Roger Moore: ‘I was a lover, Daniel Craig’s a killer’

Damn straight, Sir Roger.

Read/see more here:

Roger Moore: ‘I was a lover, Daniel Craig’s a killer’

Mister 8’s May Madness final: Tara Chace vs. U.N.C.L.E.

Fellow COBRA Mister 8’s May Madness competition is nearing its conclusion. It appears the finale will be Tara Chace/Queen & Country vs. Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin of U.N.C.L.E.

The Web site hasn’t officially started voting in the finals yet, but U.N.C.L.E.’s semi-finals match against Harry Palmer was scheduled to end at midday, May 31, and U.N.C.L.E. had a 102-26 lead. Tara Chace steamrolled to the finals over James Bond, The Avengers and the Impossible Missions Force. U.N.C.L.E. reaches the finals after a two-vote win over Get Smart (leading Maxwell Smart, one supposes, to say, “Missed it by that much!”) and wins over Jason Bourne and Len Deighton’s spy (unnamed in the novels but getting the Palmer name in the Harry Saltzman-produced movies).

Who knows? Maybe somebody will give a rat’s ass (the words of a posted in a reply to this earlier posting about May Madness concerning Tara Chace’s defeat of 007).

UPDATE: As A.S., the webmaster of Mister8 notes in his response, the Tara Chace/U.N.C.L.E. match is on. he has the URL in his reply or YOU CAN CLICK HERE. Voting lasts until June 9.

First 007 meets the first Superman

Of course, that would be actor Barry Nelson (James Bond in the 1954 adaptation of Casino Royale on CBS, being a panelist on the game show To Tell The Truth, hosted by Bud Collyer, the radio voice of Superman starting in the late 1930s.

Col. Klink IS Ernst Stavro Blofeld!

Today, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is remembered as part of producer Irwin Allen’s collection of 1960s science-fiction (or in the eyes of some critics schlock) TV shows. And, of course, for 007 fans, it’s where two-time Felix Leiter David Hedison was a star. But in its first season, 1964-65, it had some spy themes.

One such episode was the show’s pilot, written and directed by Allen himself. It features a villain that evokes Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s early appearances in the James Bond film series of a shadowy mastermind.

Well you can watch that episode on Hulu by CLICKING RIGHT HERE. The voice certainly sounds like actor actor Werner Klemperer, who’d gain his greatest fame as Col Klink in Hogan’s Heroes. In fact, despite being in shadows, he LOOKS like Klemperer/Klink as well.

UPDATE: At the 34:17 mark, there’s a close-up of the mystery villain. Despite the shawdows, it defintiely looks like Klemperer. Yet, at the 35:40 mark or so, it appears character actor Theo Marcuse (1920-1967) is playing the mystery leader.

UPDATE II: Marcuse is credited in the end titles as “Dr. Gamma” but a close look shows he and Klemperer were doing the same role. There’s also a James Bond connection: the film editor of the episode is John W. Holmes, one of two film editors credited in Diamonds Are Forever.

Jeffery Deaver to Write New James Bond Novel

“Project X” to be released May, 2011.

Mr. Deaver was born in Glen Ellyn, IL. Coincedentally, previous James Bond author Raymond Benson lives in suburban Chicago, not at all far from Glen Ellyn.

More from the AP here:

A 100-year timeline of 007 and U.N.C.L.E.

Over at the For Your Eyes Only Web site, there’s a neat 100-year timeline that, among other things, shows a century-long timeline (1908-2008) of interaction between James Bond and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The timeline (which can be viewed by CLICKING HERE) is U.N.C.L.E. oriented but there’s a lot for 007 fans also. It begins on May 28, 1908, with the birth of Ian Fleming, James Bond’s creator but who was briefly involved with U.N.C.L.E. Other familiar 007 crew names, including Harry Saltzman, Albert R. Broccoli and Richard Maibaum, also figure into it.

One example of the interaction occurs with this entry, which refers to Norman Felton, who would go on to be executive producer of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.:

Friday, Jan. 6, 1950

Norman Felton and Harry Saltzman meet at NBC offices of Robert Montgomery Presents. Felton is director and Saltzman production manager for new live television dramatic anthology series premiering Jan. 30.

A second example:

Wednesday, June 11, 1958
Robert Vaughn appears in the Wagon Train episode “The John Wilbot Story,” written by Richard Maibaum.

The timeline obviously is well researched, so you may want to check it out.

ESPN panelist makes U.N.C.L.E. joke; host doesn’t get it

The outcome of ESPN’s Around the Horn show on May 25 depended on a joke based on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Host Tony Reali didn’t get it — and that affected the outcome.

Background: Around the Horn, which airs at 5 p.m. New York time, is ESPN’s “show of competitive banter,” where four sportswriters discuss sports news of the day, with their arguments given scores by host Reali.

On May 25, sportswriters Tim Cowlishaw and Kevin Blackistone were the last two men standing and appeared on the show’s “showdown” segment. One question concerned a box who plans his own television show. Reali asked both Cowlishaw and Blackistone to start coming up with titles. After a few tries from both, Cowlishaw piped up, “The Man Who Cried UNCLE!”

Reali had no idea what Cowlishaw was talking about and took away a point. That led to Blackistone winning the contest for the day.

After Blackistone delivered a short commentary (the prize for the winner of each day’s show), Cowlishaw informed Reali about how his pun referred to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. At that point, Reali seemed to get it but didn’t real care. Too bad, given how Reali has been known to occasionally make James Bond references on Around the Horn.

007’s defeat to Tara Chace, what it means

Yesterday, James Bond went down to defeat in a vote of fans at the Mister 8 Web site. It got us to thinking about the nature of fandom and how one fandom can vary to another.

For some fandoms, there’s a sort of intimacy. Tara Chance/Queen and Country writer Greg Rucka used Twitter.com to urge fans to vote for his character and it apparently contributed to Tara outpacing 007 258 votes to 56. It was a case of a creator reached out directly to his audience. There are other examples of this. The makers of the two Iron Man movies used comic book conventions to help sell the movie to fans, helping to create positive word of mouth before either film opened. This general model goes back to Gene Roddenberry talking to college audiences in the 1970s to keep Star Trek interest strong, eventually leading to production of new movies and television series.

Meanwhile, a post on this weblog got linked in some of the Twitter postings, which generated traffic for us. One tweet in particular said in part:

Bond fans predictably, “who cares?”

That’s a reference to one of the responses to our post from yesterday.

Bond fandom is more like a series of corporations, where some fans argue who was the first “professional fan” Eon Productions never went the fan convention route until 1994, part of an effort to revive fan interest after a hiatus in making 007 films that began in 1989. There’s never been a lot of direct outreach to fans. That doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong, but Bond lacks the direct connection between creators and fans found elsewhere.

The creator of the Mister 8 site, in a response to one of our posts said his “May Madness” competition” among fictional spies is, “all a lark, in good fun.”

He’s right. It makes some amusing reading. But it also shows different fandoms operate, and that can be interesting to observe, as well.

UPDATE: For those unfamiliar with Tara Chace and Queen & Country, JUST CLICK HERE.

To view an article from the HMSS archives about The Sandbaggers, the inspiration for Queen & Country, CLICK HERE.

Things looking bad for 007 vs. Tara Chace in May Madness

Ernst Stavro Blofed couldn’t do it. Nor could Goldfinger, Dr. No, Scaramanga or Largo (both versions). But it appears James Bond is about to go down to defeat against Tara Chace in Mister 8’s May Madness.

With less than two hours to go before voting concludes, the Greg Rucka-created Chace leads 007 248-55, gleaning 82 percent of votes cast.

This may seem like a surprise but on reflection probably shouldn’t be viewed that way. Chace fans have responded to tweets and a blog message from Rucka. Many Bond fans, meanwhile, have always considered themselves above that sort of thing. Several years ago, another Web site had some kind of fan-favorite poll and fans of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. organized themselves to vote.

UPDATE: As of 6 p.m. on May 20 (presumably the final results but who knows?), the tally was 256-58 in favor of Tara Chace. We already have a “who gives a rat’s ass” response, which reinforces the previous statement that much of Bond fandom considers itself above this sort of thing.

Mister 8 May madness update: 007 trailing Tara Chace

The No. 1-seeded James Bond is trailing Tara Chace, 197 votes to 45 in fellow C.O.B.R.A. Mister 8’s May Madness. That’s as of about 4:30 p.m., New York time, May 19. Voting is scheduled to conclude late morning of May 20.

How did this happen? In a post on the Commander Bond.net message board, Mister 8 provided this report:

A POTENTIAL MAJOR UPSET! After a personal plea via blog and Twitter from creator Greg Rucka, Tara Chace has managed to lap James Bond to the tune of 100 votes. Can Bond catch up in the final day of voting?: