The first American dramatic TV series to feature a black actor in a lead role. Scripts were peppered with unique lingo. One catchphrase, "wonderfulness," became popular and was later used by Bill Cosby for the title of one of his comedy albums.
Bill Cosby's character, Alexander Scott, was originally intended to be an older mentor to Robert Culp's trainee agent, Kelly Robinson. Executive producer Sheldon Leonard cast Cosby in the role after seeing one of his routines (Scott was originally intended to be a Caucasian). Due to this casting change, the writers thought an occasional reference to Cosby's race would be a necessity, given the tumult of the times. In an early episode, "Danny Was a Million Laughs", guest star Martin Landau's character makes a racial joke at Scott's expense. Culp and Cosby demanded that no more racial jokes be done, and none were for the run of the series.
Bill Cosby and Robert Culp remained good friends after production of the series ended.
The show was not aired on certain NBC affiliates in the south due to the fact that it dared to show an African-American actor (Bill Cosby) on the same level as a white actor (Robert Culp). This also included the original Star Trek series where a black actress (Nichelle Nichols) and Asian actor (George Takei) are seen as part of the U.S.S. Enterprise's crew.
Culp and Cosby improvised most of their banter. They also ended up rewriting much of their dialogue as they were often dissatisfied with the scripts.
Culp wrote seven episodes. According to Culp, those seven episodes were the only ones that were filmed exactly as written.
Before the series, Culp had written a pilot script in which he would play a James Bond-type American spy. He showed the script to Carl Reiner who then recommended him to Sheldon Leonard. The script was eventually produced as the episode "The Tiger".
According to a TV Guide interview with Culp, Cosby was originally uninterested in doing the series and insulted the producers during his audition. Culp mediated between them and helped Cosby get cast.
During the scene from the hotel bar, the bellboy is paging "Mr. Lee Weaver." In real life, Lee 'Weaver (II)' is an actor who has worked with Bill Cosby on all of his television shows. He is most memorable as Chet Kincaid's brother on The Bill Cosby Show and as Ray Nay on A Different World.
Series star Robert Culp wrote this episode, the first broadcast. This was one of the first occasions in US TV history in which the introductory episode of a dramatic TV series had been written by one of its stars.
According to his commentary on the 2002 DVD release, Robert Culp wrote several scripts for 'I Spy' on his own initiative after being dissatisfied with the script for the show's pilot episode. Culp had already written episodes for several other TV series by this time.
This is the first of six episodes that Michael Zagor would write for the series. Zagor continued to work with Bill Cosby after its cancellation - he co-created The Bill Cosby Show along with Cosby and Ed. Weinberger.
Scott mentions there not being a "jolly blonde giant". This is a joke reference to the "Jolly Green Giant" who is the mascot for Green Giant, a brand of canned and frozen vegetables.
The comic book Kelly is prominently pictured reading just before Sean Christie's telephone call is "Konga" No. 14 (June 1963). The Charlton Comics series was based on the British giant-ape film Konga. In an interesting parallel to the episode's plot, the cover copy of the issue Kelly is reading states, "... Only Konga stood in the way of their 'MASTER PLAN.'"
Kelly and Scott meet Sean Christie atop the awe-inspiring Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán near Mexico City. It is the third largest pyramid in the world.
The title is a play on that of the infamous sitcom My Mother the Car, which was enjoying its one-year run on NBC at the time this episode aired (over the same network).
It is revealed that a "Code 10" means to kill on sight.
Robert Culp's bare-chested torture, in which he's spreadeagled beneath a cluster of dangling, about-to-drop spears, may have been inspired by a similar scene involving Mark Forest in the 1963 movie, Maciste, l'eroe più grande del mondo (1963).
Following her memorable role as the Mother Superior in Lilies of the Field, Lilia Skala was back in a nun's habit in this episode and soon thereafter appeared as a nun once again in the pilot of the TV series "Ironside" (1967) {Pilot (#1.0)}.
The title comes from the Wicked Queen summoning the spirit in the magic mirror in the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: "Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who's the fairest one of all."
Episode title derived from "The Red Badge Of Courage", an American Civil War novel written by Stephen Crane during the 19th century.
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