Bill Cosby, "I Spy," the Cold War and what followed

Bill Cosby, Robert Culp

We might forget how TV in the 1960s was such a bonding tool for our culture. Retrospectives of today refer to the "Big 3" TV networks. Younger people get this as a historical lesson. But without having experienced life with such a shared entertainment diet, for sure it's hard fully understanding. 

It's hard to look back in many ways, of course, like to a society in which not only was smoking cigarettes accepted, it was a symbol of "maturity," of being suave and that sort of thing. Think of the Jerry Lewis "cool" character that alternated with his other persona, the weird "professor." 

People in the "Big 3" network days would gather around the proverbial water cooler and share about the current shows. With such a drastically limited choice compared to today, there was commonality with their consumption. One cannot even compare 1960s television to today. 

Bad or good? Some features of each, probably. The actors faced a "bad or good?" question too, "good" being a nationally-known practitioner of your profession - what could be better? - "bad" being that you entered a fishbowl where you'd stay a long time, maybe for life. Would anyone really wish to sacrifice their privacy that way? For child actors the experience could become a time bomb as they subsequently struggled to be normal people. Maybe that's the problem: they were "people" with human failings like the rest of us, only they get in a fishbowl. 

How many of us would really desire "celebrity?" I assure you, nothing conferred "celebrity" like the TV shows of the 1960s. 

Which brings me to the subject of Bill Cosby. Cosby vaulted to the kind of stardom of which I speak in 1965. He got the nod for a co-lead part, with Robert Culp, for the NBC show "I Spy." Just as westerns had an incredible run in movies and TV, so too did the spy theme grow and proliferate. "I Spy" was right in line with the faddish story lines of "us vs. them," "them" often being the Russians. We were all "sold" on the cold war. 

General Patton predicted we would end up fighting the Russians. The Russians were the colossal boogeyman but we never fought them the way we fought the Axis powers. We only pretended we did, and by that I mean we "fought" the Vietnam war but hardly in a no-holds-barred way. The Russians or the communists ended up as a mysterious enemy, never out in the open in a clear field of fire. We were sold on how those elements were such an awful threat. Then we sort of tip-toed our way through Vietnam at least by comparison to WWII. And of course the toll for America over those several years was horrible, almost unimaginable. 

"Rambo" the character was asked if he could still love America after all the subterfuge. A rational answer would be something less than yes, if you viewed as unforgivable the cannon fodder of U.S. men, but Rambo said (as I recall) "love it? I'd give my life for it." 

Would Hollywood have any choice other than this message? Actually the movies of the 1970s really did get pretty raw and direct with the more negative side. Ultimately us Americans get talked into the patriotic angle - we get emotional distance from all the tragedy, and once again all the American Legion commanders with their funny hats and pot bellies give speeches from podiums of public schools on Memorial Day. Life goes on as scripted. 

It is strange, however, that we had a U.S. president from 2016 to 2020 who came right out and said that our servicemen, even the deceased, are "losers and suckers." Just as strange is the affinity this president had with the Russian autocratic leader. It's mind-blowing or ought to be for people my age - I'm 66 - who grew up watching the spy shows like "I Spy." 

 

A panoply of shows

Oh my, we watched "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," the Beatles movie "Help," James Bond movies and Alfred Hitchcock's "North By Northwest." Secret agents seeking to deceive. Sometimes I feel like shifting in my chair just seeing all those guys wearing suits and ties, even through physical altercations. Everyone: suits and ties. That bother you too? And for sure many of them smoked. 

"I Spy" ran for three seasons. Culp played "Kelly Robinson" and Cosby was "Alexander 'Scotty' Scott." The pair traveled undercover as "tennis bums." They went after spies and villains and also crossed paths with "beautiful women" according to standards of the time, with a little misogyny. Women as objects? Like on the Dean Martin variety TV show? Seems as dated as smoking now. 

Might Cosby have been influenced to objectify women? He parlayed his success as "Scotty" into other hugely successful TV endeavors, obviously. He was the epitome of celebrity. Such people including Bob Crane of "Hogan's Heroes" succumbed to dark impulses. Crane according to historical accounts found that women sought sexual intimacy with him because of his celebrity. The impulses could become self-destructive, even fatal as with Crane. 

 

Not complicated

Cosby, despite his incredible fame and success, and in spite of the talent that got him there, simply caved to the most base of human impulses. Don't we all want sex? Put in a raw way, it can be there for the taking for mega celebrities. Women allowed themselves to be in private with Cosby in a manner that should have shouted "caution" to them. So I'm blaming them? Oh, knock that off. 

We are human beings with failings, we make mistakes, we respond to our sexual inclinations in ways that we need to recognize are reckless. I won't say "immoral." It can turn criminal. In Cosby's case, the scenario finally went that direction or was judged that way. Yes, after much time had elapsed. 

