The 1960s seem like a long way off these days. We moved into the 1970s 54 years ago but even so, the 1960s were a revolutionary time in terms of music, the cinema and of course TV. This last Sunday afternoon after a gruelling session of blog writing, I settled down in front of the TV with a cup of tea and a cheese sandwich and what did I find? Well, a whole stack of TV shows from the 1960s still bringing in viewers today in 2024.
So, what did I watch? Well, time to settle back for some serious TV viewing.
Columbo
Columbo, as you probably know, differs from other TV detective shows by showing the viewer exactly who the murderer is and how he, or she, did it. The whole point is not who did it, but how Columbo catches them. The essence then of a great episode comes in the clever way Columbo nails his man, or woman. Sometimes that moment is a bit of a non starter, other times it’s nothing short of brilliant. Sometimes, even if that final moment is not so great, it’s still been a great episode.
The Columbo of the early series is an absent-minded quirky fellow although in later episodes, Peter Falk who plays the detective, seems to downplay that quirky element. The later episodes are still pretty good though and among various episodes on TV today was Any Old Port in a Storm with Donald Pleasance as the guest murderer. Pleasance plays Adrian Mancini, the part owner of a wine producing business. He is something of a wine snob and he has just been voted ‘man of the year’. That was the good news; the bad news is that his half brother is threatening to sell the business. That of course doesn’t go down well so Adrian in a fit of anger bumps him off. A whack on the head didn’t quite do the job so Adrian leaves him to suffocate in his wine cellar. Unfortunately, it happens to be a really hot day which eventually leads Columbo to the clue that bags the culprit.
That was an episode from 1973 but the original Columbo pilot first aired in 1968.
Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds was about a secret organisation called International Rescue that had a small fleet of highly advanced machines and equipment with which to perform rescue operations. Millionaire ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy was the head man and the organisation was secreted in his island home. His five sons were the Thunderbird pilots, John, Scott, Virgil, Gordon and Alan, all named after US astronauts of the 1960s. The genius behind the Thunderbird craft was Hiram Hackenbacker, known as ‘Brains’. Thunderbird’s nemesis was a secret agent known as the Hood because of his talent for disguise and in many episodes the Tracy brothers had to ask their London agent, Lady Penelope, to track him down and sort him out.
Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward lived in a huge mansion somewhere in southern England and her manservant and chauffeur was Parker, a reformed safecracker. The head of ITV Sir Lew Grade saw the first episode and was so impressed that he asked for the episodes to be extended from 30 minutes to a full hour, less TV adverts of course. Gerry wanted Fenella Fielding to voice Lady Penelope but in the end, his wife Sylvia took on the role.
One other thing, I know Thunderbirds sounds pretty sophisticated from those last two paragraphs but it was actually a puppet series aimed at children. The great thing about it and really, the secret of its success, was the highly intelligent scripts which treated its audience of children not as kids but as intelligent young adults.
Two scripts that spring to mind were one called The Cham Cham about a code transmitted on a musical melody and another where Parker was called upon to break into the Bank of England. Later in the episode someone is trapped inside the vault and Parker is asked to break in again to rescue the man before the air is used up in the vault. Parker though thinks that his old mate, a bank robber recently released from prison, is about to complete his life’s ambition to break into the bank and so he tries to slow down his and Penelope’s drive into London. Everything of course comes right in the end though.
Time for a fresh cup of tea and I’m ready for the next programme.
Batman
We are probably all familiar with the modern Batman films which all have pretty grim and dark overtones. Tim Burton directed the first modern Batman film in 1989 which starred Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Back in 1966 however there was a TV series produced by William Dozier which starred Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin.
The suave Alan Napier played the part of Alfred, the butler to Bruce Wayne (Batman’s alter ego) and numerous guest stars played the villains. Frank Gorshin was a memorable Riddler, Burgess Meredith (remember him as the trainer in the Rocky films?) played the Penguin and Cesar Romero who refused to shave off his moustache played a rather manic Joker. Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt both played Catwoman. George Sanders and Vincent Price also appeared as guest stars and even Hollywood director Otto Preminger appeared on the show as Mr Freeze. Anyway you look at it, that is an impressive cast list.
