| Genre: | Action Crime Drama |
| Director: | Reza Badiyi |
| Executive Producer: | Barney Rosenzweig |
| Starring: | Ann Turkel |
| Composer: | Kevin Knelman Paul Zaza |
| Theme Music Composer: | Sparks |
| Open Theme: | "Modesty Blaise" |
| Cinematography: | Michael D. Margulies |
| Editor: | Stanford C. Allen |
| Company: | Barney Rosenzweig Productions Paramount Television |
| Network: | ABC |
| Runtime: | 50 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Related: | My Name Is Modesty |
Modesty Blaise was a 1982 American-produced one-hour television pilot produced for the ABC Network and based upon the comic strip Modesty Blaise, created by Peter O'Donnell.
This was the second attempt at adapting the comic strip as a live-action production, following a 1966 film of the same title. It was written by Stephen Zito, directed by Reza Badigi, with Barney Rosenzweig as executive producer. The plot has a few elements taken from O'Donnell's first Modesty Blaise novel (which in turn had been a novelization of a practically unused screenplay that Peter O'Donnell had written for the first Modesty Blaise film) but is largely original. Whereas Modesty in the comic strip and novels was said to be of uncertain Eastern European ancestry (but adopted England as her homeland), and her companion Willie Garvin was a Cockney, the telefilm makes both characters American.
The plot, set in what appears to be Los Angeles, involves Modesty and Willie preventing the kidnap of a young girl who turns out to be a computer genius and has been working for Tarrant's agency. Although both Modesty and Willie's back stories are given as described by O'Donnell, no explanation is provided for their North American accents or presence in California. Tarrant, as an operative of an American secret service, naturally does not have his knighthood. The super-computer they have been developing has been stolen by Debbie Defarge to use to make a killing on the New York stock exchange. Willie's knife-throwing skills and Modesty's habit of ripping off the lower part of her dress when called to action are faithfully reproduced, as is much of the banter between Willie and Modesty, but in other ways, the characters bear little resemblance to O'Donnell's literary creations.
Another attempt to adapt the comic strip took place in 2003 with the release of My Name Is Modesty.
The rest of the musical score was produced by Kevin Knelman.