From: "Don Harden" Date: Thu Nov 2, 2000 3:26 am Subject: "The Gold Machine" arrived today (11-1-00) John: "The Gold Machine" arrived today in great shape! I had a chance to run it and overall it looks okay. It's a 16mm copy someone transferred to video, similar to the one we have of "Let Us Prey," not quite as good, but it's still watchable. The quality reminds me a little of some dupes of the Star Trek blooper film. I only saw "ghosts" of the "Place Commercials Here," which look like someone went through some trouble to pause them out. There was also only one of the mid-point "stingers," the shorter one. I'm guessing you duped the tape just as you received it. "Gold Machine" seems meant to have been a sequel or continuation of the Probe pilot. It's not a "tough" episode like "Flight to Nowhere," it's more light-hearted like the pilot. The helicopter scenes reminded me a LOT of "Adonis File." Since this was episode #2, it seems that the famous "cheesy cool music" had it's debut here, yet it was the only Lockwood episode with that music in it. Thanks also for the bonus of "Moment of Madness." The picture for this one seems to be a bit more stable compared to what I have. You will have to let us know how you did it. You transferred it to a hard drive? Fill us in. From: actingman@i... Date: Thu Nov 2, 2000 2:59 pm Subject: Re: [probe_control] "The Gold Machine" arrived today (11-1-00) Yes, I simply copied it directly...I changed nothing...that frozen shot of the logo just before the opening of Gold Machine is someone else's work. Someone needs to compare some of the quick blured shots showing street scenes to establish Lockwood and Gloria starting their night on the town with the shots used in In Search Of Midas. I think some of them are the same. Many times shows will be completed using bits and pieces from shows shot later on. This is especially true with the music. There may have been a few episodes in the can before Dominic Frontiere wrote the series music (adding to the music from the pilot.) I have an example of this from Space:1999. The second episode of the second season has a two second sequence that was actually shot for something like the sixth episode (containing content specific to the sixth episode.) And I am talking production order here. They were able to use the first part of the shot as background filler for the earlier second episode. I suspect that this was done in Gold Machine. I ended up doing a straight vcr to vcr dub. The hard disk recorder, for some reason, could not read parts of the signal off the video tape. As a side note, the machine refuses to read macrovision dvds...it displays a message saying the content is copywrite protected. I will be doing more dubs this weekend, so those of you who haven't gotten them yet...just hang on. My schedule limits my dubbing time to the weekends. At 03:26 AM 11/2/00 +0000, you wrote: >John: "The Gold Machine" arrived today in great shape! > > >Since this was episode #2, it seems that the famous "cheesy cool >music" had it's debut here, yet it was the only Lockwood episode with >that music in it. > > > >You will have to let us know how you did it. You transferred it to a >hard drive? Fill us in. From: dghprobe3@a... Date: Thu Nov 2, 2000 6:22 pm Subject: "The Gold Machine" & post production In a message dated 11/2/00 10:07:21 AM EST, actingman@i... writes: > Many times shows will be completed using bits and pieces from shows shot > later on. This is especially true with the music. There may have been a > few episodes in the can before Dominic Frontiere wrote the series music > (adding to the music from the pilot.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- John: As Ed McMahon would say, "You are correct, sir!" Even though "Gold" was the second episode, it was not aired by NBC until 12-20-72 and they only ran it once. I think I caught a couple of things which actually first appeared in a later episode. Also, in earlier posts, we noted that there was a variation in clapboard dates for this episode. Most of them were dated June of '72, but there was the clip of Lockwood and Gloria in the cave which was dated in September! When Angel joins the list, she might be able to give more details on some of this. In addition to Space 1999, some of the early classic Star Trek episodes have spots where footage and music from later episodes appear in earlier episodes because of the nature of post production work. From: "Don Harden" Date: Fri Nov 3, 2000 1:49 am Subject: Re: SEARCH episodes we don't have on video Hello, everyone. Now that we have access to "The Gold Machine," the list of SEARCH episodes we do NOT have on video has gotten a little shorter: MOONROCK ONE OF OUR PROBES IS MISSING LIVE MEN TELL TALES THE BULLET A HONEYMOON TO KILL ENDS OF THE EARTH We do have the NBC audio of these six episodes, so if anyone is interested in the audio CDs we have, contact Don (dghprobe3@a...) or John (actingman@i...). Don already has two full sets of the audio CDs ready to send out. These are actually nice to have--it's like an audio book, only it's SEARCH. Again, on the videos, Jim Alexander (probecontrol@d...) has about 8 of the earlier episodes available and Don (dghprobe3@a...) have the other set of 8 later episodes. Contact them for how to get them. Again, for those who missed it, to get the clearest dubs available of "The Gold Machine," contact John (actingman@i...). Thanks and take care. Don Harden ============================================================= --- In probe_control@egroups.com, "Don Harden" wrote: > Hi gang, Don again. I sent an email to new member Anthony Taylor > today and the question arose of which SEARCH episodes we still have > not been able to find on videotape... From: dghprobe3@a... Date: Fri Nov 3, 2000 5:21 am Subject: Photo: Lockwood's World Securities ID badge Hi gang. I was looking over the filmclips we posted of "The Gold Machine" and found a fairly clear shot of the World Securities ID badge Lockwood wore in that episode. I took the shot and brightened it so it would show up better. I'm