History Series / ItTakesAThief

[[redirect:ItTakesAThief]]

There have been [[SimilarlyNamedWorks two different TV series]] titled ''It Takes a Thief''.

* ''Series/ItTakesAThief1968'' is a SpyFiction series starring Robert Wagner as Alexander Mundy, a GentlemanThief who is [[BoxedCrook compelled]] to steal for the government.
* ''Series/ItTakesAThief2005'' is a RealityShow featuring Matt Johnston & Jon Douglas Rainey, two {{Reformed Criminal}}s who use their skills to rob homes--with the owners' permission--in order to find the flaws in the houses' security systems.
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* ''Series/ItTakesAThief1968'' was a 1968-70 SpyFiction series starring Robert Wagner as Alexander Mundy, a GentlemanThief who is [[BoxedCrook compelled]] to steal for the government.
* ''Series/ItTakesAThief2005'' was a 2005-07 RealityShow featuring Matt Johnston & Jon Douglas Rainey, two {{Reformed Criminal}}s who use their skills to rob homes--with the owners' permission--in order to find the flaws in the houses' security systems.

[[quoteright:206:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/It_Takes_a_Thief_9208.jpg]]

->''"Look, Al, I'm not asking you to spy, I'm just asking you to steal."''
-->-- '''Noah Bain'''

''It Takes a Thief'' was an American television series that aired on Creator/{{ABC}} between 1968 and 1970. It followed the exploits of master thief Alexander Mundy. Facing a long sentence in prison, he's given an offer by Noah Bain (Malachi Throne), the cop who caught him and now the head of the SIA, an American intelligence agency. Mundy will be released from jail if he agrees to provide his unique skills to the government. It starred Robert Wagner as Mundy, and served as a prototype for similar shows, such as ''Series/WhiteCollar'', that also featured a LoveableRogue.

Not to be confused with the [[SimilarlyNamedWorks identically-named]] RealityShow that ran on the DiscoveryChannel between 2005 and 2007. That series has [[Series/ItTakesAThief2005 its own entry]].

