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"Espionage is a dirty business. On more than one occasion, Inspector Lewis Erskine of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was called upon to investigate -- and even infiltrate -- those who conspired to commit espionage upon the Government and citizens of the United States." Marvin Miller, narrator for eight of the nine seasons of The FBI, never uttered those words precisely. But espionage-theme stories were a major part of the longest-running television series filmed by QM Productions. QM, the initials of its founder, Quinn Martin (birth name: Martin Cohn), was a major independent produce of television dramas in the 1960s and 1970s. In some instances, QM worked in conjunction with major studios, on others it worked entirely on its own. The FBI was a co-production of QM and Warner Bros. (which had secured the rights to any drama filmed in cooperation with the bureau) Indeed, producer Martin hesitated, at first, to become involved in a proposed series that would be filmed with the approval of the bureau. In the end, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover won Martin over. The end result was a series that would run from 1965 to 1974, would span about 240 episodes and be a staple of Sunday television watching in the United States. 
Despite that success, The FBI is fairly forgotten today. In fact, I hadn't seen it for many years until TVLand aired the series' first episode in 2005 as part of a weekend saluting the 50th anniversary of Warner Bros. Television. In 2006 and early 2007, America Online showed a number of episodes on its In2TV feature, where people can view episodes for free. Apparently, AOL concluded the interest was limited and it hasn't shown any additional episodes since March 2007. In any case, here we'll look at some of the spy-oriented episodes of this long-running show. Perhaps the strangest highlight was a fourth-season episode in which a Soviet spy played by Russell Johnson (most famous for playing "the Professor" on Gilligan's Island) beats the crap out of Harrison Ford. This is only a sampling, but it gives you a flavor of how QM's version of The FBI (which tended to operate better with higher morals than the real-life FBI) came across on television.
"The Spy Master" (first season)
This episode aired late in the first season. Early episodes of the show had a lot of detail about Erskine's personal problems (he was a widower, his wife had died in a shootout "meant for me," his 19-year-old daughter wanted to marry his FBI partner). All of that had pretty much been dispensed with by this episode. Nevertheless, this episode is worth watching. Director Donner, who had earlier directed four episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and also directed episodes of The Wild, Wild West, keeps things moving at a brisk pace. Both Patrick O'Neill and Kevin McCarthy make for respectable villains. Still, a few signs of hectic TV production show through. Most of the story is set in New York, yet in a key scene in Act IV, a highway sign for Interstate 5 (which is in Southern California) can be seen.
"The Defector" Parts I and II (first season)
Erskine attempts to convice the intelligence operative's wife to convince her husband to defect. The U.S. has obtained coded transmissions of the unnamed Eastern Bloc country. The U.S. needs his ability to crack those codes before the conference begins. This sounds contrived, but great casting makes the first two-part story of the series watchable. Paul Lukas is the cagey ambassador of the Eastern Bloc country; Dana Wynter plays the defector's wife, who goes through quite an emotional trauma; and John Van Dreelan, who often played villains, is an oily chess player trying to play both sides. Toward the end of Part I there's a nice scene where Zimbalist's Erskine has outsmarted Van Dreelan's chess player:
"The Assassin" (second season)
The episode has a nice twist in that the title character is a normal looking, middle-aged man (William Windom). His target is a cleric (Dean Jagger) who preaches peace who will conduct a major rally in Chicago. His violent death would cause major problems for U.S. officials. Windom's character even gets off a gibe about James Bond. When the assassin is met by a dupe of a U.S. spy ring, he is surprised that the killer looks so ordinary. The assassin comments how real spies (and killers) wouldn't want to appear so handsome and draw attentions to themselves. Still, the episode also shows the real-life FBI kept a close watch on the show. One of the conspirators working in cahoots with the assassin is the dean of a college. To view "The Assassin:"
"List For a Firing Squad" (second season)
The plot may sound trite, but the episode has a good cast, include Suzanne Pleshette as an American woman who has fallen in love with the spy. Zimbalist's Erskine appears genuinely concerned for the woman and not a one-dimensional character. To view "List For a Firing Squad:"
"The Courier" (second season)
The cast includes Gene Hackman, who always is worth watching (he plays one of the conspirators). I enjoyed the episode overall, but the tone is less nuanced than other episodes of the series. To view "The Courier:"
"Caesar's Wife" (fourth season)
I understand, when watching an old show, that you ought not be prejudiced by roles that an actor would play AFTER he or she filmed what you're watching. Nevertheless, the story (which really is decent) is overshadowed by the image of Soviet agent Johnson (the one-time "Professor" of Gilligan's Island) beating up Harrison Ford after Ford's character has stumbled across the truth. It's very typical '60s/'70s television with the exaggerated sound effects. Next time Ford goes on Jay Leno's The Tonight Show or David Letterman's The Late Show, the producers really should dig this up to embarrass the hell out of the (now vastly rich) actor. To view "Caesar's Wife:"
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QM had relatively high production values, at least compared to other 1960s television shows. The pre-credits sequence -- in which Hong Kong is reproduced on a soundstage -- is pretty respectable even by early 21st Century standards.