Ian Fleming is best known for creating legendary super spy James Bond, but his involvement in the “Bond” film franchise once cost the author the opportunity to launch another iconic spy series. Fleming was an early contributor to “Solo,” the show that became “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” and his role was originally set to be the show’s major selling point. It was Fleming who came up with the suave spy Napoleon Solo as the series’ protagonist, resulting in the show initially being pitched as “Ian Fleming’s Solo.”
Following the recent success of the first “Bond” film, “Dr. No,” producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman pushed for Fleming’s withdrawal from the TV series. The MGM producers didn’t want the author behind their then-fledgling “Bond” movie franchise tied up in a project with a similar premise on television. On June 26, 1963, Fleming formalized his withdrawal from “Solo” in a letter to producer Norman Felton. He assigned all rights to Napoleon Solo and any TV show featuring the character to Felton, in exchange for one pound.
It was Felton who first had the idea for the espionage series and, when it was suggested to him that the premise was similar to Bond, he met with Fleming to discuss the concept further. Following Fleming’s exit, the show’s development and production duties fell to Felton and series co-creator Sam Rolfe. Rolfe was the one who proposed that Solo’s employer be the fictional organization known as U.N.C.L.E., leading to the show’s eventual rebrand.
Napoleon Solo was Ian Fleming’s legacy on The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
A series that was ahead of its time, “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” followed two spies, one American and the other Russian, working together as agents of U.N.C.L.E. Premiering in 1964, during the Cold War, the series’ decision to cast heroes from opposing superpowers was a bold one. The American agent remained Napoleon Solo, as conceived by Fleming. Solo was ultimately brought to life by the late Robert Vaughn, who shared the spotlight with “NCIS” legend David McCallum as Russian agent Illya Kuryakin.
Fleming’s contributions to “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” were ultimately minimal. The name Napoleon Solo was the only significant trace of his input in the finished series. In 1966, spin-off series “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.” would revisit another of Fleming’s ideas, introducing a protagonist named April Dancer — Fleming’s proposed name for a secretary character, cut from the same cloth as Bond’s Miss Moneypenny.
While Fleming had severed ties with the series in 1964, his contributions still caused some friction with the “Bond” producers. In February 1964, Felton and his team received a cease-and-desist, stating that the TV series and its marketing could not reference Ian Fleming or use the name Solo, owing to the inclusion of a Mr. Solo in the “Bond” novel “Goldfinger” and its then-in-production film adaptation. While the series’ title was changed to “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” the protagonist retained the name Solo. Perhaps surprisingly, this decision received no further pushback from MGM.
