Bond played by Nelson wears a tuxedo and smokes too much but that's the only link you'll recognise. My own fascination watching this was entirely down to the opposite reason - it's Bond as film noir that shares nothing in common with the film series. Worse than that imagine if he was an American character ? I do apologise I didn't mean to make you faint Some people have said this live American TV production deserves some credit for at least sticking to the plot of the original novel which is not something you can say about the films that started going their own way even before the end of the 1960s. Now imagine a James Bond story without any of these icons. We all know Bond is the most successful film franchise in history and we all recognise the icons, the babes, the exotic locations, the gadgets, the big set piece stunts etc of a franchise featuring a very British fictional hero. I don't think it was until the internet era that I found out an obscure trivia fact and that was the first media appearance of Ian Fleming's James Bond wasn't Sean Connery in DR NO but Barry Nelson in an American anthology series called CLIMAX which adapted CASINO ROYALE.

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