History Series / ISpy

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: In "Tigers of Heaven", Scotty tries to give one to a group of anti-American would-be samurai who are about to execute him and Kelly. But he gives up in disgust when he realizes they're too fanatical to listen.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Unlike just about every other spy series of the time, averted (although there was still some filming done in Hollywood, there was no "[[TheManFromUNCLE Somewhere In (Insert Foreign Country Here)]]" cheating on this show).

* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: In "Tigers of Heaven", Scotty tries to give one to a group of anti-American would-be samurai who are about to execute him and Kelly. But he gives up in disgust when he realizes they're too fanatical to listen.

* ActingForTwo: Robert Culp as Kelly and the General in "The Warlord".

The show began airing on [=FamilyNet=] starting September 1, 2011.

* Hallucinations: The General's "musical chairs" vision [[spoiler: as he is dying]] in "The Warlord".

* RecycledSoundtrack: Averted, unusually for the time but not for Sheldon Leonard - as he hated tracked-in music (he once equated it to "wearing someone else's underwear"), every episode of this and [[TheAndyGriffithShow his]] [[TheDickVanDykeShow other]] [[GomerPyleUSMC shows]] had an original score written for it (Earle Hagen, who wrote the show's theme music and scored most of the episodes, won an Emmy for season three's "Laya").

''I Spy'' is an American spy series which aired from 1965 to 1968 on {{NBC}}, shepherded by [[TheAndyGriffithShow Sheldon Leonard]] and produced by Triple F Productions (named after the show's creators/showrunners[[note]]as such people were not called back then]] Mort Fine and David Friedkin, and cinematographer Fouad Said). In the series a white tennis pro, Kelly Robinson (played by Robert Culp (''Trackdown'', ''TheGreatestAmericanHero'') and his black trainer, Alexander "Scotty" Scott (Creator/BillCosby) are really spies, saving the world approximately OnceAnEpisode.

A white tennis pro, Kelly Robinson (played by Robert Culp (''Trackdown'', ''TheGreatestAmericanHero'') and his black trainer, Alexander "Scotty" Scott (Creator/BillCosby) are really spies, saving the world approximately OnceAnEpisode.

A TV movie sequel, ''I Spy Returns'', was broadcast back in 1994 and a [[TheFilmOfTheSeries movie]] based on the series appeared in 2002 starring EddieMurphy and Owen Wilson. In it, Wilson plays the actual spy, while Murphy is a boxing champion taken along for the ride. It was critically lambasted and [[InNameOnly bears no resemblance at all to the original series]] (ironically, the film's dedicated to series creators Mort Fine and David Friedkin), though some still find it enjoyable. Arguably the best follow-up to ''I Spy'' was a 1999 episode of Cosby's sitcom titled, er, ''Cosby'', in which his character dreams that he is Alexander Scott and shares an adventure with Kelly Robinson - played once again by Robert Culp.

The show began airing on [=FamilyNet=] starting September 1, 2011.

A white tennis pro, Kelly Robinson (played by Robert Culp [''Trackdown'', ''TheGreatestAmericanHero'']) and his black trainer, Alexander "Scotty" Scott (Creator/BillCosby) are really spies, saving the world approximately OnceAnEpisode.

* ActorAllusion: In "Little Boy Lost" Scott talks about childhood friends including Weird Harold, imortalized both in Cosby's standup routines and later as a character on ''FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids''.
** In "The Trouble with Temple", Scotty tries to fight mind control by blurting out "My name is Fat Albert and I walk like a duck!" when asked for his name.
** Cosby and Scotty also share the hometown of Philadelphia.

* ThrowItIn: Much of the banter between Cosby and Culp was ad-libbed.

* WrittenByCastMember: Robert Culp wrote seven episodes.
** DirectedByCastMember: Culp also directed one of his scripts, "Court of the Lion".

* {{Expy}}: Executive Producer Sheldon Leonard created a 2 hour movie pilot called [[ExcitedTitle "Top Secret!"]] starring Cosby and Tracy Reed as spies. The unsold pilot aired 6/4/78.

A TV movie sequel, ''I Spy Returns'', was broadcast back in 1994 and a [[TheFilmOfTheSeries movie]] based on the series appeared in 2002 starring EddieMurphy and Owen Wilson. In it, Wilson plays the actual spy, while Murphy is a boxing champion taken along for the ride. It was critically lambasted and bears no resemblance at all to the original series, though some still find it enjoyable. Arguably the best follow-up to ''I Spy'' was a 1999 episode of Cosby's sitcom titled, er, ''Cosby'', in which his character dreams that he is Alexander Scott and shares an adventure with Kelly Robinson - played once again by Robert Culp.

