We've never had a TV series with James Bond as the lead character, but we've come close. Sort of.

In fact, the first time the world's most famous secret agent appeared on film, it was black-and-white film for television. A 1954 episode of CBS's "Climax! Mystery Theater" was based on the first James Bond novel, "Casino Royale," which author Ian Fleming had published only a year earlier. That was just a one-off special, though, not a series.

The only actual series produced is the (thankfully, perhaps) forgotten kids' cartoon "James Bond Jr." The syndicated series featured a precocious teenager, nephew to the great super-spy (despite the fact that nephews don't generally get the "Jr." designation), who attended a prep school on the grounds of a former intelligence base.

It's likely there hasn't been a proper TV series because the people who own the rights to the character are famously protective of it. Indeed, they just settled a 50-year-long legal fight with the estate of Kevin McClory, who penned a few Bond scripts with Fleming back in the 1950s.

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