The second season of The Man From UNCLE started September 17 1965 and, unlike the first, it was in color. There's a credit for Metrocolor which turns out to be Kodak's Eastmancolor film. I never saw them in color until the some of the movies, made up of 2 episodes each, turned up on cable 4 or 5 years ago. I didn't have a color tv until I moved out of my mom's place and I don't think I watched any of the shows in syndication. I remembered liking the show when it was new but I don't remember anything about it. I watched the first season in December 2011 and mostly liked them. They didn't quite live up to my memory of them but I still put the second season on my NetFlix'd queue. Eventually they showed up. That queue is pretty full. The episodes look nice and there are 3 of them per disc. I watched the 10 disc set over the last couple of months and right from the start I was thinking the tone of the show changed along with the color. It seemed more comical than the first season. I went to the Internet and read that other people have commented or complained about the shift. Sam Rolfe, the creator of the show, left and David Victor took over as show runner. He intentionally made the show more of a parody. So you have to think of then as comedies, and sadly, the comedy is a bit weak at times. I did like seeing all the 1960's tv stars that appear as guests. There are 30 episodes and most have one or two guest stars I've heard of. You might have heard of some of these actors, and if you don't, you could look them up when you get a minute.
In the first two parter Rip Torn plays Alexander in The Alexander The Greater Affair. Rip wants to take over a small Asian country and break all 10 commandments. Good to have a goal, huh. He's well on the way to his goal. Dorothy Provine plays Rip's wife, she only wants him to sign the divorce papers, then she can forget him. Napoleon and Illya use her to get closer to Rip and take him down. Rip's a bad man, he's chained his parents to a rock quarry. Jason Hong plays the Prince of the Asian country that Rip is trying to take over. The episodes were released in the theaters as a 101 minute movie called One Of Our Spies Is Missing. That's included on the Bonus disc for the season. In The Ultimate Computer Affair we've got Charles Ruggles, Roger C Carmel (Star Trek's Mudd) and Judy Carne. She was on Laugh-In for a couple of years and she was married to Bert Renolds for a couple of years. Different couple of years but still quite a feat, huh. Our UNCLE guys have to go to South America to destroy a Thrush super computer. The Foxes And Hounds Affair has Vincent Price as a Thrush agent. He's competing with another Thrush agent, Patricia Medina, for a mind reading device. uncle guys are trying to protect the guy who has it. The show has some high tech stuff but often it's not very bellieveable. They use a lot of the same sets. I've seen the same wall and the same stair well each used in a couple of episodes. Practical, huh.
Remember discotheques? I sure didn't enter any when they were popular and I only like seeing them on tv. Thrush is using one as a front in The Discotheque Affair. Ray Danton, Eric Braedon and Harvey Lembeck guest star. Harvey played moronic biker Erik Von Zipper in some beach party movies and had a regular part on The Phil Silvers Show. He went on to have a pretty well known acting school. I rarely see him in anything but those beach movies. I had seen plenty of Phil's episodes but that was ages ago. Thrush has rented the apartment next to Mr Waverly's office, so they can spy on him. That's one of those plot points that makes me cring. UNCLE has a secret headquarters buried inside a block of buildings. The outside is made to look normal. Part of the block is an apartment building. They rent the apartments to strangers. Not UNCLE agents or workers. Strangers who turn out to be Thrush agents. Seems weak to me. The Re-Collectors Affair is about stolen Nazi art. That's art stolen by the Nazis. They stole a lot. People are still looking for stuff. War turns out to be a good time to steal stuff. You just have to remember to steal where the fighting is. A group is hunting down Nazi's and killing them for their stolen art treasures. Then they sell the stuff back to the owners. Nice, huh. War always brings out the good in people. And by good I mean taking advantage of the situation to take people's stuff. It's good for someone.
Illya becomes Lawrence Of Arabia, at least his son, in The Arabian Affair. Illya is in the Arabian desert looking for a secret Thrush base and Napoleon is working on a case about a soon to be retired Thrush agent. Michael Ansara is the head of a tribe that helps Illya drive the Thrush agents from their land. Illya nearly has to marry his daughter. She'd be real annoying to spend much time with. That's all I'm sayin'. The Tigers Are Coming Affair has the guys in India investigating a Prince played by lee Bergere. I'd just seen him play Lincoln in a Star Trek episode and I had remembered seeing him in many tv shows from the 1960 and 70's. Jill Ireland also guest stars. I'd always see her on Johnny Carson when I used to watch that every night through a lot of the late 1960's and into the first half of the 1970's.