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!!Tropes:
* AlwaysABiggerFish: Even though Al is a master thief, he readily admits that his father, Alistair, is even better.
* BavarianFireDrill: One of Al's frequent methods of theft. For example, he'll show up saying he's been assigned to evaluate the security around the target of the week. The guards usually buy this, giving Al the chance to get vital information for that episode's caper.
* BerserkButton: Normally, Al is cool and unflappable during his missions. However, he doesn't react well when children or his friends are threatened.
** An example of the former is in the first season episode "The Radomir Minature", when Al actually threatens an enemy agent holding a little girl captive. The latter is shown in the second season story "The Galloping Skin Game", when Al angrily quits the SIA and demands to be sent back to prison when he [[spoiler: mistakenly]] thinks Noah has set up friendly adversary Nick Grobbo to be killed.
* BigBrotherIsWatching: During the first season, when Al isn't on a mission, he's kept under house arrest and constant video surveillance.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: The final scene from the last episode, "Project 'X'".
* CatchPhrase: For Al, it's, "Oh, you're beautiful!" He uses it either sarcastically (to Noah or Wally when they force him to do a dangerous caper) or honestly (to 99.9% of the women he meets).
* ColdWar: Inevitable, given that this is SpyFiction from TheSixties. Al smuggles something or someone across the Iron Curtain practically OnceAnEpisode.
* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: The first season episode "When Boy Meets Girl".
* DeadManWalking: In the third season story "Saturday Night in Venice", Al is poisoned by Russian agents and offered the antidote in exchange for an item he'd previously stolen.
* DeadpanSnarker: Al, especially to anyone from the SIA.
* DistaffCounterpart: Charlene "Charlie" Brown (Susan Saint James), an equally skilled, though rather kooky female thief/con artist. She shows up in four episodes (two in the first season, two in the third).
* DoesntLikeGuns: In "It Takes One to Know One", Al says he never carries a gun. He feels it's unprofessional and not worth the trouble it could cause.
** Seemingly subverted in "Locked in the Cradle of the Keep", when Al actually gets into a gunfight with SIA agents, including Noah. However, it turns out to be part of a caper in which Al has to look like a traitor.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The third season story "Flowers from Alexander".]]
* EvilCounterpart: George Palmer from "To Steal a Battleship". He and Al were childhood friends who went into thievery together, but George is much more willing to use violence and threats to get what he wants.
* EvolvingCredits: Each season has a different title sequence, with a variation during the third season for when Fred Astaire was guest-starring. Each sequence included a progressively jazzier arrangement of Dave Grusin's OpeningTheme.
* {{Expy}}: The SIA for the CentralIntelligenceAgency.
* FakeDefector: Al in "Locked in the Cradle of the Keep".
* FamilyBusiness: Alastair Mundy (FredAstaire), Alexander Mundy's father, was also a thief.
** In one first season episode, Alexander says he's, in fact, a third generation thief.
** In the series' first regular episode ("It Takes One to Know One"), "Charlie" Brown mentions that she's also a third generation thief, several episodes before Al does.
* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The SIA (Secret Intelligence Agency).
* GreenAesop: The series' final episode, "Project 'X'".
* InsaneAdmiral: In the third-season episode "Situation Red", a USAF Major (played by Earl Holliman) becomes dangerously paranoid due to a bad reaction to (non-anabolic) steroids. He becomes convinced that a StrategicAirCommand test is an actual war situation and takes control of the bombers.
* LoveableRogue: Mundy was an unabashed con-artist and thief, but was clearly the hero protagonist.
* MomentKiller: A RunningGag during the first season. Several episodes open with Noah walking in on Al as he's just starting to put the moves on his female SIA minder for that week. This gag was dropped in the second season, when Al is no longer under constant surveillance.
* MurderByMistake: [[spoiler: In "Flowers from Alexander", SIA agents kill Laurie, mistakenly believing her to be a traitor. The killers are later seen paying their respects at her grave.]]
* MusicalTrigger: In the third-season story "To Sing a Song of Murder", the song "One Less Bell to Answer" serves this purpose.
* NoNameGiven: "The Blonde" from "To Steal a Battleship".
* NoodleIncident: Even though "Charlie" Brown only appears four times in the series, she and Al refer to several other times they've met/worked together/been friendly adversaries.
* OutdatedOutfit: The Nehru jackets and love beads Al sometimes wore in the first two seasons haven't aged well.
* PaperThinDisguise: Some of Al's disguises fall under this trope.
* PunchClockVillain: Al runs into several of these throughout the series; usually they're his fellow thieves and con-artists, either working for themselves or employed by the bad guys.
** One example of this is Nick Grobbo (Ricardo Montalban), a high-class fence who shows up a couple of times. While he genuinely likes Al and would prefer that he simply stay out of his affairs, Nick threatens to kill Al if he should try to louse up one of his deals.
* PutOnABus: Noah Bain vanishes without explanation, beyond a couple of brief mentions, and isn't seen in the third season.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Actor Malachi Throne left the series after the second season, following a contract dispute. As a result, Noah Bain is PutOnABus.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Noah Bain varied between this and being a real hard-case, especially during the first season.
* ReluctantHero: Mundy only agrees to take the job to get out of jail.
** Subverted on a couple of occasions. For example, in "The Radomir Minature" Al actually volunteers to rescue a little girl (the daughter of a defecting scientist) being held captive behind the Iron Curtain.
* {{Retcon}}: Originally, Noah was portrayed as the only cop who had ever caught Al, which he used as a way to recruit Al for the SIA. In the third season, after Noah was PutOnABus, this was changed to where Wally Powers was also a former cop who'd helped Noah bust Al in the beginning.
* ReTool: There were several throughout the series:
** During the first season, Al was given a big, well-appointed house outside of Washington, D.C. to live in (and be kept under servelliance) when not working. In the second season, he had an expensive bachelor apartment in town (without the surveillance).
** For several episodes in the third season, Al's base of operations was in Italy, though he'd later move back to the D.C. apartment.
** The biggest ReTool was in the third season when his father, Alistair, [[spoiler: arranges for Al to get a full pardon, to be no longer under the threat of prison, and be asked, rather than ordered, to do jobs for the SIA]].
* SceneryPorn: The opening episodes of the third season, filmed and set in Italy, featured a lot of this.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Wally Powers (Edward Binns), who takes over as Al's main SIA boss in the third season, replacing Noah Bain.
* SwappedRoles: In "Turnabout", Al breaks his leg just before his latest assignment, which forces Noah to do the job while Al talks him through it.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: In the last episode ("Project 'X'"), a pro-environmental group starts killing a group of nuclear scientists for neglecting to focus on repairing Earth's ecological damage. Al even says he agrees with their basic premise, though certainly not their actions.
* WorthyOpponent: Noah and Al consider each other this, even after they start working on the same side.

