Man from Uncle
 

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September , 1964, to January 1968.
It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret agency.

Fighting the unfortunately named... Thrush.....

The TV series had a pretty good run... 4 seasons... starting in black and white then changeing to colour
( bit like the Avengers )

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I watched this show in syndication when I was growing up. From what I understand David McCallum was a bit of a heart throb in his youth

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Show creator Norman Foster talked with Ian Fleming about helping develop the program and it was Fleming who came up with most of the nomenclature UNCLE, THRUSH, but mostly the character names. Napoleon Solo. Fleming suggested a female partner who would be named April Dancer. The female agent idea was temporarily shelved. The show was to be called Ian Fleming's Solo. Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman sued saying they owned the rights to Fleming's name and also the name Solo, so while Foster was able to retain the rights to the name Napoleon Solo he was forced to change the name of the show. Illya Kuryakin was supposed to be a temporary character but he proved to be so popular that he was retained for the run of the show.
Of course Stefanie Powers became April Dancer in The Girl from Uncle two years later

You re right, two male agents... we were a bit short changed ....

Maybe the Avengers got it about right with Steed
and Emma Peel ( prob both agents for MI5 ? )

The quality of Man from Uncle was so good , I wonder if NBC commissioned one of the Hollywood Studios to make it !

Robert Vaughn and Steph Powers would have been a hot combo back then !

Steph must be age 24 in this pic

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It was broadcast by ATV In the UK. We could pick it up in Dublin.

T.H.R.U.S.H (Technical Hierachies for the Removal of Undesirables and Subjugation of Humanity) or words to that effect! :D

I remember the initial airing of the (pilot) program. It premiered on NBC and ran continuously, without commercial interruption... something that just wasn't done in those days. Of course, that was the only time NBC did that, but it made for a great impact for the debuting series.

Open Channel D, please ;)

To answer your question, U.N.C.L.E. was made my MGM, so it did have a major studio behind it. It was on before I was born, but I became a fan watching reruns in the 1980s. Man was really good the first two seasons, but it went severely off the rails into camp in the third. It did recover fairly nicely in its last season but the damage had been done by then and the audience was gone.

I don't really think we were short changed with two male agents, because there was plenty of lovely eye candy in the form of guest stars. Had there been a regular female lead, the producers may have been a bit more reluctant to include lovely guests, since they would have been competition for the female lead. I do recall that both Jocelyn Lane and Lucianna Paluzzi popping up on Girl, but, for the most part, the female characters were older ladies playing villains.

Man from U.N.C.L.E. featured some of the most beautiful female actresses of the 1960s in guest starring roles. In my opinion, the two most beautiful were Yvonne Craig and Barbara Bouchet, but there were lots of other really gorgeous women, including Danielle De Metz, Sharon Tate, Ahna Capri, Mary Ann Mobley, Sharyn Hillyer, and the above mentioned Lane and Paluzzi, who guest starred on both Man and Girl.