Line #19 Series/ISpy


1	%%
2	%%
3	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
4	%%
5	%%
6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/I_Spy.jpg]]
7
8	''I Spy'' is an American spy series which aired from 1965 to 1968 on Creator/{{NBC}}, shepherded by [[Series/TheAndyGriffithShow Sheldon Leonard]] and produced by Triple F Productions (named after the show's creators/showrunners[[note]]as such people were not called back then[[/note]] Mort Fine and David Friedkin, and cinematographer Fouad Said). In the series a white tennis pro, Kelly Robinson (played by Creator/RobertCulp (''Trackdown'', ''Series/TheGreatestAmericanHero'') and his black trainer, Alexander "Scotty" Scott (Creator/BillCosby) are really spies, saving the world approximately OnceAnEpisode.
9
10	''I Spy'' fills an important role in the history of television. Not only was it the first show to be filmed in exotic locations around the world (and utilized revolutionary filming techniques to do it) but it was also the first to feature a black actor in a co-starring role that was in every way equal to the white lead actor's role. Bill Cosby was also the first black actor to win an Emmy Award because of his wonderful work on this show. It is also worthy of note that before being cast in ''I Spy'' he had no acting experience. Although Bill Cosby was second-billed (simply because Culp was the more well-known personality at the time) he was not simply a TokenMinority but was to be an integral part of the show since its conception. Also, although both characters were created as equals, Alexander Scott was depicted as having a better education (including being a Rhodes scholar) than his partner Kelly Robinson. A very enjoyable series with some truly wonderful chemistry between its two leads.
11
12	A TV movie sequel, ''I Spy Returns'', was broadcast back in 1994 and a [[TheFilmOfTheSeries movie]] based on the series appeared in 2002 starring Creator/EddieMurphy and Creator/OwenWilson. In it, Wilson plays the actual spy, while Murphy is a boxing champion taken along for the ride. It was critically lambasted and [[InNameOnly bears no resemblance at all to the original series]] (ironically, the film's dedicated to series creators Fine and Friedkin), though some still find it enjoyable. Arguably the best follow-up to ''I Spy'' was a 1999 episode of Cosby's sitcom titled, er, ''Cosby'', in which his character dreams that he is Alexander Scott and shares an adventure with Kelly Robinson - played once again by Robert Culp.
13
14	As of January, 2015, the series is being broadcast on Cozi TV.
15
16	----
17	!!This series provides examples of:
18
19	%%* ActionSeries
20	* AssholeVictim: Racist, double-crossing, obnoxious drug smuggler Danny Preston in "Danny was a Million Laughs." [[spoiler:Kelly and Scotty save him, but only so he can testify against his associates. Even then, they're tempted to let him get whacked.]]
21	%%* BadassBoast: Scott's "ostrich egg" speech in "The Warlord."
22	%%* BrainwashedAndCrazy: "It's All Done With Mirrors"
23	%%* BrokenPedestal: "A Cup of Kindness"
24	* CartoonBomb: Culp lights one and throws it at the camera in the TitleSequence.
25	* ChekhovsGun: The pendant given to the wife of a not-so-late traitor actually contains 131 photos of secrets.
26	* ChekhovsSkill: Seen practicing judo; minutes later they kick a gun out of a (moronic) gunman's hand.
27	* CigarFuseLighting: Culp lights a CartoonBomb off his cigarette in the TitleSequence.
28	* ComicBookAdaptation: Creator/GoldKeyComics produced several issues of an ''I Spy'' comic book.
29	* CreatorCameo: Executive producer Sheldon Leonard cameoed in a few episodes of the series, at least once AsHimself. Actual (co-)creator David Friedkin, meanwhile, appears in "A Cup Of Kindness" and "Tigers Of Heaven."
30	* {{Expy}}: Executive Producer Sheldon Leonard created a 2 hour movie pilot called ''Top Secret!'' starring Cosby and Tracy Reed as spies. The unsold pilot aired 6/4/78.
31	* FailureHero: TheMovie makes Scott a hard-core example of this (to the point that the reason why he's assigned to the mission is because [[TheAce Carlos]] TheRival super-spy is ordered to check another lead and thus can't be with Kelly -- and thus Scott ruins things for him, too). By the end of the mission the only good thing the heroes can say is that they ruined things for the villains as well as the other good spies.
32	* TheFilmOfTheSeries: InNameOnly, in 2002.
