The style and the class also reflected that during its first seasons, "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." (the letters stood for "United Network Command for Law and Enforcement," which was "thanked" at the end of each installment "without whom (those installments) would not have been possible") had not degenerated into self-parody and were still being written to take themselves seriously. F. Robert Vaughn's Napoleon Solo was a former U. S. Army G-2 officer from the Korean War era, for crying out loud! And David McCallum's Illya Nicolaevich (NOT "Nickovetch;" that's NOT how Russian patronymic middle names are written) Kuryakin was the son and, I believe, only child of two former anti-Soviet Mensheviki ("Minorityites") who had fled with their infant son to Scotland (McCallum's actual birthplace) to escape Stalinism in the Russias, and he was reared there.
rob I so agree, as a kid I thought he was the esscence of cool. then came james west in the wild wild west, two of my favorite childhood men I wanted to grow up to be it's a shame there is no one like that on television anymore. feel bad, kids are being cheated.
Robert Vaughn who appeared as Napoleon Solo died on November 11 2016 after a battle with acute leukemia. He was 83.Man from U.N.C.L.E was a popular TV series in the 60s.May he rest in peace.
@@joelholmes1260 That's because agent Napolean Solo has hella much more intell literally, than this present corrupted, worldly stupid & morally shit stained reality show buffoon, that's literally destroying this nations gov't to shreds imo. And btw, do you remember the mid 60's political events show called "Firing Line" hosted by conservative leaning William F Buckley???. Well then if not watch the YT interview with him & Robert Vaughn & notice how smoothly Vaughn had intellectually swept the dusty floor with Buckley as the somewhat pompous & highly dismayed & stunned broom. Uc Robert Vaughn trully had good INTELLIGENCE to debate with him on then global current events matter's on that memorable night telecast imo.
As a teenager in the 60's this show was a must see every week... the British introduced James Bond and the audiences went wild... we Americans introduced Robert Vaughn and he took off.. every kid in school was talking about the show the next day... and don't forget "Get Smart" with Don Adams which was a comedy... also I think TV stinks today compared to what we had.. basically 3 main networks that had new shows every season..
David McCallum was just as popular, if not more popular. Everyone loved Illya Kuryakin, and having a Russian character that was so popular and a hero on American TV at the height of the Cold War was something quite groundbreaking for American television at that time.
@@PerthTowne Vaughn was "The Star," but blonde, Beatle-cut Illya,was the real breakout character (such as the secondary TV series characters like "Spock" and "Fonzie" after him).
I won't differentiate between Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, as both characters made a great pairing here for this weekly acting scene. I'm not the afficianato on the changes every season, as I gave up TV entirely when I discovered astronomy as a 13 or 14-year-old buying my first telescope in 1967. Who would have known that I'd become a background extra actor in TV and movies for the past 20 years, but I still do not watch television today nor even go to movie theaters for many years. What I also really liked about the Man from U.N.CL.E. program was the intro music and I noticed they play about four different versions here - it's the second version starting a two minutes on the time bar that was my favorite; the flute as the lead instrument and the bongo drums just sounded so much more sophisticated. The opening sequence to this program and some others in that era, say, The Avengers from England, and the James Bond films opening music, and a few other of these special secret agent investigative programs, say Mission Impossible, is where we probably first discovered Jazz music as kids, as we were otherwise only listening to the Beatles music then. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3_NytrnoI_Q.html
@@MarkSeibold The first MFU theme has always been my favorite. I've been into jazz since I heard the Modern Jazz Quartet on some show my mother had on while she was making dinner. I was like 6 years old. I remember it vividly being riveted to the tube while they played. (On Merv Griffin, maybe?) Been a jazz fan ever since. The big brass in a minor key always gets me going. Mysterioso!
The episode you folks REALLY want to see is "The Project Strigas Affair". This episode marks the epic first pairing of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy on TV before Star Trek. It also features a pre-Hogan's Heroes Werner Klemperer! An episode of treasures!😁
Wasn't there an episode of THE OUTER LIMITS entitled COLD HANDS-WARM HEART that also featured them, with Shatner as an astronaut, and Nimoy as a scientist for the space agency that supervised the interdtellar
Sherman I've seen Nimoy in a 50s movie (may have been titled KID GALAHAD) and portraying a notorious gunslinger in an ancient syndicated western series called 26 MEN. Like Vaughn, Nimoy's roles sometimes included handguns. You can see how accutely the gun reports affect Vaughn. I think the constant exposure to the handgun reports took its toll on Nimoy's hearing, as well!
