Pssst...it's Thursday. That means it's time for Thursday Movie Picks hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Don't tell anyone because I'm working undercover for the...wait...if I tell you that I'll have to kill you. So I won't. All I'll say is that since it's the last Thursday of the month, we're talking television and the topic is spies.
Get Smart
(1965-1970)
Just typing the title of this show makes me giddy and starts the theme song playing in my head. And I haven't seen it in 20 years. It follows the (mis)adventures of secret agent Maxwell Smart (Don Adams), Agent 86. Truth told, he was a bumbling fool known for using a shoe-phone. The real hero was his female partner, only known as Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon). I laughed often and heartily watching this show and the 80s cartoon it clearly inspired, Inspector Gadget. The main character of that show was also played by Don Adams. Let's not talk about the big-screen adaptations of either, though. Just pretend they didn't happen.
The Six Million Dollar Man
(1973-78)
Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Well, at least he was until they rebuilt him. They gave him what every kid growing up in the 70s wanted. Bionics. And then they made him a secret agent. He was only the bestest secret agent of all-time. I mean, I love James Bond, but did Bond ever fight Bigfoot? Steve Austin did. Therefore, no matter what other secret agent you like, Steve Austin's better. Better. Stronger. Faster.
Alias
(2001-06)
This is the show that introduced me to Jennifer Garner and forever confirmed that she is a badass. She's not quite The Six Million Dollar Man because she doesn't fight Bigfoot, but a badass nonetheless. She plays Sydney Bristow who got plucked out of college by the CIA, then assigned to an arm of the agency called SD-6. Soon enough, she finds out she's working undercover for the CIA to bring down SD-6 which is really an enemy of the state. And run by her dad (an amazing Victor Garber). And yes, I really meant to type "she finds out." That's pretty much how it goes down. This is one of the few shows this century that I made a point of being in front of the TV for, week after week.
Get Smart and Alias are popular today and I haven't seen either. Alias sounded great.
ReplyDeleteGet Smart is just goofy fun. Alias inspired a lot of shows whether they admit it or not.
DeleteGet Smart is deservedly all over the place today. Don Adams could not be more perfect as the dumb Smart. Same goes for the wonderful Edward Platt as The Chief. And words fail to describe the off the chart coolness of Barbara Feldon as 99. She and Diana Rigg as Emma Peel could not possibly have been more badass in their respective ways in the 60's. Then there was the nutty Bernie Kopell as Siegfried and Dick Gautier as Hymie the Robot. The writing was wonderfully inventive as well but it was the players who made it worth watching. I wanted a shoe phone so bad when I was a kid!!
ReplyDeleteThe Six Million Dollar Man is a good catch, I never think of him as a spy but he sure was. I'm not nearly as big a fan as you but I'll still look at an occasional episode.
By the time I became curious about Alias it had been on for quite a while and catching up was just something I never made time for. I'm not that crazy for Jennifer Garner though I do love Victor Garber. It's another one that's seemingly everywhere today, perhaps sometime I'll find time to binge watch.
I went completely 60's this time since with the success of James Bond series about spies were plentiful so a small theme within the theme. Glad you mentioned Get Smart's terrific credit music all three of mine have singular memorable opening music and credits too.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964-1968)-A two-man troubleshooting team, American Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Russian Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) work for multi-national secret intelligence agency U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement) under the direction of Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll). Week after week they combated the evil forces of THRUSH (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity) alternating between throwing around villains and bon mots. Immensely popular in its day it spawned a spinoff series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. as well as much merchandising. A stylish film version came out in 2015.
Mission: Impossible (1966-1973)-The Impossible Missions Force (IMF) lead a group of secret agents (including over time Leonard Nimoy, Martin Landau and Sam Elliott) lead by Dan Briggs (Steven Hill) in the first season and after that by Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) are given covert assignments each week via a self-destructing device. Using stealth and cunning as well as disguise much more than action they battle evil empires and crime lords. Tom Cruise has bastardized the franchise in a series of empty soulless action vehicles that have nothing to do with the original intelligent conception of the series.
It Takes a Thief (1968-1970)-High living but currently imprisoned cat burglar Alexander Munday (Robert Wagner) is released into the custody of Noah Bain (Malachi Thorne) head of the government’s Secret Intelligence Agency (SIA) with the understanding that he will steal whatever necessary (documents, formulas, etc.) to ensure national security. More of a high fashion romp than a tension fueled spy thriller this still had many intricate plots and a terrific chemistry between its two leads. It also had a fantastic array of guest stars including Bette Davis, Suzanne Pleshette (as a temperamental opera diva in one of the series best episodes), Leslie Nielsen and in the final season Fred Astaire as Mundy’s mischievous father, master thief Alistair.
Mission: Impossible is the only one I watched and I was a big fan. That said, imI not as hard on the movie franchise. Soulless action flicks they may be, but at least from Ghost Protocol forward they're good soulless action flicks.
DeleteWait, that was Andre as Bigfoot from that Six Million Dollar Man clip. I've seen bits of The Six Million Dollar Man as that was a good show. In fact, here's a tidbit that we NIN fans know. Trent Reznor used to check into his hotel room as Steve Austin until the late 1990s when Stone Cold Steve Austin became THE MAN in the world of wrestling.
ReplyDeleteYup, that was Andre. That tidbit about Reznor is hilarious.
DeleteAlias was so badass! i remember loving it when I was younger. so funny to see Cooper there now
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Love that show.
DeleteWe match with get Smart which is popular today and rightly so...so funny. Alias is also popular and I enjoyed watching it but did find it lost its way near the end. I love that you picked the 6 Million Dollar Man. I can hear him move and jump as I write this. The Bigfoot double episode was so campy that it is right up there with Fonzie jumping the shark
ReplyDeleteYes, the bionic sound effects! The Bigfoot episodes might be campy, but I was young enough that it was the most awesome thing I'd ever seen.
DeleteI never watched any of these but I saw that Get Smart movie with Carell. Bloody awful.
ReplyDeleteIt was beyond awful.
DeleteOh God LOVE LOVE LOVE Get Smart! Even thinking about it makes me laugh. I liked the movie with Steve Carell, though. It was cute. Nowhere near the level of the original series, but VERY cute.
ReplyDeleteAlias was appointment viewing for me too, for a while. It was difficult in later seasons because of college stuff, but I always did my best to make sure I got caught up. Jennifer Garner kicked so much ass it's unreal.
Can't help but laugh at the TV show. If you didn't, I would doubt you were actually alive.
DeleteYes.
Love Alias. It was a fun spy series to watch. I don't remember much of individual episodes now...but I'm sure it had good cliffhangers, making us all watch week after week.
ReplyDeleteYes, it had tons of great cliffhangers and all sorts of action.
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