1903 From: "franklinberke " Date: Tue Feb 4, 2003 9:41pm Subject: Probecontrol.com Seems to be Down... franklinberke Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hi Everybody It looks like probecontrol.com has been down most of the day. Franklin 1904 From: "offworld2001 " Date: Wed Feb 5, 2003 4:42am Subject: Re: more on DVD recording offworld2001 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email --- In probe_control@yahoogroups.com, "dghprobe3 " wrote: > I'm concerned with compatibility with other DVD players. I don't > want to get just any DVD recorder and find that the discs I make will > not work on other players, etc. I have been looking at the DVD writers here in Australia too Don, and have to be a bit confused about the DVD+R/DVD-R debacle. Compatability with home DVD players is a BIG issue to contend with. Check http://www.dvdrhelp.com/ for more details. It would be nice if > we could make clean DVDs of these newer Search tapes we have. Definitely agree on this score. I have yet to obtain any of the dubs and wanted to know if the new cleaner dubs had been laid onto VCD? Certainly a more compatible, and cost effective option than DVD. > If anyone else has any ideas for DVD extras for Search, pass it > along. We might be able to try it. I would like to speak to somebody who has the up to date info on the best copies of the pilot and episodes available. If the VCD avenue has not been explored fully, I would like to go down that road, make the best copies that can be made, with reconstructions for missing credits etc as you mentioned and then make them available to group members. There are few home DVD players now that can't handle a VCD. With a view to that, could any group member with that information contact me privately by email (moff@...) and we'll see what we can do. On a related note, I have been in contact with the Seven Network here in Australia regarding the ultimate fate of the episode tapes that were used when Search was screened here in thew 70s. I certainly don't want to get anyones hopes up but they have this MAJOR storage shed in Melbourne and apparently older film and tape goes in there for archiving if I hjave been supplied accurate information. I will be pursuing this avenue in the hopes that copies might still exist and tapes can be duplicated or we can even get Search back on the Air over here! Cheers Bruce Moffatt moff@... 1905 From: "Jim Alexander" Date: Thu Feb 6, 2003 1:27am Subject: Australia's SEVEN Network SEARCH tapes probecontrol Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Sounds just GREAT, Bruce!!! Keep us posted, huh? Thanks-- P.S. I work at a TV station where we can play almost any tape format. Let me know if you need to use my facilities! Jim Alexander probecontrol@... ---------------------------------------------------------- On a related note, I have been in contact with the Seven Network here in Australia regarding the ultimate fate of the episode tapes that were used when Search was screened here in thew 70s. I certainly don't want to get anyones hopes up but they have this MAJOR storage shed in Melbourne and apparently older film and tape goes in there for archiving if I hjave been supplied accurate information. I will be pursuing this avenue in the hopes that copies might still exist and tapes can be duplicated or we can even get Search back on the Air over here! Cheers Bruce Moffatt moff@... 1906 From: "actingman_jc " Date: Fri Feb 7, 2003 4:04am Subject: The Web Site Is Back actingman_jc Online Now Send IM Send Email Send Email I just checked and it is back. Bryan told me earlier he solved the problem but it might take a couple of days for the domain routers to update, but I got to it (in case one of you out there can't get to it yet.) In a few days we will also be able to add some updates, and we will let you know when that happens. http://www.probecontrol.com 1907 From: "franklinberke " Date: Fri Feb 7, 2003 3:12pm Subject: Re: The Web Site Is Back franklinberke Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Thanks for the good news. 1908 From: probe_control@yahoogroups.com Date: Sun Feb 9, 2003 11:11pm Subject: New poll for probe_control probe_control@yahoogroups.com Send Email Send Email Enter your vote today! A new poll has been created for the probe_control group: If you happen to have a favorite episode of SEARCH, which one is it? o Probe (Pilot) o The Murrow Disappearance o The Gold Machine o Moonrock o One of Our Probes is Missing o Operation Iceman o Short Circuit o In Search of Midas o Live Men Tell Tales o The Bullet o The Adonis File o Suffer My Child o Flight to Nowhere o Let Us Prey o A Honeymoon to Kill o The Packagers o The 24 Carat Hit o Numbered for Death o Countdown to Panic o The Clayton Lewis Document o The Mattson Papers o Goddess of Destruction o Moment of Madness o Ends of the Earth To vote, please visit the following web page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/probe_control/surveys?id=1035381 Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups web site listed above. Thanks! 