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Line 1: {{work}} {{quote\|"Look, Al, I'm not asking you to spy, I'm just asking you to steal."\|'''Noah Bain''', ''[[It Takes a Thief (TV series)\|It Takes a Thief]]''}} '''''It Takes a Thief''''' was an American television series that aired on [[American Broadcasting Company\|ABC]] between 1968 and 1970. It followed the exploits of master thief Alexander Mundy. Facing a long sentence in prison, he's given an offer by Noah Bain (Malachi Throne), the cop who caught him and now the head of the SIA, an American intelligence agency. Mundy will be released from jail if he agrees to provide his unique skills to the government. It starred [[Robert Wagner]] as Mundy, and served as a prototype for similar shows, such as [[White Collar]], that also featured a [[Loveable Rogue]]. {{Needs More Info}} Note: There is an entirely different show which came out in the mid 2000s with the exact same name, it involves two former burglars gone straight who approach a family and offer them a free security system if they can stage a robbery of their place, giving the homeowner time to do anything necessary to protect the place. Invariably, the homeowners have the worst security you can believe, and typically the burglary team are in-and-out in under ten minutes, taking with them thousands of dollars of loot. The homeowners watch in horror on a closed circuit feed as they see their home broken into, then get to see when the stuff is brought back, just how much they could have lost. Often the amounts that would have been lost are 5 to 6 figures. Then the guys come back a few weeks after the homeowners have had a new, expensive security system installed. And in a form of [[Schmuck Bait]], about 1/2 of the houses they hit a second time can be successfully burglarized again! Not to be confused with the [[Reality Show]] of [[It Takes a Thief (2005 TV series)\|the same name]] which ran on the [[Discovery Channel]] from 2005-2007. ~~----~~ ~~=== Tropes related to the series: ===~~ {{tropelist}} * [[Always a Bigger Fish]]: Even though Al is a master thief, he readily admits that his father, Alistair, is even better. * [[Bavarian Fire Drill]]: One of Al's frequent methods of theft. For example, he'll show up saying he's been assigned to evaluate the security around the target of the week. The guards uaually buy this, giving Al the chance to get vital information for that episode's caper. Line 28 ⟶ 30: * [[Punch Clock Villain]]: Al runs into several of these throughout the series; usually they're his fellow thieves and con-artists, either working for themselves or employed by the bad guys. ** One example of this is Nick Grobbo (Ricardo Montalban), a high-class fence who shows up a couple of times. While he genuinely likes Al and would prefer that he simply stay out of his affairs, Nick threatens to kill Al if he should try to louse up one of his deals. * [[Put Onon a Bus]]: Noah Bain vanishes without explanation, beyond a couple of brief mentions, and isn't seen in the third season. * [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: Actor Malachi Throne left the series after the second season, following a contract dispute. As a result, Noah Bain is [[Put Onon a Bus]]. * [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Noah Bain varied between this and being a real hard-case, especially during the first season. * [[Reluctant Hero]]: Mundy only agrees to take the job to get out of jail. ** Subverted on a couple of occasions. For example, in "The Radomir Minature" Al actually volunteers to rescue a little girl (the daughter of a defecting scientist) being held captive behind the Iron Curtain. * [[Retcon]]: Originally, Noah was portrayed as the only cop who had ever caught Al, which he used as a way to recruit Al for the SIA. In the third season, after Noah was [[Put Onon a Bus]], this was changed to where Wally Powers was also a former cop who'd helped Noah bust Al in the beginning. * [[Retool]]: There were several throughout the series: ** During the first season, Al was given a big, well-appointed house outside of Washington, D.C. to live in (and be kept under servelliance) when not working. In the second season, he had an expensive batchelor apartment in town (without the surveillance). Line 44 ⟶ 46: {{reflist}} [[Category:American Series]] [[Category:It Takes Aa Thief (TV series)]] [[Category:TV Series]] [[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1960s]] [[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1970s]]