From: Connie Date: Tue Nov 2, 1999 11:09 pm Subject: [probe_control] Finally got hold of some SEARCH episodes Yes - I am a bit behind ;) I was afraid that I might be disappointed - after all, the show was just a memory I had. Didn't quite turn out to be the case. The first episode I saw, Let Us Prey, a Bianco episode, was quite enjoyable. A number of goofs - but all and all not bad. Besides, I guess I am a Bianco fan and so this was a good re-introduction to the show. Anyone else has any other thoughts? Connie From: actingman-jc@worldnet.att.com Date: Wed Nov 3, 1999 11:12 pm Subject: [probe_control] Let Us Prey By an overwhelming lack of demand, I present again my review of the episode Let Us Prey...mainly cause Connie brought it up. I will at some point do other reviews...and I encourage everyone else to write anything pro or con they think of. ********DISPLAY PLEASE*********** Repeating myself, but the last time I saw an hour episode of Search was NBC's last telecast in August, 1973. Next time I got to see it was when Let Us Prey arrived in the mail late last year...25 years later. I was worried that my memories of the show were far better than the show itself after watching LUP. I had been able to catch some late night airings of the pilot over the years, so I knew that was good, but I was wondering what was going on with LUP. As the folks on the Space: 1999 mailing list have learned to their annoyment when we did an episode by episode analysis, I write down nits when watching, and list them. Sometimes I make full paragraphs, sometimes just angry or funny observations, or whatever. Here goes: Let Us Prey I know from the individual film frames I have that they (sometimes?) used more then one camera when shooting the Probe Control scenes. I have wondered why they did this...it is expensive because you have to have multiple equipment setups (rental charges) and multiple crews (salaries, catering expenses etc.) I've wondered if they did it because they wanted to: 1. Make sure the Probe scenes only took one day of shooting (or half a day etc.) 2. They wanted a connected feel between the shots. 3. Who knows... This might be part of the reason I wrote "odd camera angles" for the Probe scenes in the beginning when they are briefing Bianco. They look very strange to me, but I understand them a little bit knowing there was more then one camera at work. Actually I think this episode is full of strange angles, and when I say strange I mean out of the ordinary angles that don't work, or just strike me as different, rather then different AND effective. Another example is that use of the overhead shot looking down in the compound when Bianco is learning fully the predicament he is in. Anjennette throws the glass, Richter ducks, and as he is completely bent over with the rifle pointing at the ground, Bianco is standing right over him (does he touch him?) and instead of hitting him and taking the gun from him, Bianco runs out. This just looks dumb. Either Franciosa added that part about stopping at the guy, or the director did, but it is stupid. It might have made more sense if Bianco had run straight out. Also, Richter should not have gone as far over as he did (which he either did because Diana Hyland is a very good or very bad thrower, or because the director wanted a very obvious window of escape for Bianco.) By the way, why is Bianco prowling around at night in a bright white suit? Yes he looked good in it, but it stretches credibility a bit, and again I suspect it was a poor judgement made by who knows who on the production because whatever he wore that night he would be wearing for the rest of the episode. Wearing that bright white suit while breaking in to a house at night he might as well have worn a light up tie as well. This episode takes place over a couple of days at least, and yet there is no passage of time within Control. What's worse, they use the same closeup angle of Cameron through much of the episode contributes to the lack of time passing. They needed different angles to help establish time movement, (and some beard growth or something on Cameron) and different angles just to make the episode look better. Because Cameron had so little to do in this episode, I think they just wanted to get those shots out of the way, so they shot from one angle. Also, Burgess Meredith had so little to add to these scenes (because there was little to them) that he ends up doing the same thing in every scene: Looks urgent, says "Yes Bianco" and readjusts his microphone. I thought the characters were very one dimensional stock characters: The crazy, maniacal rich guy, the emotionless henchman, the flighty floozie who realizes the error of her ways and helps the hero. I can't decide if Diana Hyland was good casting or not. I've warmed to her as I've rewatched the episode, but on my first late 90's viewing, I thought she was miscast. I'm split on this one: either Bianco should have kept the rifle he takes away from Richter, or he was right to throw it into the stream. Look at the script I sent out. I've seen this in many tv scripts, not just Search ones, where the commercial breaks in the finished episode come at different times then as indicated in the script. This is true of LUP. To use an