I have never been a fan of putting very elderly people in prison. Even former Nazis who finally get judged in their 90s - I often think it just isn't worth the trouble. Let these people go. They are battling the effects of age anyway. 

 

Personal memory of Cosby

I had the pleasure of seeing Cosby perform in Las Vegas in the 1980s, at the Riviera. He was at his best. Never could I have thought that I in the audience was the lucky one and Cosby was the star-crossed one. What Cosby did to end up in prison was terrible. Then again, I'd like to see him perform again. His talent was God's gift. God's gifts should always be utilized. 

Let's remember: "I Spy" was the first American TV drama to feature a black actor in a lead role. But the show was never race-conscious, quite to the contrary. Culp said at the time "our statement is a non-statement" regarding race. So I guess racism wasn't the enemy on the show, it was the Russians or other shady actors around the globe. 

Just today I watched the "I Spy" opening on YouTube and it was like not a single day had passed. Isn't that amazing? Would like to share about that at the "water cooler."

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Benson High School is holdout w/ Indian-themed name

No movement toward changing this?

The Benson Braves ended our MACA baseball season in 2021. The score was 4-3 as the Braves prevailed over the Tigers on May 29. According to "Minnesota Scores," this game was played at Grove City. As it was a first-round game, I don't see why it could not have been played at Morris or Benson. 

It was a disappointing end to the Tigers' season as we had fashioned a record over .500. With the loss at the end, the orange and black finished at 12-9. 

In the Benson game "we just weren't hitting," commented Dan Sayles, father of coach Kirby. I have some interaction with good ol' Dan at DeToy's Restaurant occasionally. I enjoy that he's a "fan" of my musical compositions. He remembers me from my halcyon days as newspaper journalist. 

We must remember that in the days before the Internet, and in the early years of the new phenomenon, being a newspaper writer made you an important person. Yes, even influential to a degree. Today everyone is empowered to communicate with a large number of people. The new way is a blessing in many ways though not 100 percent. For example, "vaccine deniers" can get their views out there to a disturbing degree. 

We all want to get over the virus, don't we? Will the deniers keep the chance alive for a resurgence of the virus, probably the Delta or some other new strain, this fall? 

 

Matter of contention

I bring up the final Tiger baseball game of 2021 mainly to note the nickname of the opposing team. Yes, you know what I'm getting at I'm sure. 

Benson has surprisingly been out of the controversy spotlight with its nickname and logo. One wonders if the school has been trying to sell its nickname as a universal "warrior" type of image, rather than as one connected to Native Americans. Some quick research shows this evidently is not the case, as Benson has a symbol with a Native American feather. 

By current standards this crosses the line. I would suggest that in the Twin Cities, this would be an impossible sell now. As a quiet rural outstate community, maybe Benson has been immune because we're just so, well, quiet and outstate. Us rural people might be expected to use a nickname in a benign way because surely, us rural Minnesotans are so sweet and gentle, right? Well, we seem to talk that way according to the "Minnesota nice" template as exploited by the movies "Fargo" and "North Country." 

How many people do you know who really talk in a sing-songy way, a way that Hollywood would imply is ignorance? Well, that's Hollywood. We are not all obsessed with how a particular hockey team is doing in winter. 

We are in fact rabid about our high school sports. A friend of mine jokes that high school sports is the No. 1 reason for the existence of outstate high schools. Sometimes I'm not sure if that's exaggeration. 

But anyway, Benson has up to now continued with its ageless "Braves" nickname and symbol. I have heard barely a ripple of talk about it. Increasingly I find that strange. I wonder if the school board there has even authorized a study into the soundness of continuing this way. 

 

Trend across the USA

Hey all you Benson people: here's a July 9 headline from "The Hill" website: "Bans on Native American mascots pick up after Washington football team name change." And the first sentence: "State legislators are advancing measures meant to bar public schools from using Native American mascots in the wake of a spotlight case by the Washington football team's decision to drop its derogatory former name." To review, it was "Redskins." 

Colorado and Nevada acted last month to bar the Native American mascots. These actions followed Washington state. 

Connecticut and Massachusetts - whew, tough to type those state names - have measures pending for later this year. Before this year, Maine was the only state to have taken such action. 

You're probably aware that the debate over this has gone on a long time, and swirled in a most uncomfortable way at University of North Dakota where "Fighting Sioux" once held forth. 

After all the venting and strong emotions, I'll bet any school is able to get over this thing pretty quickly. Who really cares what a school's sports nickname is? Why should it matter so much? I would suggest to Benson High School: why not the "Benson Bobcats?" There's alliteration there.