@@liman42 An Asimov classic. The production company did a great job with these episodes, giving the new company for the revival series a very high standard to meet, or beat
I'm trying to recall why there were budget constraints, which trickled down to costs for incidental music. Jerry Goldsmith was out, and Lalo.Shiffrin came on board.
The original was always my favorite. More mysterious than the other jazzed up versions. We had a record of themes and TV music from this show, Star Trek, JB movies (the cover photo was of Sean Connery in Goldfinger behind the bullet riddled windshield of the DB5). I've been looking for it all over but can't seem to find it or anyone that remembers that record. It had Nichelle Nicole's "Beyond Antares" on it. Loved that record.
The Man From U . N . C . L . E . The Acronym For United Network Command for Law and Enforcement . The Original Title For The Show Was Ian Fleming's Solo . The Girl From U . N . C . L . E . The Original Title Was The Girl From A . U . N . T . I . E . The Acronym For Associated Unified Nations Taskforce for International Enforcement .
I got the chance to meet Robert Vaughn while he was shooting a movie at my moms work, he was a very nice man and lived in my home state of Connecticut. I told him that this along with mission impossible and James Bond made me want to be a secret agent
The first season theme was by far the best. Those that came after just tried to jazz-up the original and added nothing. The first season was also the best because it was in B&W, and this added something -- a kind of starkness, I don't know what. I really love that shot of the infilitrator shooting at Solo behind a bullet-proof glass. For its day the show was really bleeding edge stuff -- especially for a kid like myself. I really wanted to hear the theme repeated somewhere in the movie -- maybe buried in the credits, but it's just not there. I also wanted to see some representation of the U.N.C.L.E. logo, and that's nowhere to be seen. It's not until the very last scene of the movie that you are given to realize that everything you've witnessed beforehand is just a precursor to the invention of the United Network Command for Law Enforcement.
Executive Decision -- I disagree with you. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was best in its first season and in b&W -- the same for The Wild, Wild West. The theme music for U.N.C.L.E. was unarguably better at its first outing. Most shows at the time didn't know what the hell they were producing and were probably shocked that they lasted more than one season. Color was a gimmick to sell color television sets, and it did nothing to enhance the quality of most television programs that hardly imagined they might become an actual series.
Executive Decision -- The technology for color may have dated back quite a few years but most people still had b&w TV sets and were rather slow to make the transition to buy a new set. This is where I see the "gimmick." It's like the unfortunate marriage between software and hardware in computers. If you want better quality/resolution/speed to keep up with evolving software, at some point you break down and buy a new PC. You may have been happy with your old PC but ultimately you want to experience the best performance and output as possible. One side forces you to go out and buy new hardware. Sometimes it's not even a choice. Microsoft has more than once said it will stop supporting previous OS systems, and this means that the programs running on this system will become dated, or even unusable. We see the same thing happening with wide-screen TVs. The resolution keeps improving, so if you want the best picture and sound, you have to consider whether what you have is sufficient. But, this is all really an entirely different argument because this particular video is just about the various themes from U.N.C.L.E. that changed season to season. If you listen to them one after the other, I think each new iteration was worse than the original.
Executive Decision -- You remember a lot more from the series than myself. I'd have to buy the whole DVD set to become re-acquainted with all the particulars. I was an avid follower and felt crestfallen when the series was cancelled. But, maybe it's just as well. I sometimes wonder if some of these old shows would be considered classics if they went on for ten-twelve seasons. It's not impossible. You look at shows like "Bonanza" or "Gunsmoke," and they just went on and on. But, what if "Star Trek" went on for ten seasons? Yet, even today you can find a series like "Lost" that collects a following, and people keep tuning in no matter how convoluted the plot may become. I think the great thing about shows like U.N.C.L.E. was that they were standalone episodes. They didn't have a soap opera feeling to them. Even programs like "The Fugitive" which had an overhanging theme, each story hung on its own and didn't require anyone to follow a plot line that went on season after season. I've read where the industry wants to create a new "Star Trek" series. That's great, but they should follow the example of some of these earlier shows and make each episode -- just an episode. Mix up the cast, take the stories outside the box of The Enterprise. Then you might have something.
Executive Decision They dont want to be associated with it. Its rubbish as its mortifyingly boring. It has no connection with the Man from uncle as we know it You can watch it on putlocker .is
Just loved those modded P-38 silenced automatics that they used to carry. Now those rare toy vrs of the uncle & thrush auto pistols & rifles are priceless on EBay, & i had a man from uncle modified pistol kit as a kid back in the day too, that I wished I had as a collector's piece now.
