Background
The pilot for the show featured a 'Mr. Allison' as the head of U.N.C.L.E., a character described as a pedantic man in his 50s. Will Kuluva was originally cast in the role, however he was replaced by Carroll after the pilot episode when an NBC executive reportedly suggested that the person with the name beginning with 'K' be omitted. It later emerged that he had meant the Russian spy Illya Kuryakin played by David McCallum. The show's producers thought he meant Kuluva. Although his scenes in the pilot episode 'The Vulcan Affair' were re-shot with Carroll in the role, Kuluva did appear as Mr. Allison in To Trap a Spy, a feature-length production based on the pilot which was released to cinemas in 1964.
In eventually casting Carroll in the role, the programme makers took a considerable departure from this original concept since the actor was in his 70s at the time. However, the casting was also apt since Carroll had featured in many of Alfred Hitchcock's films and Hitchcock's work was a touchstone for the show's originators. Indeed, he had played the 'Professor', the head of the espionage agency in North by Northwest, the film which inspired Norman Felton to bring the spy genre to the small screen.
Read more about this topic: Alexander Waverly
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