1909 From: "Jim " Date: Tue Feb 11, 2003 7:47pm Subject: Probe VHS & Unicorn Video yesfan4 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email I have "searched" the web and have not found any such thing as Unicorn Video. There is however a Unicorn Audio in Batavia NY, but they have no knowledge of "PROBE" on VHS or DVD. Anyone know how to get in touch with Unicorn Video? I want to get a copy of "PROBE". 1910 From: "crayresearch2001 " Date: Tue Feb 11, 2003 11:47pm Subject: Facial recognition technology has arrived crayresearch... Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Well here you go, just what we were talking about awhile ago. It seems that facial regignition technology has arrived and is here to stay: http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Feb/bch20030211018621.htm NEC demos a 50 GFLOPs facial recognition chip This technology will soon be ubiquitous. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- posted 3:51pm EST Tue Feb 11 2003 - submitted by Sander Olson BLURB At the ISSCC conference in San Francisco, NEC announced that they have created a parallel processing facial-recognition chip which works at 50 GFLOPs. For facial recognition, the chip is about three times as fast as a 3GHz Pentium 4, but it only consumes one-tenth as much power. Moreover, the chip is fabricated on a standard .18 micron process, so when the chip migrates to a 90 nm process it will be considerably more impressive. Essentially, the chip has 128-bit mini- processors, each 8-bit, controlled by a single 16-bit controller. Each of these mini-processors operates at 100MHz, with a tiny 2 KB cache memory. Within a decade, cheap, powerful image processing chips and tiny digital video cameras will become ubiquitous. It probably won't be long before homes and offices are equipped with this technology. All public events will have facial recognition capabilities to look for criminals and terrorists. Even transportation vehicles could use these technologies to only let certain users drive them. In short, these technologies have the capacity to change our society dramatically. Don-2 1911 From: "franklinberke " Date: Tue Feb 11, 2003 11:48pm Subject: Re: Probe VHS & Unicorn Video franklinberke Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hi Jim --- In probe_control@yahoogroups.com, "Jim " wrote: > I have "searched" the web and have not found any such thing as > Unicorn Video. There is however a Unicorn Audio in Batavia NY, but > they have no knowledge of "PROBE" on VHS or DVD. Anyone know how > to get in touch with Unicorn Video? Yes. You don't want to get in touch with Unicorn though. They don't distribute directly. I ordered my copy from http://www.moviesunlimited.com Just bring up their web site; Under 'Search By:', Click on the 'Title' link; The next page already has 'VHS' checked so just enter 'Probe' for the title, and click the 'Search' button. In a few seconds the resulting page should contain a 'Probe (1972) VHS' link. Click on it, and go on from there. I ordered my copy before Christmas, but I was told it was back ordered from two to four weeks. At one point, I was so disappointed at waiting that I looked up Unicorn on www.yellowpages.com and found their listing as follows: UNICORN VIDEO INCORPORATED 21119 OSBORNE ST, CANOGA PARK, CA 91304 (818) 407-1333 I called, and they said that there is no problem with the video and MoviesUnlimited is a good distributor as far as they are concerned. I called MoviesUnlimited again yesterday after they had promised I would have it by last Friday. They said because of snow storms they have been delayed in processing and shipping their orders, but I should have it no later than this coming Thursday. The gist of my long winded story is that it is available, but you may have to wait awhile before you get it. Franklin 1912 From: "Geoff Willmetts" Date: Thu Feb 13, 2003 11:27pm Subject: face recog & videos gfwillmetts Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hello everyone Hello Don-2 Re: Face recognition. I didn't say it didn't work the first time. Having the chip capable of doing the processing power is one thing. You'd still have to combine it with RAM & storage, although both are getting smaller over the years. Mind you, reading the document here, there is one other application that the chip could be used for & that's a small TV scanner... I mean, as the spec suggests. It has low power consumption so could get by with something like ComStat feeding it juice to work. Hello Franklin Nice research. This might be important to all you Americans. With an address for Unicorn, it might pay to urge them to release more Search episodes on video. For every letter received statistics say that there's 100 more who haven't written... Gotta go Geoff PS What happened to the rest of you folk about giving some details about your backgrounds?? 10% of our number seems awfully small & I only bite when hungry. It's not as though you have to get involved in every debate. ********* GF Willmetts **************************** Commissioning Editor: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com or http://www.computercrowsnestbooks.com THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MAGAZINE THE E-BOOK PUBLISHER THAT TRIES HARDER 'SFCrowsnest.com PageRanked by Google as the 2nd most popular Science Fiction site on the Internet' see: http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ 1st most popular SF PageRanked by Open Directory Project see: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ *************************************************** _________________________________________________________________ Stay in touch with MSN Messenger http://messenger.msn.co.uk 1913 From: "galacticprobe " Date: Mon Feb 17, 2003 5:41pm Subject: Simple Technology? galacticprobe Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Greetings, Fellow Probes, I'm new to the group, and having been a strong fan of "Probe/Search" since first seeing the pilot when I was only 11 years old, I'm overjoyed to see others out there who remember the show so enthusiastically. Finding the web site and this group is wonderful. I have a question for anyone who digs into the "behind the scenes" trivia. It's about the scanner used by Probe agents. According to the description in the pilot film script, it's about 1/3 inch thick, and judging from its proportions against the wearer's hand about 3/4 inch in diameter. But does anyone know what sort of simple things the actual prop scanner was made from? What I mean for example, in "Star Wars: A New Hope" Ben Kenobi's light saber was made from pieces of a sink drain pipe, a bathroon fawcet knob, and an old British rifle-launched grenade casing, among other things. Luke's was a Graflex flash unit for an old camera, with strips of windshield wiper refills glued to the bottom to give it a "grip" look. When you saw them on the screen they looked so great everyone wanted them. (They still do.) The scanner looks so intriguing even now there is someone making them every so often and selling them on Ebay. So, what was the orignial scanner put together from? Any ideas? Also, has anyone found or reverse-engineered drawings/prints of the Probe Control sets (both dark and light versions, and the consoles)? I'm sure in this day of tech manual publications (Star Wars, Babylon 5, et al) there would be many people interested in something likt that. I know I am! Thanks for being here, and listening. End Run, Dino 1914 From: "Geoff Willmetts" Date: Tue Feb 18, 2003 10:26pm Subject: scanner manufacture gfwillmetts Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hello Dino Welcome aboard. I suspect the original scanner was made in pretty much the same way as all props. A bit of circuitboard with a lens on top. Getting the loop made is relatively easy. A simple magnet on the back reverse polarity to whatever it's attached to. Considering the number that where destroyed in the series, there had to be less detailed ones & probably only a couple that were used for close-ups. I've been planning to build one myself but I've hit the same snag that the chap who makes & sells them on e-bay runs into, namely what to do about the lens. Until I re-saw all the Australian videos, there was an assumption that the lens was transparent. It's not. It's pale blue. I can probably put the colour on the circuit underneath but it wouldn't have the same lustre. Currently, I'm still on the look out for something suitable before resorting to plan 'B'. Gotta go Geoff ********* GF Willmetts **************************** Commissioning Editor: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com or http://www.computercrowsnestbooks.com THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MAGAZINE THE E-BOOK PUBLISHER THAT TRIES HARDER 'SFCrowsnest.com PageRanked by Google as the 2nd most popular Science Fiction site on the Internet' see: http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ 1st most popular SF PageRanked by Open Directory Project see: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ *************************************************** _________________________________________________________________ It's fast, it's easy and it's free. Get MSN Messenger today! http://messenger.msn.co.uk 1915 From: "galacticprobe " Date: Wed Feb 19, 2003 0:38am Subject: Re: scanner manufacture galacticprobe Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Geoff, Thanks for the welcome and the info on the scanner. I can scrounge for a piece of circuit board at work, though they are mostly the "green" coloured kind. (One of the images in the "Probe" list shows a great close-up of one that looks like it was made from a bluish piece.) With regards to your dilemma about the lens, I have an idea... I believe any decent hobby shop that carries a wide variety of model paints will have the transparent blue in either the small jar or the spray can. This paint would probably work for you as it's clear when it dries and a nice shade of blue. You could put it on the inside of whatever you use for the lens. It would give it the look you're after, and being inside it wouldn't get scratched off. Good luck with your endeavour. I wonder how many actual prop scanners exist out there, in the hands of people who worked on the show or knew someone who did, and managed to acquire a few souvenirs meant for the dust bin when the show was cancelled. Hmmm? End Run, Dino --- In probe_control@yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Willmetts" wrote: > I've been planning to build one myself but I've hit the same snag that the chap who makes & sells them on e-bay runs into, namely what to do about the lens. Until I re-saw all the Australian videos, there was an assumption that the lens was transparent. It's not. It's pale blue. I can probably put the colour on the circuit underneath but it wouldn't have the same lustre. 1916 From: dghprobe3@... Date: Wed Feb 19, 2003 0:22pm Subject: Search Scanner Prop on 'Cannon' episode dghprobe3 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email It's been awhile since I've seen it, but there was a 1976-77 episode of CANNON with William Conrad called "Quasar Kill." I didn't have a chance to make a tape of it, but early in the episode, I remember there was a scene with Frank Cannon talking to a second man about a high tech device and how important it was, etc. At the end of the scene, the second man handed Cannon the actual Probe Scanner prop! It was also shown in close-up and there was no mistake about it. I think they may also have used some similar Probe Control set pieces in the background of some of the other scenes. It's possible that one of the 'Cannon' production crew remembered SEARCH and somehow could get access to the props. If anyone runs across a dub of "Quasar Kill," let us know. Or at least post some video captures for us. :-) --Don H. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 1917 From: Date: Wed Feb 19, 2003 6:06pm Subject: Search Scanner Prop on 'Cannon' episode probecontrol Offline Offline Send Email Send Email >... At the end of the scene, the second man handed Cannon the actual Probe Scanner prop! ------------------------ FREAKY!! I'd never heard of this before! Wow. I guess that many props are simply stored away for potential future use. Does anyone else remember the story of how they were looking for an Communications earpiece for Nichelle Nichols when they were doing STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, and the story I heard has the prop guys going down to Storage, and getting an Original Series prop earpiece from wherever they had it stored. So... I guess there are props 'lying in wait' to be used for future productions. ;) Too bad. I don't know of anywhere that CANNON is playing in syndication, now... to get a tape of 'Quasar Kill'. :) Jim Alexander probecontrol@... 1918 From: dghprobe3@... Date: Wed Feb 19, 2003 3:19pm Subject: Anthony Spinner was a Cannon producer dghprobe3 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email http://www.thrillingdetective.com/cannon.html I did a Google search on "Cannon" and found an answer as to why a Probe Scanner would appear in an episode. It turns out that one Anthony Spinner (script consultant, later producer of SEARCH) was one of "Cannon's" two producers. Some excerpts from the above link: CANNON (1971-1976, CBS) Producers: Harold Gast, Anthony Spinner "The Quasar Kill" (February 4, 1976 - original airdate) Some of the "Cannon" writers include such familiar names as Robert C. Dennis, S. S. Schweitzer, Irving Pearlberg, and Brad Radnitz. "Cannon" directors include William Wiard, George McCowan, Jerry Jameson, and Allen Reisner. Who knew? --Don H. