#Girl from U.N.C.L.E.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1967 AMT Piranha

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (Stefanie Powers). Her car is a 1967 AMT Piranha customized by Gene Winfield.The character is April Dancer, an agent of the secret international counter espionage and law and enforcement agency called U.N.C.L.E., an American agent with a British partner in Mark Slate. She was often armed with gimmicks and gadgets, like the campier side of James Bond. Her spy adventures often utilized her multi-lingual capabilities, accents, and dancing skills.

[the-meme-from-uncle]

Documenting all the outfit variations of April and Mark in the Girl from U.N.C.L.E.

Part 1: the Dog-Gone Affair

With bonus Putzi because her main character energy is just too strong (although side-note: that pink dog creeps me out and I'm sorry for drawing it).

[banemmanan]

GFU as Onion headlines, pt. 2/?

Previous

[gnome-adjacent-vagabond]

Y'all need to know about Mother Muffin.

There's this show called The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. that's a sort of campy spy show. It's not great. BUT.

Boris Karloff is in ONE episode called The Mother Muffin Affair and he is the BEST part. He plays Agnes Tewksbury aka Mother Muffin, the leader of a group of "deadly" assassins.

He plays the role dead straight--no jokes about men in dresses, no physical comedy--and sells it incredibly well. I'd watch a whole movie with Mother Muffin as an antagonist. She's got it all--a crush on the hero, several doting henchmen, a little dog with a hat, a cane that doubles as a gun and telescope--she's perfect. Oh yeah, and she EMBALMS her victims and displays them at a museum.

I haven't found a free version of the episode yet but I like Karloff enough that I spent three dollars on it in Amazon, so there's that.

Long story short, Boris Karloff makes a FANTASTIC old lady. Wish he'd done more drag/cross dressing roles, but the times were the times.

[delflorias-steampress]

"Careful, April... My Head!"

From Lady Penelope magazine, issue 60, 11 March 1966.

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[zippocreed501]

Stefanie Powers as April Dancer

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E (1966)

[tuttle-did-it]

‘Murder in Milan’ Murder, She Wrote

Cesar Romero returns (The Golden Girls, The Love Boat, Magnum PI, Fantasy Island, Charlie’s Angels, Hart to Hart, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Ironside, Night Gallery, Bewitched, Here’s Lucy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, etc)

George Coe returns George Coe (Kramer vs Kramer, Bones, Archer, Star Wars animated shows, Supernatural Curb Your Enthusiasm, Grey’s Anatomy, The West Wing, Smallville, Becker, The Nanny, L.A. Law, St:TNG, Night Court, Murphy Brown, so much more!)

Paul Gleason returns (The Wonder Years, Adam012, Columbo, Cagney & Lacey, Magnum PI, Dallas, Kate & Allie, Diehard, Father Dowling Investigates, Seinfeld, Lost on Earth, The Drew Carey Show, Diagnosis Murder, etc)

S9E1 20 Sept 1992

[historicalreusedcostumes]

This Gray Faux Fur Mini-Dress is worn two times in Star Trek TOS, First worn on Barbara Anderson as Lenore Karidian in The Conscience of the King (1966) and worn again on an Woman in Assignment: Earth (1968) and later worn on Stefanie Powers as Agent April Dancer in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966–1967)

[olderthannetfic]

Ok. Dumb question incoming, but I'd much have a 'conversation' than try to read fanlore or watch video essays or something because I want to hear individual people's contributions.

Why Star Trek?

Don't get me wrong - I like the franchise! I'm not super duper familiar with it, but I do enjoy the bits and pieces that I do know. But I am wondering why that in particular is hailed as the grandmother of all fandoms? Obviously people were fannish before Trek, but I don't think anyone can deny the impact that OG Trekkies had on fic, zines, and eventually on the internet.

I know that it's always been popular and well-liked, but it's not as if there was NO SUCH THING as popular culture/fan culture before that (I mean, come on, the term "parasocial" predates the first Star Trek episode by 10 years!) . Was it just a perfect mix of timing + popularity + etc? Is there something in particular about ST that "hit different" than other series at the time? Or is the fandom really really just that mighty and it's almost "luck" in a way? I guess I'm wondering what particular dominoes cascaded in a line in order for Star Trek to have the impact on fandom that it does today.

or am I wrong? were there just-as-big fandoms before and I simply overhype Trekkie power in my head / happen to see more talk of that than I do of other fandoms? It could definitely be a social circle bias thing.

