The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.

Even by the standards of the 1960s, "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E" is synonymous to me with "bad spin off." "The Man from U.N.C.L.E", a fun and intelligent '60s spy show, did not deserve this kind of treatment. Is it any wonder, after viewing it, that the famous female spy of this decade was Emma Peel from The Avengers and not April Dancer?

The lead character, played reasonably well by Stephanie Powers, is April, the first female spy from agency U.N.C.L.E. This sounds typical and fun, if a bit cheesy, but the problem is that April is the Nancy Drew of television characters. Almost every episode ends with April being rescued from evil people by her male partner, Mark Slate. This not only begins to get boring after a while, but it makes April an unsympathetic ditz. Even worse, the plot line of quite a few episodes revolves around April ALMOST GETTING MARRIED to a BAD GUY!!! Of course, the heroic, manly Mark Slate will come by to rescue her at the last minute from this TERRIBLE FATE!!!!

Sure, there is such a thing as a good spin off. This isn't it. Leave this one to collect dust in the corner, and watch the original series.

The format episode for this spin off was from an earlier 1966 episode of its parent show,The Man From U.N.C.L.E which was an fantastic episode called,"The Moonglow Affair",which starred Mary Ann Mobley and Norman Fell in the roles of April Dancer and Mark Slate. But here what gets me with this show,which is very synonymous with one of the bad spin-off to one of the most successful espionage shows of all time. By the way,The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was an intelligent and brilliant and very innovative 1960's spy show,but when its spin-off,The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. premiered on NBC-TV in September of 1966,the show from which it came from,did not deserve this kind of treatment nor the physical abuse of its original format. It there was any wonder why some of the episodes were so blant,sexist,and incredibly stupid within the silly plots and goofy dialogue within the characters,it was no wonder that this show lasted only one season,it was just that pathetic. The episodes themselves,were typical fun,but were corny as the popcorn left over for a movie,and as cheesy and most of all,totally stupid. Only 29 episodes were produced of this series,which was under its executive producers David Victor and Douglas Benton,and Norman Felton and based on the characters created by Sam Rolfe(the original architect for U.N.C.L.E). The series ended its run in 1967.

But here was gets me,how did April Dancer went from being an assistant secretary of the head chief of the organization to becoming one of the first female secret agents for U.N.C.L.E.? That is anybody guess of how she did this,but in all aspects,it was any wonder that this girl would be one,as I put it,a cross between Nancy Drew and Penelope Pitstop. U.N.C.L.E agent April Dancer(played by Stephanie Powers)wasn't the best of the female secret agents either. She was a total accident prone girl who was in some ways an sympathetic ditz who always manages to get herself in some tight situation,only to get herself deeper and deeper into serious complications with diabolical villains or even worse ending up with some mad scientist's deadly schemes only to be rescued by her male partner,U.N.C.L.E. agent Mark Slate(played by Noel Harrison),but only to come to her aid at the last minute to save her from a terrible and sinister fate. However,this does get boring very quickly,and it shows in some of the episodes. Out of all of the episodes,there was only one that was very good and the rest were just either plain silly or repulsive.

If this show proved anything is that some of the best intentions from their offspring can bear the the fruits of the original,and that's a crying shame to see a grand show like the Man From U.N.C.L.E. didn't deserved this kind of treatment,especially from its loyalists of fans.

A completely missed opportunity! It had promise, it great pedigree and decent acting talent. What we ended up with, was a parody on the original series, but without the wit necessary to pull it off. Completely wasted are Stephaie Powers (aka April Dancer) and Noel Harrison (aka Mark Slade). While the music for the series (by Dave Grusin and Richard Shores) was excellent, the scripts were embarrassingly BAD. Even help from Robert Vaughn and Boris Karloff ("The Mother Muffin Affair") weren't enough to stop this ultimate train wreck of a series spin off. So bad was the odor from this show, I believe it also helped in the early demise of the Man From UNCLE (of course, in it's 3rd season, that show had it's own writing problems). Still, if your looking for light fluff, and enjoy "bad" TV shows, you could do worse. I recommend getting the Man From UNCLE Vol. 3 soundtrack (from Film Score Monthly) and enjoy the music from this show. If this show is ever released on DVD, I recommend a couple glasses of wine to ease the pain.

This show was born from the potential from it's parent show, The Man From UNCLE, in a fantastic episode called "The Moonglow Affair." However, due to some mysterious fluke the producers changed the actors in the lead. This was a fatal flaw: not due to the actors, but their chemistry was very far off.

The plots of "Girl" were troubled and not very interesting. Even the supposed 'best' episode, "The Mother Muffin Affair," (starring Boris Karloff in drag), is at best a meddling excuse for a show. Such a disappointment.

If "Girl" can prove anything, it's that sometimes even the best of intentions can bear no fruit. A real shame, too.

I must say that I have Just watched "The girl from uncle" for the first time and i don't agree with all the bad reviews it gets at all. OK April Dancer (stefanie powers) the leading character could be tougher especially considering her TV rivals at the time like the marvellous Emma peel from "the Avengers" but there's barely an episode I've watched where she doesn't knock an assailant out or high volt a fence or blow something up with a hidden uncle gadget.OK she often uses a gas spray rather than karate but she does use that too. the stories are daft as anything but executed with tongue in cheek and for fun and no dafter than "The avengers" stories or "the champions" but thats half the point! they're fun!. Its not meant to be serious!. Her English partner Mark Slate (who must be the first gay agent ever i think on TV! joke) makes the whole thing camp as Christmas and the villains are straight from pantomime. It might just be me, but some of the dialogue is funny too...and paul o'grady (lilly savage) is a fan too!. what more can I say, besides which Yvonne de Carlo (Lilly munster)is a villain in one episode and who can resist anything where Boris Karloff appears in drag (!) as "mother muffin"...irresistible madness.(but it is a bit sexist at times..hey ho cant win "em all)