The Spy Command

Bond film franchise March 2025 | Cusp of big changes hmssweblog.wordpress.com/2025/03/06/bon…

Probably photographed at MGM

@DrPopCultureUSA The TV version had Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher as writers (creators of Leave It to Beaver)

March 19, 1928: "Amos & Andy" debuts on radio. The show became a national craze. It continued in its nightly serial format until 1943, when it was revamped as a weekly situation comedy, which lasted until 1955. It carried on in as the Amos ‘n’ Andy Music Hall, until 1960.

@RodneyMarshall1 On The 007 Files podcast, we had a guest who interviewed Roger Moore during filming of a View to a Kill. He said Moore, among other things, talked in detail about scripts he liked while doing the Maverick TV show.

Lew Grade's crown jewels were both actors with photographic memories. One read of the script and they were word perfect. It was a talent/skill honed in repertory theatre where you would be acting in one play at night, while rehearsing next week's during the day.

The Exporters. Between them, Roger Moore and Patrick McGoohan racked up more than 200 episodes making The Saint & Danger Man, action-adventure series which sold to more than 80 countries, netting ITC in excess of £500 million and the Queen's Award for Export on several occasions.

It was a different era with the wolf whistles from the audience and Bennett Cerf's question whether she had a "magnificent chassis."

Ursula Andress in 1967 as the mystery guest on What's My Line. She was promoting the '67 Casino Royale. This is a B&W copy of a color original. youtube.com/watch?v=0Rof1W…

@ShempMeister I once heard a great line about him on a YouTube video. "Can we get that man a lozenge?"

Marc Malkin is fucking insufferable.

@DoubleODispatch I ran out of space. The 2000 book was Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of The James Bond Films. The Maibaum quote about Deighton is on page 91.

@DoubleODispatch Somewhere along the line, Len Deighton did some uncredited work. In a 2012 interview with the Deighton Dossier website, the author said he was in Instanbul with Harry Saltzman and others. Maibaum was quoted in the 2000 book as Deighton did about 35 pages but it was going nowhere.

March 18, 1963: Richard Maibaum delivers the screenplay for "From Russia With Love," based on Johanna Harwood's first draft submitted the previous August. He was paid £6,875 (or £187,000 adjusted for inflation).

@DrPopCultureUSA Directed his brother James Arness in an episode of Gunsmoke airing in the 1965-66 season (last black and white season).

March 18, 1926: Actor Peter Graves [Aurness], (Mission Impossible, Airplane!, Stalag 17), is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

@jamessexton007 😀

@TheSpyCommand Next year get the NYT to pay you to watch it. THAT might keep you awake.

The NYT had *60* people assigned to cover the Oscars? I was watching and fell asleep twice. open.substack.com/pub/margaretsu…

NFL show host likens potential team owners to Bond villains youtube.com/watch?v=EnHapk…

IU football coach Curt Cignetti will drive the Indianapolis 500 pace car, Fox Sports says Tuesday night.

I had a good day on Tuesday. I caught up with friend I had not talked with in many years. We talked for almost an hour and probably could have chatted even longer.

Make of this what you will...

Formula One Discovers Problems With Global Ambitionss forbes.com/sites/billkoen…

@DoubleODispatch No apologies necessary.

@TheSpyCommand I know...I goofed!😊 Really I should have known better as every other day or so you get someone on X who wants a follow back who swears up and down they're really him...not dead...and hiding in a bunker somewhere waiting for that perfect moment to reappear!🤦‍♀️

March 17, 1961: Bond Mania hits the US thanks to a presidential endorsement by America's favorite son & playboy, JFK Jr., who includes "From Russia With Love" as one of his top ten favorite books in an interview about his reading habits for Life Magazine. Click on photos to read.

@ScottMcCreaWest This version had an American influence -- producer Anthony Spinner, a veteran of numerous Quinn Martin shows (as well as the final season of The Man From UNCLE).

Ian Ogilvy was no Roger Moore, but The Return of the Saint was diverting and looked good. Seemed further away from the Leslie Charteris conception than nearly any other adaptation, though.