The year was 1965, two years after we lost JFK. We had colour TV but it is not in a lot of homes. Yet. We also had gentlemen of African extraction, but they were not on a lot of TV shows either. In other words, this show was not only outstanding entertainment on its own, but it was as radical behind the camera as it was in front of it. The producer, Sheldon Leonard, had a vision, a revelation, as to how this kind of series should be done; and to his credit he successfully sold it to the suits. Travel, locations, savoir faire. This kind of formula had been successfully used in England (Danger Man) but in the US, I SPY was following shows like the MAN FROM UNCLE, filmed more or less on the same sets and stages each week. Culp was great. He had a leanness and a restlessness which fit the part perfectly (played cop in an earlier series, so he was easy to cast). Not as easy to cast was Cosby, a black entertainer who had made history in Vegas and other venues with his easy comedy and addictive tales of growing up. Later, comics like Richard Pryor (to name only one) would credit Cosby as their inspiration. Even more astonishing, he had crossed over into the mainstream media, and was popular on both sides of the racial divide. You might be inclined to assume that casting him as the co-star in a spy series was a no-brainer. You'd be wrong. There was opposition, but it was overcome. As it happened, Cosby was superb, somehow blending his easy delivery from his comic act into an action figure. He was portrayed as the more educated of the two, and when they were ordering a meal in a Chinese restaurant, he was Cosby that would break spontaneously into Mandarin. It was a fun and extremely well produced series. Would it hold up well today? I believe it would, to the discerning viewer. It most certainly will hold up better than Hollywood's horrific feature remake of the some name, which I suspect will be lost to history.

In a world of spy spoofs like the Avengers, the Man from UNCLE, and, yes, even the Wild, Wild West, I Spy breathed fresh CIA air into the mix. There was something edgy (not as edgy as Secret Agent Man) and real in the super villain free world throughout which Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott cavorted. Cool graphics announced each episode with Robert Culp as Kelly Robinson (who spied under the cover of being a world class tennis player) morphing from a racquet wielding serve-and-volleyer to a handgun brandishing, enemy-stalking agent. The haunting theme music is as recallable as Star Trek's even though I haven't heard it since the mid 60's. Yes, I just admitted to being a teen fan of the show. My views are therefore time colored. A card carrying nerd at the time, I reveled vicariously in any number of these kinds of shows. I pulled the plastic P38 from my Man from UNCLE shoulder holster and took aim at various on screen enemies from my top bunk bed superior vantage point. I tried to teach myself tennis banging wildly at a viaduct near our home. I even took for a brief period to introducing myself to girls as Kelly, not a complete lie since it is my surname. None of this, however, was as bad as when I shaved back my temples a couple years earlier in a vain attempt to simulate Robert Vaughn's receding hairline when I was a 14 year old Man from UNCLE zealot. I digress, and this has turned into a review about teenage boy obsessions instead of a critique of the I Spy series. Can you really critique something that affects your outcomes almost as much as your first love did – perhaps more so? Maybe it was because I was fatherless as a teen. These spy guys were the mentors and the role models I so sorely lacked. They taught me the virtues of standing up against villainy, developing rich friendships with at least one other trustworthy guy, and to keep a stiff upper lip even when you never win the Emmy. Robert Culp was, in fact, quite gracious every year when Bill Cosby would beat him out of it. Of course, Cosby's Alexander Scott was brilliant (and not just because he was a Rhodes Scholar – insert laugh track here). The sum of their complementary parts managed every week to be greater than the whole. This period of my life feels remarkably clear (aside from my skin). I think it's because shows like I Spy, many of the aforementioned and of course Star Trek made such powerful imprints on my psyche. They showed boys how to be men (including not to be afraid of liking girls). I would recommend this series to anyone who wants to return to a wonderful time in television history (or in their own lives as in my case). There were many now recognized to be classic shows, and this one is very near the top of that list is my memory.

