The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: Season 01 (1964) Reviews

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. launches its first season with "The Vulcan Affair," which uses broad but entertaining strokes to quickly establish the series' premise: Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn), top secret agent for the international counterespionage organization U.N.C.L.E., enlists the aid of an "average" citizen -- in this case a mousy housewife, played by Patricia Crowley -- to thwart the evil machinations of a colorful master villain (here played by Fritz Weaver) in the employ of the sinister crime agency THRUSH. Although telecast in black-and-white (as was the rest of season one), the opening episode was actually filmed in color -- and, combined with footage from another first-season episode, The Four Steps Affair, it would soon be expanded into the ersatz feature film To Trap a Spy for the domestic movie market. Similarly, another "expanded" Man From U.N.C.L.E. installment from this season, "The Double Affair," would receive theatrical play under the title The Spy With My Face. Originally, Robert Vaughn was to be the series' sole (or "Solo") star, with Leo G. Carroll providing support as his U.N.C.L.E. superior Alexander Waverly. However, the character of Russian-born U.N.C.L.E. agent Illya Kuryakin, played by David McCallum, scored such an excellent impression in his first fleeting appearances that the character expanded to full co-star status. Rumors still persist that Robert Vaughn was a bit miffed at sharing the spotlight, which may explain the kidding-on-the-square rivalry between Solo and Illya that dominates their scenes together. Although most of the other secondary characters are one-shots during the first season, Jill Ireland (then the wife of David McCallum) is seen as wide-eyed "civilian" Marion Raven and Anne Francis is cast as cold-blooded THRUSH agent Gervaise Ravel in two different episodes, "The Quadripartite Affair" and "The Giuoco Piano Affair." In the same vein, George Sanders appears in "The Gazebo in the Maze Affair" as criminal mastermind G. Emory Partridge, a role he would reprise in the following season's "The Yukon Affair." Other season-one guest performers include a brace of future spy show stars, Robert Culp (I Spy) and Barbara Feldon (Get Smart), as well as such pop-culture icons as Carroll O'Connor, Leslie Nielsen, Yvonne Craig, Eddie Albert, Kurt Russell, William Shatner, and Leonard Nimoy -- the latter two in the same episode! Although the initial season of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. has its chucklesome and satirical moments, many of the episodes tackled their subject matter with deadly seriousness -- even in such outlandish outings wherein THRUSH surgically creates an exact double of Napoleon Solo, and a mad scientist develops a process to bring Adolf Hitler back to life. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi