Peter Graves’ unanswered Call to Danger

Call to Danger was an idea that refused to go away. It never became a series but it affected one show that did.

The notion behind Call to Danger was that the U.S. government would maintain information on citizens with unusual abilities and talents. Such people would be enlisted to provide help for investigators on important cases. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. would end up using a variation of this idea with the “innocent” characters who would become involved (sometimes by design, sometimes by accident) in assignments Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin carried out.

CBS commissioned a half-hour pilot of Call to Danger in 1961. That version starred Larry Blyden (later an U.N.C.L.E. episode innocent), according to Patrick J. White’s 1991 book, The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier. While it didn’t sell, it remained on the minds of CBS executives.

In 1967, CBS tried again, this time commissioning an hour version starring Peter Graves. It sported a theme by Morton Stevens, who ran CBS’s West Coast music operation. Stevens had the choice of hiring composers or assigning jobs to himself. Once more, it didn’t sell although CBS managed to get the pilot on the air as part of something called Premier (which appears to have been a way to broadcast unsold pilots). Here’s how it started:

Meanwhile, Steven Hill had been fired after the first season of Mission: Impossible. No replacement had been lined up. According to White’s book, CBS liked Graves’ performance in Call to Danger. The network, according to White’s book, suggested to the brass at Desilu (the maker of Mission) that Graves would be just the man to take over as the mastermind of the Impossible Missions Force. That, of course, is exactly what happened, with Graves filling the new role of Jim Phelps.

CBS and Stevens also found other uses for the Call to Danger theme. For one thing, it was put on the 1969 Hawaii Five-O soundtrack. Also, a much-shortened version would be used as part of CBS specials:

After Mission: Impossible completed its run in 1973, a third Call to Danger pilot was made, once again starring Graves. The call went unanswered yet again. It started like this:

Unlikely ’60s spies, or Ward Cleaver, secret agent

Spy stories were big on television in the 1960s, thanks to James Bond. Even non-espionage shows incorporated spy-oriented stories. But there were a few where the actors cast come across as a bit unlikely. A few examples:

Hugh Beaumont, Mannix: In the second-season episode, “To The Swiftest, Death,” private eye Joe Mannix has taken up amateur auto racing. While he’s near the back of the pack, another participant appears to have run off the track and been consumed in a fiery crash. Mannix is hired to investigate but he’s getting heat from U.S. authorities, including Frank Abbott (Hugh Beaumont), who may be with a U.S. intelligence agency. This episode aired in 1968, five years after Leave It To Beaver went off the air but for some viewers, it’s hard to get the image of Ward Cleaver out of their heads.

William Windom, The FBI: Windom plays the title character in the second-season episode “The Assassin.” Windom’s character, Anton Christopher, is the most feared assassin in the employ of the Soviet Bloc. We see him make a hit in the pre-credits sequence, but his face isn’t shown. Later, Christopher meets a contact (Tom Skerritt), who is taken aback by how ordinary the assassin appears. Christopher makes a remark to the effect that successful operatives don’t look glamorous like in the movies. No specific character is mentioned, but presumably this is a Bond reference. Windom is quite good and comes across as both ruthless and weary.

Russell Johnson, The FBI: the former Professor on Gilligan’s Island appears as a Soviet agent in the fourth-season episode “Caesar’s Wife.” He even gets to beat the crap out of Harrison Ford in one scene. Johnson’s character has been operating in the U.S. for years and has befriended a retired diplomat (Michael Rennie), whose knowledge would be most useful to the U.S.S.R.

Larry Blyden, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: In the second-season episode “The Waverly Ring Affair,” Blyden plays George Dennell, an U.N.C.L.E. employee who gets drafted by the crafty Alexander Waverly to help smoke out a traitor in the organization. Blyden usually (but not exclusively) was normally cast in comedic roles and he uses some of that here. Dennell is the episode’s “innocent.” Part of the show’s format involved an innocent character getting swept up in the adventures of agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin. Some fans don’t care for the innocent characters (they’d rather see more of Solo and Kuryakin). Blyden’s Dennell, though, is one of the better innocent characters in the series.

Leslie Nielsen, Hawaii Five-O: The show’s pilot has Hawaii lawman Steve McGarrett trying to find the killer of an old friend who also happened to be an agent of U.S. “Intelligence.” Presumably, this means the CIA, but that’s not specified. The Big Kahuna has two suspects as possible traitors: Miller (Andrew Duggan), a veteran agent passed over for promotion, and Brent (Leslie Nielsen), the Honolulu station chief. The audience knows there’s a traitor because of the pre-credits sequence where *somebody* is working with villain Wo Fat. But the audience doesn’t see the traitor’s face, though we’re shown he smokes a pipe. And wouldn’t you know it, both Trend and Miller smoke pipes. Nielsen, who spent much of his career doing dramatic parts, is actually fine. But given all his over-the-top comedic roles, people who see the pilot episode for the first time are probably taken aback.

Wally Cox, Mission: Impossible: Cox appears in the series pilot as Terry Targo, a safecracker who is supposed to play an important part in the scheme cooked up by Dan Briggs (Steven Hill). When we see the “apartment scene” (where the audience is given hints about the plan, but not all the information), Cox’s Targo comes across as savvy. The IMF is playing a penny ante poker game and Targo catches Rollin Hand (Martin Landau) cheating. The plan calls for Targo to be inside a large case into a safe where two unclear weapons are stored. A major complication occurs later when Targo’s hands are broken. One can’t help but wonder if the creators of the George Clooney version of Ocean’s Eleven saw the episode. In any event, Cox makes an interesting (if one-time) addition to the IMF.