Which 1950’s US television program featured the first portrayal of Ian Fleming’s Secret Agent James Bond?

“Climax!” broadcast an adaptation of Ian Fleming’s “Casino Royale” on October 21, 1954. CBS paid Fleming $1,000 for his adaptation for American television. The 50-minute live presentation was broadcast in color but only two black-and-white copies of the show were ever found, nearly three decades later.

In the broadcast, Barry Nelson portrayed an American spy working for the “Combined Intelligence Agency”, who was named James Bond but referred to by several characters as “Jimmy”. Peter Lorre played the villain, Le Chiffre. A British agent, “Clarence Leiter” supported Bond.

Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios acquired the rights to the Climax version of “Casino Royale”, as well as the 1967 film version and the 2006 film remake of the story. In 1961, CBS proposed a two-year television series featuring the Bond character and asked Fleming to write 32 episodes. Fleming started writing outlines, but the series never developed.

Fleming adapted to the situation, turning three of the outlines into short stories, wrote two new short stories, and grouped them into an anthology volume, “For Your Eyes Only”. The stories included within the book’s covers are “From a View to a Kill”, For Your Eyes Only”, Quantum of Solace”, “Riscio”, and “The Hildebrand Rarity”.

Some elements of the collection found their way into the films “For Your Eyes Only” (1981), “A View to a Kill” (1985), “License to Kill” (1989), and “Quantum of Solace” (2008).