“The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.”
Originally Published October 14th, 2003
Stefanie Powers starred in this spin-off of the classic Robert Vaughn & David McCallum series. Only one season was produced and aired on NBC before the series was cancelled due to low ratings. Leo G. Carroll appeared on both shows simultaneously as U.N.C.L.E. head Alexander Waverly. Unlike The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the spin-off was too campy for its own good.
NBC introduced The Man from U.N.C.L.E., an hour-long spy thriller, at the start of the 1964-1965 season. The series starred Robert Vaughn as secret agent Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as his partner, a Russian Illya Kuryakin and Leo G. Carroll as Alexander Waverly, head of U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement). U.N.C.L.E.’s mission was to combat the evil agents of THRUSH, a global organization bent on domination the world.
Initially scheduled on Tuesdays from 8-9PM against The Red Skelton Show on NBC and McHale’s Navy/The Tycoon on ABC, in January of 1965 the series moved to Mondays from 8-9PM and ultimately ranked 62nd for the season [1]. For the 1965-1966 season, NBC shifted The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to Fridays from 10-11PM, opposite with Slattery’s People on CBS and Long, Hot Summer on ABC.
Those programs provided little competition for The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which easily won its time slot and moved into the top twenty programs in the national Nielsen ratings [2]. The success of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. led Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the production company behind the series, to propose in early November a spin-off entitled The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. [3]. A pilot would be filmed as a regular episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., tentatively set to be broadcast by NBC in January of 1966.
Former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley was given the role of inexperienced young agent April Dancer, the titular girl from U.N.C.L.E., and Norman Fell appeared as Mark Slate, an agent who has reached U.N.C.L.E.’s mandatory retirement age. Production on the episode, titled “The Moonglow Affair,” was completed in December of 1965 [4].
Aired on Friday, February 25th, 1966, the episode saw April Dancer brought in to retrieve a radiation weapon from THRUSH that had already immobilized Solo and Illya. Waverly assigned Slate to assist and train Ms. Dancer, despite the fact that he was technically too old to work for U.N.C.L.E. After successfully completing their mission and saving Solo and Illya, Waverly decides to turn a blind eye to Slate’s age and allow the two to continue their partnership.
As an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., “The Moonglow Affair” did well in the ratings, ranking fourth for the week in Nielsen’s major market ratings with a 27.0 rating, behind the Thursday edition of Batman on ABC, Get Smart on CBS and Bewitched on ABC [5]. M-G-M officials had screened the episode in January; it was reportedly not among NBC’s top picks for the new fall season in early February [6, 7].
Around the time the episode was to be aired, the networks released early versions of their 1966-1967 schedules. The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. was given the 7:30-8:30PM timeslot on Tuesday evenings, where it would compete with ABC’s Combat and CBS’s Daktari [8]. As for The Man from U.N.C.L.E., it stayed on Fridays, but would not be seen from 8:30-9:30PM opposite ABC’s The Milton Berle Show and CBS’s Hogan’s Hero and the start of The CBS Friday Movie [9].
Mary Ann Mobley was replaced by Stefanie Powers in the role of April Dancer in early March [10]. Later that month, Noel Harrison (son of Rex Harrison) took over the role of Mark Slate from Norman Fell [11]. Harrison was 32-years-old at the time, Powers was 23 (by comparison, in 1966 Norman Fell was 42 and Mary Ann Mobley was 27). No reason was given for the casting changes.
The two would make a younger, hipper partnership and Powers especially would give off a very mod vibe while the British Harrison would appeal to a very different demographic than Norman Fell. Additionally, there would no longer be such a large age discrepancy between the agents.
View NBC’s 1966 Fall Preview for The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
Another new character, a youngster named Randy Kovacks (played by Randy Kirby) who helped out around U.N.C.L.E. headquarters, was added to the series to appeal to the younger demographic. Leo G. Caroll would appear simultaneously in both The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. and Man from U.N.C.L.E. in his role as head of U.N.C.L.E. Plus, Robert Vaughn and David McCallum could potentially make crossover appearances to help the new show find an audience.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. finished the 1965-1966 season in the 13th spot, the only time the series would crack the top twenty. Its popularity was at an all-time high and the chances of a spin-off succeeding would never be better.