Irwin Allen term, this is a run and jump episode. Lots of running, chasing, being chased, explosions, etc. Very little use or need of Probe and it's resources, and a regular plot device (overused) of cutting the agent off from Control. They also have some equipment logic gaffs: If they are receiving telemetry from Bianco's earjack, showing that it is working, then that is a signal they can trace. Also, his earjack transmits as well as receives? If it does transmit telemetry, then that cancels my next nit that Danzig can set his earjack to transmit as well as receive? And what is picking up the sound in his earjack to transmit? And Why doesn't Bianco transmit on his dental implant as much as possible? Control should be able to triangulate in on that signal. If we are looking at the episode from Ter, then we are also seeing the commercials from back then...which is a whole other discussion in itself. Okay friends, write to the list and tell me I'm wrong about everything. After all, that's why they have PCs at work, isn't it? John ***************END RUN******************* My permanent address is actingman@iname.com From: actingman-jc@worldnet.att.com Date: Wed Nov 3, 1999 11:14 pm Subject: [probe_control] Scripts Here is a list of the scripts I've scanned so far. If you are missing any, let me know and I will send them out to you. Also available is a press release from Warner Brothers about Search. 24 Carat Hit A Honeymoon To Kill Clayton Lewis Flight Gold Machine Let Us Prey Live Men Mattson Moment Moonrock Operation Iceman Probe (2 hour pilot) From: "Jim Alexander" Date: Wed Nov 3, 1999 5:29 pm Subject: [probe_control] Episode Comments >... I was afraid that I might be disappointed - after all, the show >was just a memory I had. Didn't quite turn out to be the case. >The first episode I saw, Let Us Prey, a Bianco episode, was quite >enjoyable. A number of goofs - but all and all not bad. Besides, I >guess I am a Bianco fan and so this was a good re-introduction >to the show. Anyone else has any other thoughts? ------------------------------------ I just watched SHORT CIRCUIT again after 25 years or so, and have always found it (and the GROVER character) to be really enjoyable! It was my favorite episode at the time when I watched the series as a kid... Also had a GREAT time with another Grover episode recently (can't remember the title right now... it's the episode with Barbara Feldon). There's a bar scene with Doug McClure that's laugh-out-loud funny! 'Surfer' C.R. Grover isn't necessarily the most 'believable' character in TV detective fiction (I prefer Bianco's hard-edge), but he's always good for a chuckle! Jim Alexander (just returned from his honeymoon-- catching up on e-mail) jima@wevv.com From: actingman-jc@worldnet.att.com Date: Sat Nov 20, 1999 4:11 pm Subject: [probe_control] In Search Of Midas (review) I suspect this was Grover's second episode. It has some dreadful music that was used way too much in his first episode (Short Circuit) and Murdock and Keach are in the control room (when we have all the episodes I may write a scholarly analysis of the different control room personel...Murdock and Keach were early ones and they disappeared by the middle of the series.) Also, the script calls for, but which did not make it to air, a montage of Grover's beach bum activities, which is a carry over from his first episode...I think wanting to establish him as a "cool...fun loving guy"...which really didn't work, and they also stopped doing...although they did continue with his sometimes reluctant attitude towards the missions. My random reactions to this episode: Why is Grover in Probe control during the beginning of this episode? This is something I've talked about with Bryan in separate conversations. If he's the Emergency Stand-by Probe, then he is called in at the last moment and he basically should be put into action right away and be briefed as things proceed (as they did in Short Circuit.) My feeling has always been that he should never be seen in Control until either the case is over and they are summing up, or in the middle of proceedings, or when the emergency has to deal with Control (such as in Moment Of Madness.) I know the argument can be made that everyone else is on assignment or on vacation, but I don't think that entirely pans, because from the various episodes, we know there are quite a lot of agents employed, and they can't all be elsewhere, and they have sent Grover on overseas assignments...where they have agents in place (I think we should assume.) The script even addresses this issue (although it didn't reach air.) Barnett says there is no time to bring in a regular agent and brief him, so they will have to use their Stand-by Agent (and Barnett is a little reluctant when he is reminded that it is Grover...because "hey! Grover is such a cool out of control dude!") I don't buy this though...there is no time to bring in a regular agent and brief him, but there is time to bring in the Stand-by agent and brief him? Why? Does Grover live a block closer to the building? If they had aired it the way the script was written, we would have seen Grover doing his beach lifestyle and having to pull himself together and get cleaned up and get into Control, where some other agent might have just had to throw on a shirt and jacket and come in (like one of their many married agents we have seen in the series.) Within seconds of her meeting Grover, Kate Dawes (played by Barbara Feldon) is throwing herself at Grover. I know the format calls for the agents and the attractive women and all, but it almost seems like a desire to get it out of the way, rather then legitimately dramatize the reasons why such a powerful newspaper gossip columnist would go in this direction. I'm also not to crazy on the whole with how Feldon plays this character...she's too kittenish throughout...and I don't see any of the independent, aggressive gossip columnist/journalist in her. The fight in the bar starts very nicely. It is one long shot with Grover grabbing Striker and holding him against the bar, the hand reaching into shot and punching Grover and him flying back and flinging a chair as he goes. It really looked like Grover got hit, and I just love how he throws the chair as he goes flying. They obviously spent some time on this shot and it works. Grover establishes himself in Vegas to draw attention to himself, and they do this with a montage of him and Kate gambling over scenes of the City. This is where they use the dreadful music I mentioned earlier. The music fits with this scene, and fortunately is not used again until the end of this episode. You really need to have the episode Short Circuit in mind to understand why I am pointing this out. In Circuit they used this music constantly with Grover, again as part of that "hey ain't he a cool rockin' dude" and it just did not work...and I suspect we will see they didn't do it again for the rest of the series. All right. We know that when we see the actors in the back of the limo it is a set and not really moving. The story says they are suddenly driven in the wrong direction and on a rough ride where they are tossed back and forth. However, the car is bouncing so wildly, that it looks like the SS Minnow on it's fateful 3 hour cruise. I love Cameron's reaction when they realize Devlin is going to sign the documents by remote control. Cameron gets up, hits his chair and the whole tone is just right. I always think it's funny when Griffin gets intrigued by some code or some electronic lock, as he does in this episode. Kevin remarked somewhere that he had forgotten the agent's aversion to guns in this show. We see this here, when Grover disarms one of the bad guys, and he empties the gun of it's bullets. That in and of itself is nothing noteworthy, and make sense to some degree in the scene, but it is more interesting when seen over the course of the whole show. I've always wondered if it was some subtle message Leslie Stevens wanted in his series, or if it was some kind of attempt to deal with reality that these agents are private citizens, and do not have official police powers. The fight at the end of the episode simply did not look good. It was very clumsy, and stillted. It did not work. I'm not sure about this next one. It's a little confusing. We hear in the beginning that Probe was hired by the Kane newspaper group. Through out the episode that he is from the building commissioner's office. At the end we hear that Devlin hired him. At first I thought it was a continuity error, then it occurred to me that we are supposed to deduce that Devlin really owns the newspaper group (as in the rich recluse in Citizen Kane). Of course I still don't understand how that means the building commission would go along with all this, unless they were happy to let Probe do their work for them. I think it's a little too muddy. I've always liked the computer graphic (the squares going across the screen) used to transition scenes...which they stopped doing towards the middle of the series. By that time you only saw that in the opening teaser and the closing teaser. Those are my thoughts on the episode. Please tell me what your reactions are. My permanent address is actingman@iname.com From: actingman-jc@worldnet.att.com Date: Fri Nov 26, 1999 10:26 pm Subject: [probe_control] Short Circuit review Since I made references to this episode in my notes on In Search Of Midas, I thought I would get this written and out. This was Grover's introductory episode, written by series creator Leslie Stevens. Grover is supposed to be the "youthful" fun loving reluctant agent who comes through in the end. They establish this by first showing Grover riding a horse, surfboarding, and having a beach barbecue with a hot cutie. All this is fine ( I guess...although it's not something they kept up during the show's run...thank goodness.) Unfortunatly, they also choose to write some very 70's "groovy" bubble gum jazz music to play when ever Grover was in motion. The problem is this music does not fit in with the rest of the music style of the series...which was one of it's strong points (although the show had some standard music cues that were somewhat ordinary.) There were also a few times when we could have had a couple of shots to show transition, but instead we have Grover running all over the place, which means we have to have the "groovy" music, and at one point he stops the action but the action music keeps going...it was very clumsy. They did not continue