surprised at the detail that was captured because this was not really a closeup of the badge itself. (It's the shot we posted of Cameron, the closeup of him with the end of his glasses at his mouth.) Some enterprising souls have created replicas of the scanner prop. I figured this would spur someone into creating replicas of some of the laminated ID badges the Probe Control personnel wore in the episodes. From: DBoysen@a... Date: Sat Nov 4, 2000 8:22 pm Subject: TV Party Back when I was looking EVERYWHERE for some information on "SEARCH", I ran across a website called TV PARTY at tvparty.com. It's a great site with a wealth of info on old t.v. shows and plenty of video clips. However, there is absolutely no mention of "SEARCH". I emailed the webmaster, who seemed like a really nice guy, and he replyed that although he had heard of the show and infact had received prior inquiries, he had no info or resources on the show. Perhaps we (and when I say we, I mean those of you with the ability to upload video clips) should send something to the site so that "SEARCH" can be represented. Whatcha all think? Also, while we're on the subject, how about adding a video clip of the opening title sequence on the PROBE CONTROL website? From: "Don Harden" Date: Sun Nov 5, 2000 12:12 am Subject: Re: TV Party Many thanks to DBoysen for bringing SEARCH to the attention of typarty.com. I've seen the site and it's a lot of fun, a lot of old TV memories. If they did a page on SEARCH, it would probably go under their "Requested Forgotten TV Shows." The link for this: www.tvparty.com/tele2.html They also have a page devoted to The Time Tunnel at: www.tvparty.com/tunnel.html For right now, I could probably do a write-up of SEARCH info, include some choice photos, then run it by John and Bryan for their comment. They may think of something I might miss or add a photo or two. It may need to go through a couple of drafts before we forward it to tvparty.com. Bryan could forward them his CD of video clips they could pick from, etc. I'm sure they would love to feature the fact that Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd had their earliest acting jobs on SEARCH, etc. Certainly this is something that could be done. It sounds like the tvparty.com webmaster is open to the idea and it could help get the kind of publicity we need that would encourage a cable outlet to carry the show. Like they say about chicken soup, it couldn't hurt. Don Harden ===================================================== --- In probe_control@egroups.com, DBoysen@a... wrote: > Back when I was looking EVERYWHERE for some information on "SEARCH", > I ran across a website called TV PARTY at tvparty.com. It's a great > site with a wealth of info on old t.v. shows and plenty of video > clips. However, there is absolutely no mention of "SEARCH". I emailed > the webmaster, who seemed like a really nice guy, and he replyed that > although he had heard of the show and infact had received prior > inquiries, he had no info or resources on the show. Perhaps we (and > when I say we, I mean those of you with the ability to upload video > clips) should send something to the site so that "SEARCH" can be > represented. Whatcha all think? Also, while we're on the subject, how > about adding a video clip of the opening title sequence on the PROBE > CONTROL website? From: Jim Alexander Date: Sun Nov 5, 2000 3:53 pm Subject: eBay/Search TV series Scanner Prop Reproduction Perhaps some of our newer listmembers have not seen this SCANNER prop reproduction that Mike Walston offers on eBay! I have two of these, and they're really nice! I'm sure that Mike would sell you one even if you were not the auction winner. Contact him! He's a great guy! Jim Alexander probecontrol@d... ------------------------------------------- From: ataylor@m... Date: Mon Nov 6, 2000 10:23 pm Subject: Re: [probe_control] Digest Number 79 probe_control@egroups.com wrote: > Date: Sun, 05 Nov 2000 09:53:23 -0600 > From: Jim Alexander > Subject: eBay/Search TV series Scanner Prop Reproduction > > Perhaps some of our newer listmembers have not seen this SCANNER prop > reproduction that Mike Walston offers on eBay! I have two of these, and > they're really nice! > > I'm sure that Mike would sell you one even if you were not the auction > winner. Contact him! He's a great guy! > I have to second this, I bought one of the Scanners last year and it is a beautiful reproduction of a prop I have wanted since I was 8 years old. Very reasonably priced as well. He also has a great set of badges and desk plates from Gerry Anderson's UFO for anyone interested. Anthony Taylor From: "Mark Speck" Date: Tue Nov 7, 2000 12:29 pm Subject: Search episodes Hi Jim! I tried to e-mail you off-list, but the message came back for some odd reaspn. Anyhow, I'm interested in the Search episodes you have--how would I go about getting copies? Thanks in advance! Best, Mark From: dghprobe3@a... Date: Thu Nov 9, 2000 6:40 am Subject: Unidentified scene from SEARCH Hi gang, Don again. In going through my slide scans, I found a SEARCH filmclip I have not been able to identify. My guess is that it's a scene from inside The Red Bear, the bar Lockwood enters in "The Bullet." But that's only a guess. The black areas on either side of the picture seem intended to indicate scanner point of view. It could be footage from any of the other episodes, and there are still six episodes we don't have on video. Can anyone identify this person or scene? From: "Countryside Models" Date: Sat Nov 11, 2000 6:18 pm Subject: VHS TV Episodes Probe Control to Probe 1... A few weeks ago, someone posted that they were selling VHS tapes of some of the TV series episodes. Could you please re-post that information -- I'm interested in seeing some of these shows, if only for nostalgia sake (I was 12-13 years old when they aired originally) The only footage that I have is an audio tape recording of the original episode with Hugh O'brien and Elke Sommer (her name was Ullie and she was ooh-la-la back then!) As Miss Harding said, Telemetry is off the