The promotional push for The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. started before production on the series began (on May 20th in Culver City [12]). Stephanie Powers and Noel Harrison were sent out on photo shoots and conducted interviews across the country. Powers seemed to confound newspapers; an article in The New York Times noted that she “swings from cool appraisal to blunt candor to girlish playfulness in one brief conversation” [13].
Clay Gowran of The Chicago Tribune had a hard time even getting her to talk: “Miss Powers seemed more interested in reading a magazine than in talking about herself or her show, but she finally offered a few tidbits, as negligently as she had posed” [14]. She was quoted as saying “I think if we go about making The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. in a civilized manner, it has the greatest possibility of succeeding” [15]. In a later article, Gowran had to say this about Powers: “from her glum expression the one time we met her she’s liable to deadpan enemy agents into submission” [16].
Critics were almost uniformly negative in their response to the series. Harriet Van Horne of The New York World Journal Tribune called it “violently sadistic and altogether repellent” [17]. The Washington Post’s Lawrence Laurent suggested that for the following season, “we’ll be ready for a new series about The Jackass from U.N.C.L.E.” [18]. Paul Molloy of The Chicago Sun-Times seemed to write it off as simply “The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in high heels” [19]. On the other end of the spectrum, The Los Angeles Times‘ Walt Dutton praised the series, saying it “moves along nicely, thanks to some clever dialogue” [20].
Television Magazine polled 24 television critics about their opinions of the new fall shows, including The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.. Only two rated the series good, twelve rated it bad and ten were indifferent [21]. Anthony La Camera of The Boston Record American wrote that “Stefanie Powers looks like a road company Barbara Feldon, Noel Harrison wears a half smile, and all is chaos” [22]. And Mary Ann Lee of The Memphis Press-Scimitar wrote that the series “seems to have a slightly lighter touch than The Man from U.N.C.L.E., otherwise it’s business as usual” [23].
Television critics weren’t the only ones concerned with the series. Both Stephanie Powers and Noel Harrison expressed, if not trepidation, at least some worry that The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. would be unable to stand apart from its parent series. According to Harrison, “the only way it will work is if our show is different, rather than the same. More towards laughs, I mean” [24].
Likewise, Powers didn’t appear happy about the way early episodes were written. After “mockingly” describing an episode to The Chicago Tribune, she was quoted as saying: “Silly, isn’t it? Absolutely campy. Noel and I are having a field day. We curse the script and make changes all the time. The writers haven’t found our style yet.” [25].
David McCallum, one of the stars of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., when asked about the new series, replied that “I don’t feel anything about the new show–I feel, personally, numb” [26]. He continued:
“We have worked very hard here, and we have a good show going. So, now they came along and pull out a Girl from U.N.C.L.E., to run parallel. It’s not as tho we’re going to have one U.N.C.L.E. one week and the other the next. No, we’re going to see both U.N.C.L.E.s every week.” [27]
Powers and Harrison (and McCallum) had reason to be concerned. Its first season on the air, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was strictly a straight spy drama with humor nicely woven into the episodes. During the second season, some episodes were a little looser, a little more outrageous. And then ABC’s Batman took the nation by storm midway through the 1966-1967 season, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’s second. The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. seemed designed to capture some of the wackiness that made Batman so successful.
View a Scene from The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
But unlike Batman, which was extravagantly — and intentionally — exaggerated to the point of absurdity, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E was, like the series that spawned it, supposedly a dramatic show. The preposterous plots and harebrained schemes on the part of the bad guys clashed badly with the idea of U.N.C.L.E. agents as serious spies. If, like fellow 1960s sitcom Get Smart, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. had been satirical in nature since day one, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. and its rampant camp might not have been much of a problem.
In the first episode of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., for example, April flies to an island with the antidote to a drug THRUSH has been testing that causes people to move in slow motion. The antidote is in the form of fleas living on a dog. April promptly loses track of the pooch, finds the pooch, is captured by THRUSH, and strung over a pit filled with piranhas. The bad guy pours acid on the rope she’s tied to and with a laugh informs her that it will burn through in twenty minutes!
