[5] According to the book The James Bond Films, Fleming proposed two characters, Napoleon Solo and April Dancer (later appearing on the spin-off series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.).

(United Network Command for Law and Enforcement): American Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn), and Russian Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum).

The series, though fictional, achieved such cultural prominence that props, costumes, documents, and a video clip are in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum's exhibit on spies and counterspies.

The novels written by David McDaniel explain that it stands for "Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity",[9] described as having been founded by Colonel Sebastian Moran after the death of Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in the Sherlock Holmes short story "The Final Problem".

Thrush was considered so dangerous an organization that even governments who were ideologically opposed to each other – such as the United States and the Soviet Union – had cooperated in forming and operating the U.N.C.L.E.

The pilot episode was reedited to 50 minutes to fit a one-hour time slot, converted to black-and-white, and shown on television as "The Vulcan Affair".

Additional color sequences with Luciana Paluzzi were shot in April 1964, and then added to the pilot for MGM to release it outside the United States as a B movie titled To Trap a Spy.

The studio suggested Raven, Shark, Squid, Vulture, Tarantula, Snipe, Sphinx, Dooom [sic], and Maggot (the last used in early scripts).

Rolfe created a kind of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland world, where mundane everyday life would intersect with the looking-glass fantasy of international espionage which lay just beyond.

[10] The same building with an imposing exterior staircase was used for episodes set throughout the Mediterranean area and Latin America, and the same dirt road lined with eucalyptus trees on the back lot in Culver City stood in for virtually every continent of the globe.

The series began to dabble in spy-fi, beginning with "The Double Affair" in which a THRUSH agent, made to look like Solo through plastic surgery, infiltrates a secret U.N.C.L.E.

[14] There was some crossover between the two shows, and Leo G. Carroll played Mr. Waverly in both programs, becoming the second actor in American television to star as the same character in two separate series.

subtitled The Fifteen Years Later Affair, was broadcast on CBS in America on April 5, 1983, with Vaughn and McCallum reprising their roles, and Patrick Macnee replacing Leo G. Carroll, who had died in 1972, as the head of U.N.C.L.E.

Goldsmith, Stevens, and Scharf composed dramatic scores in the first season using brass, unusual time signatures and martial rhythms.

William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy appeared together in a 1964 episode, "The Project Strigas Affair", a full two years before Star Trek premiered.

[17] Other notable guest stars included: Richard Anderson, Eve Arden, Martin Balsam, Whitney Blake, Joan Blondell, Lloyd Bochner, Judy Carne, Roger C. Carmel, Ted Cassidy, Joan Collins, Walter Coy, Yvonne Craig, Broderick Crawford, Joan Crawford, Kim Darby, Albert Dekker, Ivan Dixon, Chad Everett, Anne Francis, Harold Gould, Grayson Hall, Pat Harrington Jr., James Hong, Allen Jenkins, Patsy Kelly, Richard Kiel, Marta Kristen, Elsa Lanchester, Martin Landau, Angela Lansbury, Herbert Lom, Julie London, Jack Lord, Lynn Loring, Jan Murray, Leslie Nielsen, William Marshall, Eve McVeagh, Carroll O'Connor, Susan Oliver, David Opatoshu, Leslie Parrish, Eleanor Parker, Slim Pickens, Vincent Price, Dorothy Provine, Cesar Romero, Charles Ruggles, Kurt Russell, Telly Savalas, Barbara Shelley, Nancy Sinatra, Sharon Tate, Guthrie Thomas, Terry-Thomas, Rip Torn, Fritz Weaver, and Elen Willard (in her last acting appearance).

car had been lost after the end of the TV series, but it was found in Colorado during the early 1980s, and it was restored to original condition by Oscar-winning special effects artist Robert Short of California.

double-feature program first run in neighborhood theaters, bypassing the customary downtown movie palaces which were still thriving in the mid-1960s and where new films usually played for weeks or months before coming to outlying screens.

[2][page needed] Subsequent two-part episodes, beginning with the second season premiere, "Alexander the Greater Affair", retitled One Spy Too Many for its theatrical release, were developed into one complete feature film with only occasional extra sexy and violent footage added to them, sometimes as just inserts.

Directed by Guy Ritchie, the film stars Armie Hammer, Henry Cavill, and Hugh Grant as Kuryakin, Solo, and Waverly, respectively.

[41] A two-part comics story, "The Birds of Prey Affair", was put out by Millennium Publications in 1993, which showcased the return of a smaller, more-streamlined version of THRUSH, controlled by Dr. Egret, who had melded with the Ultimate Computer.

strips were originated for the British market in the 1960s (some Gold Key material was also reprinted), the most notable for Lady Penelope comic, which launched in January 1966.

Published under the house name "Robert Hart Davis", they were written by such authors as John Jakes, Dennis Lynds, and Bill Pronzini.

[49] In November 2007, after coming to an agreement with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Time Life released a 41 DVD set (region 1) for direct order, with sales through stores scheduled for fall 2008.

[50] An earlier release by Anchor Bay, allegedly set for 2006, was apparently scuttled because of a dispute over the rights to the series with Warner Home Video.

[61] Licensed merchandise included Gilbert action figures, Aurora plastic model kits, lunch boxes, and toy guns.

aired during the cocktail party sketch has Man From Uncle as the punch line of the final joke, prompting Leo G. Carroll in a cameo as the bartender to pull out a radio pen and say into it, "Kuryakin, get over here fast.

"[65][66] MGM's 1966 production The Glass Bottom Boat contains a scene in which Paul Lynde dresses up as a woman so that he can follow Doris Day, whom he suspects is an enemy agent, into the Ladies' Room.

In 1970, a "secret agent" theme was used by Australian confectionery manufacturer Allen's to market their Anticol cough lozenges, with TV commercials running under the title "The Man From A.N.T.I.C.O.L.

Alma Cogan paid a similar tribute to the Russian agent in her single "Love Ya Illya", released in 1966 under the pseudonym "Angela and the Fans".