promotional material from MGM for The Man From UNCLE for the 1965-66 season

Playing UNCLE's a National Fad:

HALF-MILLION "ACCREDITED AGENTS" CHEER RETURN OF HOUR SPY-SPOOF IN COLOR FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17

Playing "U.N.C.L.E." is fast becoming as big a fad as skateboards, the frug and hair-ironing.

MGM-TV's "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," which zoomed to smash-hit rank last season, returns to the NBC Television Network this Fall with more than half-million "accredited" U.N.C.L.E. "agents," from pre-teen set to college professors, cheering it on.

More than 15,000 special U.N.C.L.E. membership cards continue going out each week from U.N.C.L.E. headquarters.

The hour-length spy spoof will air in color at a new time and on a new night, beginning Friday, September 17.

What else hat U.N.C.L.E. Wrought?

As far as star Robert (Solo) Vaughn and co-star David (Illya) McCallum are concerned, the show has transformed both former "character" actors into first-class leading men and made them the subjects of national idolatry. So much so, in fact, that a squad of police are now called out as a matter of routine whenever either appears in public.

Veteran co-star Leo G. Carroll also has been given a new image by "U.N.C.L.E.".

"Now everyone yells 'hey, Mr. Waverly,' instead of 'there goes Topper,'" he chuckles.

The success of "U.N.C.L.E." has also given birth to a rash of copycat shows this Fall, tending to make 1965-'66 the year of the super-secret gumshoe.

Colleges and universities throughout the country, such as UCLA, San Jose State, Wellesley, LSU, Lewis & Clark, have turned into spawning grounds for U.N.C.L.E. and THRUSH clubs. The latter is an innovation for those who'd rather be ratfinks and villains!

And speaking of villains, an unprecedented avalanche of fan mail to many "U.N.C.L.E." nasties has given producers Norman Felton and David Victor food for thought.

They are planning to call back THRUSH villains including Elsa Lanchester, Cesar Romero, George Sanders, Alexander Scourby and even cigar-grinding Ken Murray, in all their lovable, dastardly glory.

Felton and Victor agree:

"Some of our villains turned out to be so magnificently bad and did such a marvellous job of creating distinctly hateful characters that we decided not to kill them off at the end of the show. So, last year we rewrote any endings in which they were killed -- just in case we want to bring them back again for another go-round with our good men from 'U.N.C.L.E.' in the next season.