Oh ya dancer - APRIL DANCER,
that is - as portrayed by super STEFANIE
POWERS! Did you know that Miss Dancer's
and NAPOLEON SOLO's names were dreamt
up by 007's creator IAN FLEMING? Well,
if you didn't know before, you do now!
Thursday, 7 May 2015
12 comments:
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I remember her from 'Hart To Hart' - "when they met it was moider". I'd watch the show in bed on my portable TV while sipping tea out of my Incredible Hulk mug - long gone now, sadly.
ReplyDeleteNot so incredible that mug then, eh, CJ? The gamma rays must've worn off.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember much about The Girl from Uncle except for Steph, she looked a bit bland after the nose job though. This is the first I've heard about the names being attributed to Fleming, Napoleon Solo, always had a great ring to it.
ReplyDeleteI know I saw the programme and I remember she had a male sidekick, but that's about all. The Bond producers threatened to sue the TV company over the use of the name Solo because of the character of that name in Goldfinger, but common sense won the day. (Which means I forget the exact details of how the matter was resolved.)
ReplyDeleteNoel Harrison played her male sidekick, and Leo G. Carroll played the boss on both series.
ReplyDeleteI knew that one of the gangsters in Fleming's novel "Goldfinger" was named Solo, but I don't recall if the name was used in the movie version. My impression (and I could be wrong) was that Fleming had some input and made some suggestions (including character names) with the U,N.C.L.E. pilot episode. And I didn't know that the Bond movie producers threatened to sue. Also, I didn't know that April Dancer's name came from Fleming.
I liked Stefanie and I thought the show was good campy fun, but the spy-fi fad was already passing by the time it premiered. And if the show had started a year or two sooner, at the peak of the spy movie boom, it might have gotten lost in the shuffle, among all the other action-adventure shows at the time.
-TC
"Mr. Solo had a pressing engagement." Yes, the name appeared in the movie, TC, but the first name of Napoleon was never used, in the film or the book. When April and her sidekick were introduced in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., two different actors played the parts.
ReplyDeleteMary Ann Mobley and Norman Fell (who did not look a thing like Noel Harrison) were in the Man from UNCLE episode that introduced April and her sidekick. I've no idea why the casting was changed.
ReplyDeleteStefanie Powers was fluent in several languages, which may have helped when April was on international undercover missions.
The show probably had some influence on "Alias," starring Jennifer Garner.
Never seen Alias, TC - any good?
ReplyDeleteAlias wasn't especially good, but it wasn't bad. And Jennifer Garner was cute.
ReplyDeleteMethinks she's overdue a Babe of the Day spot, TC.
ReplyDeleteAlias wasn't bad from what I've seen, which is nothing after the second series. There was some tedious romance crumb in it but the best episode is when Cydni or Syndnee, however they spell it, hijacks a an executive jet liner. Unfortunately she has to pose as a call girl and you get to see her in her slinkies, oh what shame, never mind.
ReplyDeleteSee her in her slinkies? What a hardship, DSE - how did you survive the ordeal?
ReplyDelete