Spook glorifying TV first started to become ubiquitous in the 60s, and it shouldn't be too difficult to understand why
archive.org/details/televi…
"In the years 1964-5 telefilms turned more specifically to international struggles, with emphasis on clandestine warfare. The timing was not an accident."
Should also add that the inclusion criteria for the above list, "spy series on television in the 1960s" seem to be arbitrarily narrow. e.g. I'm guessing Mod Squad wasn't included bc it's technically about police spies, but it was obviously a part of the same trend
The cointel-aligned "mass media" researchers were certainly paying attention. Also, here we see "Julia" rearing its head again
In "Warriors of Disinformation", Alvin Snyder mentions the recruitment of Aaron Spelling (the producer of Mod Squad) to the USIA's “Motion Picture and TV Committee” launched by Reagan
Robert L. Allen names 60s shows like "I Spy", "Julia", and "Mod Squad" as examples of the media program to "inculcat[e] blacks with white middle-class values." But you don't need to take his word for it, here it is straight from the horse's mouth
Here's the Allen bit I was referring to
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