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 1919 From: "mvscreen " Date: Wed Feb 19, 2003 8:21pm Subject: CANNON Episode Info mvscreen Offline Offline Send Email Send Email That episode of CANNON in question, "Quasar Kill", aired during the fifth and final season of that series. The original airdate for "Quasar Kill" was February 4th, 1976...nearly full three years after the airing of the last original episode of SEARCH, "Ends of the Earth". Interestingly enough, Robert C. Dennis, the writer of that final SEARCH episode (and one previous episode, "The Packagers") was also a CANNON writer. I don't know for sure that Mr. Dennis is the only connection between the two shows. (Is there a list of Directors for the SEARCH episodes somewhere? That would be very helpful...) I do know that CANNON was a Quinn Martin Production, but I'm not sure which studio lot QMP was housed at back then. If QMP was based at either the Warner Bros. Hollywood or Burbank lots...there we go. QMP would probably have been pulling props from the Warner prop department. If that's not the case, then a more personal connection (maybe writer Robert C. Dennis, maybe a director, maybe a prop man) might account for the scanner prop being used. With just a little more info, this mystery could easily be solved... Mike Valerio mvscreen@... 1920 From: "observer345 " Date: Thu Feb 20, 2003 6:56am Subject: PROBE movie from Movies Unlimited observer345 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email I'm happy to report that my official tape of PROBE arrived today from www.moviesunlimited.com. It's been so long, I really can't remember when I ordered it exactly. Months ago. I suspect they may have had to wait until more were made or maybe until they had a big enough order to buy from a particular supplier. 1921 From: "actingman_jc " Date: Thu Feb 20, 2003 5:14pm Subject: TV Tome Site on Search actingman_jc Online Now Send IM Send Email Send Email http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-2901 I took over the editorship there and put in the titles and dates. Now Heiko from Hamburg is filling all the details of guest characters and cast. We have all had a part in this in a way...Don H. provided the airdates to me originally, and Heiko is using the guide that Richard and Trevor wrote up for the guest cast details. Heiko thinks I should add our names to the page somewhere for research credit. I am not really sure how to do that...but let me know what you think. Another interesting bit of information I've added to the Tomes site (that I haven't been able to add to the probecontrol site yet) is that we have the production codes now for 5 of the last eight episodes. Starting with Numbered For Death and going through Goddess Of Destruction, we have the numbers. The one intersting thing is that Goddess was made first, then Mattson Papers. For the last eight, all I had was the script dates, so I put them in that order. Goddess and Mattson both had the same dates, so I made a guess and thought Mattson might have come first, so that there were two Bianco episodes filmed back to back, and then two Grover...assuming Moment Of Madness was made after Goddess/Mattson. But I was wrong... (And I once missed the NY Lotto by one number...I am still on suicide watch for that one...) Anyway...the production order is definitly: Numbered For Death Countdown To Panic The Clayton Lewis Document Goddess Of Destruction The Mattson Papers I felt pretty safe in numbering 24 Carat Hit at #16...although I don't have my reporter's confirmation on that. They went in script date for the last eight...but I want to get confirmation before I number the last two. 1922 From: "Geoff Willmetts" Date: Thu Feb 20, 2003 11:30pm Subject: Re: scanner manufacture & Canon gfwillmetts Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hello Dino Re: Scanner manufacture. As you surmised indirectly, it wouldn't be that difficult to change the colour of the circuitboard. There's still a trick of choosing the right bit to resemble the microphone. The bits that support the lens are a neccesity but look like small wedges. I had thought of the paint already but you're still dealing with a very small area & it might not have the same lustre at a distance. I mean, the scanner is small enough as it is. Considering that there had to have been some improvisation at the time, it might be worth compiling a list of things that were around in the 70s that might have used such material & see if its around