James Bond: TV Origin
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
Ian Fleming introduced James Bond in the 1953 novel Casino Royale. The story serves as the basis for Bond’s first live-action appearance. It took place on October 21, 1954. On that night, the CBS anthology show Climax presented the story as its third episode.
In this first dramatization of a James Bond story, Barry Nelson portrays the secret agent known as Jimmy Bond. In this version, Bond is American.
More than a decade later, a film version of Casino Royale premiered with the same name. It is the first Bond film that did not star Sean Connery. Instead, the debonair, suave, sophisticated David Niven plays the character in this 1967 spy spoof also starring Woody Allen.
Fleming chose the name ‘James Bond’ because it was boring. It is a curious choice for one of the great action heroes. Fleming’s choice is a real-life person’s name. James Bond wrote an ornithology book, Birds of the West Indies.
Fleming envisioned his Bond as a good looking man with a resemblance to singer/songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Fleming also inspired other Bond benchmarks himself.
According to The Many Faces of James Bond 007, an Amvest Video documentary, Bond was an alter ego of sorts for Fleming.
Like the secret agent hero he would come to create, Fleming fashioned himself in the sophisticated mold of the upper-class Englishman, with a taste for rare books, beautiful women and high adventure all prominent in his character.
The documentary also suggests Fleming’s World War II experiences encouraged Casino Royale story lines. Fleming visited the Astoral Casino in Lisbon during World War II. He hoped to win a symbolic game of baccarat against the resident Nazis. Baccarat plays a prominent role in Casino Royale where Bond plays against the villain Le Chiffre.
Fleming’s life in New York during the later years of World War II inspired an assassination scene in Casino Royale. Living and working among the skyscrapers gave Fleming the scene where Bond’s initial assignment is to kill a Japanese cipher expert. Bond completes his mission by shooting through the window of a neighboring building.
In 1990, Turner Network Television presented the tv-movie The Secret Life of Ian Fleming. Jason Connery, son of original film Bond actor Sean Connery, plays Fleming. Retitled Spymaker for home video, the film contains many visual allusions to Bond’s cinematic adventures.
Dossier on 007
Until Dr. No premiered in 1962, Hollywood’s creative community rarely utilized a main character more than once in feature films. In the studios’ star system, an actor’s roles differed slight from film to film. The serials of the 1930’s and 1940’s adhered to a different philosophy. They used cliffhanger stories focused on a major character (Batman, Green Hornet, Lone Ranger).
Producers Albert Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman brought back that excitement to films as the Bond films echoed heroic adventures of the serials, extinct by the late 1950’s because of television.
Every hero needs a villain to defeat. An early Bond villain is Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Chief of SPECTRE - Special Executive for Counter-Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion).
Another Bond staple is gadgetry. Q tutors Bond at the beginning of the story about the capability, necessity, and instructions for his array of devices. Easily frustrated, impatient, and dedicated, Q takes his job seriously. In Thunderball (1965), he shouts at Bond to stop being ‘frivolous’ when handling weapons. In License to Kill (1989), Q chastises Bond’s female ally when she tries to take a picture with a camera. The camera is actually a laser weapon. She nearly kills Bond. Q’s ire ignites. Stop fiddling about with things you don’t understand!
The Q character inspired a television takeoff, Massarati and the Brain, originally title Massarati and Q. The series idea never got beyond the pilot stage. It originated when an entertainment industry executive attended a screening of For Your Eyes Only (1981) at producer Aaron Spelling’s mansion. The executive realized audiences enjoy the scenes with Q and the gadgets.
The original premise for Massarati is a soldier of fortune with a genius inventor friend. By the time the project was filmed, the inventor character changed from an experienced adult to a 13 year-old genius. The pilot was unceremoniously dumped during summer rerun season.
Bond’s adventures introduce him to extremely desirable women with beauty, sexuality, and power matched by provocative names. Upon meeting a woman, Bond traditionally responds with his trademark sarcastic wit.
In Diamonds Are Forever (1971), a woman introduces herself as Plenty O’Toole. Bond suggests that she was named after her father.
In Goldfinger (1964), Bond cannot quite comprehend ‘Pussy Galore’ with a name to match her body and face. He says, I must be dreaming.
In Moonraker (1979), Bond smiles slyly when he learns that Dr. Goodhead is a woman.
Lois Chiles’ portrayal of Dr. Holly Goodhead proves that men do make passes at girls who wear glasses. An intelligent woman can also be fabulously sexy. The final scene exemplifies the suggestiveness of Bond movie dialogue with a double entendre device.
A U.S. space command center sets to patch communications from the rescued Space Shuttle to Buckingham Palace and the White House simultaneously. Their video shows Bond and Goodhead making love while weightless in the spacecraft. Bond’s boss M mutters in frustration, (Double oh seven!) while the Minister of Defense asks, What’s Bond doing?
In a perfect double entendre delivery, Q responds, I think he’s attempting reentry, sir. Moonraker ends as Goodhead asks hopefully, Take me around the world one more time. Bond characteristically replies, Why not?
Roger Moore plays Bond in Moonraker.
Moonraker capitalized on the space craze of the late 1970’s started by Star Wars. Moonraker pays a brief honor to another space success -- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). The five note theme to Close Encounters corresponds to a secret keypad code in Moonraker.
Film actor John Payne once owned the film rights to Fleming’s novel Moonraker. Payne played Kris Kringle’s attorney, Fred Gailey, in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). He also was the producer and star of the television show Restless Gun.
Roger Moore spoofs himself and his Bond role in the ensemble comedy The Cannonball Run (1981) with Burt Reynolds, Farrah Fawcett and Dom DeLuise. Reynolds’ film Hooper (1978) also references Bond. Reynolds plays Sonny Hooper, a legendary stunt man and the Stunt Coordinator on Adam West’s film within a film, The Spy Who Laughed At Danger.
Bond in Other Media
In Clive Cussler’s 1982 book Night Probe!, a former British secret agent named Brian Shaw enjoys a prominent role. Narrative and dialogue throughout the book suggests that Brian Shaw may be James Bond.
In 1991, Sega Genesis marketed a video game inspired by Bond. James Pond: Underwater Agent featured a piscine secret agent.
In 1994, FOX introduced Fortune Hunter, a show detailing the adventures of former British agent Carlton Dial. Fortune Hunter lasted a few weeks despite a promising pilot, premise, and script.