Spy Television

Wesley Britton

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9780313052125
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Mezzi di comunicazione e arti performative
• Subtopic: Televisione

For half a century, television spies have been trained professionals, reluctant heroes, housewives, businessmen, criminals, and comedians. They have by turns been glamorous, campy, reflective, sexy, and aloof. This is the first book-length treatment of one of TV's oldest and most fascinating genres. Britton's comprehensive guide provides readers, from casual viewers to die-hard fans, with behind-the-scenes stories to this notable segment of television entertainment. From the early 1960s, in which television spies were used essentially as anti-Communist propaganda, through the subsequent years that both built upon and parodied this model, and finally to today's gadget-laden world of murky motives and complex global politics, spy television has served as much more than mere escapism. From the beginning, television spies opened doors for new kinds of heroes. Women quickly took center stage alongside men, and minority leads in spy programs paved the way for other kinds of roles on the small screen. For half a century, television spies have been trained professionals, reluctant heroes, housewives, businessmen, criminals, and comedians. They have by turns been glamorous, campy, reflective, sexy, and aloof. This is the first book-length treatment of one of TV's oldest and most fascinating genres.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Defining a Genre
• 2 The Roots of a Family Tree: 1900 to 1961
• 3 Bond, Beatles, and Camp: The Men from U.N.C.L.E.
• 4 More British Than Bond: John Steed, The Avengers, and Feminist Role-Playing
• 5 Cold War Sports and Games: I Spy and Racial Politics
• 6 The Cold War and Existential Fables: Danger Man, Secret Agent, and The Prisoner
• 7 The Page and the Screen: The Saint and Robin Hood Spies
• 8 Interchangeable Parts: Missions: Impossible
• 9 James Bond on the Prairie: From The Wild Wild West to the Secret Adventures of Jules Verne
• 10 From Tongues in Cheek to Tongues Sticking Out: Get Smart and the Spoofing of a Genre
• 11 Also-Rans and New Branches: Network Secret Agents from 1963 to 1980
• 12 Reagan, le Carré, Clancy, Cynicism, and Cable: Down to Earth in the 1980s and 1990s
• 13 The Return of Fantasy and the Dark Nights of Spies: The X-Files, La Femme Nikita, and the New Millennium
• 14 Active and Inactive Files: Alias, 24, The Agency, and Twenty-First-Century Spies
• Conclusion: The Past, Present, and Future of TV Espionage: Why Spies?
• Notes
• References
• Index
• Photo essay