Search

As a brat raised in LA during the mid 60s, I was mad about UNCLE, I Spy, The Avengers, THE Cat, all the good old TV spy and action shows. Returning to Japan in '68 was a big culture change, especially the dull and boring TV shows (not much change in 2006, even worse). It was around '73 that one of the network here aired 5 or 6 episodes of Search. It was called Purobu Sousa Shirei (Probe Criminal Investigations Command). It was dubbed in Japanese (no bilingual TV at that time), and I can't remember any story, but the brilliant titleback and the superb theme music is something that I wish to see and hear again. One scene I recall is a bird's eye view of an orange Nissan Z car driven by one of the Probe agent. I thought it was so cool! Oh, and did I mention Angel Tompkins, she was so beautiful! It seems difficult to see this series even in the USA now, but I am sure that there are thousands of "hidden Search fans" in the world. I will definitely buy the whole series if sold on DVD.

I learned of this show even before it aired on NBC back in 1972 (prepublicity), and decided I liked it even before seeing it. One thing that I thought was really cool was how Probe Control communicated to the agents via an implanted audio pickup through radio telescope communications. Of course, Burgess Meredith was essentially the show stealer every time; not many other actors could give an engaging performance sitting at a computer panel. He had this funny way of adjusting his micro headset and almost punching his console when flustered. I managed to record many episodes onto a handy cassette machine. A couple of years ago a local TV station rebroadcast the pilot episode, co-starring John Gielgud (sp?), and I caught the whole thing on VHS. When they decided to cancel the series, I was actually put out enough to send in a letter of protest. (Well, it was a perfect show for a 12-year-old boy). After all, it had cool effects, mostly involving things that could be seen in other parts of the spectrum, picked up by the agents' ring-bound scanners.

Search had some of the best elements of the spy genre (handsome persuasive and strong male leads, beautiful women, exotic rich locales, and mysterious missing objects, etc) and of the science fiction genre (an elaborate Mission Control center, computer assisted artificial intelligence information, man/machine embedded implants etc).

The plots where were sometimes not that interesting or hung together well but the relationship of the characters (especially Probe Control irascibly trying to keep the three independent minded agents in line) was fun to watch.

When you consider the ongoing popularity of the spy genre and the enthusiastic support of science fiction series by it's fans the series Search should have been a very good success. It could be that it was just a little ahead of its time. I encourage the TV production community to consider the creation of a new Search series or something along the same lines. The TV audience is more interested in both the spy genre (James Bond, the Bourne series etc) and the science fiction series (Star trek, Star Wars, etc than at any time in the past.

"Search" is a series that failed to find its audience mainly because most of that audience was already in bed (time slot 9 or 10 PM on a school night; it was the first series I got to stay up late for!). It's also a series that could not have existed before the world watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, since the concept of a room full of specialists monitoring and assisting the agent is, of course, based on the room full of specialists in Houston who monitor and assist our astronauts.

Note that Bob Justman (of Star Trek fame) was involved; undoubtedly it was because of Star Trek's influence that the aforementioned room full of specialists included African-Americans, Asian-Americans and women.

All in all, it's a shame it didn't catch on, but then again, most of the audience had to be in bed early on school nights. Incidentally, the pilot film used to show up on local stations every year or so, though not for quite a few years.

As I recall, this show wasn't given a chance. I know that in the San Francisco Bay Area it was preempted 5 times ( ! ) in it's original run, including for 2 shows on the energy crisis !!

I loved the show, but the best episodes were the one's with Hugh O'Brien and I can still hear Burgess Meredith going practically insane and yelling " Lockwood ! Do you copy ! " and Lockwood ignoring him.

The episodes with Doug McClure, and Franciosa weren't as good.

I had a terrible crush on Angel Tompkins, too.

A guy in Palos Verdes Peninsula was selling copies of the Probe scanner. Wish I still had one but I lost it.

George Senda Martinez, Ca