The last episode of ’60s spy series “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” co-starring David McCallum, aired more than 50 years ago. At the time, McCallum had to figure this out for himself.
McCallum played Illya Kuryakin, a Soviet operative who worked for the titular counterespionage agency, the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. He partnered with Robert Vaughn’s American secret agent Napoleon Solo from 1964 to 1968 on NBC until declining ratings led to “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” getting the ax in the middle of its fourth season.
In a 2022 interview with the Television Academy, McCallum recalled how scripts for upcoming episodes simply stopped showing up for him to read. Eventually, he saw news about the cancellation in the paper.
“To this day, I haven’t been told that the series is cancelled,” McCallum, who died in 2023, said. “Nobody’s ever called me.”
David McCallum knew The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was going downhill before the end
Originally created for television as a means to cash-in on the popularity of “James Bond,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E” began as an espionage series that was mostly played straight. It peaked in popularity during the second season but after that it leaned into broader comedy to diminishing results.
“There is a rule in comedy, particularly, where you don’t make jokes about jokes,” David McCallum told the Television Academy, explaining that once the series was all “farcical situations” being performed farcically, it “didn’t make any sense at all.”
“The producers decided to be more over-the-top, like ‘Batman’ with clowns shooting cupcakes out of cars,” series co-lead Robert Vaughn told The Hollywood Reporter. “‘U.N.C.L.E.’ went from being camp to being goofy, and from being number one to being off the air.”
McCallum reprised his role as Illya Kuryakin in the 1983 television film “Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.” Modern audiences probably know him better for another show with an acronym in the name, “NCIS,” where he played chief medical examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard.
