"The Man From U.N.C.L.E" trailed off in the way of quality after the black and white episodes finished. Those ones are the best by a long way. The colour ones became too silly and quite tiresome. It was always going to be a tongue-in-cheek series but it still maintained a certain level of drama in the first two seasons. Robert Vaughn and David McCallum compliment each other very well in their respective characters. They both have different personalities which helps. The action is fairly mild by today's standards as the violence is of a "comic strip" kind.

There was an original style in this TV series that made it fun and different from James Bond. Bond is a super spy who works intently for England and for the world. Solo and Illya were "salaryman" spies which manages espionage as a job. Most of the stories, whether good or bad, had this atmosphere. One I remember is The Deadly Toys Affair. In the scene in the beginning, Solo and Illya are told by their boss, Waverly, that they are expendable, and they are sent out to destroy a Thrush factory. In the midst of a shootout with the Thrushmen, they receive next instructions from Waverly thru their pen communicator without forgiveness, saying that they are not expendable anymore. I guess many people working in an organization had an experience of receiving a forcing message from their boss in the midst of an important meeting or work. This had turned into an everyday situation now due to the cellular phone, and it seems that the present was predicted 40 years ago. The sympathy of those who work in an organization is obtained, which makes this series fun and interesting. It was also because of the three wonderful actors that was able to have this peculiar wonderful atmosphere of this show. If an UNCLE movie or another series is to be made in the future, this atmosphere must not change. The actors must be good and must understand the original UNCLE concept, they must not be too tall, they must be handsome and smart looking, and neat, and clean. I mean, no beard or mustache, no hairy actors. Everybody involved in such plan should understand the original atmosphere of UNCLE, or will fail like most of the remakes. Also, it must not be forgotten that the music by the greats (J. Goldsmith, L. Schifrin, R. Drasnin, G. Fried, W. Scharf, R. Shores, M. Stevens, N. Riddle) was the big element that made this series so pleasant. Quentin Tarantino, how about trying out an UNCLE movie, as producer? I think you can do it!

Yes the comments of wnewman106 is true. He only forgot some others marvelous 60's series. Like the Invaders, The prisoner, Time tunnel and Lost in space. And i'm very happy these days that we have now the opportunity to buy theses series on DVDs. And the sixties was a great decade. I'M so sorry that in our decade now, not enough people are ready to stand, speak free and move like the 60's. We seems to have given the world to the financial political and religious systems who controls the world. Anyway, give the passion to yours children's. In looking these series with you can teach them history. I'm historian born in the beginning 50's and my wife born in the late 60's and we exchange a lot about the 60'S and TV series and films of these times are a good way to learn.

My dad used to watch this show during the first two seasons of the show,and I immediately became hooked! The Man From U.N.C.L.E was one of the best spy shows ever to come out of a period which the cold war,civil rights,and the height of the Vietnam War was a great escape for young minds back then. Since the show was a huge hit on the NBC network when it premiered on September 22,1964,it was something that no one thought of at that time: a character who was in the same ranks as James Bond 007 himself! The gadgets on that show were awesome(pens that acted as a radio to phone back at headquarters;an automobile with a built in machine gun and seat ejector)and the headquarters of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement which were secretly hidden in a tenement complex in New York..something to beholded!!! Robert Vaughn was a true gentlemen and a suave secret agent who was in the same category as Sean Connery,but he made the role very interesting as Napoleon Solo,and his Russian counterpart Illya,played by David McCallum,the coolest ever with a 60's shag blonde look(who looked like a rock star instead of an secret agent)!! The show's first two seasons were very dramatic and their was a great chemistry between the actors themselves which kept the action intense and very hipped!!! The sad part is that when the show's color episodes came it wasn't dramatic or very appealing anymore,but incredibly silly by the end of series' final run in 1968 (the 29 black and white episodes from 1964-1965 were the best ever and some of the best gadgets too). Jerry Goldsmith's theme score for the series was the best ever for a TV series,and still is to this day. U.N.C.L.E was so,so good it spawned two feature films,and dozens of toys,comic books,mystery novels,and posters,and can you believe that David McCallum have a hit record out based on the show back in 1965(which he teamed up with Nancy Sinatra on a hit song,which hit the top of the charts too-very rare to find that album nowadays),plus a very short-lived Saturday Morning cartoon show? The repeats are rarely seen on TV nowadays,but they can be seen on TNT every once in a while if possible. A total of 105 episodes were produced with 29 episodes of Season 1 were in black and white. 76 episodes of Seasons 2 thru 4 were in color until the series finale on January 15,1968.