No inhibitions about the nickname, it appears (benson public schools ISD #777 site)

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

The Cold War pulled us into mistrust, anxiety

Mad Magazine had its "Spy vs. Spy" series, cute. Alfred Hitchcock gave us "North by Northwest" with Cary Grant. Remember the menacing airplane? But there's nothing like TV to lay out the current zeitgeist for us. American society was coached not to be very trusting in the 1960s. The attitude persisted until Ronald Reagan tamed the old Soviet Union and communist forces. 

But how much of those threats were trumped up? Mikhail Gorbachev in a revealing moment seemed a little disoriented when confronted with the term "communism." The word had been thrust in Americans' faces for years. Was it just our military industrial complex at work? Convincing us there was an evil adversary that always required vigilance and more importantly, an ever-more bloated defense budget? 

So we went to war against communism in southeast Asia? Americans were constantly advised how there were shadowy forces around the globe, forces that just happened to be sympathetic to collectivism. Collectivism would be the arch enemy of the American drive to amass wealth and to remind the less fortunate of their shortcomings. Darwinism in a way. 

Gorbachev sort of shrugged when asked about "communism" and said it was merely a manifestation of organized crime. Would make total sense, I guess, or let's just say it's elementary: Any time a country's leaders are not democratically chosen, you could say the ruling system is the equivalent of organized crime. 

We might be vigilant right now in our USA, in terms of protecting democracy, in light of how the Voting Rights Act was sort of neutered by the Supreme Court, and Republicans nationally are doing what they can to suppress the vote in order to retain the power they have. Republicans are about 47 percent of the population now. They are scared in light of that. Some tricks are needed for Republicans to continue holding forth. 

You might argue that people are stupid voting for Democrats because Democrats just want to give away stuff. You can argue the point but you must continue respecting democracy. If you're so certain of your correctness, so certain of how Republican principles benefit the whole of society, get into the arena of ideas and simply try to persuade. 

But the Republican Party of America in 2021 has fallen from its perch of admirable ideals, the ideals that have long powered National Review magazine. It is perilously close to being nothing but a personality cult. You might shake your head and think we're already there. 

Whither America? But it's not our first crisis. So I'm thinking back to the 1960s, my growing-up years. And it is so profoundly sad to juxtapose the joy of our popular culture then - the TV and movie entertainment and our music - with the utter indescribable horror of the Vietnam war. 

 

"Be very afraid"

The specter of communism was out there, we were told by the likes of Legion and VFW commanders with their funny little hats and pot bellies. When the war faded into a mess of defeat and disillusion, these people grew quiet and confused. Young people slowly put thoughts of the war aside and got on with the real productive business of their lives. 

I was too young to be a candidate for the draft. But it's possible that the Cold War affected me profoundly anyway. Seriously. How? Our American education system decided it had to really push kids toward ever greater academic achievement, a sophisticated level of knowledge, as a means of "beating the Russians." Technically it was the USSR but we referred to the Russians as in the movie "The Russians are Coming." The movie was a powerful satire on the paranoid stance of so many Americans relative to some foreign countries that chose to live different from us. 

The U.S. education system itself was probably glad to be put in this position, because its coffers could be filled so readily. It was all to "beat the Russians." The effort was horribly misplaced. 

It is fine and wonderful to nurture the very most intelligent American youth this way. The problem is when we decide as a matter of principle that all youth have the potential to become eminent scholars. I can only look back and feel bitter. I am now age 66 and life is increasingly in my rear view mirror. So I guess I'm feeding the pigeons though not literally. 

But any potential for self-esteem I might have had really got crushed when I was in the public school. It isn't like that any more, is it? It's not like a prison any more, is it? I mean, where you'd need a few extra seconds to get organized at your locker and then face the wrath of a fire-breathing teacher if you were a bit late for class? Our parents must have thought that was OK. Our fathers had probably been through boot camp so what the heck? 

The military draft died a long time ago. Donald Trump for all his ignorance still says "to heck with fighting foreign wars" which shows, I guess, that a broken clock is still right twice a day. 

I couldn't handle algebra. I just didn't get it. I could have been waterboarded and said "thank you" by comparison. Why did I have to go through that? I had cognitive issues with math and science classes, starting in the seventh or eighth grade. This did not make me a bad person. But I never had any problem with basic arithmetic. I had a savant-like skill when it came to reading and writing, or was it that my mom just pushed me in this? Give Mom the credit. 

I am bitter and I cannot live my life over again. So it was the "commies" that laid the groundwork for this, by forcing the U.S. and its military industrial complex to go into overdrive. It dragged our big monopolistic public education system with it. Hey, big government can fight and win wars as it did in glorious World War II, right? So let's employ it in education. Except that approach sucked.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com