Part of the joke is seeing Solo's reaction. It's kind of like trying to tell someone a Monty Python skit (you see, there are these two knights approaching this castle, and ... well, you just have to see it to appreciate it). But the joke here involved the real life situation of the actors. I don't remember the exact chronology, but Jill Ireland was married to David McCallum, and after he had introduced her to Charles Bronson, they began an affair that led to their eventual marriage (which lasted until she died). So that particular scene was kind of an intersection of the real world and their fictional characters, and "raspy voice" was a reference to Bronson, followed by Illya's, "I've read about your type, just never met one," and then followed by Solo's/Vaughn's reaction, and... well, you just have to see it to appreciate it. Now that I've over explained it, it doesn't seem that funny anymore. Kind of like a Monty Python skit. C'est la vie.
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[It exists] only for a moment, and then the moment's gone....
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a_l_i_e_n
8 years ago
So it was an intentional nod to Jill cheating on David with Bronson. Wow, that impresses me that they were okay with alluding to it in the script.
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shipagan
8 years ago
Very interesting, but, yes, would the actors be ok with playing that? Surely, there must have been hard feelings ?
I remember in season 2, Jill Ireland was back in the show and Robert Vaughn had been designated has the one who fell for her. Since Napoleon Solo was a womaniser, it makes sense. But it still looked a bit uncomfortable. They weren't touching much and the kiss didn't linger. I wondered if she was supposed to be her husband's love interest at first.
Also, as an "inside joke" people from 1965-66 got quickly was the time the duo is in a forsaken fort from the legion with this man who is half paranoid. He thinks Illya is a "traitor" for some unreasonable reason and says something like : "I bet you have been a Judas before". And David McCallum looks at him like he is thinking : "Wow. Seriously ?" Of course, at that time the actor was playing Judas in The Greatest Story Ever Told. The audience must have smiled. It probably flies over people's head now.
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a_l_i_e_n
8 years ago
Jill Ireland was back in the show and Robert Vaughn had been designated has the one who fell for her. Since Napoleon Solo was a womaniser, it makes sense. But it still looked a bit uncomfortable.
Yes, Ireland played the same character twice in season 1, and in those episodes she'd been more or less Illya's girl. Now she's back playing a completely different character, and (considering Ireland was actually McCallum's wife) it really looked strange that this time it was Solo who was romancing her. I always wondered if this was around the time she and McCallum split, and because of the understandable discomfort of the situation the producers just switched up the characters' relationship. And if so, it still looked odd.
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rms125a
8 years ago
Jill Ireland never played a character called "Callie" on the show. Her characters were named "Imogen Smythe", "Marion Raven" and "Suzanne de Serre". She and McCallum divorced in 1967. That year she made her last two appearances on the show. They were still married although undoubtedly marital tensions existed which reflected on the screen and in the rewritten relationship, pairing her Imogen Smythe with Solo, not Kuryakin.
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mzzz_tish
8 years ago
That dialogue exchange is from The Thor Affair. Jill Ireland wasn't in that episode, the character was Nellie (not Callie) and was played by Linda Foster.
So much for your inside joke...
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