Sixties Spy Craze: Animation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
In the 1960’s, several popular culture trends developed.
The Beatles opened the door for a ‘British Invasion’ of rock and roll.
Batman became an immediate success and triggered superhero programs galore (Captain Nice, Super President, Frankenstein, Jr. and the Impossibles).
And James Bond became a pop culture icon when President Kennedy declared Ian Fleming his favorite author. Bond is the standard against which we measure spy genre characters.
Ian Fleming introduced James Bond in the 1953 novel Casino Royale. The story serves as the basis for Bond’s first live-action appearance. It took place on October 21, 1954. On that night, the CBS anthology show Climax presented the story as its third episode.
In this first dramatization of a James Bond story, Barry Nelson portrays the secret agent known as Jimmy Bond. In this version, Bond is American.
More than a decade later, a film version of Casino Royale premiered with the same name. It is the first Bond film that did not star Sean Connery. Instead, the debonair, suave, sophisticated David Niven plays the character in this 1967 spy spoof also starring Woody Allen.
Fleming chose the name ‘James Bond’ because it was boring. It is a curious choice for one of the great action heroes. Fleming’s choice is a real-life person’s name. James Bond wrote an ornithology book, Birds of the West Indies.
Fleming envisioned his Bond as a good looking man with a resemblance to singer/songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Fleming also inspired other Bond benchmarks himself.
According to The Many Faces of James Bond 007, an Amvest Video documentary, Bond was an alter ego of sorts for Fleming.
Like the secret agent hero he would come to create, Fleming fashioned himself in the sophisticated mold of the upper-class Englishman, with a taste for rare books, beautiful women and high adventure all prominent in his character.
James Bond debuted on the silver screen in Dr. No (1962) at the height of the Cold War. It gave audiences an escape from harsh realities with a debonair, agile, resourceful hero while also reflecting the times. The success of Dr. No opened the door for a yearly venture into the Bondverse -- From Russia, With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), and Thunderball (1965), at least for a few years, anyway.
The Cold War atmosphere of the 1960’s combined with the Bond films’ success prompted several imitations and parodies.
James Coburn portrayed spy Derek Flint in two films -- Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967). Dean Martin starred in the Matt Helm film series. And television producers followed suit, broadening the spy spectrum with comedy (Get Smart), historical settings (The Wild, Wild West), and international intrigue (I Spy, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.).
Often overlooked is animation’s contribution to the spy trend of the 1960’s.
Hanna-Barbera’s The Flintstones (ABC, 1960-66) borrowed Bond elements in the episode Dr. Sinister. Fred and Barney encounter evil, sultry, and devious Madame Yes. They escape using the judo-chop-chop-chop move. They learned the move from watching their favorite television spy, Jay Bondrock.
As prime time television’s first cartoon series, The Flintstones broke new ground. Hanna-Barbera produced a full-length feature film, The Man Called Flintstone (1966), after the show ended its run. If the definition of ‘hero’ is an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances, Fred Flintstone personifies the term.
Rock Slag, Super Secret Agent, recuperates from his work-related injuries in a hospital when Rock’s boss notices Fred is Rock’s lookalike, approaches the Slate Company quarry worker, and recruits him for a mission. The Flintstones and Rubbles soon leave for Eurock where Fred must stop the evil Green Goose and his sidekicks, Ali and Bobo, from taking over the world with a secret weapon. The weapon is an anti-missile missile concealed in an amusement park ride.
The parallels to James Bond are clear. The movie poster for The Man Called Flintstone depicts a scene similar to the Thunderball (1965) movie poster featuring Sean Connery in a personal jet pack. Agent Tanya, a sultry, dangerous, and convincing vixen, provides the sex appeal familiar in the Bond films. Additionally, the title itself evokes James Coburn’s Bond takeoff, Our Man Flint (1966).
Another animation spy portrayal occurred in Tom of T.H.U.M.B.
Tom of T.H.U.M.B. segments appeared on King Kong. They sandwiched between the two longer King Kong stories. Where King Kong towers over the landscape, Tom barely overshadows a blade of grass. His sidekick is Swingin’ Jack.
Working as a mild-mannered maintenance man at U.S. Intelligence, Tom falls down a flight of stairs. When Swingin’ Jack aids him, they inadvertently flip the switch for a shrinking laser beam ray gun and consequently fall victim to miniaturizing effects. When a mission requires agents of dimunitive proportions, Tom and Swingin’ Jack get the call to duty.
The narrative in the theme explains the heroes’ purpose in a tongue-in-cheek manner, the segments’ hallmark.
They gave their height for their country, thus creating the Tiny Human Underground Military Bureau. When the plan calls for small thinking, it’s a job for Tom of T.H.U.M.B.
Tom frequently recalls Don Adams, a spy icon in his own right because of his portrayal of Agent 86 a.k.a. Maxwell Smart in Get Smart. Smart calls his boss Chief and Tom calls his boss Chief Chief. Also, Tom’s look and mannerism reminds the viewer of Adams’ other law enforcement hero, Inspector Gadget.
Viewing the show in the post-politically incorrect era reveals insensitivity because of the vicious Asian stereotyped Swingin’ Jack character.
Tom of T.H.U.M.B. added to the list of fictional good vs. evil 1960’s spy organization acronyms.
U.N.C.L.E. had T.H.R.U.S.H.
C.O.N.T.R.O.L. had K.A.O.S.
And T.H.U.M.B. had M.A.D. (Maladjusted, Anti-Social, and Darn Mean). Tom describes M.A.D. as an organization of scientists bent on destroying the world for their own gains in the episode For the Last Time Feller, I’m Not Bait.
Batman creator Bob Kane and Al Brodax contributed Cool McCool to the 1960’s spy cartoon genre. The show’s opening directly references James Bond’s 007 moniker by spelling out the title character’s name: C double-oh L. Cool McCool sounded a bit like Jack Benny and reported to an unseen supervisor, Number one.
Like King Kong, Cool McCool also contained shorter segments with other characters. Here, the segments centered on three brothers who are policemen reminiscent of the Keystone Kops -- Tom, Dick, and Harry. The producers cleverly tied in the segments to the Cool McCool character. Harry was Cool’s father. Cool McCool frequently introduced the segment by strumming a guitar and singing a verse ending with the line, My pop, the cop!
Like other heroes, Cool McCool had a favorite line -- Danger is my business!
Also noteworthy for their contribution to spy animation are two squirrels. Hanna-Barbera capitalized on the spy trend with its entry, Secret Squirrel. The show continued Hanna-Barbera’s practice of humanizing the animal kingdom for Saturday morning audiences (Snagglepuss, Magilla Gorilla), a feat Disney effectively pioneered thirty years prior.
Secret Squirrel enjoyed state-of-the-art gadgetry and the support, wisdom, and partnership of his sidekick, Morocco Mole. After two seasons, Hanna-Barbera paired Secret Squirrel with Atom Ant in the fall of 1967.
Arguably, television animation first entered the espionage genre in 1959 with Jay Ward’s Rocky and His Friends. Rocky and moose pal Bullwinkle constantly battled the despicable duo of Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale a.k.a. Natasha Goodnik. Even the Russians weren’t safe from parody in the Cold War!
What cowboys were to 1950’s television, secret agents were to 1960’s television -- popular culture icons. Animated versions of spies expanded the spy genre to a preteen set too young for the prime time dramas of the period.