it in the series, and instead they continued with Grover's reluctance, his unorthodox methods, and his ability to respond and win...which were more interesting qualities to watch. On the plus side, all of the interactions and scenes with Probe Control were top notch, and the strong points of the episode as well as the series. My random thoughts: There are different conflicting sources as to where World Securities is located. But in this episode, with the palm trees outside the building, and the California towns "up the coast", it is clear that it is in Los Angeles (we have also heard it's in New York or Washington....but I don't think these locales were mentioned in the episodes.) Triva note: When they are watching the briefing tapes at the beginning showing the Mega-Trans package at work, we are seeing three different shots from the show Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea (they had explosions and sparks aboard the Seaview every epsiode.) Of course, I don't know how a show produced at Warner Brothers can use stock footage from a show produced in the 60's at 20th Century Fox. Nit pick point: When Agent Hiller is spying on Moen and Landis, he is photographing it (of course) with his scanner. The briefing tape has cuts from different angles, even though there is only one camera (the scanner) recording it, so there should only be one angle of eveything that goes on in the scene. Grover turns his fishing pole reel next to the scanner so as to fake interference (so he can get the info he missed). But they show the reel on the Probe Screen, and yet Cameron is acting like there is real interference. I suspect that someone in post production decided to add the reel/screen shot, without realizing it didn't make sense (the screen shot is not called for in the script.) Grover can't see what control is seeing in the records, so I think it is strange when he comments about Moen's daughter (before he sees her) "with a daughter like that." And if he is refering to her career, then that means Grover thinks Moen would not want to see a daughter that was out of work? Grover's whole talk with Lelia under the tree is awful. He is trying to smile through most of it and it is out of place. The attempt is to be calm and reassuring and charming...but it doesn't play right. We know he can do it (see how he does it with Cameron's niece in Moment Of Madness), but I cannot understand why he is playing it that way here. I wouldn't trust such a stranger. There are too many scenes of Grover running around to his groovy music, as if they had to fill time...even though there is evidence from the script that they filmed and cut scenes. They just wanted Grover to be cool and in "action." A couple of times Grover leaves his scanner hanging, and yet it tips down and up when it zooms in (the camera operator trying to frame the shot without appearing to.) This is funny becasue reading the script, Stevens makes it clear in these shots that the camera work should be stagnant, as it would be with a real camera frozen in position. (At one point the correction is necessary, when Grover gets out of the pool and walks to the scanner, becasue if they didn't tip up slightly, his walking forward to the scanner would have put his crotch right in closeup.) Lelia leaves a handkerchief behind with "Swan Hotel" written on it as a clue for Grover. She says she wrote that instead of "Belmont Hotel" because she didn't want her father to realize what she was doing and go somewhere else. Yet he wouldn't have wondered why she was leaving a message behind anyway? It seems to me there would have been a problem if he saw it in any case, so she should have just written the correct name...hoping he wouldn't see it. Grover comments he is only the back-up agent. Cameron says the following: "Oh, no. When Arnold Hiller died-in-action. Probe Control is your back-up! Think of it, Grover. Command Pilot. Millions of dollars worth of electronic miracles...(and on and on.)" Reading this dialog all these years I didn't think it made much sense. Hearing Burgess Meredith deliver it, it still doesn't make much sense. Grover is shouting over the noise in the underground areas of World Securities. But he is overdoing it and looks silly. Dr Barnett orders everything shut off. Grover comments that the blueprints indicate it would take a half hour to shut down all operations because of the back-up systems. Grover has not seen any of the blueprints...how does he know this? Grover has the Mega-Trans Package. Why is he driving off with it? Why doesn't he just smash the hell of it? Also, World Securities is in the city. Yet a quarter of a mile away is the country side? Also, when the package activates, both cars should go up, like the police car did earlier in the episode...yet they don't (in fact Grover is still holding the package and driving when the package activates.) At the end Grover is with the girl and getting down to the real business, and instead of the groovy music we hear the Search theme...and it looks and sounds so much better, and fits the scene and ends the episode nicely. Except for the scenes mentioned in "Midas", we don't (I believe) hear the awful "groovy" music again in the series. My permanent address is actingman@iname.com