I Spy - Season 1

I Spy was a series ahead of its time. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing and there was Bill Cosby, a co-star of a hit series and co-billed with Robert Culp. Fans will recall that Cosby's character Alexander Scott was a Rhodes scholar, and his race was never an issue. The clever reparte between Scott and Culp's Kelly Robinson made each episode fun to watch, even when the stories might sometimes be a bit lightweight. And, it was filmed on location in Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Morocco - something very rare in those days of television.

There are not many TV series that I recommend so highly for great entertainment and the chance to see some familiar faces when they were much younger, and before superstardom in the form of the The Cosby Show engulfed Bill Cosby (Although, he was already a great stand-up comedian by then).

As many of you who have bought this product or are considering it, I was born in the early 50's and remember television through the 60's very fondly. I remember this show as being exciting and very visual. I liked both stars a lot back then. However, times change. I have purchased many dvd collections of shows from this period and I have to say this about the most boring of them all. I am sure it is both the fault of romantic notions of the time and being exposed to better programs over time. Nice locations, but very mundane scripts and stories you can write the ending to after two minutes. So, my advice is if you think you liked this and want to revisit it, do so with caution--buy Burke's Law, Route 66 or Honey West instead.

My brothers and I watched I Spy when it first aired and in syndication, and I've just started watching the first season on DVD. I love the location shoots, with now-familiar character actors like Mako, James Hong and Beulah Quo, and the writing holds up reasonably well, too.

I had recalled Kelly and Scotty as equals, but in the first several episodes, Robinson certainly seems to be the lead agent. They are friends, however, and both use the word "wonderfulness," the title of one of Cosby's comedy albums, a lot while bantering back and forth. I think Kelly uses it more than Scotty. The early episodes seem to feature more of Kelly's cover identity as a tennis pro than I recalled.

The first three of Robert Culp's audio commentaries bears little relationship to the background video of So Long Patrick Henry, The Loser and Court of the Lion but Culp authored those episodes and is effusively proud of them. He initially sounds hesitant, almost apologetic, in his telling of his background and the creation of the show, but warms to the subject. During his Court of the Lion commentary Culp describes meeting guest star and future wife France Nuyen.

Ideally Culp and Cosby would have been commenting together, laughing and joking as they did on the show, but at least we have them both in every episode.

It's great to watch this show again after so many years. Many of the other shows from the era slid into silliness, but I Spy was a class act. These transfers are not too bad. They are a bit dirty, particularly the (excellent) opening graphics. So, essentially, this isn't quite on par with the transfer of The Invaders for instance. Shadow areas are also a bit crushed. Overall the presentation is nice and is quite pleasant upconverted. The price is what hooked me into buying the first season. No regrets, but I would have paid extra for a real remaster.

To sum it up in a nut shell. Great picture quality, great sound and above all, great fun. If you love the old classic T.V shows, then you owe it to yourself to get I Spy. Well worth it.