Time-Life's deluxe edition of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Complete Series comes packed in a handsome attaché case, and is a
must for fans, who'll enjoy every poison-tipped dart and double-dealing foreign
dignitary. But casual TV buffs may want to wait a year, when the set is reportedly
going to be broken up into individual seasons. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s first season is a TV landmark, offering spry,
sophisticated spy stories shot in crisp black-and-white. When the show switched
to color in season two, the producers began to make the villains more cartoony,
and that move toward the ridiculous continued up to the abbreviated season
four, when U.N.C.L.E. made a
belated stab at restoring some sobriety.
Still, even at its silliest, The
Man From U.N.C.L.E. contrasted well
with The Wild, Wild West and Mission:
Impossible, the other major James
Bond-inspired adventure series on the air around the same time. Although those
other shows fetishized nonexistent technology in their own way, The Man From
U.N.C.L.E. integrated its fountain-pen
communicators, pencil-thin air rifles, and triangular badges so fully into the
show that they became as important as the plots. And U.N.C.L.E.'s biggest gimmick was McCallum's character: a Russian
fighting alongside the good guys. McCallum's presence sent a message to
Americans that bitter Cold War enemies could come together to fight the
death-ray-wielding super-crooks that were the world's real threat.
Key features: Copious featurettes about the history and production
of the show—including a cool piece on the physics of the
gadgetry—as well as a slew of promotional materials.
