Copyright © 2026 OyList. All Rights Reserved.
Share
Items18
1
The Avengers (1961)
8.3/10on IMDb
First aired
Start with Diana Rigg's Emma Peel and Patrick Macnee's John Steed if you want a partnership that can make an exchange of pleasantries feel like a contest. Then try Honor Blackman's Cathy Gale. She brings a different kind of briskness to the same exercise in keeping your composure while the story gets stranger.
More about The Avengers2
The Prisoner (1967)
8.4/10on IMDb
First aired
The Village looks like a lovely place to spend an afternoon, which is part of what makes it such an effective prison. Patrick McGoohan's Number Six keeps pushing against the rules of the place. Try it for the unease of a familiar spy lead who can't simply walk away at the end of the mission.
More about The Prisoner3
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964)
7.7/10on IMDb
First aired
Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin are American and Soviet agents on the same side, with a tailor shop concealing their headquarters. The relationship makes the polished absurdity go down easily. Start here if you enjoy a spy story that lets its leads look mildly amused by the elaborate trouble they've attracted.
More about The Man from U.N.C.L.E.4
Danger Man (1960)
7.9/10on IMDb
First aired
Patrick McGoohan plays John Drake, an agent who can get a great deal done by paying attention. That makes a fine contrast with his role in The Prisoner. Pick this if you'd like more legwork and fewer toys, with someone who seems happiest when he has worked out what the other person needs from him.
More about Danger Man5
Mission: Impossible (1966)
7.9/10on IMDb
First aired
A recorded message gives the team its assignment, and then the specialists have to fit their parts of the plan together. The original television series gives you time to watch the small preparations pay off. Try it for the satisfaction of recognizing what a little piece of business was for after someone has finally put it to use.
More about Mission: Impossible6
Callan (1967)
8.3/10on IMDb
First aired
Edward Woodward's David Callan does dirty work for British intelligence. His friendship with a petty thief named Lonely gives the assignments an unusually human cost. Take this route if you want a spy series where a man can do his job brilliantly and still have to live with the people who sent him to do it.
More about Callan7
The Saint (1962)
7.5/10on IMDb
First aired
Roger Moore's Simon Templar looks comfortable wherever he arrives, even when the room is beginning to turn against him. Pick this for the pleasures of a self-appointed adventurer. Moore gives the conversation just enough friendliness to make the next question sound innocuous.
More about The Saint8
I Spy (1965)
7.2/10on IMDb
First aired
Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott work undercover as a tennis player and his trainer. The pairing gives an ordinary conversation a reason to do two jobs at once. Revisit it if you want the feeling of listening to friends joke while watching each of them quietly assess how much the other has noticed.
More about I Spy9
Get Smart (1965)
8.2/10on IMDb
First aired
Maxwell Smart can make a telephone call on a shoe, while Agent 99 has to make a mission work with him there. The parody is especially good when her competence gives his certainty nowhere to go. Choose it when a serious show has made you impatient with how impressed its secret agents are with their own equipment.
More about Get Smart10
The Wild Wild West (1965)
8.1/10on IMDb
First aired
James West and Artemus Gordon travel for the government by rail in Ulysses S. Grant's America. Combining ornate spy apparatus and a western wasn't a tidy idea. That's the point of watching it. The train gives the partners a place to regroup between adventures that keep finding new ways to make the setting strange.
More about The Wild Wild West11
Department S (1969)
7.3/10on IMDb
First aired
A case starts with nobody quite sure how an aircraft could be missing for days when its occupants can't account for the time. Come for the strangeness of the problems, then see how you like Jason King and the team's competing ways of attacking them. It's most fun when solving the puzzle seems less plausible than posing it.
More about Department S12
Man in a Suitcase (1967)
7.6/10on IMDb
First aired
McGill, a discredited former intelligence agent, works as a private investigator. Watch his cases when you want the lonelier end of 1960s adventure. The job here feels less like a pleasant excuse to go abroad and more like the thing a man keeps doing because it is the one skill he can still sell.
More about Man in a Suitcase13
The Champions (1968)
7.5/10on IMDb
First aired
Three agents crash in Tibet and come away with powers they didn't have when they set out. It's a fun choice if you want to see a spy adventure get away with introducing a little superhero logic. The three leads get to share the work instead of standing around waiting for one specialist to do something extraordinary.
More about The Champions14
The Baron (1966)
7.1/10on IMDb
First aired
John Mannering deals in art and antiques and helps British intelligence. There is charm in giving an adventurer reasons to pay attention to both a room's furnishings and the person standing in it. Try it for the unhurried pleasure of a hero who can plausibly strike up a conversation anywhere.
More about The Baron15
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966)
6.6/10on IMDb
First aired
April Dancer and Mark Slate bring a new partnership to the agency from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The show is a better prospect when you feel like watching the formula loosen up than when you want credible stakes. Try it as a side trip after you have settled into the original series.
More about The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.16
It Takes a Thief (1968)
7.5/10on IMDb
First aired
Alexander Mundy gets out of prison on the understanding that he'll steal for the government. The invitation to root for the professional thief is the appeal. Robert Wagner lets you enjoy the work as an expression of good taste, right up until the job calls for one more thing than Mundy bargained for.
More about It Takes a Thief17
Honey West (1965)
7.5/10on IMDb
First aired
Anne Francis plays a private detective with a taste for specialized gadgets and a pet ocelot. If you like the confidence of The Avengers, this is an American cousin worth knowing. The cases give her room to take the practical lead even when an episode is leaning harder on the novelty of the setup.
More about Honey West18
Joe 90 (1968)
6.7/10on IMDb
First aired
A schoolboy becomes a superspy in Gerry Anderson's puppet series. The brain-pattern premise gives you an adventure determined to try an unusual disguise, career, or setting whenever it can. It's the right detour if you mostly want to see what the era could do with models and a premise too strange to make entirely respectable.
More about Joe 90
