Trivia / It Takes a Thief (1968)

• Fake Brit:
  • Al sometimes poses as an Englishman. Too bad Robert Wagner never learned to do a good British accent...
  • "Charlie" Brown poses as this in "When Thieves Fall In".
  • "Project 'X'" features Canadian actor Lloyd Bochner as a British scientist.
  • Julie Newmar is supposed to be one in "The Funeral Is on Mundy."
• Playing Against Type:
  • George Palmer, Al's Evil Counterpart from "To Steal a Battleship", was played by Bill Bixby, who was best known for portraying Nice Guys such as Tim O'Hara in My Favorite Martian.
  • And then there's Gavin MacLeod (Murray Slaughter from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Captain Stubing from The Love Boat). He played three different characters, all villains; he's surprisingly convincing as a brutal, sadistic mob enforcer in "Rock-A-Bye, Bye, Baby". At that time it wasn't Playing Against Type for him, as he frequently played villains before being cast as Murray Slaughter.
• Stunt Casting: Plenty of it in the third season. Fred Astaire played the Recurring Character Alistair Mundy, Bette Davis guest starred in "Touch of Magic", and Peter Sellers did a Celebrity Cameo in "Who'll Bid Two Million Dollars?". Also, popular Soul group The 5th Dimension played Expies of themselves in "To Sing a Song of Murder" (along with their producer and manager), and racing legend Mario Andretti appeared As Himself in "The Steal Driving Man".
• You Look Familiar:
  • 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 ( 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 Episode on a Plane, Cox plays airline passenger Professor Moses.

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