History Series / ItTakesAThief1968

* BadassGrandpa[=/=]CoolOldGuy: How Alistair is depicted. In "The Second Time Around", he single-handedly captures a ColdSniper who had tried to assassinate him.

* UsefulNotes/ColdWar: Inevitable, given that this is SpyFiction from TheSixties. Al smuggles something or someone across the UsefulNotes/IronCurtain in several episodes.

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII:
** "The Family" reveals that Noah worked for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services OSS]] under [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joseph_Donovan "Wild Bill" Donovan]].
** In "The Suzy Simone Caper", Wally Powers reveals that he, also, was in the OSS during the war and worked alongside [[LaResistance the French Resistance]].

''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 and ConMan Alexander Mundy (Robert Wagner). Facing a long sentence in prison, he's given an offer by Noah Bain (Malachi Throne), the cop who caught him and is 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. The series served as a prototype for similar shows, such as ''Series/WhiteCollar'', that also featured a LoveableRogue.

* {{Expy}}: The SIA for the CentralIntelligenceAgency.

* AsHimself: Racing legend Mario Andretti in "The Steal Driving Man" and singing group The 5th Dimension in "To Sing a Song of Murder".

** 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.

* YouLookFamiliar:
** Susan Saint James played an SIA agent under cover as a flight attendant in the original pilot ("Magnificent Thief"). She then made her first appearance as "Charlie" Brown in the series first episode, "It Takes One to Know One". While they're clearly different characters ([[spoiler: the SIA agent gets murdered]]), you'd think Al would ask Brown, "You have a twin sister?"
** In the pilot, Wally Cox is briefly seen as a man trying to buy an airline ticket. In the series' final episode ("Project 'X'"), an EpisodeOnAPlane, Cox plays airline passenger Professor Moses.

* UsefulNotes/ColdWar: Inevitable, given that this is SpyFiction from TheSixties. Al smuggles something or someone across the IronCurtain in several episodes.

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:

* YouLookFamiliar: Susan Saint James played an SIA agent under cover as a flight attendant in the original pilot ("Magnificent Thief"). She then made her first appearance as "Charlie" Brown in the series first episode, "It Takes One to Know One". While they're clearly different characters ([[spoiler: the SIA agent gets murdered]]), you'd think Al would ask Brown, "You have a twin sister?"

* ChessMotifs: "The Great Chess Gambit", strangely enough. The episode features Al getting into a chess match with the VillainOfTheWeek, and several comparisons are made between their chess moves and the activities of the American and Russian agents vying for that episode's McGuffin.

* AnimalAssassin: Al finds a scorpion in his shower in "The Scorpio Drop".

* StockFootage: "The Steal-Driving Man", in which Al is pressed into service as a race driver, has plenty of it from actual races.

* BewareTheSillyOnes: Gino from "A Sour Note". He seems to be just a FlamboyantGay DramaQueen hairdresser, but he's actually a ruthless assassin working for a Nazi war criminal.

* 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.

* FamilyBusiness: Alastair Mundy (Creator/FredAstaire), Alexander Mundy's father, was also a thief.

* NoNameGiven: "The Blonde" from "To Steal a Battleship".

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: "The Family" reveals that Noah worked for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services OSS]] under [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joseph_Donovan "Wild Bill" Donovan]].

* StuntCasting: Plenty of it in the third season. Creator/FredAstaire played the RecurringCharacter Alistair Mundy, Creator/BetteDavis guest starred in "Touch of Magic", and Creator/PeterSellers did a {{Cameo}} in "Who'll Bid Two Million Dollars?". Also, as noted above, The 5th Dimension appeared [[AsHimself as themselves]] in "To Sing a Song of Murder" (along with their producer and manager), as did Mario Andretti in "The Steal Driving Man".

* FakeBrit: Al sometimes poses as an Englishman. [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent Too bad Robert Wagner never learned to do a good British accent...]]
** "Charlie" Brown poses as this in "When Thieves Fall In".
** Also, "Project 'X'" features Canadian actor Lloyd Bochner as a British scientist.

* ColdWar: Inevitable, given that this is SpyFiction from TheSixties. Al smuggles something or someone across the IronCurtain in several episodes.
* CoolOldLady: Duchess Christina from "The Lay of the Land", who may or may not have written some CompromisingMemoirs.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: "Get Me to the Revolution on Time" has several of them doing an EnemyMine team-up with a [[FidelCastro Castro]]-like guerrilla general. The deal is that the businessmen will help the general take over his country, then be rewarded with exclusive mining rights.

* ClearMyName: The plot of "Beyond a Treasonable Doubt", in whcih Al is framed as a traitor.