The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV Series) The Hot Number Affair (1967) User Reviews

Mixed Bag

[skysport · 5/10 · 29 December 2015]

I'll get right to the best part. The best part of the episode is when they play Sonny and Cher songs. But there's a problem with that. They play the songs when Sonny and Cher are actually doing scenes together. Sounds like that might be nice, right? Wrong. Because it's hard to hear the dialog because the music is so loud. Somebody cranked the music up so loud that Sonny and Cher's dialog gets drowned out by Sonny and Cher songs. It's completely illogical. When Sonny and Cher watched it together they probably couldn't stop laughing.

Did I mention the story is really dumb? It's really dumb. That's all it deserves to have said about it.

Anyway it does have Sonny and Cher and they both have a lot of charisma so the episode does have that. If you like Sonny and Cher (like me) you'll probably enjoy seeing them. If you don't you will probably be scratching your head a lot.

The Sonny & Cher Affair!

[ShadeGrenade · 1/10 · 2 July 2009]

You know immediately a show is in trouble when pop stars of the day are given guest roles. Paul and Linda McCartney in the '80's sitcom 'Bread', Leif Garrett in the 'One Of Our Teen Idols Is Missing' episode of 'Wonder Woman', and most infamously, Boy George as 'Cowboy George' in 'The A-Team', are all proof of the desperation some series have endured to stay buoyant in the ratings.

In 1967, the popular duo Sonny and Cher were brought into 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' after giving an interview citing it as their favourite show. It was the second appearance of a major pop artiste that season - the other being Nancy Sinatra in 'The Take Me To Your Leader Affair'.

Rather than be themselves, Sonny and Cher were given characters to play. Solo and Kuryakin are on the trail of a missing dress containing a secret code pertaining to THRUSH's F.Y.1 ( five-year report ). THRUSH want it too. Sonny plays 'Jerry', a dress maker with the firm of 'Agnes Sue', run by two men both with the first name of Harry. Jerry is secretly in love with model 'Ramona' ( Cher ). She has the dress, meaning that the bad-guys are after her. Several fights later, the adventure is concluded, and Solo tells Ramona that Jerry is an U.N.C.L.E. agent, making her see him in a new light.

Joseph and Carol Cavella's script is lazily plotted, with most of the action taking place either at Ramona's flat or at the Agnes Sue premises. Executive producer Norman Felton later complained how bad it was. Pity he did not notice this before it got made.

Sonny looks alarmingly like Benny Hill in those sketches where 'the lad himself' was called on to play a 17th century English peasant. Looking at her performance in this, it is hard to think this is the same Cher who later won an Oscar for 'Moonstruck' ( 1987 ). Worse than either of them are the two men who play the 'Agnes Sue' owners.

'I Got You Babe' can be heard on the radio in Sonny and Cher's first scene together.

Gerald Fried perfectly catches the mood of the story with his incidental music - performed on kazoos. When Illya executes an acrobatic stunt in the middle of a fight, we hear 'He Flies Through The Air With The Greatest Of Ease'.

In short, this is another slap in the face to U.N.C.L.E. fans. Fortunately, the season was nearing its end, and a new producer would put the show back on track. Not before time either. Had Boris Ingster stuck around, we might have been treated to 'Tiny Tim' as a THRUSH agent equipped with a rocket-firing banjo.

Wow! And not in a good way.

[gordonl56 · 4/10 · 13 April 2015]

THE MAN FROM UNCLE – The Hot Number Affair - 1967

This is the 84th episode of 1964 to 1968 spy series, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. The series ran for a total of 105 episodes. The first season was filmed in black and white with the remainder shot in colour. Robert Vaughn plays agent Napoleon Solo while David McCallum plays Illya Kuryakin. Leo G Carroll plays Mister Waverly, the boss of the secret agency known as U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law & Enforcement) UNCLE's main enemy is THRUSH, an organization out to take over the planet.

This season three episode is a disaster from start to finish. THRUSH has printed up fabric with key information hidden in the design. This mish-mash of an episode should have had the writing staff before a firing squad.

Guest stars Sonny and Cher, yes, Sonny and Cher, the big pop duo of the time play a model and a dress designer.

Most of the cast looks embarrassed as hell with George Tobias having a" get me out of here" grimace the entire episode.

Plot, what there is of it, follows UNCLE agents Vaughn and McCallum trying to get their hands on the dress. THRUSH is of course out to stop them.

This one is almost as bad as the infamous, MY FRIEND THE GORILLA AFFAIR from 1966.

Sonny & Cher Just Beginning

[sonnyncherfan · 10/10 · 21 May 2006]

I LOVE this episode because it shows Cher true-to-life, showing her initial interest in designing, right when her career in music had just begun to take off. And Sonny, WAY against character, is playing a tailor who is NOT married to her, but he is able to bank his jealousy in a way that makes for quite an interesting and comedic plot, with Cold-War-Russia undertones woven into a unusually styled, dress. This is a definite must for people who are in love with the remarkable TONE of the voice of Cher, as a young star, with their song playing a bit in the background, but tastefully. I like anything with young Sonny & Cher but this is truly a hard to find treasure!

my favourite episode

[gorytus-20672 · 8/10 · 11 August 2021]

Aug 21

I recently went through all 105 episodes of Man from Uncle tv series, and this is the one i enjoyed the most.

Guest starring Sonny and Cher, plenty of laughs here.

This episode seems to be regarded as one of the worse ones so i wanted to get the rating up a bit.

8 out of 10.