The episodes were all two parters and in the UK were aired on Saturday and Sundays; the Saturday episode always left the Dynamic Duo in some impossible situation and the Sunday one showed how they would escape and track down the villains. The series was very light hearted unlike the modern Batman films and in fact played rather like a live action cartoon series.
The series ran for three seasons and a feature film before being cancelled. In the UK episodes are currently being broadcast on the Talking Pictures channel.
Mission Impossible
The TV show was created by producer Bruce Geller and concerned a team of special agents known as the Impossible Missions Force. They are a US government agency which takes on hostile foreign governments, South American dictatorships and criminal organisations.
In the first series the team is led by Dan Briggs played by Steven Hill but he was replaced for season 2 by Peter Graves in the part of Jim Phelps. Other regular team members were Leonard Nimoy, Martin Laudau and his wife Barbara Bain, Greg Morris and Lesley Anne Warren. Each played a team member with a particular skill, for instance Laudau and Nimoy played agents with a talent for impersonation and disguise, Greg Morris played an electronics expert and so on.
Mission Impossible ran for 7 seasons and was cancelled because, according to Wikipedia, the producers at Paramount found they could make more money by syndicating the existing series rather than making new ones.
A revival series was made in the 1980’s also starring Peter Graves. To save money the series was not filmed in Hollywood but in Australia but it only lasted two seasons and was largely unsuccessful.
A great feature of the series was the opening title sequence which involved a match being struck and then lighting a fuse shown over quick clips of the upcoming episode to the sound of the iconic theme tune written by Lalo Schifrin. Next would be Jim Phelps listening to his tape recorded instructions which after being played would then self-destruct. Phelps would then look through his agents’ files complete with photos and choose who he wanted for the mission. Sometimes a guest star would play one of the agents who would be introduced by Jim checking out his dossier. A team briefing would then take place and the mission would get under way.
The IMF used a great deal of gadgets to accomplish their missions; secret listening devices and other electronic hardware as well as incredible masks and make up to impersonate people. One particular episode that I remember was when the team had to retrieve some stolen gold from a South American dictator’s safe. They did it by drilling a small hole in the safe, heating it until the gold melted and ran out down the small hole then a little gadget sprayed the interior of the empty safe to cover the hole. Mission Impossible was staple viewing in our household in the late 1960’s and it was nice to see once again on UK TV.
From Russia with Love
I’m perhaps cheating a little here because this is a film rather than a TV show but what the heck, it popped up on ITV so I thought I’d watch it. Just lately there seem to be James Bond films popping up on TV almost every week. This film was the second in the Bond series, made in 1963 and it’s probably one of the very best. There are no super villains trying to take over the world and the plot is actually pretty sensible. SPECTRE -the Special Executive for Counter Intelligence, Revenge and Extortion- decide to offer British Intelligence a Soviet Lektor decoding machine but the catch is, the lovely Soviet consulate clerk chosen for the mission and based in the Soviet embassy in Turkey will only offer it to Bond himself.
Sean Connery played James Bond of course and the Soviet clerk was Tatiana Romanova played by Italian actress Daniella Bianchi. A great Bond villain was former Soviet agent now a part of SPECTRE, Rosa Klebb played by Lotte Lenya. The best performance though was by Robert Shaw who plays Red Grant, the killer specially trained to eliminate Bond. Bond and Grant have a hugely exciting fight in a railway carriage towards the end of the film which underlines the serious and gritty nature of the film. I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I tell you Grant wasn’t successful but Rosa Klebb nearly gets Bond with a concealed knife in her shoe.
I could have gone on and talked about Star Trek, The Saint with Roger Moore and even The Avengers with Patrick MacNee as Steed and Diana Rigg as Mrs Peel.
Yes, in some ways the 60s are done and dusted but when it comes down to it, you only have to tune in to a few vintage TV shows to relive it all again.
It always happens to me when I’m away. I know I’ve written about this before but the National Lottery has been annoying me. Here I am away from home and I get an email saying check your account, you’ve won a prize. Great! I wonder what is it? The million-pound jackpot or £3.42 on the Thunderball? I’m guessing it’s the £3.42. Either way, the National Lottery site cannot be accessed from abroad so I’ll just have to wait until I’m back in the UK before I find out if I’m a millionaire -or not.
Faithful by Marianne Faithful.
Stuart Sutcliffe.
Derek Taylor.
Letters from an Unknown Author! 