33	* GoneHorriblyRight: In "The Barter," Kelly and Scotty need information about a kidnapped girl from PunchClockVillain Merritt (Roger C. Carmel). So, they set it up so that Merritt's Russian bosses will think he's being paid off by the Americans, causing a scared Merritt to give up the information in return for undoing the frame. [[spoiler:It works, and Merritt agrees to talk, but the Russians kill him for disloyalty before he can say anything.]]
34	* {{Hallucinations}}: The General's "musical chairs" vision [[spoiler: as he is dying]] in "The Warlord."
35	%%* HeterosexualLifePartners: Cosby and Culp in RealLife.
36	%%* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: "The Name of the Game."
37	* IKnowKarate: Both Kelly and Scotty are Black Belts.
38	%%* KickTheDog: The first season episode "The Loser."
39	%%* LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard
40	* {{Masquerade}}: The official secret cover is a tennis player and his trainer. Pretty often they have to do their best to keep it that way, with the events of the episode threatening to blow it open.
41	* PromotedToOpeningCredits: While he was always in the title credits, the second season saw Cosby's credit given the same font size as Culp's.
42	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
43	** In "Tigers of Heaven," Scotty tries to give one to a group of anti-American would-be samurai who are about to execute him and Kelly. But he gives up in disgust when he realizes they're too fanatical to listen.
44	** At the end of "Danny was a Million Laughs" Danny gets one from [[spoiler:Nancy, who's been hired to kill him. She tells him that he's such a lowlife sleazeball that her employers offered a pittance for his life...and she'd have happily killed him for even less.]]
45	* RecycledSoundtrack: Averted, unusually for the time but not for Sheldon Leonard - as he hated tracked-in music (he once equated it to "wearing someone else's underwear"), every episode of this and [[Series/TheAndyGriffithShow his]] [[Series/TheDickVanDykeShow other]] [[Series/GomerPyleUSMC shows]] had an original score written for it (Earle Hagen, who wrote the show's theme music and scored most of the episodes, won an Emmy for season three's "Laya").
46	* ReunionShow: Culp and Cosby reunited for a TV movie called ''I Spy Returns'' in 1994, to mixed reviews. Most fans consider the ''true'' reunion to be "My Spy," a 1999 episode of the sitcom ''Cosby'' in which Cosby and Culp reunited for a mini-''I Spy'' adventure under their original character's names.
47	* RunningGag: When our heroes find themselves locked in a room or otherwise cornered by the badguys - "Ok what's the plan?" "Oh, no, I thought of the plan last time....it's your turn this time."
48	* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: In "So Long Patrick Henry," Kelly is annoyed that Scotty hired a kid as a look out for them who keeps making [[Film/JamesBond 007]] references, having seen the then still-in-theatres movie ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' 27 times.
49	* SpecialGuest: Creator/BorisKarloff guest-starred in "Mainly on the Plains" as an eccentric scientist who thinks he's Literature/DonQuixote.
50	* SpyCam: Parodied in TheMovie. Alex Scott is complaining about the size of his supposed "spy camera" (about the size of an old-school studio camera) [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything in comparison with the "sexier" pocket-sized camera of rival super-spy Carlos]]. A more straight example within the movie is a pair of two-way mini-camera contact lenses that are worn by members of a team (one lens for each) that allow them to see what the other is seeing at all times.
51	%%* SpyFiction: The "Stale Beer Flavored" type.
52	* SpySchool: The Department has a training school on a military base in the UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco Bay Area, featured in the episodes "Anyplace I Hang Myself Is Home" and "Tag, You're It." While the name of the base is never stated, given its location, San Francisco Bay, it is probably "The Presidio" (the base was decommissioned in 1989 and became part of the National Park Service in 1994).
53	%%* TheTeetotaler: Scott.
54	* ThoseWackyNazis: At least one episode features an ex-Nazi villain.
55	%%* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: Averted on Cosby's insistence.
56	* WhiteBreadAndBlackBrotha: The 2002 remake is a WunzaPlot where Creator/OwenWilson plays a relatively straightlaced CIA agent, while Creator/EddieMurphy plays an outsider boxing champion who gets dragged into the spy plot.
57	* WholeEpisodeFlashback: "Return to Glory" consists of Scott explaining to a government auditor why he and Kelly charged $5.00 for glass pants.
58	* WittyBanter: One could almost drown in it with this show. Lots of it is Kelly and Scotty sniping at each other.
59	* WorldTour: Filmed mostly on location, too!
60	* WunzaPlot: One is a professional spy. The other is a professional tennis player that gets dragged into the spy stuff when he normally would just be the unassuming cover guy.

Context Series / ISpy