scope! Thanks, Ed Novit From: dghprobe3@a... Date: Sat Nov 11, 2000 8:43 pm Subject: SEARCH episode DUBS info Hi gang: Here's the scoop on SEARCH episode video dubs, as posted in #207 on the SEARCH Mailing List (with an addenda at the end): From: Jim Alexander Date: Sat Jul 22, 2000 10:56pm Subject: SEARCH Episode dubs ... You're looking for episode dubs. We love the show as much as you do, and we've had many requests for episode dubs. While we'd love to be able to make dub after dub, and share our affection for the series 'for free', we're sure you understand that it gets costly (not to mention time-consuming) to provide. Here's what Don Harden and I have been suggesting, if it's all right... One VHS tape-full of episodes (around 6 hours worth) for $20. This is recorded at 6-hour speed; be advised that the video and audio quality may not be as good as 2-hour speed dubs, but you get the 'maximum' amount of episodes per tape. or A 2-hour speed dub of 2 series episodes for $8. While you get fewer episodes per tape, the audio and video quality is superior. People who desire to 'archive' the episodes prefer this speed. Please understand that this is not a "moneymaking" opportunity for us; we just want to be fairly compensated for our time, materials, packing, and postage. So... if you're interested-- you choose! And thanks for understanding! ...Here're the episode titles I (Jim) have been dubbing for people: (These are from TV broadcasts in Australia) THE MURROW DISAPPEARANCE SHORT CIRCUIT THE ADONIS FILE IN SEARCH OF MIDAS OPERATION ICEMAN NUMBERED FOR DEATH LET US PREY and the original "Probe" version of the Pilot film, from pre-recorded tape! GREAT copy! Let me know if you'd like these... and on what SPEED... Jim probecontrol@d... ================================================== Don Harden (dghprobe3@a...) has 8 of the later SEARCH episodes: (These are from Armed Forces & Far East Network airings) SUFFER MY CHILD THE PACKAGERS COUNTDOWN TO PANIC GODDESS OF DESTRUCTION THE CLAYTON LEWIS DOCUMENT THE 24 CARAT HIT MOMENT OF MADNESS THE MATTSON PAPERS Don also has alternate versions of: LET US PREY (transfer of 16mm NBC print with original commercials) FLIGHT TO NOWHERE (uncut, Jim's Australia version has a few minor cuts) Don is offering his 8 episodes at the same per tape price as Jim's. Don's approach up to now has been to do his dubs after Jim has done his set first, but Jim may be backed up a little as currently there are a number of sets to be done. Please bear with us and we will get to everyone eventually! Also, everyone interested in getting dubs should send private emails to us directly with your mailing address, etc. Again, our email addresses: Jim Alexander - probecontrol@d... Don Harden - dghprobe3@a... From: "Don Harden" Date: Mon Nov 13, 2000 5:41 pm Subject: Notes on "The Gold Machine" & filmclips Notes on "The Gold Machine" & filmclips by Don Harden In looking over the "Gold Machine" filmclips I sent to Bryan which he posted to http://probecontrol.com/Episodes/gold1.html, I made the following notes after viewing the tape we now have of the episode. In the suicide attempt of Kuo in Act One, the filmclips obviously show more of this scene than was aired. We have shots of the rescue person farther away from Kuo. We also have the unaired shot of the foam padding platform on the street, which was mentioned by Cameron. However, the stunt man portraying Kuo looked more like Peter Jennings in the face than any Oriental person. If anything, the rescuer looked Oriental. Evidently there was a mixup on the set, or the Peter Jennings look alike was the only one who could do the stunt jumping required. There are filmclips of Lockwood and Cam by themselves in Probe Control. There was a "Code 10" bit written into the script and filmed, but it was edited out of the final product. Cameron gives his full name as "V.C.R." Cameron as in the pilot. At the time this was filmed, "VCR" had no other connotation, but today it refers to video recorders. Also, four names is not unprecedented, witness George Herbert Walker Bush. Cam makes a reference to Dr. Barnett, who appeared in the script, but not in the final episode. Lockwood is on the plane wearing headphones. A similar shot appeared in "Murrow." The music Lockwood listens to is the same music that played in the last few minutes of "Suffer My Child." Speer mentioned "Flight 307," which was the flight Grover caught up with in "Short Circuit." Arthur J. Burrell was the same character, promoted to full-fledged Probe Agent, in "One of Our Probes is Missing." When Gloria leaves Probe Control, I believe this is the first time we see someone leaving Probe Control with the doors sliding shut behind them. We have the opposite view of Lockwood leaving Probe at the end of "Countdown to Panic." If you look closely at the filmclip of Lockwood riding in the back of the limo, you can see a microphone just below his medallion. You cannot see this in the aired version. Interesting the way Lockwood jumped from the limo. As he throws himself to the pavement, he specifically turns to FACE the explosion. Kids, don't try this at home. It's a good idea to face away from any explosion. I can sort of see why this was done, though. Evidently the shot appeared more correct to the director. "The folks at home want to see the hero's face and his reaction," etc. I guess the other point here is that no one knows exactly how they will react in a moment of crisis. Also, notice how quickly the limo driver just seems to vanish, yet he couldn't have gotten much farther from the limo than Lockwood did. As the limo explodes, we see the storefront of "Keeler's Antiques" exploding with glass flying everywhere. I have filmclips not posted yet of the storefront before it explodes . I'll have to send them to Bryan so he can add them to the collection. Trivia point: Actors Mark Lenard (Speer) and Bill Fletcher (Chu) also appeared in an episode of "Wild Wild West" ("The Night of the Iron Fist") Hurd Hatfield appeared in a different episode ("The Night of the Simian"). In one of the filmclips we have of the side of the red helicopter, you can read the name "BRILES" painted on the side. The chopper seems to be the same one used in "Adonis File." The footage of the chopper falling and nearly conking out appears to be the same. There is a bit of footage as the helicopter makes its forced landing, a close up of the front landing gear, that looks the same as footage in the scenes to next week of "A Honeymoon to Kill." We have filmclips posted of the Kuo brothers walking down a hill toward the mine. This scene did not appear in the final episode. We also have filmclips of the cowboy with Lockwood and Gloria in the cave. This wasn't in the final episode either. Anyone who still doesn't have a dub of "The Gold Machine" can get it by contacting John at actingman@i... Act fast because John is borrowing the original tape from someone for a limited time. Thanks and take care. Don Harden From: dmanmetz@a... Date: Sat Nov 18, 2000 4:55 am Subject: Answer: Change in title from Probe to Search Greetings Probe Control. Alright, a couple of months back I had a one on one chat with Don about a book I read a few years ago which talked about TV detectives. It talks about every detective/ police show ever made up until 1981. I found this book in a libary about 6 years ago and haven't seen it sense. Well the other day I found at a military libary at Ft Jackson. If you every see this book and enjoyed the TV detectives from the 50's to the early 80's, read it. It gives in-depth analysis on old favorites such as The Rockford Files, Starsky & Hutch, Magnum PI, Columbo, Streets of San Fransico, etc, and the detectives shows that should have been hits such as Harry O, Toma, Banacek, Get Christi Love, Chase, Longstreet ,and of course our favorite....... Search! Well I'm gonna cut to the chase. From page 176 to 178 here is the write up on Search. Oh yeah the name of the book is TV Detectives by Richard Meyers. Copyright 1981. Warning: The write up on Search is not a positive one. It picks with Search right after talking about The Wednesday Mystery Movie (Madigan, Banacek, Cool Million). And still NBC was not satisfied with the number of detective shows it had on the air. Following the NBC Wednesday Mystrey Movie was Search, another Name of the Game knock-off which was based on a TV film called Probe. In Probe, Wyatt Earp graduate Hugh O'brian played Hugh Lockwood, a secret agent who is electronically connected to a computer system controlled by B.C. Cameron (Burgess Meredith). Supposedly this "bionic" link would help Lockwood with his special assigments. Leslie Stevens devised this series that he also produced. But to hedge his bets, he brought it to NBC including two other agents who would share the load with Lockwood. He also ran into some problems, the biggest being that the title Probe was already owned by a news program. So when the series started in September, it had a the less jutting title of Search. In that version, Cameron headed the Probe Division of World Securities Corporation with an agent roster that included not only Hugh Lockwood, But Christopher R. Grover (Doug McClure) and Nick Bianco (Tony Franciosa) as well. These men carried miniature spy arsenal on their persons. They had transmitters in their ears, cameras on their rings and tiepins, and implanted monitors under their skin. All this stuff saved them from hiring legmen to check out their leads since the computer did it for them. That did not mean that the production house did not have to hire actors to play the assistants, however. Every time the scene switched back to Cameron, 10 extra actors were on camera occupying themselves by looking intently at their readouts and pressing buttons. And since the scripwritters did not have to write long scenes with the detectives researching the clues, they scrambled for other ways to waste time. Search, in short, was pretty much a joke, and not a very good one at that. The plug was pulled after a year. Notes: I belive he comparied Search to The Name of the Game, because they had three rotating stars from week to week and one of them was Tony Franciosa. That show ran from 1968 to 1971. It was a hit , but not a Big hit, which is why we don't see it in syndication today. Personally, I liked the title Search better that Probe. This sounds like a lodgical reason for the change. . I don't recall recall the agents having monitors implanted uder their skin, Does anyone else? Maybe we could find the author, Richard Meyers. He may have more information on Search. Well just though I would share this with the group. ----------------------------------------------------END RUN--------------------------------------------------------- Chris From: "Don Harden" Date: Sat Nov 18, 2000 5:45 am Subject: Re: Answer: Change in title from Probe to Search Hi folks, Don here and thanks to Chris for bringing Richard Meyers' book, "TV Detectives," to our attention. Unfortunately it's another negative review. It seems that negative reviews of SEARCH have many fathers, but the positive reviews are always orphans. I believe the only positive review of SEARCH we have posted so far is Mailing List Message #76, the review by The Atlanta Constitution for the "Probe" pilot premiere. However, Richard Meyers is the first reviewer I've heard of that compares SEARCH with "The Name of the Game." I thought about it and it's actually a fair comparison. Leslie Stevens was a producer of that series and it was likely that Tony Franciosa's association with "Game" got him his role on SEARCH. Stevens obviously adapted the "rotating leads" concept for SEARCH. What's funny is that Meyers apparently did not know about these connections, after all, he claims to be an expert on these shows. This review also references that "Probe" was the title of a news program. If I remember right, there was a series with that name on PBS during the 1970's. Can anyone confirm that? What no reviewer has mentioned so far are the things that really ended up killing SEARCH. What truly killed it was the departure of Leslie Stevens and the less