The Deadly Toys Affair has Angela Lansbury, John Hoyt and Jay North amongst the guest stars. UNCLE wants to keep a bright student from joining Thrush which is where his dad works. Awkward. France Nuyen guests in The Cherry Blossom Affair. The guys are stopping a Thrush earthquake machine. That just shows you the real stupidity of the Thrush organization. Earthquake machines are nothing to be monkeying around with. I've seen enough movies to know that. The Virtue Affair has Robspierre, a descendant of the original Robspierre, planning to nuke the French vineyards to turn the drunken French sober. That's sounds bad, huh. No one wants to see their liquor disappear.
The Children's Day Affair has the guys taking out a Thrush boys school for assassins. Warren Stevens guest stars. The Adriatic Express Affair has Julliet Mills, a train and a deadly virus. The Yukon Virus guest stars George Sanders. The Very Important Zombie Affair has Claude Akins as El Supremo, the leader of a Carribean country, who kidnaps the leader of the opposition party. Easy polictics that. No wonder it's so popular. The Dippy Blonde Affair has Robert Strauss as a Thrush agent. The guys have to investigate a Funeral home that's a Thrush front. There's some sort of ion projector device being made there. Victor Buono guest stars in The Deadly Goddess Affair as a Thrush agent who is trying to move some funds in a drone plane. Our guys are interested in getting their hands on that money. I always like Victor Buono, I used to see him on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson all the time and he guested starred on a lot of tv shows.
The Birds and the Bees Affair has John McGiver and killer bees. The Deadly Ring Affair has a mole inside UNCLE HQ but no guests I know. The Bridge Of Lions Part 1 & 2 has Maurice Evans, Vera Miles, James Doohan, James Hong and Bernard Fox. The story is based on a Henry Sleasar novel. Thrush seems to have an anti aging program. The device has a lid that goes over a sitting person and it's made from Robbie the Robot's head. Our heroes nearly get crushed in a grape press at a winery. The sets used for the mansion Maurice lives in were from the show Please Don't Eat The Daisies. I remember that but haven't seen it in ages. Wonder if it's on dvd?
The Foreign Legion Affair has Illya in the desert. He comes across an abondoned Foreign Legion outpost that's manned by Howard Da Silva who thinks the French Foreign Legion still exists. The Moonglow Affair has Mr Waverly assign Norman Fell and Mary Ann Mobley to work a case together. They get a lot of screen time since this was a pilot for a spin off. They got replaced when The Girl From UNCLE finally got made into a series. Kevin McCarthy plays the villian and he was quite entertaining. The Nowhere Affair has Illya in the American desert with J Pat O'Malley. They are looking for Napoleon who has been captured by Thrush. He's swallowed an amnesia pill and doesn't know who he is.
The King of Diamonds Affair has Ricardo Montalban as a diamond thief. In The Project Deephole Affair Jack Weston plays a gambler and small time crook who helps the UNCLE guys in a case. The Round Table Affair has veteran tv heavy playing a gangster hiding out in a foreign country. He played Frank Nitti on The Untouchables show back in the 1960's. The Bat Cave Affair has Martin Landau and Whit Bissell. Martin plays a Dracula like count who swoops around in an overacting kind of way. The Minus-X Affair has UNCLE scientist Eve Arden turn out to be a double agent. Sharon Farrell plays her daughter. It's a poor family situation. The Indian Affairs Affair has Thrush making a nuke on an Indian Reservation. Ted D Corsica played the chief of the tribe. He plays a lot of different characters in many movies and tv shows. I remember seeing him in many of them. The show has a chase through the countryside and at one point the Thrush guys pull their vehicles in a vague circle and the Indians on motorcycles, with Illya in a jeep, attack.
That's a lot of episodes, huh. That's why it took a long time to get through them. I think 30 episodes a season is just too many shows. My other complaint about the program is the fights. They are pretty poor, even when compared to some of the other tv shows of the time. The bonus disc has One Of Our Spies Is Missing and two featurettes. One is a short piece on Danny Biederman's collection of UNCLE items. He's collected a huge collection of items used on the tv show. When they shot this some of the items were in the Queen Mary Museum. The other featurette was about the same thing my post was about, the many guest stars on the show. Like a lot of shows I was glad to NetFlix them. I sure don't plan to buy them.
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