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What a Surprisingly Progressive Man From U.N.C.L.E. Episode Tells Us About the 1960s
I’ve been rewatching The Man From U.N.C.L.E. It’s one of those shows that has its solid fanbase but otherwise has slipped into the mists of time…to the point where you can’t even stream it. (DVD.com has the discs, but otherwise you’ll have to actually rent it). Which is a shame, because it says a lot about the 1960s…and how far we haven’t come since.
The Indian Affairs Affair
(As a note, all episode titles of the show end with the word “Affair.” I’m fairly sure that John Downey was not so subtly homaging this by having every episode title of Leverage end with “Job,” but I’ve never had a chance to ask him).
When this episode showed up on the disc menu, I flinched. It’s been long enough since I watched that I only remember bits and pieces of episodes.
This episode originally aired on April 15, 1966, and we tend not to think of that as a particularly enlightened time in tribal relations. Despite the fact that The Man From U.N.C.L.E. tends to do better with gender than many shows, they really don’t do much with race. I figured it was going to be awful.
So, was it?