interesting format that was adopted. But contributing to that, in my opinion, was that it was scheduled too late in the evening for young people to watch. Also, on Wednesday nights, prior to SEARCH, NBC ran "Adam-12" and "The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie" which alternated "Banacek," "Cool Million" and some other detective show. By the time SEARCH came on at 10:00 pm, people were "cop-showed"-out, to coin a phrase. What does everyone else think? ====================================================== --- In probe_control@egroups.com, dmanmetz@a... wrote: >From page 176 to > 178 here is the write up on Search. Oh yeah the name of the book is TV > Detectives > by Richard Meyers. Copyright 1981. Warning: The write up on Search is not a > positive one. It picks with Search right after talking about The Wednesday > Mystery Movie (Madigan, Banacek, Cool Million). > > And still NBC was not satisfied with the number of detective shows it > had on the air. Following the NBC Wednesday Mystrey Movie was Search, > another Name of the Game knock-off which was based on a TV film called Probe. > In Probe, Wyatt Earp graduate Hugh O'brian played Hugh Lockwood, a secret > agent who is electronically connected to a computer system controlled by B.C. > Cameron (Burgess Meredith). Supposedly this "bionic" link would help > Lockwood with his special assigments. > Leslie Stevens devised this series that he also produced. But to hedge > his bets, he brought it to NBC including two other agents who would share the > load with Lockwood. He also ran into some problems, the biggest being that > the title Probe was already owned by a news program. So when the series > started in September, it had a the less jutting title of Search... From: dmanmetz@a... Date: Sat Nov 18, 2000 2:11 pm Subject: Re: [probe_control] Re: Answer: Change in title from Probe to Search Good call Don, I must agree. If Search had came on at a 8:00pm time slot or on a Friday or Saturday, I think it would have been a big hit. The premise was somthing that would have caught the imgination of younger people. In some sense, it was kind of a prototype for the 6 Million Dollar Man, which did capture the imagination of younger viewers and kicked off the decade with a number superhero/ super agent shows. Not to mention that our 3 leads were far more talented and interesting than Lee Majors. Think about it, everyone who brought the computers into the main stream, to include Bill Gates, was probely about ages 8 to 17 during the 1972 period. I was just lucky because my mother watched it. I also read in one of the message boards were evenTony Franciosa in an interview said that he did not understand it (Search). He was 44 when he was doing Search, so maybe alot of his generation felt that same way about it in 1972 and those were the main ages running the country in 1972. Oh yeah Don, the other show on the Wednesday Mystery Movie was Madigan, which starred Richard Widmark, and it was based on a 1968 movie were the lead character, Madigan was killed in the movie, but brought back to life for TV. But ratings killed him the second time around. Wel thats all I have. I hope someone else has more intresting facts to bring to the table. Chris From: ataylor@m... Date: Sat Nov 18, 2000 12:26 pm Subject: Re: [probe_control] Digest Number 84 probe_control@egroups.com wrote: > contributing to that, in my opinion, was that it was scheduled too > late in the evening for young people to watch. Also, on Wednesday > nights, prior to SEARCH, NBC ran "Adam-12" and "The NBC Wednesday > Mystery Movie" which alternated "Banacek," "Cool Million" and some > other detective show. By the time SEARCH came on at 10:00 pm, people > were "cop-showed"-out, to coin a phrase. I was very young, but I was able to convince my parents to let me stay up on Wednesdays to watch it. My sister made us watch "Medical Center" from 9-10, so I had to catch The Mystery movies in reruns. It sounds like Mr. Meyers only watched a few episodes and like us never got a second chance (until recently perhaps) to re-view the show. By the way, I want to thank Don, Jim and John for dubbing the episodes for me, it has been a blast watching them again after 27 years. I had totaly forgotten the crush I had on Keach when the show originally aired. What a cutie Ginny Golden was... sigh. Too bad she rarely had more than a line or two. I had also forgotten about the big white Probe Control set in the last episodes... what a jarring difference from the original set. As I watch them more I will post more comments. Thanks again guys. Anthony Taylor From: actingman@i... Date: Sat Nov 18, 2000 6:50 am Subject: TV Guide web site A co-worker of mine dates a man who works on TV Guide's web site. She passed along a couple of my ideas to him. He said they are working to put a decent search engine on the site (I have seen things on the site in the past that I now cannot find because I don't have the exact url.) He says they have gotten a lot of complaints about this. I also made the suggestion that they put every last capsule description of every episode of every show on the site that they have ever generated for their magazine listings that people could access. His response was that it would take a great deal of data entry to make it possible (which is true) and that only 10 people would ever use it (which I question.) So that's my question: Do you folks on the different lists I am sending this out to think no one would be interested in such a feature on the TV Guide web site? I know I would get lost scanning the different titles of the the different shows, of all sorts of genres and then reading the descriptions of each episode and the cast list that went with them. I'm sure many trivia bets would get settled on such a site. Am I a man among ten? Or is TV Guide missing something here? From: "Mark Speck" Date: Sun Nov 19, 2000 6:13 am Subject: Re: Answer: Change from Probe to Search Hey Guys! There also was the 1988 series "Probe", which ran for a couple of months on ABC. Created by Isaac Asimov, this series featured Parker Stevenson and Ashley Crow as scientists who solve mysteries whose solutions have some scientific basis. This is a cult show which has turned up from time to time on Sci-Fi Channel. Ric Meyers' "TV Detectives" is a great book (despite the fact that he didn't care for Search); he also wrote a book called "Murder on the Air", which goes a little more in-depth on some of the more popular cop shows, i.e. Hawaii Five-O, Dragnet, Barnaby Jones, Magnum P.I., etc. Well worth checking out if you like any of those shows. Best, Mark From: bryankd@t... Date: Sun Nov 19, 2000 5:15 am Subject: TV Guide web site & FedEx Airbill Lord knows I would use it all the time. TV Guide doesn't realize the value of their old issues. There are so many ways they could exploit it. If there was a CD rom of all the issues (like the Totally Mad), wouldn't you buy it? I bet hundreds of thousands of people would. Now for the air bill. It is the wrong address. This is the address that Adam first gave me, then after the first tape was returned to me he corrected the city and zip code. (I then sent the tape to the new city, zip using USPS, and it never got there; remember how pissed I was?). The third try was using FedEx, and it did reach her. I called FedEx with this new info, they will attempt to pickup the package from where they delivered it. If that fails we have a name, so we can try to look them up and call them. From: "Don Harden" Date: Sun Nov 19, 2000 5:20 am Subject: Re: TV Guide web site Hi John: Nice idea of trying to have TV GUIDE post online the synopses of all TV series ever aired. Then again, I could have guessed the response you got about the amount of data entry. Perhaps you can suggest they at least try doing that for maybe only the "Top 100" series of all time. If they promote it and make it easy for people to find, they might be surprised at the results. After that, they can keep adding series synopsi a group at a time. This suggestion might go over better than to try doing ALL series in one fell swoop. As Foghorn Leghorn would say, "Ya gotta start small and work up, son!" Of course, that's just a guess. Don H. ============================================= --- In probe_control@egroups.com, actingman@i... wrote: > ...I also made the suggestion that they put every last capsule description of > every episode of every show on the site that they have ever generated for > their magazine listings that people could access. His response was that it > would take a great deal of data entry to make it possible (which is true) > and that only 10 people would ever use it (which I question.) From: Jim Alexander Date: Sun Nov 19, 2000 7:40 am Subject: SEARCH/FORTUNE HUNTER I'm enjoying all of the current banter on the SEARCH list-- Due to personal obligations, I don't have the time (right now) to respond, but something that was said triggered a thought. (Somewhere) I have multiple episodes of the supposed-SEARCH rip-off called FORTUNE HUNTER. If anyone is interested, I can dig them up and make them available (at a later date when I have a few moments to dub)... I remember the show quite well, and was stunned at the time that the concept(s) were so terribly similar to SEARCH... Thanks! Thanks! Jim Alexander probecontrol@d... From: dmanmetz@a... Date: Mon Nov 20, 2000 2:12 am Subject: Re: [probe_control] TV Guide web site Hey, I think that is a great idea. I'm sure it would be time consuming, but if they can pull it off, why not. I hate to be pushy, but maybe you could ask your friend if TV guide could publish the end of the year A.C. Nielsen ratings for all the television seasons. I know they have them. Would love to see were Search finished for the 1972-1973 season. Wouldn't hurt to ask, the worst they could say is no. Great initiative. Chris From: "Mark Speck" Date: Mon Nov 20, 2000 11:23 am Subject: Re: Search/Fortune Hunter Hi Jim! WOW!! I didn't think anyone else would remember Fortune Hunter, let alone even like it. It only lasted about four episodes or so. I enjoyed this series, especially since Anne Francis was in it as his boss. Tragically, Mark Frankel, the British guy who starred in this show died not too long afterward in a motorcycle accident. Best, Mark From: Jim Alexander Date: Mon Nov 20, 2000 4:35 am Subject: Search/Fortune Hunter Mark Speck wrote: WOW!! I didn't think anyone else would remember Fortune Hunter, let alone even like it. It only lasted about four episodes or so. I enjoyed this series, especially since Anne Francis was in it as his boss. --------------------------------------- Y'know-- I HAD forgotten that! You're right! How could I forget??? As far as "liking" it-- well, it was no SEARCH, but I DID think that it was a certain amount of fun. I, of course, thought that it was WEIRD-- what with it being so similar to our favorite show. In my youthful enthusiasm, I even thought of writing Leslie Stevens (which I had done previously) and asking HIM what he thought of FORTUNE HUNTER's similarities to SEARCH. Alas-- I never got around to it. --------------------------------------- >... Tragically, Mark Frankel, the British guy who starred in this show died not too long afterward in a motorcycle accident. --------------------------------------- Wow. I had no idea! How unfortunate! Thanks for the info, Mark! Jim Alexander probecontrol@d... From: ataylor@m... Date: Mon Nov 20, 2000 9:57 pm Subject: Re: [probe_control] Digest Number 86 Hi All- In watching the episodes it occurs to me that while SEARCH was terrifically advanced in 1972, the concepts it presents are only slightly ahead of the times for 2000. Certainly it would take little effort to assemble a miniature video camera that could broadcast a signal to an enhanced cell phone that could then digitally stream audio and video back to a stationary moniter... the current generation of "invisible" hearing aids could be adapted as an earjack working along the same principle, as could a vital signs moniter. They would only have to broadcast a foot or two to the cell phone in a pocket or attached to a belt. The dental