Ugh. Asking OTNF why Star Trek is so important to fandom history feels very much like asking a Russian History major why War & Peace is so important to literature - hence why I warned you that it'd be a dumb question! But I am just so damn curious what sort of crack was in early ST fandom that made it SO widespread and SO strong.

Like, I guess the TLDR is: what was particularly 'different' about Star Trek, either as a fandom or as a franchise or both, that made it Theeeeee OG fandom, rather than something, like, i dunno, LOTR or the earliest versions of Marvel/DC comics or General Hospital or something else like that?

--

I await the hordes of angry Man from U.N.C.L.E. fans eager to prove that they were first.

And, no, it wasn't that popular. Hence the aggressive Save Our Show campaign and explosion of fan culture when it ended after three seasons.

Part of the answer to your question is that there were like three things on TV at the time. What big fandoms? 'Parasocial' was about non-subculture people feeling warmly towards news anchors or hosts of variety shows or something, wasn't it?

LOTR got rediscovered in the 60s or 70s from what I hear, but science fiction and fantasy books were for fringe weirdoes. SFF was not mainstream for the most part. There are a bunch of History of Book SF Fandom things on Youtube, and you should consult them on the complex role of LOTR in that space. LOTR wasn't a mainstream thing until there were live action movies a billion years later.

The key about Star Trek is that it was a hit with the pre-existing book SF crowd. They were an organized subculture. Some of their favorite writers wrote episodes. Other shit on TV was for people who did not form subcultures in that way. Other shit for SF fans had an audience 1/10,00th the size.

MFU was insanely popular. Illya Kuryakin was the heartthrob of a certain era of girl and inspired many a Russian major. (Seriously, there are soooo many Russia-boos of a certain age who probably still have a poster of him somewhere.) The actor set a record for fanmail. The show may have more influence on fandom history than we think now, but it also didn't rerun the way Trek did, at least in some eras, and it didn't have sequel series in a franchise. I'm always finding 2015 movie fans shocked that there's a still extant and semi-active fandom—or even shocked that the movie is based on something.

Starsky & Hutch was also hugely important and is the moment slash fandom and "Media Fandom" really split from book SF fandom. As Trek fans moved on to buddy cops, they were into a completely mainstream show but in a non-mainstream way. Trek was an awkward bedfellow at SF cons, but S&H just didn't fit at all.

Of course, while Trek is the grandma of AO3 type fandom, don't forget that a shitton of modern fans who are doing "research" just look at the same few sources. Enterprising Women is great and all, but even other fans of the same stuff are like "Oh, that was just X's friends. Where's [thing] and [thing] and [thing]?" Ditto Textual Poachers and the other scant early sources that people think have academic weight.

While Trek would still be central, the picture of what was going on in the late 60s-early 80s would look a bit different if you just found a bunch of 70-something nerds and asked them than if you regurgitate other people's research, you know?

If you want an idea of what else was going on in SF fandom back in the day, check out Galactic Journey, where they roleplay that it's 55 years ago and review SF things "as they come out".

If you want to understand MFU, here's a vid of Illya:

--

What say you, readers?

What have acafandom and fandom history and meta left out?

[banemmanan]

Istg every time I have to watch her run around furniture to get away from a handsy creep, I'm just like "punch the guy!!!" I love the show so much, but honestly my only wish (apart from more seasons) is that they'd let April commit more violence.

Oh, she is 100% the competent half of the partnership! And don't get me wrong, observing outside of context, she's not the most competent spy either, but that's fully down to her never being allowed to fight her way out of a situation - that's almost always what gets her in sticky situations. Mark doesn't have that excuse - he's just a bad spy (but I love him anyway, bless him).

i imagine that being in april's position as the only woman enforcement agent in section two of UNCLE must have been extremely difficult—all of the sexism and double standards she would have to navigate when it comes to skill, expectations in the field, even her social life; napoleon and the other male agents can perform international man of mystery to their hearts' content and sleep with whom they want and are given much more leeway and forgiveness when things go wrong on missions whereas i could see april both being treated by her colleagues like waverly's pet and having to overachieve at her job because of whispers behind her back; not to mention how it would barely be possible for her to manage to have a social life because you KNOW if she pulled a napoleon and got a reputation for sleeping with fellow agents she would not be treated well; AND not to mention whatever other UNCLE agents think about the nature of her and mark's relationship! like what a difficult position to be in!