today. Saying, that, they could also have gone to an opticians & had them made specially except there wasn't that much choice in lens material back then. Hello Don H Interesting info about 'Cannon'. One of our terrestrial channels has been working its way through the Mystery Movies. We've had 7 weeks of 'Columbo' & now into 'The Snoop Sisters'. If they go full hog with the other shows, we'll keep you informed. [Unless they buy the entire run, they might still go for odd episodes as tasters. We had the Rockford Files pilot a couple weeks back.] I'm habitually watching a lot of these 70s shows at present - I frequently type while watching - as there's always a possibility that they might show a background that was used in 'Search' especially if directory Russ Mayberry's involved. [Gods, you people are beginning to make me an obsessive!!!] As to props being used. You Americans have far greater storage than in the UK. Recycling props isn't new on either side of the Atlantic though. Why re-invent the wheel if it's just lying about?? Gotta go Geoff ********* GF Willmetts **************************** Commissioning Editor: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com or http://www.computercrowsnestbooks.com THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MAGAZINE THE E-BOOK PUBLISHER THAT TRIES HARDER 'SFCrowsnest.com PageRanked by Google as the 2nd most popular Science Fiction site on the Internet' see: http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ 1st most popular SF PageRanked by Open Directory Project see: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ *************************************************** _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself with cool emoticons http://messenger.msn.co.uk 1923 From: "Jim Alexander" Date: Fri Feb 21, 2003 2:12am Subject: TV Tome Site on Search probecontrol Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Checked out the TV TOME site, John-- Looks GREAT! Wonderful work by ALL the people involved! Will this info eventually be transferred to (my personal favorite site) www.epguides.com ??? Y'know... I should have noticed before. I wonder why Hugh O'Brian and Doug McClure had their on the SEARCH credits, and Franciosa got a "Tony Franciosa as Nick Bianco" special billing? Have we covered this territory before? Jim probecontrol@... ------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 11:14 AM Subject: [probe_control] TV Tome Site on Search > http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-2901 > > I took over the editorship there and put in the titles and dates. > Now Heiko from Hamburg is filling all the details of guest characters > and cast. > > We have all had a part in this in a way...Don H. provided the > airdates to me originally, and Heiko is using the guide that Richard > and Trevor wrote up for the guest cast details. > > Heiko thinks I should add our names to the page somewhere for > research credit. I am not really sure how to do that...but let me > know what you think. > > Another interesting bit of information I've added to the Tomes site > (that I haven't been able to add to the probecontrol site yet) is > that we have the production codes now for 5 of the last eight > episodes. > > Starting with Numbered For Death and going through Goddess Of > Destruction, we have the numbers. The one intersting thing is that > Goddess was made first, then Mattson Papers. For the last eight, all > I had was the script dates, so I put them in that order. Goddess and > Mattson both had the same dates, so I made a guess and thought > Mattson might have come first, so that there were two Bianco episodes > filmed back to back, and then two Grover...assuming Moment Of Madness > was made after Goddess/Mattson. > > But I was wrong... > > (And I once missed the NY Lotto by one number...I am still on suicide > watch for that one...) > > Anyway...the production order is definitly: > > Numbered For Death > Countdown To Panic > The Clayton Lewis Document > Goddess Of Destruction > The Mattson Papers > > I felt pretty safe in numbering 24 Carat Hit at #16...although I > don't have my reporter's confirmation on that. > > They went in script date for the last eight...but I want to get > confirmation before I number the last two. 1924 From: "actingman_jc " Date: Fri Feb 21, 2003 3:08am Subject: Re: TV Tome Site on Search actingman_jc Online Now Send IM Send Email Send Email I just sent a note to epguides reminding them to add the show to their index. There is a whole art to cast billing. How do you give three stars billing? One goes first...and since HOB was in the pilot, and a part- owner...etc, he got top. I don't