April eventually frees herself, gets the dog back and meets up with Mark before the two are captured. They escape after provoking a rowdy barroom brawl and during the ensuing climactic fight scene, April clutches the dog and looks worried while Mark is roughed up. After successfully saving the dog, again, the two return to the bar for a much needed bout of song and dance.
The fact that the first episode dealt with April carrying dog carrying fleas carrying an antidote to a slow motion drug didn’t turn off viewers. The premiere of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. on September 13th, 1966 easily beats it competition, drawing a preliminary 19.7/39 Arbitron rating and a 22.3/44.6 26-city Trendex rating (by comparison, Combat on ABC had a 12.6/25 Arbitron rating and a 12.1/24.1 Trendex rating; Daktari on CBS had a 13.4/32 Arbitron rating and a 13.6/27.1 Trendex rating) [28].
Nationally, the first two episodes of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. averaged a 19.7 Nielsen rating, ranking 24th [29]. The following two episodes fell somewhat, averaging a 17.9 Nielsen rating and tying for 47th [30]. Viewers quickly tired of the new series. Based on national Nielsens for October through December 1966, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. ranked a dismal third in its timeslot with an average 16.6 rating, behind both Combat on ABC with a 17.2 and Daktari on CBS with a 21.9 [31].
NBC officially cancelled The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. in late February of 1967, alongside Hey, Landlord!, Captain Nice and Flipper, among other programs [32]. For the season as a whole, the series ranked 69th (Combat ranked 54th and Daktari 7th) [33]. As for The Man from U.N.C.L.E., it ranked 46th for the season and was renewed for the fall of 1967, moved back to Mondays from 8-9PM [34].
Some television critics, like Clay Gowran, laid the blame for the failure of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. squarely on the shoulders of Stefanie Powers (in his year-end wrap-up in December of 1966, Gowran called The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. the worst noncomedy series of the new fall season, and noted that Powers, “she of the condescending smirk and calamitous acting, is just more than we can take”) [35].
Perhaps more damaging than Powers (personally, I think she did a fine job as April Dancer and enjoy her performance in the series) was the camp factor. In a crossover episode featuring Robert Vaughn, Boris Karloff appeared in drag to play the villainous Mother Muffin, who wanted to turn April and Napoleon Solo into wax figurines (Noel Harrison would guest starr in an episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in September of 1966, but David McCallum never appeared on the spin-off).
Many episodes saw April impersonating someone, be it the daughter of an Arabian sheik, a stewardess or a belly dancer. In one particularly Batman-esque episode, April finds herself trapped in a massive toaster. Another episode saw April and Mark tackle the case of a disillusioned artist who wanted to turn all world’s paintings white. Despite the inanity, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. managed to run for twenty-nine episodes.
View a Promo for The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’s Fourth Season
Unfortunately, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. would soon suffer a fate similar to its progeny, in spite of attempts to downplay the camp during the fourth and final season. Due to increased competition from Gunsmoke and The Lucy Show on CBS, the series was canned after only sixteen episodes in December of 1967 [36]. Still, although it only aired for one season, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. produced a slew of commercial tie-in products, including several novels, a short-lived comic book series, a soundtrack album, magazines and toys (including a plastic garter holster, complete with toy gun).
Following the cancellation of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Stefanie Powers starred in The Feather and Father Gang in 1977 and then Hart to Hart with Robert Wagner from 1979 to 1984. Noel Harrison continued to dabble in acting but moved primarily to music and the stage.
Works Cited:
1 “TV’s Vast Grey Belt.” Television Magazine. August 1967: 54-55; 81.
2 For the first two weeks of the 1965-1966 season, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. average a 22.4 rating, tied for 12th with Get Smart, according to an article in the October 18th, 1965 issue of Broadcasting (Page 93).
3 Adams, Val. “TV to Tour Capital With First Lady on Nov. 25.” New York Times. 1 Nov. 1965: 83.
4 Adams, Val. “Barbra Streisand’s 2d TV Solo Is Set for March 30 on C.B.S.” New York Times. 9 Dec. 1965: 95.
5 Gent, George. “Coonskin Parker Fights Kentucky.” New York Times. 5 Mar. 1966: 37.
6 “Hollywood shifts into high gear for ‘66-67 TV pilots.” Broadcasting. 10 Jan. 1966: 29.