[thyme-in-a-bubble]

a list of some spring movies/series 🌷

spring is here!! and so is your friendly neighbourhood little organisation freak of a goblin to give you a list of some spring movies and series. as always, just close your eyes and point somewhere on this little list, or even put the numbers in a generator and go with whatever the result is ♡

summer | autumn | winter

🐝 ‧₊˚ ⋅ movies ⋅˚₊‧

mary poppins (1964)

the sound of music (1965)

aristocats (1970)

alla vi barn i bullerbyn (1986)

my neighbour totoro (1988)

kiki's delivery service (1989)

a league of their own (1992)

the secret garden (1993)

pride and prejudice (1995/2005)

whisper of the heart (1995)

clueless (1995)

my best friend’s wedding (1997)

parent trap (1998)

10 things i hate about you (1999)

notting hill (1999)

she's all that (1999)

but i’m a cheerleader (1999)

bring it on (2000)

miss congeniality (2000)

spiritied away (2001)

the wedding planner (2001)

legally blonde (2001)

princess diaries (2001 + 2004)

spy kids (2001-2003)

maid in manhatten (2002)

bend it like beckham (2002)

tuck everlasting (2002)

school of rock (2003)

how to lose a guy in 10 days (2003)

something’s gotta give (2003)

13 going on 30 (2004)

finding neverland (2004)

howl’s moving castle (2004)

saving face (2004)

the notebook (2004)

imagine me and you (2005)

nanny mcphee (2005)

penelope (2006)

miss potter (2006)

step up (2006)

she’s the man (2006)

bridge to terabithia (2007)

enchanted (2007)

atonement (2007)

stardust (2007)

ps i love you (2007)

wild child (2008)

made of honour (2008)

ondine (2009)

bride wars (2009)

valentine’s day (2010)

leap year (2010)

easy a (2010)

from up on poppy hill (2011)

jane eyre (2011)

crazy, stupid, love (2011)

what to expect when you’re expecting (2012)

remember sunday (2013)

saving mr banks (2013)

about time (2013)

now you see me (2013 + 2016)

love, rosie (2014)

testament of youth (2014)

kingsman (2014-)

paddington (2014 + 2017)

far from the madding crowd (2015)

burnt (2015)

brooklyn (2015)

cinderella (2015)

the man from u.n.c.l.e. (2015)

lady chatterley's lover (2015/2022)

creed franchise (2015-2023)

me before you (2016)

mother’s day (2016)

this beautiful fantastic (2016)

the light between oceans (2016)

paterson (2016)

how to be single (2016)

hidden figures (2016)

gifted (2017)

dunkirk (2017)

ocean’s eight (2018)

life itself (2018)

peter rabbit (2018)

christopher robin (2018)

tomb raider (2018)

set it up (2018)

crazy rich asians (2018)

spider-verse movies (2018-)

1917 (2019)

the art of racing in the rain (2019)

can you keep a secret? (2019)

booksmart (2019)

someone great (2019)

endings, beginnings (2019)

emma (2020)

enola holms (2020-)

the last letter from your lover (2021)

the world to come (2021)

we live in time (2024)

🌼 ‧₊˚ ⋅ series ⋅˚₊‧

little house on the prairie (1974-1983)

moomin valley (1990-1992)

greys anatomy (2005-)

gossip girl (2007-2012)

skins (2007-2013)

the great british bake off (2010-)

new girl (2011-2018)

brooklyn nine-nine (2013-2021)

the fosters (2013-2018)

the 100 (2014-2020)

jane the virgin (2014-2019)

outlander (2014-)

grace and frankie (2015-2022)

poldark (2015-2019)

critical role (2015-)

howards end (2017)

girlboss (2017)

she's gotta have it (2017-2019)

the bold type (2017-2021)

mr. sunshine (2018)

queer eye (2018-)

crash landing into you (2019)

the witcher (2019-)

dickinson (2019-2021)

sex education (2019-2023)

bridgerton (2020-)

ted lasso (2020-2023)

nevertheless (2021)

abbott elementary (2021-)

flatshare (2022)

[citizenscreen]

Stefanie Powers and Robert Vaugn on set of the TV series 'The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.', 1966.

[the-meme-from-uncle]

Recoloured a bunch of my old drawings because I'm experimenting with a new colour palette (also I didn't have my drawing tablet so it was easier to just use on old drawing and paint bucket everything). Also, also, I haven't posted anything gfu in ages so I've really been slacking in my self-imposed job of reminding people that the show exists. Sorry about that, gang. This has been your reminder 🫡

[banemmanan]

I make so many stupid memes for the discord and then I never post them here and I need to rectify that immediately tbh.

[gnome-adjacent-vagabond]

The Mother Muffin Affair experience.

[delflorias-steampress]

"I Don't Like People Snooping!"

From Lady Penelope magazine, issue 59, 4 March 1966.

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