Recently I've been watching the DVDs from the 60s TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and just had to write about my latest experience with the show. This series, as those who are familiar with it know, started out well in its first season as a fairly serious, but still fun spy action show, however during seasons 2 & 3 it became increasingly more camp and farcical ala the the highly successful ABC Batman TV series of the time. The "jump the shark" [definition] episode for me was "The My Friend the Gorilla Affair" where Napoleon Solo dances with a guy in a gorilla suit. Cries of "booooo" broke out in my house! I think others have picked that one as well so I’m not alone here. Season 4 tried to return to the form of season 1, but alas it was too late as the audience had already understandably fled.

 

Last night I was ambushed with what for me was the series’ "jump the shark" music episode. Now this series had some great music written for it by the likes of Jerry Goldsmith, Gerald Fried, Robert Drasnin, Morton Stevens, Lalo Schifrin and others, but the episode "The Hot Number Affair" from season 3 was not one of those by any means. This was an episode starring Sonny & Cher which featured their music playing in the background at the beginning of the show which was kind of fun. The underscore though made me want to turn off the TV and pound the remote into submission. Why you ask? Well I’ll tell you why, because it was performed ad nauseam by kazoos!

 

OK, the kazoo is barely a musical instrument in the first place and even if the episode was supposed to be funny, the kazoo music was not so much funny as it was tortuous to listen to! It pained me to hear Gerald Fried (at least he is the one credited, or better yet discredited with the music for this episode) having to stoop to this level, but so was the nature of this crashing and burning series. This was the musical equivalent of the Lost in Space episode "The Great Vegetable Rebellion" for me, although that has gone on to become one of my favorite episodes because of its über outrageous and hilarious nature.

 

Prior to this episode, I thought the “straight from Batman” music by Nelson Riddle, while not necessarily bad, was surely out of place in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and it bugged me when watching those episodes. It’s very apparent his style of music did not fit in with any of the other music from the series which was obvious when his stuff was tracked in with some of the other composer’s cues for an episode and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Having said that, the kazoo episode made that pale in comparison and was akin to taking the series and shoving its face down into the dirt. Thankfully the season was nearly done and the fourth season saw a return to the series’ roots again, including more serious natured scoring and a no nonsense, strong version of the theme music that had gotten increasingly more pop with each passing season.

 

I wonder why Lukas and company neglected to include this episode's "spectacular gem" of a musical selection in their The Man from U.N.C.L.E. releases? I’ll have to go back and listen to all of those CDs again. Perhaps it’s there but was secretly hidden under the title of "The What the F#!@K Is Going On With the Music Affair?"! [edit: Per JimWynorski, indeed the kazoo music is on Volume 3, but only about 25 seconds worth.]

 

This was all in fun and I felt I needed to do rant in one of my blogs since I normally try to write positively about subjects. I was looking for a change of pace and this TV episode provided me with some ammo. That said, a word of warning: If anyone ever comes up to me with a kazoo at any time during the rest of my life, they better be prepared to fight or run away as fast as they can ‘cause I’m ready to defend myself at all costs! This one really hurt. “Open Channel D, and no damn kazoos. I mean it!”

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                                                 Epilogue