A Childhood Gone

You know childhood is really gone when those who peopled your youth are gone. Two such left us this week: Peter Graves and Robert Culp. I had crushes on both of these guys because I love spy series. Graves was so suave and brilliant in "Mission Impossible." But Robert Culp represented a whole other dimension to me. I liked him when he was the cowboy, Hoby Gilman, in that series, I think it was called "Trackers." But when he became Kelly Robinson, the tennis player, in "I Spy," he became more than a hero. Of course, Sheldon Leonard who originally cast Culp and Cosby earns a big round of applause. This was in the early 60s -- still a time when TV Land was so ultra-white that people all across the country would yell at each other to hurry up and watch if there was anybody black on TV. The scripts were written to show the two spies as co-workers and perhaps pals, but Culp was so genuinely affectionate, he and Cosby really did seem like best friends. He always said great, insightful things about Cosby--for all the years afterward, he spoke with reverence of Cosby's talent. I think he was always an under-recognized talent and man. I am the admiring Ruth Adkins Robinson.