Bill Cosby & Rolex Say Goodbye To Robert Culp
Robert Culp who costarred on I Spy with Bill Cosby now belongs to the ages. Robert Culp was 79 years old and died unexpectedly this week after falling near his Hollywood Hills home.
Robert Culp and Bill Cosby not only co-starred on I Spy, but were great friends for the rest of their lives and the L.A. Times wrote a great article which covered an interview with Bill Cosby about his relationship with Robert Culp. The article mentioned Bill Cosby was shocked to hear of his pals death and spoke very warmly about their close friendship that went far beyond their on-screen partnership.
I Spy ran on TV for three seasons from 1965 to 1968 and both Robert Culp's character Kelly Robinson and Bill Cosby's character Alexander Scott but wore Pepsi GMT-Master watches on the show.
To the best of my knowledge, the only character on a TV show before them that wore a Rolex was Lloyd Bridges on SEA-HUNT.
I Spy was groundbreaking in the world of TV as it was the first have an African American actor in a lead role.
If you have been reading Jake's Rolex World for a long time, you know we used to have I Spy Saturday as a feature where I started with the first episode of I Spy and each Saturday we would watch an episode on order and I would do screen grabs of Robert Kulp and Bill Cosby sporing their trademark Pepsi Rolex GMT-Master watches.
I stopped I Spy Saturday because I did not have time to do all the historic research for Jake's Rolex World and do I Spy Saturday, but as soon as I get the chance I will bring back Flipper Friday, I Spy Saturday and Miami Vice Monday.
Of course, my goal is to document every screen shot from I Spy that had a Rolex GMT and I left off on Season 1, Episode 15, but here are some really cool shots. One of my favorite things from watching I Spy is how elegant and stylish Robert Culp and Bill Cosby were–very much like Steve McQueen from the same era!!!
I decided I would republish I Spy Saturday from Season 1, Episode 2 which was a gold mine of cool Rolex shots:
I Spy Saturday
Season 1 [Episode 2 : A Cup of Kindness]
Original Air Date: September 22, 1965
Welcome to the second I Spy Saturday on Jake's Rolex Watch Blog. Well it looks like we hit the jackpot in episode 2!!!! There is a tremendous amount of Rolex GMT Master exposure. So the way this works is I watch the episode first, do screen grabs of all the cool Rolex shots and then you can watch the episode if you like.
I was kind of shocked because in this episode we see 3 distinct timecheck wrist shots and they are all pretty clear. They almost appear to be a Rolex commercial, which is much better than the opposite–meaning, a fruitless search. The first two wrist shots are of Kelly's (Robert Culp) wrist and there is another one of Scotty's (Bill Cosby) later in this story.
It dawned on me yesterday when I was watching Flipper that the reason both Bill Cosby and Robert Culp's characters wear GMTs is because they are international travelers and since the GMT Master can keep track in two different time zones they must be keeping time in Hong Kong, where this episode is shot, as well as Pentagon time in Washington D.C.
There are two seemingly similar wrist shots above of Robert Culp's GMT because he looks at it in two completely different scenes.
I added this shot below because we can see that Robert Culp is wearing Vans slip-on style shoes which are really stylish today.
I think the fashion from I Spy was really cool. We see Bill Cosby wearing a high, mock T-Shirt like Tiger Woods always wears today–which is a really cool, mod look. We also see Kelly wearing a La Coste (Alligator shirt, not shown) as well as an ascot, and Scotty also wears a high-button-placement three piece suit. All great style if you ask me.
In this next shot we see Bill Cosby under the bed wearing his GMT Master.
In the next three photos we see wrist shots of Bill Cosby wearing his GMT Master.
In this last photo we see a close up screen shot of Bill Cosby's wrist sporting his GMT Master. I believe that Bill Cosby and Robert Culp's GMT Master models are identical and I think they are both wearing Rolex GMT Master [Reference 1675]. If I am wrong about the reference, please correct me.
Rest In Peace Robert Culp. You were one cool, funny, inspiring, charismatic, actor!!!