I’ve been thinking of one of my favorite TV shows from about 1965.  I loved all the spy shows from that era.  I never missed The Man from U.N.C.L.E, my friends and I had a crush on Illya Kuryakin.  And how about The Avengers with John Steed and the cool and beautiful Emma Peale, they were so chic.

Humor filtered into these shows and new ones appeared maybe to help grownups cope with the daily news, I’m sure my parents must have enjoyed and picked up on the adult slyness. We loved Rocky and Bullwinkle with the evil pair of Russian spies Natasha Fatale and Boris Badenov, the world’s greatest no-goodnik.  Rocky and Bullwinkle were making the world safe for democracy. We may need them again.  I was about 10 years old at this time so the idea of a cold war wasn’t on my radar even though my best friend had a bomb shelter in her basement.  To me these shows were funny, clever and also suspenseful.

 But the best of all was Get Smart with the hilarious Agent 86, and the stunning brunette, Agent 99.  How did I ever forget about the Cone of Silence, the shoe phone and the ice cube microphone? We did not want our country in the hands of KAOS! We wanted CONTROL.  Is there some message for our current times in these silly, innocent shows of the 60’s?  I hope so and maybe it will be the end for Mr. Big, “If only he could have turned his evil genius into…..niceness”