Production History Overview
How much of leading character John Drake originated with series creator Ralph Smart and how much with actor Patrick McGoohan is uncertain; McGoohan never spoke about Smart in any detail. They did have face-to-face meetings at the beginning of the project, at which time they fleshed out the character of John Drake.
According to Andrew Pixley's notes to the CD Danger Man Original Soundtrack, Ian Fleming was involved with Ralph Smart to bring James Bond to television. (Casino Royale had been a one-off live TV play in America a few years before). Fleming dropped out and was replaced by Ian Stuart Black, and a new format/character to be called "Lone Wolf" was developed. This evolved into Danger Man. Fleming, meanwhile, assisted in pre-production discussion on the American series, The Man from U.N.C.L.E..
The degree to which McGoohan changed Smart's original ideas is unclear. Smart evidently agreed to the changes and continued to be enthusiastic about his creation.
In the United States, CBS broadcast some of the original format's episodes of the program in 1961 under the Danger Man title as a summer replacement for the Western series Wanted: Dead or Alive. Under the Secret Agent title, the same network aired the entirety of the second and third series in 1965-1966.
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