» U.N.C.L.E. Yesteryear Remembered

The Man From U.N.C.L.E aired on American television between 1964 to 1968, it was one of my favorite shows of the time. It had action, intrigue, and best of all, marketing hype in the form of toys–what kid doesn’t like that! The show starred Robert Vaughn who played Napoleon Solo and David McCallum who played Illya Kuryakin, two secret agents for the U.N.C.L.E organization.

An interesting bit of trivia (I didn’t know this), Ian Fleming, the creator and writer of twelve novels and nine short stories of the fictional British spy character, James Bond, had a hand in creating The Man From U.N.C.L.E series.

Illya Kuryakin had a very slick self defense move in the series and I remember it to this day. He would run at a person jump up, scissor the person’s neck between his legs and drop him to the ground. Hard to describe it in words, but I was unable to find a photo or video clip of this move.

U.N.C.L.E. headquarters was based in New York city and had a secret entrance in Del Floria’s Tailor Shop. This video clip shows them entering the secret entrance and it also shows one of the co-stars in this particular episode, Jill Ireland, who was married to David McCallum in real life, from 1957 to 1967. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZuErXLfQlM&feature=related

Check out this reference to Ducky’s past in this clip from another one of my current favorite shows, NCIS (it happens around time marker 1:00):