This series was cancelled before I was born, so the first and only episode I ever saw ran some years later in syndication. Philbrick is given an important assignment by his Communist handlers. He is told to walk down a particular street at a particular time, during which a passerby puts something in his hand: a spring. Philbrick is then told that he will pass the spring on to another courier when the time is right.What is the spring part of, a secret weapon stolen from a US defense laboratory? No, nothing like that--it's just the recoil spring of a 1911 pistol. The Communists have decided to murder someone in a distant city, and have arrived at the following plan. A pistol has been acquired and disassembled, and dozens of couriers will be diverted from other assignments to transport it piecemeal. When all of the parts arrive at the intended destination, the pistol will be reassembled and used to commit the murder.I swear to God that was the plot. By comparison, the hilariously contrived plots of Dudley Do-Right were masterpieces of narrative logic. If all episodes of "I Led 3 Lives" had story lines this ridiculous, the 8.1 rating given the series must be for its comedic value only.

"I Led 3 Lives" was a sincere and authentic expose of the activities of the Communist Party USA. I was impressed by it as a child and I think the plot lines remain very interesting. Although rather cheaply done it had good workmanlike production values. It still provides good insight into the motivations and activities of fanatical subversives which are still valid to this day. I think Richard Carlson did a good, serious job with his role and he was always one of my favorite actors of the '50's. My father, who was a USMC officer at the time with a great interest in the psychology of communism, followed the show regularly. All in all this was one of the more important television productions to ever come along. Unfortunately it would not be touched with a 10 foot pole by the establishment media producers today!

I recall the series very well and always tried to watch it. The series portrayed Mr. Hoover and his bureau as a professional, passionate, serious operation. I was a believer then. However, after Hoover's death, quite a bit was focused on how his bureau was run during the '50's and '60's, and his own hatred for Communists. A PBS program even depicted him as a power-hungry tyrant and a homosexual. Taking my own limited knowledge of the 1950 decade while growing up as a child, this TV series was very good. And, as far as Hoover is concerned, he knew how to handle the bunch of politicians in Washington probably better than anyone else. It would seem that this series is on some form of blacklist, as it never appears on cable, satellite, or independent TV channels running old shows. Why this is, I don't know. But, maybe after Mr. Khruschev's speech at the UN in 1960; "We Will Bury You", the country is in the form of being buried!

This was a good series while it lasted. It pretty much showed what was gong on during this period in our history and the efforts to keep it in check. The left doesn't like the series because it shined a light on communist activities in the U.S. We don't track "commies" anymore because the cold war is over and they lost. Today people can be openly against the U.S. without any fear. They are in academia, the media,Hollywood, the judiciary and at all levels of local and national politics. Their still is, however, resentment among many that there is no longer a U.S.S.R. It would be great to have an updated series like this today. McCarthy was a little over-zealous in his time, but not far off the mark.