@@MeanGeneSanDiego How much did they cost ya nowadays.? Uc back in the 60's my dad paid under 10 dollars ea for me & my brother I'm certain. He had the thrush rifle & that man from uncle pistol model i had was all black with no safety orange on the barrel & with a short flash suppressor on the P-38 That included a functional target pistol scope, a silenced barrel extension, a extendable handle stock with included, the yellow man from uncle badge just like on TV. And from what i remember is that depending on the toy co that made them, some looked more realistic than the other. Btw mine fired low output powered blanks, thats prohibited nowadays in gun toys depending on the state your living in.
YOU can go online and find and buy your dream ordnance. There are at least two companies that sell re9licas of the WALTHER (not the Mauser) as well as the holster, badge etc. Years ago, I interviewed one of the armorers for MGM, and he explained the origin of the carbine design, their issues with the Mauser (which got scrapped) the logic behind the selection of the Walther. The production company also had a bit of a snit with ATF, since they violated federal laws, in modifying the pistol barrels.
As a trumpet, french horn, and baritone horn player the I love the Goldsmith version best. The trumpet trill is so difficult to do. My lips were never strong enough to do it. The theme is symphonic cool!😉
Thanks for making it easy to compare these themes. All were good but the first season was by far the best. They never re-ran the b\w episodes so it only appeared as the theme to To Trap A Spy. The longer film themes were also great.
The middle theme where they are in color is THEE Man from UNCLE theme. Loved the show. Was a kid in Halloween costume contest and I was a pitiful Indian with no chance of winning. I kept asking my Dad what time it was. I wanted to be home by 10:00 because Napoleon Solo was strapped to a cement slab with a razor sharp pendulum swinging back and forth ready to cut him in have. And Iliya Kuriaken was trapped and about to be drowned. Britain may have had James Bond, but we certainly had the very cool Men from Uncle. The music is the second best spy theme (the middle version) after The James Bond theme, followed by the Mission Impossible theme. The movie version should have included the theme music. The best theme music is still The Peter Gunn Theme. But he's a detective. Robert Vaughn was a great actor. As was David McCallum. He was great on NCIS,
First theme absolutely the best. Martial drumbeat rolling with those jazzy horns. A sense of clarity and resolve like, hey the Thrush b. s. stops here, and the Men From UNCLE have our backs. Sadly, such defenders are MIA in America 2021.
I agree that the original theme was the best. The second was pretty cool, too; jazzed it up a little. Didn't care so much for the third & fourth; went a bit overboard. Yes, we could use such a force with agents from both sides, who can set aside their differences, and unite for the good of all mankind. A bit late, but RIP, Mr.Solo.
In 1965 my parents considered me too young to go to movies like "Thunderball" and "Goldfinger". But they allowed me to watch this. You whipper-snappers have no idea how cool this was. I even had the toy UNCLE gun and could run around my Alexandria, VA neighborhood with it without SWAT getting called.
Lonnie Cavenee We liked to pretend that an ordinary pen was a communicator. The fun was in our imaginations. I wonder if anyone in the world joined up with a spy organization because of this show. :)
This is so cool! Thank you for posting it! I love all four opening themes. Many things changed the music changed, their clothes changed in that Napoleon started wearing different colored suits!!! But one thing stayed the same. The really cool Man From UNCLE Logo stayed the same. Thank God at least some things are still "sacred"!
Ahh, you posted the opening to the all-time-best "U.N.C.L.E." episode ever: "The Alexander The Greater Affair," with Rip Torn as the "guest villain." I recall M-G-M spliced together parts I & II, coupled it a feature-length spy film to make a "Double Feature." Most of the guest villains, Rip Torn, Lloyd Bochner and the great Fritz Weaver all played the identical suave-but-deadly antagonist. Does anyone remember "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E."? :)
Some of the Coolest theme music on TV back then during the 60's. As a kid I use to make sure I was In front of the TV Friday night to Watch Napoleon and Illya take down Thrush! Those were my favorite years of television.