contact switch may be slightly difficult at this point, I have no idea, but it does not seem outrageous to think that it is also currently viable. How far in the future is handheld magnetic resonance imaging? It seems like almost everything that SEARCH envisioned in 1972 can actually be done in 2000... which makes me wonder if there are any investigative firms or agencies doing it for real? It wouldn't even be particularly expensive... And also, does it beg for a revival as a series? Certainly changed quite a bit, I doubt a show with three revolving leads would do very well in today's market, just as it didn't come off in 1972 according to the ratings or powers that be who cancelled it. Would a new version of SEARCH with a single Probe, and most likely a single "Cameron" type moniter and possibly revolving "Guest experts of the week" be a viable format for an adventure/detective show for today's audience? Certainly the technology is less alien to the viewing public and would appeal to a younger audience than the original did.... as long as it isnt shown at 10:00 on Wednesdays. Anyone have a comment or ideas? Thanks Anthony From: Jim Alexander Date: Tue Nov 21, 2000 3:59 am Subject: SEARCH "Revolving Leads" scenario I agree with all that you've brought up in your analysis, Ant! Good stuff! However-- I will beg one exception. You said: ----------------------------- >... I doubt a show with three revolving leads would do very well in today's market, just as it didn't come off in 1972 according to the ratings or powers that be who cancelled it. ----------------------------- I always liked the "revolving leads" concept (but just because I liked it, doesn't mean that the audience was crazy about it). Confusing to viewers? Not as confusing as shows with a large cast of characters, I'd think. Not as (potentially) confusing as shows with a long "mythology" a la' THE X-FILES. And you're not saying that "the" major reason why SEARCH didn't do well was the three-leads formula, are you? I'm guessing you're chalking it up to Time Slot, etc., too.? The "revolving leads" thing always made the show BIGGER-- more impressive-- made World Securities seem like a larger, multimillion dollar organization (rather than other detective shows that seem to only have one cop on the force, etc.). I guess I just had to air my views on what I thought of one of SEARCH's many "novel" concepts. ;) Speaking of novel-- how many TV shows employed the "rotating leads" concept? We're not talking replacing characters, or programs (like The NBC Mystery Movie or The Men/Assignment:Vienna) that rotated SHOWS and not PEOPLE. How many series used a different lead character from week-to-week? Have we discussed this before, and I've forgotten? ;) Jim probecontrol@dynasty.net From: "Don Harden" Date: Tue Nov 21, 2000 5:03 am Subject: Re: SEARCH "Revolving Leads" scenario --- In probe_control@egroups.com, Jim Alexander wrote: > Speaking of novel-- how many TV shows employed the "rotating leads" > concept... ==================================== Hi Jim: In one of my previous posts, I mentioned "The Name of the Game," an NBC series of the late 60s that used the rotating leads idea. Not only did it have Tony Franciosa as one of the leads, but it also had Leslie Stevens as one of the producers. The other leads were Gene Barry and Robert Stack. Evidently Stevens adapted this idea for SEARCH since it worked well enough for "Game," which was a fairly successful series while it ran. It's been several years since I've seen an episode of "Game," but Franciosa acts so much like Bianco, it's sort of like watching a prequel of SEARCH. One of the more celebrated episodes of that series is "L.A. 2019," an unusual sci-fi/fantasy Gene Barry episode directed by one Steven Spielberg. I'm not sure about this, but because of the content, it's likely that Leslie Stevens was the producer of this episode too. Can anyone confirm? From: dghprobe3@a... Date: Tue Nov 21, 2000 8:08 am Subject: 'The Gold Machine' Limousine Hi folks, Don again. By now, most of the interested list members have received their edition of "The Gold Machine." I've tried making video grabs and the quality is uneven. However, a couple of grabs that came out reasonably well were the shots of Lockwood's exploding limo. If you recall the 11-25-72 "TV Guide" article on SEARCH (Mailing List Message #245 http://www.egroups.com/message/probe_control/245 ), they blew up a 1953 Cadillac to simulate the dynamiting of a 1972 Cadillac. According to the article, as part-owner of the show, Hugh O'Brian was grieved to witness the waste of a still drivable '53 Caddy. Due to clever film editing, you don't really notice that two different cars were used. But a side-by-side comparison shows a lot. Below are shots of the two different Cadillacs. On the lower left is the '72 model. On the right is the exploding '53. From: ataylor@m... Date: Tue Nov 21, 2000 9:52 pm Subject: Re: [probe_control] Digest Number 87 probe_control@egroups.com wrote: > > I agree with all that you've brought up in your analysis, Ant! Good > > stuff! Well it seems like a pretty straightforward scenario in the year 2000, doesn't it? > > However-- I will beg one exception. You said: > > ----------------------------- > >... I doubt a show with three revolving leads would do very well in today's > market, just as it didn't come off in 1972 according to the ratings or > powers that be who cancelled it. > ----------------------------- > I always liked the "revolving leads" concept (but just because I liked it, > doesn't mean that the audience was crazy about it). Confusing to viewers? > Not as confusing as shows with a large cast of characters, I'd think. Not > as (potentially) confusing as shows with a long "mythology" a la' THE > X-FILES. And you're not saying that "the" major reason why SEARCH didn't do > well was the three-leads formula, are you? I'm guessing you're chalking it > up to Time Slot, etc., too.? Absolutely. I don't necessarily think that it was a factor at all, but I do think it would be now. Think about it, SEARCH