The Plot Podcast - Episode 6 - 1960s Spy Shows and ... Creatures?

The Winter Palace Podcast

Martin Landau as Count Zark in The Man From UNCLE’s “The Bat Cave Affair.”

As part of When It Was Cool’s Hallowe’en Month, the pod looks at some of its favorite 1960s spy TV shows and what happens when they run into some creatures. Or do they?

First, we have the Man from UNCLE and the second season episode “The Bat Cave Affair.” What is THRUSH’s “Operation Night Flight” and why does the agent behind it, Count Zark (Martin Landau using his Bela Lugosi impression 30 years before Ed Wood), seem to be dressed as a certain Transylvanian nobleman? Can Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Ilya Kuryakin) stop him from grounding the world’s aircrafts?

Next up, it’s the Avengers and the fifth season episode "Never Never Say Die.” When a man hit by a car doesn’t stay dead, it’s up to Steed (Patrick Macnee) and Mrs. Peel (Diana Rigg) to find out how and what does it have to do with the secret government lab run by Professor Frank N. Stone (Christopher Lee)?

Finally, we go full on spy spoof with Get Smart and the first season episode “Weekend Vampire” (not to be confused with the band of a very similar name). When CONTROL agents are being found dead with two puncture marks on their necks, Max (Don Adams) and 99 (Barbara Feldon) are sent to investigate the disgraced scientist Dr. Drago (Martin Kosleck).

We’ll be back soon with a slightly more serious look at spies and the undead in the 1999 British TV show Ultraviolet starring Jack Davenport, Susannah Harker and a young Idris Elba. It’s The X-Files plus Blade vs Vampires in the next episode of the podcast.