Cult-TV Theme Watch: Spies

A spy or secret agents is an individual who intentionally engages in espionage. Spies usually work for a government agency and operate according to clandestine or shadowy procedures.  Spies often live double lives, and even their closest family members don’t know their true vocation.

In cult-television history, a number of popular series have involved those individuals who spy for government on a professional basis.

The James Bond movie craze of the early-to-mid-1960s caused quite a ripple effect on TV production.  Soon after Goldfinger (1964) premiered, dashing and debonair spies were featured on programming such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964 – 1968), starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum.

But before long, the James Bond formula of the dashing spy in danger was being corkscrewed with fresh ideas too.

I Spy (1965-1968) teamed U.S. spies Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) and Alexander Scott (Bill Cosby), but the duo traveled under cover, internationally, as “tennis bums.”

Meanwhile, the star of Danger Man (1960 – 1968), Patrick McGoohan, created a short-lived but brilliant series in 1967 called The Prisoner about a secret agent that has decided to resign but who is captured and whisked away to “The Village,” a gilded cage for spies and ex-diplomats who had left their posts for undetermined and possibly dangerous reasons.

Get Smart (1965 – 1970) was Buck Henry’s satire of the James Bond milieu, with Don Adams playing Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 for an organization called CONTROL. The hapless Max was assisted by his far-more competent partner, 99 (Barbara Feldon) in his battles against the nefarious organization known as KAOS.

Mission: Impossible (1966 – 1972) was Bruce Geller’s contribution to the burgeoning TV spy genre, and involved the IMF (Impossible Missions Force) conducting under-cover black operations.  The organization was led by Jim Phelps (Peter Graves), and each week he would select a team of experts for the mission at hand, which he universally received via self-destructing tape recorder.  Among those on Jim’s team over the years were Rollin Hand (Martin Landau), Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), and The Great Paris (Leonard Nimoy). 

A second Mission: Impossible series was produced in the late 1980s and saw the return of Jim Phelps, and one of his new team-members was the incomparable Jane Badler, late of V (1984 – 1985).

After the James Bond craze died down some, spies were seen on TV less frequently for a time. In the 1980s, Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983 – 1987) involved an “Agency” spy, Lee Stetson (Bruce Boxleitner) teaming with a divorced American housewife, Kate Jackson’s Amanda King.   

Glen Larson’s Masquerade (1983), meanwhile, involved American tourists overseas being recruited for secret missions by professional spies Mr. Lavender (Rod Taylor), Casey Collins (Kirsty Alley) and Danny Doyle (Greg Evigan).

The 1990s introduced the world to such spy programming as La Femme Nikita (1997 – 2001) starring Peta Wilson and based on the popular Luc Besson film (1990) and its American remake, Point of No Return (1993).

The 21^st century brought new complexity to the world of TV spies with the labyrinthine Alias (2001 – 2005), J.J. Abrams’ twisty story of beautiful double agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner). As the series begins, Sydney believes she is working for the CIA but is actually employed by the evil SD-6.  When she learns the truth, Sydney becomes a CIA mole within SD6 but faces the constant threat of discovery. Often on the series, Sydney is tasked with recovering the ancient but highly-advanced relics built by a genius or mad inventor named Rambaldi.

The same decade also a new version of Nikita (2010 - 2013).

Recently, The Americans (2013 - ) has centered around two Russian undercover spies (Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys) acting covertly in the early 1980s of the first Reagan Administration.