Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 29, 1994 TAG: 9401290262
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Culp and Cosby reprise their roles as U.S. agents Kelly Robinson and Alexander "Scotty" Scott in the two-hour CBS movie "I Spy Returns," airing at 8 p.m. EST Thursday (on WDBJ-Channel 7).
The reunion comes none too soon, according to Culp.
"This has been a long, slow process," he says.
As early as 1987 plans were under way for a theatrical film featuring the characters, and there were a half-dozen proposed scripts on the table.
But the option lapsed, leaving the possibility of making a movie for direct TV syndication, Culp says. At that point, a network came to the rescue - although not "I Spy's" original one, NBC.
"Jeff Sagansky (CBS programming chief) heard about it and threw up a great red flag and said, `Stop, I want this picture. CBS wants it,' " Culp recounts.
Culp says he and Cosby relished the idea of working together again. Besides "I Spy," the two co-starred as detectives in the 1972 film "Hickey and Boggs."
"We don't hang out together today, but we are in constant communication by phone and have been all these many years," Culp says. "In 25 years, since the show was canceled, we've never stopped looking for things to do together."
In the 1965-68 series, Culp and Cosby played two globe-trotting agents who used professional tennis as their cover. Robinson (Culp) was a top-seeded player; Scott (Cosby) was his trainer and buddy.
In "I Spy Returns," Scott and Robinson team up again when their children, fledgling intelligence agents, tackle an assignment in Vienna involving a Russian biologist.
The TV series offered up adventure with a witty touch, making good use of Cosby's comedic talents. There was much ad-libbing from both stars. Culp, a writer, also wrote several scripts.
"The only analogy that can be drawn in terms of the way we worked together as a team is Laurel and Hardy," Culp says. "That may be stretching it, but the way we worked was very similar to the way they worked."
"I Spy" had a further distinction: Cosby was the first black performer to get a starring role in a regular dramatic series on U.S. television.
Culp says they were aware that the show was breaking ground in its depiction of a black and white man on equal footing. But "I Spy" deliberately didn't make race an issue.
"Our statement would be the `non-statement,' " Culp recalls. "We would never address the issue of race . . . It's like holding on a (camera) shot long enough. If you hold on one specific shot, if it's the right shot, you make the point of your movie.
"And that's what we did. We held on for three years. There was no color."
There were rumors of hate mail, but any letters always stopped at the producer's office, Culp says. And some NBC affiliates in the South initially refused to air the series - "until they found out they had a fairly successful show on their hands," he says.
Culp says the filming schedule was grueling. The network would approve nine scripts at a time, and the actors would head out to Europe to shoot exterior scenes for all nine. Interiors would be completed back in America.
"We had an aggregate of 12 days off in three years," Culp says. "We never had a fight, never had a harsh word between us. But tempers were short when we finished those three years. We were tired, tired."
The series' cancellation in 1968 came at a tumultuous time in America. Within months, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.
"When Dr. King was killed, Bill and I were on the phone to each other within a half an hour. He said, `I'm going to Memphis to march' . . . `Not without me' I told him," Culp recalls.
Did his relationship with Cosby change Culp's views on race?
"No, it just brought it all into focus," he replies.
The pair filmed "I Spy Returns" in Vienna this past summer, a busy time for Culp. After it wrapped, he took a two-week break and then headed for Washington, D.C., to play the president in "The Pelican Brief."
A pet project awaited for him post-"Pelican": directing a western movie script he had written for Showtime, the cable TV channel.
But after all these years, "I Spy" remains a key part of his life, Culp says.
"It was a rare experience. He (Cosby) is the best partner anybody's ever had, and he remains the best friend I've ever had."
by CNB