* TheFilmOfTheSeries: In name only, in 2002.

* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: In "So Long Patrick Henry", Kelly is annoyed that Scotty hired a kid as a look out for them who keeps making [[JamesBond 007]] references, having seen the then still-in-theatres movie ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' 27 times.

A TV movie sequel, ''I Spy Returns'', was broadcast back in 1994 and a [[TheFilmOfTheSeries movie]] based on the series appeared in 2002 starring EddieMurphy and Owen Wilson. In it, Wilson plays the actual spy, while Murphy is a boxing champion taken along for the ride. It's also quite enjoyable.

* TheFilmOfTheSeries

* SpySchool: The Department has a training school on a military base in the SanFrancisco Bay Area, featured in the episodes "Anyplace I Hang Myself Is Home" and "Tag, You're It". While the name of the base is never stated, given its location, San Francisco Bay, it is probably "The Presidio" (the base was decommissioned in 1989 and became part of the National Park Service in 1994).

* HeyItsThatGuy: Many famous people guested on the show.
** In "Little Boy Lost" [[TheAndyGriffithShow Opie Taylor]] is [[TheSixMillionDollarMan Oscar Goldman]]'s son.
** In one episode [[AllInTheFamily Archie Bunker]] uses mind control to turn Robinson against Scott.
** DonRickles guest stars in one episode as an insult comic. At one point Scott even calls [[ActorAllusion him by his nickname]] "Mr Warmth".
** [[{{Underdog}} Wally]][[TheHollywoodSquares Cox]] is "the most dangerous person alive" when his government job is replaced by a computer.
** In "The Red Sash of Courage" [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Harry Mudd]] wants to kill Kelly for spending a night in a barn with his daughter.
** In "A Few Miles from Nowhere", [[Film/{{Moonraker}} Jaws]] is a "Tiny" problem for our heroes to overcome.
** In "Happy Birthday, Everyone", [[TheFrenchConnection Popeye Doyle]] puts a bottle of nitro in [[GilligansIsland Thurston Howell III's]] son's pinata.
** In "Suitable for Framing, [[TheBobNewhartShow Mr Peterman]] attempts a plot on the President's life with a little help from Plastic Surgeon [[TheDukesOfHazzard Rosco P. Coletrain]].
** In "Home to Judgement", Kelly hides in [[TheWaltons Grandpa Walton's]] barn from a clean-cut [[MorkAndMindy Exidor]] posing as a mailman.
** In "So Long, Patrick Henry", [[HogansHeroes Kinch]] has defected to China, while [[{{Cheers}} Coach]] takes a side job as a reporter.

!!''ISpy'' includes examples of the following tropes:

* CaliforniaDoubling: Unlike just about every other spy series of the time, heavily averted (although there was still some filming done in Hollywood, there was no "[[TheManFromUNCLE Somewhere In (Insert Foreign Country Here)]]" cheating on this show).

* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: In "So Long Patrick Henry", Kelly is annoyed that Scotty hired a kid as a look out for them who keeps making [[JamesBond 007]] references, having seen the then still-in-theatres movie ''{{Goldfinger}}'' 27 times.

A white tennis pro, Kelly Robinson (played by Robert Culp [''Trackdown'', ''TheGreatestAmericanHero'']) and his black trainer, Alexander Scott (Creator/BillCosby) are really spies, saving the world approximately OnceAnEpisode.

* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: In "So Long Patrick Henry", Kelly is annoyed that Scotty hired a kid as a look out for them who keeps making [[JamesBond 007]] references, having seen the then still-in-theatres movie ''{{Goldfinger}}'' 27 times (They actually use the trope's number of 27).

* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: In "So Long Patrick Henry", Kelly is annoyed that Scotty hired a kid as a look out for them who keeps making [[JamesBond 007]] references, having seen the then still-in-theatres movie ''{{Goldfinger}}'' 18 times.

* AffectionateParody: The "Cosby" episode "My Spy" (1999) is this to ''I Spy'', even including a Shout Out to one of the crew members ("And a Fleet Southcott to you, too!"), and so is the ''Series/GetSmart'' episode, "Die Spy", including a {{Cameo}} by Robert Culp as a waiter. {{Mad}} Magazine meanwhile had "Why Spy?".

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