Fandom: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
If you are over forty years old, you probably remember the television series, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. If you are younger, it’s likely you’ve barely heard of the show. Judged too violent for wider syndication in the 1970’s (blame the PTA), the series languished in the MGM Library vaults for years. A reunion telefilm, The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair, aired on CBS in 1983. There was a also an U.N.C.L.E. tribute episode on The A-Team a few years later.
During 1980s, the series surfaced briefly for short runs on The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and a few PBS stations in the U.S. Midwest. In 1992, Turner Entertainment released 44 of the 105 episodes on video cassette. The series still hasn’t appeared on DVD in the US (but our fingers are crossed) although DVDs of the several movie versions of episodes are available in the UK, France and Australia. Today, the series can be seen only sporadically in the U.S. on cable and occasionally on PBS stations, and in the UK. There have been rumors of a feature film in development for years.
Although it’s difficult to track down these days, in the mid-1960’s, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was a pop culture phenomenon, one of the hottest shows on television, particularly for teens and college students. TV Guide called it "the mystic cult of millions."
From September, 1964, to January, 1968, viewers followed the adventures of a pair of secret agents: a suave American named Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) teamed with an enigmatic Russian named Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum). The two worked for a mythical top-secret, technologically advanced, multi-national security organization called The United Network Command for Law Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.). Each week, U.N.C.L.E.'s craggy spymaster, Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll), would send his agents out to do battle against various international criminals and meglomaniacs bent on world domination. During the course of each mission, Solo and Kuryakin would meet an “innocent,” an average person such as a homemaker, a film student, or a schoolteacher on vacation who was inevitably caught up in the action. Both the naive innocents and the exotic, larger-than-life, villains were portrayed by famous guest stars.
For a longer explanation of the series, go
here
And episode guide is here
The fandom is one of the oldest around, tracing its roots back to a fan-run club that took over when the studio- sponsored official U.N.C.L.E. fan club disbanded. Even before that, a group of young SF fans (including David McDaniel, Buck Coulson and J. Hunter Holly) were recruited by editor Terry Carr to write some of the later offerings of the commercially published (by Ace) line of paperback novels. The producer, Norman Felton (still alive at a spry 92) has corresponded with fans for years.
MFU fandom is relatively small by today’s standards, but it’s long enduring, dedicated, far-flung, international, and contains both male and female fans. Although most of the guys are into collecting, a few also write fanfic.
MFU fandom exists today on discussion lists, on websites, and of course, on LJ.
On LJ, there is the MUNCLE Slash Community (gen folks are welcome to join).
On crack_van there is another overview here
MFU fiction recs can be found here
On ship_manifesto there are two entries, one for Solo and Kuryakin and one for
Solo and Angelique
Because MFU fandom is so old, most of the main parts of it are elsewhere on the web. For those who are interested:
The main fan site can be found here. The site contains background and canon info, bios of the characters, announcements important to the fandom, and also links to other fan sites.
To understand how other fans feel about MFU, read the essay here
The main discussion list, Channel_D can be found on Yahoogroups here.
The writers’ list is Channel_W
If you’re interested in David McCallum and/or Illya Kuryakin, you might want to join Channel_M
If you’re a Robert Vaughn and/or Napoleon Solo, you might want to join Channel_V
There’s also excellent photo archive at Solovision
There are several fiction archives. Here are the largest:
File 40 (both gen and slash).
File 40 also includes several universe pages including (gratuitous personal plug) The St. Crispin’s Day Society
Ravenslair (both gen and slash)
Chrome and Gunmetal Warehouse (slash)
You might also want to check out Partner Mine for recs and episode commentary from a slash perspective.
During 1980s, the series surfaced briefly for short runs on The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and a few PBS stations in the U.S. Midwest. In 1992, Turner Entertainment released 44 of the 105 episodes on video cassette. The series still hasn’t appeared on DVD in the US (but our fingers are crossed) although DVDs of the several movie versions of episodes are available in the UK, France and Australia. Today, the series can be seen only sporadically in the U.S. on cable and occasionally on PBS stations, and in the UK. There have been rumors of a feature film in development for years.
Although it’s difficult to track down these days, in the mid-1960’s, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was a pop culture phenomenon, one of the hottest shows on television, particularly for teens and college students. TV Guide called it "the mystic cult of millions."
From September, 1964, to January, 1968, viewers followed the adventures of a pair of secret agents: a suave American named Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) teamed with an enigmatic Russian named Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum). The two worked for a mythical top-secret, technologically advanced, multi-national security organization called The United Network Command for Law Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.). Each week, U.N.C.L.E.'s craggy spymaster, Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll), would send his agents out to do battle against various international criminals and meglomaniacs bent on world domination. During the course of each mission, Solo and Kuryakin would meet an “innocent,” an average person such as a homemaker, a film student, or a schoolteacher on vacation who was inevitably caught up in the action. Both the naive innocents and the exotic, larger-than-life, villains were portrayed by famous guest stars.
For a longer explanation of the series, go
here
And episode guide is here
The fandom is one of the oldest around, tracing its roots back to a fan-run club that took over when the studio- sponsored official U.N.C.L.E. fan club disbanded. Even before that, a group of young SF fans (including David McDaniel, Buck Coulson and J. Hunter Holly) were recruited by editor Terry Carr to write some of the later offerings of the commercially published (by Ace) line of paperback novels. The producer, Norman Felton (still alive at a spry 92) has corresponded with fans for years.
MFU fandom is relatively small by today’s standards, but it’s long enduring, dedicated, far-flung, international, and contains both male and female fans. Although most of the guys are into collecting, a few also write fanfic.
MFU fandom exists today on discussion lists, on websites, and of course, on LJ.
On LJ, there is the MUNCLE Slash Community (gen folks are welcome to join).
On crack_van there is another overview here
MFU fiction recs can be found here
On ship_manifesto there are two entries, one for Solo and Kuryakin and one for
Solo and Angelique
Because MFU fandom is so old, most of the main parts of it are elsewhere on the web. For those who are interested:
The main fan site can be found here. The site contains background and canon info, bios of the characters, announcements important to the fandom, and also links to other fan sites.
To understand how other fans feel about MFU, read the essay here
The main discussion list, Channel_D can be found on Yahoogroups here.
The writers’ list is Channel_W
If you’re interested in David McCallum and/or Illya Kuryakin, you might want to join Channel_M
If you’re a Robert Vaughn and/or Napoleon Solo, you might want to join Channel_V
There’s also excellent photo archive at Solovision
There are several fiction archives. Here are the largest:
File 40 (both gen and slash).
File 40 also includes several universe pages including (gratuitous personal plug) The St. Crispin’s Day Society
Ravenslair (both gen and slash)
Chrome and Gunmetal Warehouse (slash)
You might also want to check out Partner Mine for recs and episode commentary from a slash perspective.