Batman & Robin weren't the only crime-fighting duo on broadcast TV.
Napoleon & Ilia, Alexander & Kelly (Cosby & Culp /
I Spy), James & Artemus (Robert & Ross /
The Wild Wild West), etc.
These series simultaneously dramatized for commercial entertainment, while providing the predictable reassurance that no matter how dire, all would be made right within the 60 minute episode time-frame, by whichever dynamic duo that particular series featured.
Part of the feel good formula common to these series was the ethical superiority it portrayed, not merely that the bad guys do what's wrong, but we the good guys do what's right, and we win, not merely despite being good, but because of it.
Actual history reveals a more complicated record, highlighed by events from Mossadegh's overthrow to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
I confess my own curiosity, whether McCallum's career continued into his 90's out of love for the art form, or as a result of inadequate retirement planning.
"Open channel D." a line used frequently in this series, spoken into a spy device that looked quite similar to a tire pressure gauge
variety.com
