Mister 8

(I’m still struggling with a few elements of the I Spy theme, including that opening jazz chord, plus I broke a string for which I have no replacement. Stay tuned for tablature tomorrow, hopefully!)

I Spy broke ground in 1965 when it became the first television show to feature an African-American, Bill Cosby, in a starring role. As such, it has garnered much attention from scholars and historians in the years since. For this posting, however, instead of providing a bibliography of all the sources that have covered this issue, I wanted to look back at the context of the issue as seen through the media of the late sixties, as the show was airing. Was the show seen as groundbreaking then as well?

First, a piece from Ebony Magazine from September 1965:

* * *

I Spy: Comedian Bill Cosby is first negro co-star in network series

Former collegian, former athlete, former bartender, would-be teacher, star comedian Bill Cosby–has now turned actor. Cosby, 28, is one of the fastest-rising performers in show business. He playes the best night clubs, making $3,000-$10,000 a week. His first two comedy records were smashing successes. He makes all the big-time TV night shows. And he has recently become the first Negro co-star in a full television network series. For the better part of an hour each week during this TV season, Cosby will bound across that rectangular tube which has been adopted by almost every American family.

The show, on NBC-TV, is called I Spy and, in established TV tradition, it is designed to give the public a big dose of what the public wants. And right now, the public wants international intrigue with a “light touch,” such as the popular James Bond movies and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series show.

As undercover intelligence agent Alexander Scott, Cosby is the manager-companion of tennis bum Kelly Robinson, playyed by Robert Culp. Culp, an experienced actor, carries the heavier dramatic load, but, ironically, it is Cosby who plays the most super of super-heroes, outdoing all mortal competitors. For not only is Alex Scott the usual suave, quick-thinking, karate-punching, sharpshooting good guy, he is also a brilliant Rhodes scholar, fluent in seven languages. Chuckles Cosby, appreciatively, “It’s not what you’d call a stereotyped role.” And Cosby is right. Until now, Tonto, short on vocabulary, long on bruises, has topped the list of dark-skinned sidekicks.

RACE WON’T BE THEME IN TV EPISODES

Although I Spy will have no racial messages–Cosby vetoed any dialogue based on racial issues–the racial impact of the show is obvious. After executive producer Sheldon Leonard decided he wanted Cosby as a regular on I Spy, he expected much more trouble than he actually got. Since Cosby was hired before co-star Culp, Leonard anticipated difficulty along that line, but Culp was happy to work with Cosby once he saw Cosby’s acting in the pilot film.

“Then everybody told us we were going to have trouble with the sponsors,” recalls Leonard, “but none of the boogie men we had foreseen ever materialized. We have more sponsors than we need.”

Cosby avoids racial material in I Spy because he has built a non-racial image through his particular style of comedy. Yet, he freely admits that his job is a by-product of the “revolution.” “Negroes like Martin Luther King and Dick Gregory; Negro groups like the Deacons and the Muslins–are all dedicated to the cause of civil rights,” notes Cosby, “but they do their jobs in their own way. My way is to show white people that Negroes are human beings with the same aspirations and abilities that whites have.” It looks as if Cosby’s own aspirations and abilities are quite clear. “After eight shows,” says Leonard, “Bill was as advanced as many actors are after eight years.”

* * *

And here are some interesting bits from captions of photos accompanying the Ebony article:

“Standard ‘bit’ of Negro’s face being rubbed to see if color comes off annoyed Cosby, who says if anyone else rubs his face, ‘I’ll rub back.’”

“Culp has written three dramas for show, says he doesn’t know why, but all have Negro protagonists.”

* * *

Next, selections from an Oct. 17, 1965 New York Times article: “The Case of the Scholarly Spy”:

* * *

One thing for sure, bigots everywhere are going to be baffled at how to object to the televised Cosby image. In black and white or in the full panoply of NBC color, from those big brown eyes to burnished brogues, he is more unretouched Ivy League than many an authentic Princeton graduate. Cosby comes by the patina honestly, having attended Temple University to his junior year, becoming a physical education major and an outstanding athlete there.

…[Cosby:] “He is a Negro ‘good guy’ working equally with a white man for a patriotic cause–a premise which may not be accepted by every Negro watching. In other words, though the part is never the usual put-down of the Negro people, I feel I have to be careful that it doesn’t become an exaggeration of another kind. I hope we don’t receive any artificial praise–for the wrong reasons. I’d like ‘I Spy’ to be judged on its entertainment values.”

* * *

I’m going to work on getting access to a few more articles from local newspapers as well. I was dismayed to find out that one of the three local stations that didn’t pick up I Spy was in Albany, where I currently live….