* {{Family Business}}: Alastair Mundy ({{Fred Astaire}}), Alexander Mundy's father, was also a thief.

* ColdWar: Inevitable, given that this is SpyFiction from TheSixties. Al smuggles something or someone across the iron Curtain practically OnceAnEpisode.

* TheColdWar: Inevitable, given that this is SpyFiction from TheSixties. Al smuggles something or someone across the iron Curtain practically OnceAnEpisode.

* DoesntLikeGuns: In "It Takes One to Know One", Al says he never carries a gun. He feels it's unprofessional and not worth the trouble it could cause.

* BavarianFireDrill: One of Al's frequent methods of theft. For example, he'll show up saying he's been assigned to evaluate the security around the target of the week. The guards uaually buy this, giving Al the chance to get vital information for that episode's caper.

* DistaffCounterpart: Charlene "Charlie" Brown (Susan Saint James), an equally skilled, though rather kooky female thief/con artist. She shows up in four episodes (two in the first season, two in the third).

** During the first season, Al was given a big, well-appointed house outside of Washington, D.C. to live in (and be kept under servelliance) when not working. In the second season, he had an expensive batchelor apartment in town (without the surveillance).

** PlayingAgainstType: George was played by Bill Bixby, who was best known for portraying {{Nice Guy}}s such as Tim O'Hara in ''MyFavoriteMartian''.

* {{Reasonable Authority Figure}}: Noah Bain varied between this and being a real hard-case, especially during the first season.
* {{Reluctant Hero}}: Mundy only agrees to take the job to get out of jail.

* {{Loveable Rogue}}: Mundy was an unabashed con-artist and thief, but was clearly the hero protagonist.

* RunningGag: During the first season, several episodes open with Noah walking in on Al as he's just starting to put the moves on his female SIA minder for that week. This gag was dropped in the second season, when Al is no longer under constant surveillance.

Not to be confused with the [[SimilarlyNamedWorks identically-named]] RealityShow that ran on the DiscoveryChannel between 2005 and 2007. That Series has [[Series/ItTakesAThief2005 its own entry]].

Note: There is an entirely different show which came out in 2005 with [[SimilarlyNamedWorks the exact same name]]. It's a RealityShow that aired on the DiscoveryChannel, and it involves two former burglars gone straight who approach a family and offer them a free security system if they can stage a robbery of their place, giving the homeowner time to do anything necessary to protect the place. Invariably, the homeowners have the worst security you can believe, and typically the burglary team are in-and-out in under ten minutes, taking with them thousands of dollars of loot. The homeowners watch in horror on a closed circuit feed as they see their home broken into, then get to see when the stuff is brought back, just how much they could have lost. Often the amounts that would have been lost are 5 to 6 figures. Then the guys come back a few weeks after the homeowners have had a new, expensive security system installed. And in a form of SchmuckBait, about 1/2 of the houses they hit a second time can be successfully burglarized again!

* WorthyOpponent: Noah and Al consider each other this, even after they start working on the same side.

->"Look, Al, I'm not asking you to spy, I'm just asking you to steal."

''It Takes a Thief'' was an American television series that aired on {{ABC}} between 1968 and 1970. It followed the exploits of master thief Alexander Mundy. Facing a long sentence in prison, he's given an offer by Noah Bain (Malachi Throne), the cop who caught him and now the head of the SIA, an American intelligence agency. Mundy will be released from jail if he agrees to provide his unique skills to the government. It starred {{Robert Wagner}} as Mundy, and served as a prototype for similar shows, such as {{White Collar}}, that also featured a {{Loveable Rogue}}.

Note: There is an entirely different show which came out in the mid 2000s with the exact same name, it involves two former burglars gone straight who approach a family and offer them a free security system if they can stage a robbery of their place, giving the homeowner time to do anything necessary to protect the place. Invariably, the homeowners have the worst security you can believe, and typically the burglary team are in-and-out in under ten minutes, taking with them thousands of dollars of loot. The homeowners watch in horror on a closed circuit feed as they see their home broken into, then get to see when the stuff is brought back, just how much they could have lost. Often the amounts that would have been lost are 5 to 6 figures. Then the guys come back a few weeks after the homeowners have had a new, expensive security system installed. And in a form of SchmuckBait, about 1/2 of the houses they hit a second time can be successfully burglarized again!

!!Tropes related to the series:

-->-- '''Noah Bain''', ''Series/ItTakesAThief''