pyroguysr's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Man From U.N.C.L.E�. or was it NCIS I posted this in my Livejournal the other day... meant to cross-post it here too... The Man From U.N.C.L.E�. or was it NCIS? I was 11 years old at the time that a TV show appeared called �The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,� a TV ripoff of the then-new, then-hot James Bond movies. My cousin, Eric, and I were big fans of the show. One year into the show, we were imitating our favorite characters; Eric was a good looking, dark-haired kid with interesting eyes, (according to the girl we were both trying to woo) just like Robert Vaughn who played �Napoleon Solo� (apparently he is Han�s great great great great etc grandfather, eh?) and I was the blond-haired, bespeckled and introspective guy who played the other character. (for more info and pictures, go here: "THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E."). So, every Friday night, I�d call Elaine Vacendak and talk to her for an hour before the show came on (she was a huge fan too) and then I�d rush into the living room and flip the channels over to that show, watching my favorite agents defeat their enemies from THRUSH every time (both with gadgets and really bad puns, if I remember correctl). Now, in my adulthood, I�m not that big a fan of TV. I generally prefer reading or chatting online to watching the tube. However, certain Baltimorians (they�re my friends, so I can�t call them Balti-morons) got me hooked on various shows such as E.R., CSI and Law & Order. Kathryn recently got me hooked on NCIS, mainly because it comes on just before �House� (but on a different channel). (My joke is that I got Kat hooked on the latter when I pointed out that �House� was Hugh Laurie of �Black Adder� fame � and I�m still struggling with Laurie having a New Jersey accent rather than his higher pitched BritCom accent). NCIS has a character played by a guy named David McCallum, a doddering old chap called �Duckie� that happens to be the medical examiner. He�s also blonde and introspective type and is quite funny in a dry, English humor sort of way. Tonight was a grisly sort of NCIS involving people that get cut up. But there was also an inside joke at the end that anyone over the age of 48 should have gotten if they were listening� Kate asks Jethro, "What was Duckie like when he was younger?" Jethro (Mark Harmon's character) thinks a moment and says cryptically, "Illya Kuryakin." She gives him a puzzled look. I groaned and then burst out laughing, wondering if Mark Harmon got to put that zinger in there, being that he�s about the same age as I am. What�s the joke? As you recall, I said that in 1966, my cousin Eric liked to imitate the Robert Vaughn character. My favorite was the blond, brainy character in that show, the Russian Defector with a Ph.D. from Sorbonne that ends up working for a secret Government spy agency called the United Network Command for Law Enforcement ( or U.N.C.L.E.). While Robert Vaughn now does commercials for a law firm here in Raleigh and plays occasional bad-guy heavies in TV shows and movies, my fave character from that 40 year old hit, �The Man from UNCLE� was the blond guy, David McCallum. And yes, his character name was� ... Illya Kuryakin! 12:05 p.m. - 2005-06-17 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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