# Who Ran "THRUSH"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 13, 2011, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564 "2011-08-13T12:05:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2011, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/1 "2011-08-13T12:05:08Z")
In the old 1960’s TV series “The Man From UNCLE”, the heroes were always battling an evil organization known as “THRUSH”. The show was a total ripoff of the James Bond books, so I assume that “THRUSH” was sort of a low-rent “SPECTRE” organization. In any event, was “THRUSH” an orgaization like the KGB? Or was it more like the Mafia. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2011, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/2 "2011-08-13T13:08:20Z")
It was never really explained during the series. They weren’t covert government bad guys (the US and the USSR would team up to fight them). I think some of the books had an explanation, but I don’t have them to hand. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/3 "2011-08-13T13:30:19Z")
In the 1983 telemovie \*The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair \* the leader of THRUSH was **Justin Sepheran** , played by character actor [Anthony Zerbe](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001875/). George Lazenby plays **JB** , a British Aston Martin driving spy. Ho ho. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/4 "2011-08-13T15:07:49Z")
I’ll bet S.P.E,C.T.R.E. ran it, as a diversion from their own actiovities. THRUSH probably ran KAOS for the same reason. And they couldn’t even come up with the words it was an acronym for. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/5 "2011-08-13T15:15:55Z")
THRUSH was run by the Ultimate Computer. There were three of them around the world, always moving. They coordinated all the activities of THRUSH world-wide. There was an advisory council that would put a human element into the mix, but the major decisions were made by the computers. Didn’t any of you ever read the books? BTW, it stands for The Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2011, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/6 "2011-08-13T17:54:33Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > THRUSH was run by the Ultimate Computer. There were three of them around the world, always moving. They coordinated all the activities of THRUSH world-wide. There was an advisory council that would put a human element into the mix, but the major decisions were made by the computers. > > Didn’t any of you ever read the books? > > BTW, it stands for The Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity. Thanks! Did you notice that they had their little bird logo on every piece of equipemnt they had? The series was so stupid-sort of a parody of a parody. Am I wrong in remembering that you got into UNCLE headquarters via the backroom of a NYC tailor shop? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/7 "2011-08-13T20:00:27Z")
> [@](#): > > BTW, it stands for The Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity. I don’t know if that was addressed to me, but I was saying that THRUSH never came up with the words that **KAOS** was an acronym for. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/8 "2011-08-13T20:26:50Z")
It wasn’t, just a general statement. KAOS would be hard to acronym. There were several ways into U.N.C.L.E. Headquarters New York. One was through Del Floria’s Tailor Shop. Another was through a hidden door in the Masque Club, located in the same building. There was also a secret entrance, known only to Mr. Waverly (and later Napoleon Solo)\* that allowed him to enter and exit via a nearby subway tunnel. \*As related in the book _The Utopia Affair_. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/9 "2011-08-13T20:43:52Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Didn’t any of you ever read the books? I read several of the books, but the one thing that stuck was a guy getting dragged to his death in San Francisco by a cable car cable. I seem to remember it specified the speed of the cable…was it 6.5 miles an hour? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/10 "2011-08-13T21:14:31Z")
_The Dagger Affair_. 6.5 it was, and the guy didn’t die. They just hooked him up to the cable as an interrogation technique (they being Our Intrepid Heroes and their temporary allies, the San Francisco satrap of THRUSH (don’t ask.)) Needless to say, it worked. They got the info they needed and released the Dagger guy before he got squished. He broke in part because as he was jogging along with the cable, the Good Guys drove alongside, speculating as to whether the body impacting the cable spool opening would result in ripped-off arms or whether the whole body would squoosh through the narrow slot. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/11 "2011-08-13T22:50:33Z")
Why do you never see reruns of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.? (At least, I have never seen any.) Other stuff from that era seems to be rerun constantly. I seem to remember that T.H.R.U.S.H. was standardly described as “an international group of renegades,” or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-ran-thrush/592564/12 "2011-08-15T01:12:48Z")
One of the cable channels (SciFi? TVLand? I don’t remember.) used to re-run them in the midnight-to-6AM time slot. It’s been several years, though. I think they have been released on DVD.