BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Wordiezett So much average

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Launchd-II I bought the entire series on DVD recently and have spent many evenings watching two or 3 episodes each. While I grew up during the shows original run, I'd only watched a few then. So for a while, due to the invariable trappings of the times it was filmed during, I was taken back a bit. However I was really involved with the adventures and characters of the two main characters (and the venerable Kenneth Tobey as their most frequent handler). This show being compared to any of the numerous other espionage series is not a serious comparison. The location filming and abilities of cast and crew made this as special a show as another series from the same time period that made such an impact on me. Culp and Cosby will forever be unique for a multitude of reasons, together they made a good entertainment greater. Long live "I, Spy".BP

P_Cornelius What a tremendously influential series was I Spy. Both for American television in general and the individual viewers who had the opportunity to tune in every week back when it first aired. Me, in particular. Thanks to I Spy, and the debonair Kelly Robinson, I first took up a tennis racket and began a love affair with the tennis court that continues to this day. But even far more influential than Robinson and tennis, there is Alexander Scott.When it was all said and done, it was Bill Cosby's Alexander Scott who remains most vivid in my memory. Witty. Intelligent. Sophisticated. Lethal. Yet restrained in emotion and reserved in manner, he never forgot his respectable lower middle class big city origins. Nobody has ever encapsulated the qualities of the American hero better than Cosby in this role.You simply have to watch the entire series to appreciate the greatness of Cosby's performances. While his persona was intense, it was never out of balance, out of control. Cosby never played the fool. Which could not be said of his partner, Kelly, who was always going off the deep end, whether out of anger, depression, or joy. Kelly might go on a month long drunk, lose himself in a quest for revenge, or, just about every week, foolishly fall into some hopeless love affair. No matter. Scott was always there to save him, reel him back in, make everything OK and save the day.And there's something else about these two guys. They were always loyal patriots. If their government sometimes involved them in shady acts and moral compromises, they never reacted by turning on their country or their own kind. They knew they faced a greater evil. And they knew that only they (and their fellow agents) stood between their friends' and families' way of life and countries, the USSR and Communist China, in particular, that were ready and eager to subjugate them all.Finally, the runtime of this series is usually about 51 minutes. What a luxury to see a TV series that has the time to spin out a story AND delve into meaningful character development.

foxbrick-1 I SPY arrived in the wake of Bond, and THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E's first blush of success (I don't believe that THE AVENGERS or SECRET AGENT had quite made it to the U.S., but they soon would), and while Cicely Tyson had already taken a leading non-domestic role in EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE, that series was less of a success than I SPY was. I SPY may not've had the first "interracial" kiss on U.S. television, but it certainly beat STAR TREK's much-bruited non-kiss (between William Shatner and Nichelle Nicholls's characters, and more of a pressing faces together) by several years, with the numerous appearances of France Nuyen as Sam, Robert Culp's Kelly's great love (apparently, Nuyen and Culp were an item off screen for a while; amusingly, Nuyen and Shatner may've kissed ((I don't remember clearly)) on her one STAR TREK appearance, which followed by nearly a decade Nuyen and Shatner's appearance together in the stage version of THE WORLD OF SUSIE WONG, wherein, as Nuyen told LIFE magazine, Shatner often "needed" ((sic)) a preshow massage from her). The emphasis on East-Asian settings in the first season particularly was canny, if also ethically arguable--surely Cosby would appear particularly All-American to even the most nervous viewers in distinction to these Other people, however often they were played by just as All-American actors. The politics in other ways were often simpleminded, particularly when compared to even SECRET AGENT, but the human drama was also at times remarkably present even given the flimsiness of the scripts, as noted here by others.

ISpyDude This is definitely one of *the* best TV series ever made. It broke the mold of conventional television in several ways: It was the first series to do actual location work around the world. It was the first series to feature a black lead. It was the first series to feature a multi-racial cast and guest-cast on a regular basis.Culp was definitely wanted by Sheldon Leonard (creator). Culp offered Bill Cosby to play his partner, Alexander Scott. The networks reluctantly agreed, but Cosby instantly proved that the network's apprehension was unfounded.Fortunately, some TV stations are nice enough to re-air the series (KDOC in California aired it three years ago, with some [mostly minor] syndication cuts. WFTC in Minnesota is currently running it, with no syndication cuts. Obviously I'm very happy right now!) Even better, "I Spy" has some new episodes released on video and on DVD (what, no laserdisc?) With luck, "I Spy" will regain some popularity as these episodes really are timeless and should be more readily available for all.