What a tremendously influential series was I Spy. Both for American television in general and the individual viewers who had the opportunity to tune in every week back when it first aired. Me, in particular. Thanks to I Spy, and the debonair Kelly Robinson, I first took up a tennis racket and began a love affair with the tennis court that continues to this day. But even far more influential than Robinson and tennis, there is Alexander Scott.When it was all said and done, it was Bill Cosby's Alexander Scott who remains most vivid in my memory. Witty. Intelligent. Sophisticated. Lethal. Yet restrained in emotion and reserved in manner, he never forgot his respectable lower middle class big city origins. Nobody has ever encapsulated the qualities of the American hero better than Cosby in this role.You simply have to watch the entire series to appreciate the greatness of Cosby's performances. While his persona was intense, it was never out of balance, out of control. Cosby never played the fool. Which could not be said of his partner, Kelly, who was always going off the deep end, whether out of anger, depression, or joy. Kelly might go on a month long drunk, lose himself in a quest for revenge, or, just about every week, foolishly fall into some hopeless love affair. No matter. Scott was always there to save him, reel him back in, make everything OK and save the day.And there's something else about these two guys. They were always loyal patriots. If their government sometimes involved them in shady acts and moral compromises, they never reacted by turning on their country or their own kind. They knew they faced a greater evil. And they knew that only they (and their fellow agents) stood between their friends' and families' way of life and countries, the USSR and Communist China, in particular, that were ready and eager to subjugate them all.Finally, the runtime of this series is usually about 51 minutes. What a luxury to see a TV series that has the time to spin out a story AND delve into meaningful character development.

"I Spy" represented NBC at it's most daring, in 1965, and proved that actor/producer Sheldon Leonard, best known as the guiding force behind "The Andy Griffith Show", "Make Room For Daddy", and "The Dick Van Dyke Show", could offer a first-class dramatic entry, as well. Certainly in an era when civil rights was an explosive issue, and television series were predictable and shot exclusively on studio sound stages and back lots, a program that was filmed 'on location' and featured an African/American in a leading role for the first time (in a mainstream dramatic show) was not only revolutionary, but was potentially disastrous, as well. It is to everyone's credit that NBC, the most successful network at that time ("Bonanza" had a 'lock' on Number One in the ratings) was willing to take the risk, and introduce this remarkable series to American audiences.Robert Culp was an established television star when the series debuted, a respected 35-year old actor with credentials that included one of the first major 'made-for-TV' movies (THE HANGED MAN), strong theatrical film work (PT 109 and Sunday IN NEW YORK), and Emmy-nominated TV guest performances. A gifted writer as well as actor, he and Leonard had discussed a TV series for a while, something that would capitalize on his dramatic abilities and avoid the stereotypes rampant in weekly television at the time. When a script involving a tennis pro and his trainer/manager, actually CIA agents, who would use their covers on worldwide missions, was hammered out, Culp knew he had found the right formula. The co-starring role became the focus of attention, and while Culp would later take credit for 'discovering' Bill Cosby, both he and Leonard were impressed by the 27-year old performer's brilliant stand-up comedy work (Leonard's friend, comedian Allan Sherman, had 'introduced' Cosby for the young comedian's first 'live' album), and both men deserve credit for offering the project to the 'untested' actor. With Cosby in place, filming began, and magic appeared.While the initial focus was on Culp's flamboyant 'Kelly Robinson', with Cosby's 'Alexander Scott' relegated to the more serious role of the 'contact' man with the CIA, Cosby had a way of 'punching up' his dialog, adding hip one-liners and asides that not only improved scenes, but gave the character of Scott a humanity that the scripts lacked. The stories became funnier and far more interesting, and Culp and Leonard were more than pleased with the results. The series quickly became an audience favorite, with Cosby winning the first of three Emmys in his role. Culp began ad-libbing, as well, following Cosby's lead, and the chemistry between the actors was so natural and easy-going that "I Spy" became television's most popular 'buddy' show. With the show 'on location' for much of the shooting schedule, a season's worth of scripts would have to be available by the start of filming, a practice unheard of for any other series. This resulted in some 'clichéd' episodes that writers had little time to polish, and Cosby and Culp's ad-libbing skills would be necessary to 'lift' their overall quality. The resulting humor would give the series a 'freshness' that not only made even the weaker entries enjoyable, but resulted in a series that still 'works', nearly forty years later. Eventually, even the stars' best efforts couldn't disguise the thinning material, and after three seasons, "I Spy" was canceled (although Cosby would win his third Emmy in a row for the last season, a testament to his talent), and the remarkable experiment was over. Sadly, "I Spy" did not dramatically change the African/American presence on TV, at that time, but Bill Cosby's success would provide him a window of opportunity for continued television exposure, and with each subsequent success, more opportunities would become available for gifted performers of other races. He was, and is, truly a pioneer of the medium, and the most enduring tribute of the series Sheldon Leonard created for Robert Culp may have been in introducing Bill Cosby to 'mainstream' America. It is a legacy that both Leonard and Culp were justly proud of!