7 “Networks sift their pilots.” Broadcasting. 7 Feb. 1977: 59-60.
8 “Here’s how the network programs shape up for next fall.” Broadcasting. 28 Feb. 1966: 24.
9 Ibid.
10 “Program Notes.” Broadcasting. 7 Mar. 1966: 77.
11 Gent, George. “Young Harrison to Be Assistant For the Girl From U.N.C.L.E.” New York Times. 19 Mar. 1966: 59.
12 Gowran, Clay. “Girl from U.N.C.L.E. Is a Cool Customer.” Chicago Tribune. 29 Apr. 1966: C16.
13 Stone, Judy. “U.N.C.L.E. Gets a Girl.” New York Times. 31 Jul. 1966: 87.
14 Gowran, Clay. “Girl from U.N.C.L.E. Is a Cool Customer.”
15 Ibid.
16 Gowran, Clay. “Cloak and Dagger Shows Still Strong.” Chicago Tribune. 5 Jun. 1966: I17.
17 All quoted in “Critics’ views of hits, misses.” Broadcasting. 19 Sep. 1966: 58-64; 91.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 “Consensus.” Television Magazine. November 1966: 52-55; 64-68.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 Gowran, Clay. “Should U.N.C.L.E. Have a Relative?” Chicago Tribune. 18 Sep. 1966: F12.
25 Stone, Judy. “U.N.C.L.E. Gets a Girl.”
26 Gowran, Clay. “Should U.N.C.L.E. Have a Relative?”
27 Ibid.
28 “The numbers game, part one.” Broadcasting. 19 Sep. 1966: 58-60.
29 Gowran, Clay. “Nielsen Ratings Are Dim on New Shows.” Chicago Tribune. 11 Oct. 1966: B10.
30 Gowran, Clay. “Nielsen Shows New Series Still Slipping.” Chicago Tribune. 25 Oct. 1966: B7.
31 “Hindsight 66/67.” Television Magazine. March 1967: 26-29; 34-35.
32 Gent, George. “N.B.C. To Cancel 11 Shows In Fall.” New York Times. 28 Feb. 1967: 74.
33 “TV’s Vast Grey Belt.” Television Magazine. August 1967: 54-55; 81.
34 Gent, George. “N.B.C. To Cancel 11 Shows In Fall.”
35 Gowran, Clay. “Best–and Worst of Season’s TV.” Chicago Tribune. 4 Dec. 1966: 10C.
36 Gent, George. “Those Men from U.N.C.L.E.–Going, Going, Really Gone.” New York Times. 17 Dec. 1967: 119.
Last Updated August 1st, 2009
August 1st, 2009 at 3:02AM
Wow, they were really down on Stefanie Powers. I remember as girl loving her and the show. I saw it recently on ALN and enjoyed the campy feeling of the show. I think I was simply in awe of her hip beauty. I wanted to be April Dancer when I grew up. Of course, we all loved The Man from U.N.C.L.E. so liking this show was a given. We were such “TV kids” that instead of cops and robbers or army, we played “Man from U.N.C.L.E. in our basement! Illya Kuryakin and Napoleon Solo are still like old friends that conjure up warm memories. It’s amazing how old TV shows can have that impact.
August 1st, 2009 at 1:35PM
It seems that critics who didn’t respond well to Stefanie Powers in person weren’t able to step back and analyze the show — and especially her character — in an objective manner. On the other hand, April Dancer was an unusual woman, very cool or even glum. That could have turned off a lot of reviewers (and viewers). I actually thought it was an interesting way to play the character.
September 18th, 2009 at 10:15AM
Good article!
Yes, the plots on GfU made the silly ones of third-year MfU look like Shakespeare. It was the producers’ campy direction, not the writers, as more than one of GfU’s writers also wrote more sensible stuff for MfU (and other TV shows then and later). Personally I’ve always thought that the team of Mobley and Fell would have been vastly better and more interesting — the contrast in their lives, their generations, and their knowledge would have made for good character comedy and drama.
Oh, and you have a typo: The GfU pilot was completed in 1965, not 1964. In December ‘64 MfU was wobbling on the edge of cancellation, not firing off a spinoff!