As I mentioned yesterday, to celebrate the release of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the complete series on DVD, I’m gonna do something a little crazy: I’m going to (re-)watch EVERY EPISODE, one a day, until I am done. All four season. All 106 episodes. Yes, even the crappy third season one that guest-starred Sonny and Cher.
And no, I’m not a masochist. What makes you ask?
Yesterday I watched the extended pilot, when the show was called SOLO, and today I just watched the version of that episode that aired, in glorious black and white, way back on September 22nd, 1964 (a day that, 5 years later, was also the day I was born). The title: “The Vulcan Affair. “
Well, not much different from what I watched yesterday. It’s 10 1/2 minutes shorter, it has a new U.N.C.L.E. boss in Leo G. Carroll (recast from Will Kuluva) and Illya has no more than a glorified cameo. The story beats from the original pilot are still there, and we see the first of the classic U.N.C.L.E. whip-pan credits, introducing the cast and the guest stars, as well as the act titles (which became increasingly “pun-ny” as time passed).
The introduction of Mr. Waverly is much different from the extended scene from the pilot, partly because they could not reuse most of the footage in the hallway that featured Kuluva (it was shot after the pilot and if you look closely the hallway they are in is a little different from the scene in this episode). Also, an extended scene where Illya and Napoleon are in Napoleon’s apartment is excised entirely – as the scene’s purpose was as setup to introduce the “innocent” character Elaine May Donaldson (more on the idea of the “innocent” character in a minute), it was replaced with an efficient hallway conversation between Illya and Napoleon at U.N.C.L.E. HQ.
The casting of Leo G. Carroll is interesting for a couple of reasons. A major influence for U.N.C.L.E. was the classic Hitchcock film North by Northwest. In it, an innocent bystander, Roger Thornhill (played by Cary Grant) is thrown by dumb luck into the world of espionage. The head of the spy organization who finally intervenes to save Roger Thornhill? Played by Leo G. Carroll. Except for a different wardrobes, Carroll is affectively playing the same character he did in the film.
The concept of the “innocent” as a plot device was reused again and again on U.N.C.L.E. in it’s first season, though it began to peter out towards the end of the first year.
One quick trivia note: pay attention and you’ll notice that the pseudonym that Napoleon gives Elaine is dubbed over – apparently the last name was too similar to a real-life rich and famous heiress (who Elaine was pretending to be, to get close to her old boyfriend, Thrush agent Andrew Vulcan).
Being the pilot, the show is not quite the program we remember – Solo uses a cigarette case communication device to contact U.N.C.L.E. instead of the seminal pen communicator (that comes later). Illya’s not really there, as I noted. And Solo is a little rough around the edges and more a James Bond wannabee than the character we eventually learn to know (and love). But it’s still a great start, and looking back 44 years later (!) it ages quite well.
Tomorrow: Scubas!