A MAN CALLED SLOANE (1979) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

A MAN CALLED SLOANE (1979) – Robert Conrad, often called the ultimate man’s man, was famous for several television series over the decades, especially The Wild Wild West and Black Sheep Squadron. Here is a look at his modern-day spy series from 1979, the last Quinn Martin Production. 

Conrad starred as American superspy Thomas Remington Sloane III aka T.R. Sloane, who worked for an espionage outfit called UNIT. (Go ahead and write T.R. Sloane/ Doctor Who fan fiction. Or not.) The evil organization opposed to our hero’s agency was called KARTEL.

Ji-Tu Cumbuka from blaxploitation films played Torque, a brawny mercenary with an artificial arm which could be outfitted with flamethrowers and other weaponry. (Arm? Torque? See what they did there?) Torque started out as a Jaws-like foe of T.R. Sloane but joined UNIT as Sloane’s partner. 

Sultry Michelle Carey, daughter of MacDonald Carey and a veteran of many Wild Wild West episodes herself, provided the voice of EFFIE, the supercomputer at UNIT headquarters. Dan O’Herlihy played UNIT’s director.   

A Man Called Sloane was fun but not spectacular and it only lasted 12 episodes in addition to a tv movie produced as a pilot for the series. That film wound up not being broadcast until AFTER the show was already canceled. Robert Logan portrayed Sloane in that telefilm but was replaced by Robert Conrad for the show.   

THE PILOT MOVIE AND EPISODES:

A MAN CALLED SLOANE: DEATH RAY 2000 – Filmed in 1979 but not broadcast until 1981, this pilot movie starred Robert Logan in the title role as mentioned above. Fred Silverman, about to fall from network executive legend to television turkey for the ages, didn’t like Logan and replaced him with the venerable Robert Conrad.   

When he wasn’t playing spy, Logan’s T.R. Sloane posed as an antique dealer who wore vintage clothing and drove a cream-colored Cord. (Maybe it was the Discount John Steed way the character was written in this pilot and not Robert Logan himself that Fred Silverman did not like.)

O’Herlihy was in place as the Director, with Carey already providing EFFIE’s husky voice. Sloane’s lovesick secretary Miss Blessing was played by Penelope Windust, but her imitation Miss Moneypenny was replaced in the subsequent series by the female Q Kelly O’Neal (Karen Purcill). Thankfully the antique shop and outdated clothing were dropped entirely for the series. 

Iconic Clive Revill portrayed KARTEL mastermind Erik Clawson, who was using a Death Ray that reduced human beings to skeletons. T.R. Sloane is called into action when Clawson targets the World Disarmament Council.

Torque was Erik Clawson’s henchman and fell to his death in this telefilm but as mentioned above, he was reworked as Sloane’s partner for the television series. 

NIGHT OF THE WIZARD (September 22nd, 1979) – The title of this first episode was an in-joke referring to Robert Conrad’s Wild Wild West series in which every episode was titled “Night of the” such and such.

Top Priority Agents T.R. Sloane and Torque went up against Manfred Baranoff (Roddy McDowall), a mad scientist who frequently stole plutonium “tablets” to power his terrorist gang of beautiful female androids who could shoot fire from their mouths. (And they called Loretta Swit “Hot Lips!”)

Baranoff planned to up his terrorism game by seizing a nuclear research center and thereby power an army of 500 androids. Sloane and Torque weren’t having it.   

THE SEDUCTION SQUAD (September 29th) – Robert Culp portrayed this episode’s villain Edward Denton, who played tennis as well as Culp’s I Spy character used to. Denton attracted the attention of our heroes by way of his network of beautiful women who hypnotically programmed Defense Department contractors to sabotage their latest projects. Naturally T.R. Sloane and Torque put an end to it.

Guest stars included THE Sybil Danning (at right), Anthony Eisley and Falcon Crest‘s Laura Johnson.   

TUNED FOR DESTRUCTION (October 6th) – This time around, Sloane and Torque tangled with rogue American General “Wild Bill” McEnvoy (Geoffrey Lewis), who had stolen a metal-destroying secret weapon and planned to invade and conquer a Third World nation on behalf of KARTEL. 

