I Spy: Season 02

Season two of I Spy finds globetrotting secret agents Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) and Alexander Scott (Bill Cosby) plying their trade in such locales as Italy, Spain, and Las Vegas -- all the while posing as a high-priced tennis bum and his athletic trainer. As in season one, the series relies heavily on genuine location footage, with the stars playing out most of their scenes in the actual countries where the episodes are set (of course, an occasional pickup shot or close-up filmed within the walls of Desilu Studios in Hollywood still creeps in now and then!). While the series remained the most "adult" and realistic of the many spy shows of the period, and the characters of Kelly and Scotty spend as much time agonizing over the morality of their work as they do carrying out their assignments, the comedy content that had been sprinkled throughout season one of I Spy is even more pronounced in season two. Robert Culp may be the nominal star, but it is Bill Cosby who sets the comic pace and provides most of the series' delightful verbal improvisations -- with the pliable Culp sounding like a Cosby clone in several scenes! Which is not to say that Bill Cosby is the sole creative force behind the program; indeed, some of the best second-season episodes were scripted by Robert Culp. This season offers the series' only two-part episode, "To Florence, With Love," and also features the only "dual" performance by star Robert Culp, cast in his tradition "Kelly" role and as the Asian title character in "The War Lord." There are also a number of impressive guest-star turns: Boris Karloff plays a doddering scientist who imagines himself to be Don Quixote in "Mainly on the Plains"; Don Rickles delivers a shattering performance as a mean-spirited USO comedian who sparks an international crisis in "Night Train to Madrid"; and Wally Cox is delightful as a meek clerk whose fondness for foreign girls nearly proves fatal to Kelly and Scotty in "Casanova From Canarsie." The season ends with the poignant "Cops and Robbers," in which a not-so-sentimental journey to Scotty's old neighborhood imperils the live of his mother (played by the magnificent Beah Richards). Bill Cosby's performances in this and previous episodes are proof positive that his second Emmy award, bestowed upon him during the 1966-1967 awards ceremony, was richly deserved. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi