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For half a century, television spies have been trained professionals, reluctant heroes, housewives, businessmen, criminals, and comedians. They have by turns been glamorous, campy, reflective, sexy, and aloof. This is the first book-length treatment of one of TV's oldest and most fascinating genres. Britton's comprehensive guide provides readers, from casual viewers to die-hard fans, with behind-the-scenes stories to this notable segment of television entertainment.
From the early 1960s, in which television spies were used essentially as anti-Communist propaganda, through the subsequent years that both built upon and parodied this model, and finally to today's gadget-laden world of murky motives and complex global politics, spy television has served as much more than mere escapism. From the beginning, television spies opened doors for new kinds of heroes. Women quickly took center stage alongside men, and minority leads in spy programs paved the way for other kinds of roles on the small screen. For half a century, television spies have been trained professionals, reluctant heroes, housewives, businessmen, criminals, and comedians. They have by turns been glamorous, campy, reflective, sexy, and aloof. This is the first book-length treatment of one of TV's oldest and most fascinating genres.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Defining a Genre
The Roots of a Family Tree
Bond, Beatles, and Camp: The Men from U.N.C.L.E
More British than Bond: John Steed, The Avengers, and Feminist Role-Playing
Cold War Sports and Games: I Spy and Radical Politics
The Cold War and Existential Fables: Danger Man, Secret Agent, and The Prisoner
The Page and the Screen: The Saint and Robin Hood Spies
Interchangeable Parts: Missions: Impossible
Bond on the Prarie: From The Wild Wild West to the Secret Adventures of Jules Verne
Tongues in Cheek to Tongues Sticking Out: Get Smart and the Spoofing of a Genre
Also Rans and New Branches: Network Secret Agents from 1963-1980
Reagan, Le Carre, Clancy, Cynicism, and Cable: Down to Earth in the 1980s and 1990s
The Return of Fantasy and the Dark Nights of Spies: The X-Files, La Femme Nikita, and the New Millennium
Active and Inactive FILES: Alias, 24, The Agency and 21st Century Spies
Conclusion
The Past, Present, and Future of TV Espionage: Why Spies?
Chapter Notes
References
About the author
Wesley Britton is the author of Spy Television (Praeger 2004), the first book-length study of espionage television series, and Beyond Bond (Praeger 2005), a similarly groundbreaking treatment of spies in fiction and film. He is also the author of many articles for journals, encyclopedias, and periodicals, as well as of book reviews and poetry.