How ironic that William Marshall guest starred in this episode called "The Vulcan Affair " only to guest star a few years later as Dr. Richard Daystrom creater of the M5 Multitronic computer on "Star Trek". I think the production team had fun with that. I was young lad at the time and this was my favorite show and without a doubt Jerry Goldsmith's first year version was the best theme song. I was so captivated with Television then, I ended in the same industry producing shows for 35 years. Where has the time gone. To quote Dr. Daystrom " M5, You are Great, I am Great " they were all great actors in the 60's
At 3:27, the controls are from the Time Tunnel. Obviously 20th Century Fox sold them to MGM after Time Tunnel's cancellation. You can even see some of these controls on Lost in Space.
Closest you can get is an episode of "The 'A' Team (season 5, episode 6) entitled "The Say U.N.C.L.E. Affair. It featured both Robert Vaughn (in a recurring role as General Hunt Stockwell) and David McCallum (as the bad guy of the week). General Stockwell even answered the phone on his plane with "Open Channel D". The episode was obviously done largely as paying homage to U.N.C.L.E.
David McCallum was a idol back in the sixties with women in America just like the Beatles were in the 60s there were thousands of women waiting for Mr McAllen at airports
Ya just gotta love UNCLE's security protocols. You have two enemy agents set off the security alarm & the agent/guard sitting behind the desk hops up out of his chair with no weapon & attempts to tackle these guys all by himself.What could go wrong?
Robert Vaughn aka Napoleon Solo was a brilliant actor. Just lost him recently, and he was the LAST surviving actor from the main cast of the original Magnificent Seven, (1960) who ironically dies in the movie, but out lasted Steve McQueen, Yul Brenner, James Coburn, Brad Dexter, Charles Bronson, and Horst Buchholz in real life. Even the Mexican bandito leader, Eli Wallach is gone.
I watched all these great shows in the 60's. Today TV sucks big time. Why not have an oldies station with Rogers cable? I just play the old stuff on my smart TV when TV night sucks today.
The first theme was, of course, the best. Then came the second, with the bossa nova beat that was popular at the time. The other two aren't even worth mentioning.
The second is clearly the best and the one most associated with the show.. That's why the revisited it for the most part in the 4th season when they were trying to get the series back on track.
I’m 64 years old and a big UNCLE fan from day one when I was a kid. I personally prefer the first, original theme as it’s the first I ever saw & heard so it clicks with me. (The same applies re Dr Who - because I was around for the pilot in 1963, Hartnell, for me, will always be the ‘real Dr Who, even though I’ve loved many (not all 😂) of the others.) I also preferred the first season of UNCLE when it was a ‘serious’ spy adventure before it went on to try to emulate the camp humour of the kind found in the BATMAN series of the time. BATMAN was and is great fun to watch, but TMFU should’ve stayed a ‘serious’ spy adventure in my humble view. I know from watching Robert Vaughn interviews that he felt the same.
Updating my previous comment, I now know the four season-opening episode titles, which are as follows: Season 1: The Vulcan Affair Season 2: Alexander the Greater Affair (the first two-parter) Season 3: The Her Master's Voice Affair Season 4: The Summit Five Affair
I was a big fan of The Man From Uncle back in the 1960's. I had a big crush on David McCullum in 1966 when I was 12 years old. You know he still looks good after all these years. I had watched NCIS a couple of times when I had read that he was going to be on the show. I also read on the internet that a new Man From Uncle movie is coming out in 2015. I can't wait to see it.
Loved Man from uncle, combat and Rat patrol. Also loved Robert Vaughn In The Bridge at Remagen a great war movie. Also he's funny in Trey Parker/ Mat Stone's BASEketball. Looking to purchasing the complete Man from Uncle series soon. I had the lunch box back in the day and fan club card.
Dig the clunky WWII military shoulder holsters on the personnel who run out into the corridor! No high-cost custom holsters for those guy's U.N.C.L.E. P-38s!
The Original Title For The Girl From U . N . C . L . E . Was The Girl From A . U . N . T . I . E . The Acronym For Associated Unified Nations Taskforce for International Enforcement .
The best of these by far is the first. The flute in the second somewhat compensates for the loss of the 5/4 from the first, but the other two have nothing to recommend them at all. (The only EPISODES worth watching are first-season episodes, but these tend to be quite well written. It's a shame the show had to deteriorate so rapidly.)
+Herbert Wells What's interesting is watching the progression in the opening styles, which is reflective of how fast culture changed in the 60s in a very few years. By the last season, when the anti-war movement was starting to hit its stride, traditional Cold-War spying was becoming very uncool.
I think the second theme is when it becomes the recognisable tune that we all know. And is my favourite although the first one is the most exciting! And doesn't Rip Torn look young?