The Girl from UNCLE… Whoa...

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I got a surprise in the mail the other day from mrua7 it was the second set of discs from the series Girl from UNCLE.  I decided to sit down and see what it looked like after all of these decades.
Bad.  It was really bad.  But, it does hold some canon within its poorly written stories.  The episode I watched was The UFO Affair, wherein nothing makes sense and April Dancer wears a lot of costumes reminescent of I Dream of Jeannie.
A few things surprised me, mainly because I didn't remember them.   Stefanie Powers is wearing a fall, some of you remember those.  Not a complete wig, just the bag end of one, which creates her big flip.  It's not as though she didn't have a good head of hair either, but that was the decade of fake hair and eyelashes.
Noel Harrison's hair is lightened, whether which bleach or tint I couldn't tell.  It doesn't look as good as David McCallum's though, which is unfortunate for Mr. Harrison.
Canon highlight: Mark Slate was in the RAF.  I didn't know that, but it's handy.  Also, he's a very proper Englishman, no Cockney accent or quips.  I think that's been forgotten over the decades between then and now.
I couldn't tell that there was any thought given to the story, which is a shame because the two leads were appealing enough to carry the show had it possessed a modicum of integrity.  They really were a victim of the decade.

Comments

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Yep, told you it was bad....lol!

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Yep, you did ;) You should compile a list of 'canon' that you've noticed though, that's a legitimate bit of information. I do think we ought to relieve Mark of the Cockney stuff though, he's obviously well bred.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Other than using some standard British slang like guv, mate, bliemy, cor...or one or two words, and a few swears like ponce and git... I never went the Cockney route with Mark. I like using some of the basic slang just to remind the reader Mark is British. Same as using some Russian words with Illya, even though he hardly spoke it on the show, it still reminds the reader of his origins.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Those are specifically Cockney.

[(Anonymous)]

I know quite a few people from England who use many of those terms but they're not Cockney by any means. They may have Cockney origins, but the words are use by many different people.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

It's a little sad, isn't it? I watched a few and had to give it up. I found 'Green Acres' and 'Gillgan's Island' more believable.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

At least the other shows you mention were supposed to be comical; this one had some aspirations for being taken seriously, or I thought so as a kid. Noel Harrison just never could match the appeal of David McCallum, making it even sorrier for all concerned.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

It definitely suffered from S3 silliness while trying to be S4. Sometimes imitation isn't the best form of flattery.

[vysila.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was pretty badly done. Poor April was reduced to damsel-in-distress way too often. But what really got me was that they gave Mr. Waverly a high school intern as his assistant! Seriously??

I know they were trying to have a lighter touch and appeal to a younger audience (i.e., someone like me back then) but doing so only proved how out of touch TPTB in charge of the show were at that time.

Still, I've binged the show twice and have a vid in progress, so I can say there are a lot of lovely moments despite the overall awfulness.

[vysila.livejournal.com]

Speaking about that hair fall - I wonder if Stephanie faced a bad reaction when she cut her hair quite short half-way through the season. Or did she have short hair all along and the fall was meant to disguise it?

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I did see a picture of her with the short hair. That probably caused some fall out from the producers.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

It really was a waste of actors who mightn't have been up to the other two, but certainly deserved better - there's some fanfic writers who would have done them proud. I don't remember if it was even shown in NZ.

Thank you very much for the canon highlight, and for suffering through the discs.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid one episode was all I could handle. It reminded me of a cartoon show, and not a very good one at that.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I still haven't made it through the first few discs....really boring.