Season 1, Episodes 11-18

Some more interesting odds and ends, from the middle of Season 1 . . .

Episode 11: Too Many Chiefs

Among the many disguises of KAOS agent Alexi Sebastian, is Johnny Carson.

The photo is similar to this one that was used as a Johnny Jigsaw Puzzle.

Sebastian was also David Brinkley at one time. Or was it Chet Huntley? We're still not sure.

Here's the full photo. Looks like Huntley is subtly giving the finger to the photographer.

Episode 12: My Nephew the Spy

Here's the first instance of something that was used a lot in the first season - a prop newspaper. For a TV show or movie, only the headline is important, so the studios had the same boilerplate for the rest of the paper, including the other headlines. Here we see the headline: "Giant Plane Found, All Aboard Safe."

That headline got used a lot. A  LOT.

In no particular order:

Batman

The Astro-Zombies

The Invaders

The Fugitive

M*A*S*H

Bob Hope Comedy Special

Hotel

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

The Monkees

Project X

Episode 13: Aboard the Orient Express

"Cross Word Puzzle Book". I am thinking this is a real book, though I couldn't find an exact match.

The inside is tantalizing: "Swimming Shorts by Charles . . . " I can't make out the last name.

Episode 14: Weekend Vampire

Like most episodes this season, even the "exterior" shots were done indoors. However there is a fun goof in this one. When the lightning flashes, you can see the top of the sound stage above the "sky".

Episode 15: Survival of the Fattest

Establishing shot of a hotel. Any idea as to what hotel this is?

Episode 16: Double Agent

This is the first of several episodes to feature an Aristocrat slot machine. Founded in Australia in 1953, Aristocrat remains one of the world's largest manufacturers of slot machines and other gaming products.

Break the Bank appears to be one of many versions of the same basic machine. In most later episodes, that covering was removed, showing the blank surface underneath.

Here is a vintage ad for the machine, the Aristocrat "Nevada".

Wall paintings were a common set decoration, and I imagine are prints of well-known paintings. I was able to ID this one.

It's Dempsey and Firpo, painted in 1923 by George Bellows.

Episode 17: Kisses for KAOS

What fancy building was used for the exterior of the art museum?

It's the exterior of Sunset Bronson studios! Looks pretty much the same today.

Episode 18: The Dead Spy Scrawls

This episode introduces another prop staple for the show: travel posters. Many episodes had scenes in bus stations or airports, and real travel posters were used as decoration. In some episodes they didn't make much sense (i.e. posters for distant countries in a bus station), but for the bus station here they used real Greyhound posters!

Starting off with one of the Pacific Northwest.

 

See Your U.S.A.: Washington.

Go Greyhound . . . and leave the spying to us

The U.S. Army recruitment poster dates to the Korean War.

Back-to-back Canada posters behind Leonard Nimoy.

Finally, Arizona.

 

 

 

Season 1, Episodes 2-10

The pilot episode was unusually rich in identifiable real-world locations and props. Most of the rest of the season was filmed on set, and usually with generic props. Still, I found a few items of interest for the purposes of this blog. Some of these have more questions then answers, but maybe some of you readers might have an answer to a question below.

Episode 2: Diplomat's Daughter

Two episodes, two mystery baseball photos. I'd love if someone could ID the photo and who is in it.

Here's the photo of the house that KAOS used to fool Max. I wonder if there is any significance to it. I know in later seasons, some of the houses in the background were actually family homes from other famous sitcoms.

 Episode 3: School Days

Another one that I wonder if it's a real house: the house number is 111.

Episode 4: Our Man in Toyland

With the Michtom family's Ideal Toy Company represented in the pilot, I was expecting Ideal Toys to show up here as well. However, I could not find any. My guess is that after the pilot the production used whatever props were provided by the studio. For example, here's the most important toy in the episode, Polly Dolly.

This is not an Ideal Toy - it's a 1962-1964 American Character Little Miss Echo doll, manufactured by the American Character Doll Company (often known by it's initials, ACDC). Though not an Ideal Toy, the company's assets would end up getting bought by Ideal when it went bankrupt in 1968.

I couldn't identify the other toys, though some are in packaging with nearly-visible logos, like this camping kit (Small-Fry?). In other cases, the logo has been covered, such as with the jousting set.

Episode 6: Washington 4, Indians 3

The next few episodes don't have much to identify, but there's a fun Easter egg at the beginning of this episode. James Harris was the show's prop master.

Episode 9: Satan Place

This episode gives us the first look at the Chief's new car, a 1965 Zebra Mustang. 

This car was customized by the legendary George Barris (creator of the Batmobile), for the 1965 Sinatra film Marriage on the Rocks. That is real fur on the car's exterior. Here it is in action in the Sinatra movie.

It was most recently on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, though it was just auctioned off at the end of March.

Episode 10: Our Man in Leotards

The Zebra Mustang appeared in this episode as well, which featured a chase scene on the grounds of Sunset Bronson studios. Here a KAOS agent runs by a building marked "No 1". This was probably the studio's Powerhouse No. 1.

Here's a view toward Bronson Avenue, the opposite view of what was seen in the pilot. We'll get a much better look at this spot at the end of Season 2.

The studio guard shack gets some nice ornamentation in it's disguise as CONTROL Labs.

Finally, some stock footage of the Pinerovian Embassy. This is a real-life embassy: the US Embassy in Paris, 2 Rue Gabriel.

 Here it is in the 1966 movie Rififi in Amsterdam.

And here it is today. There's a lot more foliage making it tough to get a good look.