Denise DuBarry, Sandra Kerns, Rosalind Chao and Hawaii 5-0‘s Frank Michael Liu guest starred.

MASQUERADE OF TERROR (October 13th) – A KARTEL disguise expert once captured by T.R. Sloane escapes prison. His old outfit wants him to steal a secret weapon, but he demands that the group find and bring his girlfriend to him first.

Sloane and Torque get to her first and lie in wait for the villains’ next move. Guest starred the popular bad guy Richard Lynch, LaVelda Fann and Tiiu Leek.   

DEMON’S TRIANGLE (October 20th) – A plane carrying a female UNIT operative transporting defense plans disappears in the Bermuda Triangle. Sloane and Torque go searching for her and discover the cause of all the area’s disappearances of ships and planes.

That cause? Morgan Lancaster (Clive Revill again), a descendant of the pirate Henry Morgan, who uses his high-tech devices to seize planes and ships, then sells them to the highest bidder.

Also starred Marianne Marks and John Shearin.

THE VENUS MICROBE (October 27th) – My personal favorite episode of A Man Called Sloane. An unmanned space probe returns from Venus and is discovered to be carrying a virus which could wipe out all human life on Earth. A renegade scientist steals the virus AND the cure he developed for KARTEL.

Sloane and his partner go into action to save the world while clashing with an old KARTEL foe of our hero – casino owner and spymaster Jonathan Cambro (Monte Markham), who once killed the woman T.R. Sloane loved. Also starred Morgan Fairchild, Ava Lazar and Alex Henteloff.

COLLISION COURSE (November 17th) – Sloane and Torque must once again save the world. This time it’s from a plot using a missile to alter the course of a comet so that it collides with the Earth.

Guest stars included Eric Braeden, Pat Klous and Dick Durock.

SAMURAI (November 24th) – As required by law, Mako played the title character in this episode about KARTEL trying to strongarm the leader of a fictional country. They want him to step down so that their political puppet can take his place.

Guest stars included Nancy Conrad (Robert’s daughter), Earl Boen, John Lone and Richard Narita.

SWEETHEARTS OF DISASTER (December 1st) – Sloane fails to stop a squad of beautiful women from stealing a laser weapon prototype, but he intentionally damages the gem needed for the device. Torque goes undercover with a fake version of such a gem to smoke out the thieves so he and Sloane can get to the bottom of things.

Ted Hamilton, Lisa Shure and Jennifer Starrett guest starred.

LADY BUG (December 8th) – In this action and gadget-filled episode, T.R. Sloane and Torque go up against Penelope Chandler, played by THE Edie Adams (at left). She works for KARTEL and has in her control a scientist who has genetically engineered an incredibly deadly breed of locust.

The villains plan to wipe out American agriculture with the locusts. Penelope Chandler surrounded herself with muscular studs in little clothing, just like male villains in these stories always surrounded themselves with hot babes. Martin Kove, Robin Eisenman and Barbara Rucker appeared.

ARCHITECT OF EVIL (December 15th) – No, not Zoning Commissioner of Doom, Architect of Evil. Psychotronic film legend Michael Pataki plays the villainous Worthington Pendergrast. He’s a megalomaniacal madman who plans to use a nuclear sub in his plot to level America and rebuild it with slave labor using his ambitious architectural plans.

This is like that time interior decorators tried to depopulate Canada so they could redecorate everybody’s homes. Y’know? The iconic Vonetta McGee and John Aprea guest starred.

THE SHANGRI-LA SYNDROME (December 22nd) – Robert Conrad directed this final episode of the series. Dennis Cole played Sloane and Torque’s last villain – Hans Kruger, an ex-Nazi.

Kruger used accelerated aging weapons as part of a plan to clone guess who in South America. Torque and Sloane stopped him. (By the way, if I ever open a pub, I plan to call it “The Torque and Sloane.”) Jo Ann Harris, Daphne Reid, Barbara Trentham and Cormac O’Herlihy guest starred. 

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