin Affair" was typically silly, but still entertaining in spite of Boris Karloff having to play in drag in the title role. Robert Vaughn guest-starring as Napoleon Solo helped too, and he and April made a good team. However...Mark Slate (April's regular partner) turning up on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to go on a mission with Ilya Kuryakin in "The Galatea Affair" (with Joan Collins) was disasterous.

Don't forget that "The Moonglow Affair" in Man's second season was the episode that introduced April and Mark, but they were played by Mary Ann Mobley and Norman Fell.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E's 4th season was its best, in my opinion. Although someone I once knew who has posted on this board said that they were "too serious". If anything, the final season was more mature -- a rebirth of sorts in terms of music (mostly new, but some incidentals brought back from the first season), set design (a new look for U.N.C.L.E.'s New York headquarters), and more suspenseful writing. That true sense of danger was equally evident in the first season, and even more so by 1967-68.

I particularly enjoyed "The Seven Wonders of the World Affair", part of which was filmed on location in what was about to become San Francisco International airport shortly before it opened to the public. This was one of the last performances of Tony Bill, who appears in a supporting role. He gave up acting to become a director.

"The Prince of Darkness Affair" with Bradford Dillman, and two of my favorite blondes from that era (Carol Lynley and Lola Albright) was well-done, although I think the story could have been told in 1 episode instead of two.

 

[Henry V]

For any UNCLE fans interested in the excellent music from this classic series don't miss out the three CD sets put out by Film Score Monthly taken from the original recordings here...
http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=3053
I've got them myself and I'd highly recommend them not just for the terrific transfers of the original scores but the informative accompanying booklets tracing the history of this wonderful series.
And just for the record Robert Vaughn recently stated in an interview in Cinema Retro magazine that as much as the fans seem to hate the incredibly silly "My Friend the Gorilla Affair" episode of UNCLE from the third season, he personally loved it because it gave him a chance to do some rare comedy at the time. I'm siding with those fans who love the show mainly for it's first and fourth seasons of straight forward action and adventure rather then the Batman inspired broadly played comic self-parody that crept into the series by it's third season marking it's decline.

 

[Jeff#]

I suspect that Vaughn's real reason for loving that episode, was because he got to work with mega-sexy blonde guest star Jeannine Riley (post-Petticoat Junction, pre-Hee Haw). And she did have one street scene in a string bikini.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with wacky humor in an action-oriented show. But in a series not designed that way from the offset, the production team of a hit show can get bored after a while. So they try a different approach to liven things up. Going over the top didn't usually didn't help The X-Files much, and the writers of that show realized their mistake just as U.N.C.L.E.'s writers did in their era. But at least The X-Files had a balance between serious stories and the light ones. To U.N.C.L.E.'s credit, however, the writers got back on track after only a season of silliness.

But when it comes to comedy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. worked best with light touches of humor -- evident mostly in the first 2 seasons. The third season too often went overboard, however my favorite comedy that year that did it right is "The Suburbia Affair". It had a certain charm, including an ice cream truck chase and an exploding loaf of bread. What more can you ask for in a TV episode?

 

[Michael Alden]

My favorite season of the show was the second season. I didn't mind third season at the time but then again I was only 9 so the silliness didn't really get to me. I know almost all UNCLE fans prefer the first season but I'm not that crazy about it for 3 reasons.

1 - I was much more of an Illya fan than Napoleon and he is only in about half the episodes. He didn't become a full-fledged co-star until second season. If you look at the pilot episode he's only in it for about 30 seconds.

2 - Second season was when the opening theme got more uptempo (It's also the most well-remembered of the 4 themes)

3 - I originally didn't start watching the show until second season and UNCLE had such a poor syndication in NY that I probably didn't see most of the episodes until the early 80s when I started trading for tapes of the show.

The black and white thing has nothing to do with it as I much prefer black and white shows over color anyway.

Speaking of comedy, there was a trend, thankfully no longer existing, of doing comedic episodes of dramatic series every once in a while. If you look at all of the great dramas from the early 60s they all did it. The Defenders, The Nurses, Combat, Dr. Kildare, East Side West Side, Naked City, etc. They all felt the need to do an occasional comedy episode. That is one thing I am so glad eventually died out.

 

[Jeff#]

From having viewed the entire series in the 1980s on CBN cable when I was in my teens and then again on pre-recorded VHS tapes and on TNT in the 90s, I remember all the themes equally.

The first season had sort of a "military" beat with the drums heard on the soundtrack. That approach gave it a more suspenseful feel. The second season theme was jazz-oriented, and I enjoyed that too. It seemed appropriate for this spy show.

The third season was even jazzier...but too much with the loud trumpets and saxophone. The fourth season was a vast improvement and is just as good (but very different) from the second season's.

As for Ilya's particpation I remember him being listed as a co-star in all of the first season episodes (even if he wasn't seen as much in just a few of those) plus Kuryakin was a major part of the first season, as David McCallum's name was always in the opening credits. I hope Dave agreed to do some of the audio commentaries with Robert, but given several of his print interviews in recent years (about wanting to put his past work behind him) I suspect he probably won't.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Great posts on remembering UNCLE. I don't remember that much detail about this series but S1 is on my 'buy' list for sure. From reading these, I'm guessing that I'd like the middle seasons of this series best.



I'm with you on that, Mike. Somehow, most of the time, the efforts didn't seem to "fit" in most series. I have the entire Combat! series and those eps weren't near as good, to me, anyway.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Uh, Oh....better check TSoD. Rights issues have the release on Hold.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=5482

Rats. :frowning:

 

[Ken Ranke]

Knew it was too good to be true. Hope they get this worked out but the mention of lawyers leaves a sinking feeling.:frowning:

 

[Mark Oates]

Somebody at either Anchor Bay or Warner Bros needs a swift kick up the backside for not doing their homework properly. The rights issues should have been cleared fully (with at least a courtesy call to WB's legal department) before AB started any work on the release, and WB should be tuned into the jungle telegraph to know there was a set on the go rather than (as obviously happened) learn about an impending release from news reports or the web.

 

[Jeff#]

I don't know how accurate that report is. TV Shows On DVD even admits they don't have all the facts.

But three months is a long time for a series this great. I still see it listed with the July 25 release date at Deep Discount DVD for $29.95, and until they take it off their site it's a go as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Patricia]

Aw, for the love of crying out loud!
Should have known it was too good to be true.

 

[Gord Lacey]

The news is 100% correct; both companies claim to own the rights now. I don't have all the facts about who actually owns the rights, and how Anchor Bay was able to license them in the first place. I'm very interested in how this will shake out.

Gord