The first season of this tongue-in-cheek spy series, featuring 29 hour-long episodes. Robert Vaughn stars as American agent Napoleon Solo, and David McCallum is Russian Illya Kuryakin. They both work for U. N. C. L. E., the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Their boss is Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll). They fight international crimes committed by the most resourceful foes, many of whom belong to a mysterious criminal network known as THRUSH. While the show occasionally has Cold War elements, in this first season at least, most of the stories involve THRUSH or some other rogue criminal organization or mastermind. They all use hi-tech gadgets, cutting-edge weaponry, and stylish vehicles.
I had never watched an entire episode of this show until now, and I loved it. I really enjoyed the humorous tone, the clever writing and the spot-on characterizations of Vaughn and McCallum. There are also a lot of notable guest performers. I was surprised to see one episode that had both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, 2 years before Star Trek (James "Scotty" Doohan was in another episode, to boot). I liked the appearances by Ricardo Montalban, Cesar Romero, Anne Francis (as a recurring villain), Kurt Russell, Richard Haydn, Jeannette Nolan and George Sanders. I'm looking forward to watching the other 3 seasons.
I had never watched an entire episode of this show until now, and I loved it. I really enjoyed the humorous tone, the clever writing and the spot-on characterizations of Vaughn and McCallum. There are also a lot of notable guest performers. I was surprised to see one episode that had both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, 2 years before Star Trek (James "Scotty" Doohan was in another episode, to boot). I liked the appearances by Ricardo Montalban, Cesar Romero, Anne Francis (as a recurring villain), Kurt Russell, Richard Haydn, Jeannette Nolan and George Sanders. I'm looking forward to watching the other 3 seasons.