As the Cold War raged, the world carried on its hot love affair with spies led by British secret agent James Bond. Forty years ago tonight, American television networks celebrated their contributions in a dominating night at the Emmys.
For the second year in a row, Mission: Impossible (CBS) won best drama while Get Smart (ABC) snagged best comedy. Three of the four best acting awards also went to secret agent shows: Bill Cosby for I Spy (NBC), Barbara Bain for Mission: Impossible and Don Adams for Get Smart. The lone non-spy in their midst was Lucille Ball, who won for best actress in a comedy (The Lucy Show, CBS). “We all love Lucy,” noted Los Angeles Times columnist Joyce Haber, “but enough is enough!”
Never too proud to not capitalize on a trend with copycat versions, Hollywood studios also shook and stirred adventures on the big screen with wry James Coburn as Our Man Flynt and tongue-in-cheek Dean Martin as Matt Helm (The Silencers).
All this emanated from the suave fictional creation of British author Ian Fleming, born 100 years ago this month. He’s the subject of a new exhibit, “For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond,” at London's Imperial War Museum (http://www.iwm.org.uk/) through March 2009. Wildly successful but charmingly unpretentious, Fleming described his first Bond book, Casino Royale (1953) as “an oafish opus.”
After Casino Royale, a string of successful novels followed, with teenage boys (soon to become the prime movie demo) especially enjoying the saucy adventures. But when Sean Connery kicked off the multi-billion dollar movie franchise with Dr. No (1962), Bondmania reached stratospheric new heights.
Quality control has been noticeably lacking, while personnel changes have been legendary: Connery (6 movies), George Lazenby (once was enough), Roger Moore (7), Timothy Dalton (2), Pierce Brosnan (4) and now Daniel Craig, who returns for his second stint as 007 in this fall’s Quantum of Solace (pushed back from summer) and is already signed for #3.
“I watched every single Bond movie three or four times,” said Craig, “taking in everything I could about how the character had been portrayed in the past, then threw all that away once I started doing the role.... If you don’t get bruised playing Bond, you’re not doing it properly. I had black eyes, I had cuts, I was bruised, I had muscle strains, and I took a lot of painkillers – all part of the job.”
September 8, 1966 Heck of a Trek
“Gallivanting around the cosmos is a game for the young.” – William Shatner in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
A phenomenon today, Paramount's Star Trek was anything but when it debuted on this night on NBC. In its first season it ranked a mediocre #52, and was regularly beaten by competitors like Bewitched and My Three Sons. In successive years the network shifted its date and timeslot but audiences fell even further, and the show was axed at the end of its third season. But diehard trekkies kept the flame alive. Paramount tried an animated series for a couple years until its first feature film in 1979, and overwhelming response triggered a steady stream of movies and syndicated series ever since.
As the Cold War raged, the world carried on its hot love affair with spies led by British secret agent James Bond. Forty years ago tonight, American television networks celebrated their contributions in a dominating night at the Emmys.
For the second year in a row, Mission: Impossible (CBS) won best drama while Get Smart (ABC) snagged best comedy. Three of the four best acting…