was probably the LAST show to use rotating leads.... I think it splits the fan base into factions, which isnt necessarily healthy. I myself was a Grover fan as a child, but I enjoyed the Lockwood shows and tolerated Bianco, who was always a bit too smug for me, plus the shows were more mob oriented, something I had less interest in than international intrigue. Yep, even when i was 8 years old or so... lol. Watching them now, I still prefer Probe 1 and Standby probe to the "Omega man", although the gap is much closer than it was in 1972-73. I agree the three leads made WSC seem very large, but then there was poor Cam who obviously never slept and probably rarely bathed as well. As for the new series scenario, any other ideas? I have a friend who is an actor and has his own production company... I am thinking oh chatting with him about this at some point and see what his thoughts are... AT From: ataylor@m... Date: Tue Nov 21, 2000 10:08 pm Subject: Re: [probe_control] Digest Number 87 Hey all- One more thing... I am a graphic artist by trade, and I am thinking of designing some color box covers for my SEARCH episodes... If anyone is interested, I could save tham as Adobe Acrobat .pdf files that could be stored at probecontrol.com for anyone to download. I need two things though... First, a nice high resolution (300 dpi) scan of the SEARCH logotype... I used to have this font but can't find it now... and also a consensus on format for the covers. I had two ideas, one is a generic box cover that would have blank space on the spine and back cover to write in or affix a label with episode names, or possibly doing three different boxes, one for each probe. This would of course mean that future dubs would need to be formatted so that each tape had two episodes with the same Probe in them. Or I could do both and let people decide which they wanted to use. What do you think? AT From: "Don Harden" Date: Fri Nov 24, 2000 10:04 pm Subject: SEARCH writer Judy Burns--Part Three Hi gang, Don Harden again. Judy Burns has come through with some answers to questions on her experiences while working with SEARCH. She sent back my original email and added her answers after the questions I posed. Many thanks to John (actingman) for providing a number of the questions. --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- << Subj: Questions about 'Search' Date: 11/18/00 9:33:55 PM Pacific Standard Time From: Dghprobe3 (email sent to Ms. Burns) Hello Judy Burns: Don Harden here again. I was the one with the SEARCH eGroup who asked about your "Tholian Web" film a few months ago. I hope you were able to find and download your SEARCH scripts and perhaps a few of the filmclip scans we posted of one of your episodes. If you need the links again, let me know. Anyway, some SEARCH-related questions have been forwarded to me from various members of the group. I told them that we are asking you to remember things from nearly 28 years back, so if you run across a question to which you don't know the answer, that's okay. Here goes: 1) We were wondering who you worked with on each of your SEARCH scripts. For "The Bullet," we figured you worked more with Bob Justman. And for "The Carrier," from what we have been able to surmise, you perhaps worked with Anthony Spinner, promoted to producer after Bob Justman left. What were some of the differences between Justman and Spinner in tackling the scripts for SEARCH? >> ------------------------------- I love Bob... worked with Tony both times... as story editor and producer. Bob was my light... Tony was a teacher... taught me much... gave good notes. Let me do the writing. He later hired me to do an FBI script... and allowed me to do the writing on it also. Because of Tony and others like him, I was rarely rewritten. ------------------------------- << 2) Do you know why Bob Justman left SEARCH? When Leslie Stevens reportedly quit during midseason, we figured Justman left at the same time perhaps because he didn't want to stay if Stevens was gone. >> ------------------------------- I don't know. ------------------------------- << 3) Did you initially pitch to SEARCH because of your prior association with Bob Justman? >> ------------------------------- yes... of course. ------------------------------- << 4) Do you remember anything about the rewrites on your scripts? Were there a lot of changes? From what you recall, how did you feel the episodes turned out? >> ------------------------------- how do you think the episodes turned out... that's more important. There were some rewrites. I loved Hugh... that's what I really remember. I was on the sets. ------------------------------- << I hope I didn't throw too much at you. We would be delighted with any information you can share with us on the above. >> ------------------------------- No problem. Judy ------------------------------- << Thanks for reading my email. Best wishes, Don Harden >> ======================================================== If anyone has further questions they would like to ask Judy Burns on SEARCH, email them to me at dghprobe3@a... and I will forward them to her. Thank you. ======================================================== Here are links to the previous posts in this series: SEARCH writer Judy Burns--Part One: http://www.egroups.com/message/probe_control/261 SEARCH writer Judy Burns--Part Two: http://www.egroups.com/message/probe_control/262 From: dghprobe3@a... Date: Thu Nov 30, 2000 4:11 am Subject: Grover's 'Numbered for Death' car Hi, Don Harden here. In previous posts, there was some discussion of the different car Grover drove in the episode "Numbered for Death." Chris Metz and Ed Novit have identified this as a Datsun 240Z. (Grover's regular car was the yellow classic '72 Corvette.) Since we don't have filmclips from this episode, I decided to post a composite showing the Datsun from different angles. My question is: can anyone nail down the car's color? It appears to be a sort of orange tan. Did anyone else notice how quickly Grover's driver side door got repaired after it was torn off?