know who was considered higher after HOB. I am guessing it was TF. And by getting third with the longer billing, he is the one you see last and have more info on. So in this case, although he came last, he had a higher billing then DMC. This is all speculation on my part...and I would not mind our Hollywood folks offering insight and correction. One of the most famous was Jonathan Harris. How to make yourself stand out when you join a show dead last after all of that billing business has already been worked out (those at the top of the listing, those with the "as...", those with "Also Starring, etc.) For three years he was billed on Lost In Space dead last as "Special Guest Star". Even as a kid watching that show I didn't understand that since he was a regular member of the cast. He knew exactly what he was doing. --- In probe_control@yahoogroups.com, "Jim Alexander" wrote: > Will this info eventually be transferred to (my personal favorite site) > www.epguides.com ??? > > Y'know... I should have noticed before. I wonder why Hugh O'Brian and Doug > McClure had their on the SEARCH credits, and Franciosa got a "Tony Franciosa > as Nick Bianco" special billing? Have we covered this territory before? > > Jim > probecontrol@s... 1925 From: "actingman_jc " Date: Fri Feb 21, 2003 4:08am Subject: Epguides Link actingman_jc Online Now Send IM Send Email Send Email The web master for Epguides sent me the direct link for the Search page. http://epguides.com/Search_1972/ However, except for a different graphic and a wrong date...which I also found on the Tomes site and have corrected...twice now...the epguides page links to the Tomes site when you click on one of the episodes. I think that is the way with all future additions with the two sites mergers. 1926 From: "crayresearch2001 " Date: Sat Feb 22, 2003 3:32am Subject: Re: scanner manufacture crayresearch... Offline Offline Send Email Send Email --- In probe_control@yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Willmetts" wrote: > Considering that there had to have been some improvisation at the time, it > might be worth compiling a list of things that were around in the 70s that > might have used such material & see if its around today. Saying, that, they > could also have gone to an opticians & had them made specially except there > wasn't that much choice in lens material back then. I don't know if it would be the base circuitboard so much as the miniature components which are visible - that gives the scanner it's visual appeal. Re: the lens; I would try a hobby type shop that sells fake gems for toy jewlery as a start, but what about that clolured transparent plastic that you bake in an oven make those plastic stained glass doo-dads with? Some blue plastic might be molded inside a metal ring to the correct dimensions, with a bit of practice. Just an idea. Give it another decade, and we'll be discussing making the real thing ;-) Don-2 1927 From: "dghprobe3 " Date: Sat Feb 22, 2003 3:38am Subject: Stars' opening credits billing dghprobe3 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email --- In probe_control@yahoogroups.com, "Jim Alexander" wrote: > ...I wonder why Hugh O'Brian and Doug McClure had their on > the SEARCH credits, and Franciosa got a "Tony Franciosa > as Nick Bianco" special billing? Have we covered this territory > before? Hi Jim: No, I don't think we have discussed this before, but it has previously crossed my mind. I may be wrong, and if so I hope someone will correct me. But I believe that TV opening credits reflect the order in which a particular talent is signed. I've heard that with "Lost in Space," Jonathan Harris' name showed up last in the opening credits because he was the last actor to be signed to the series. When Harris mentioned this to Irwin Allen, it was decided to designate Harris a "Special Guest Star," which was to sort of make Harris feel better about that situation. I've also heard that LIS got more publicity on that move alone than anything else they did. But with SEARCH, I'm sure we will find that O'Brian was signed first, followed by McClure, then Franciosa. The "Starring as Nick Bianco" also makes more sense than "Special Guest Star." :-) Now that I think of it, I believe some of the guest star listings at the end of some of the SEARCH opening credits say "Special Guest Star," especially when there is a long list and someone has to be placed at the end. I think Howard Duff was the special guest star in "Countdown to Panic." And I seem to recall Nehemiah Persoff as special guest star of "24 Carat Hit." I have to re-check the tapes, so don't quote me on those. :-) --Don 1928 From: okuda23392@... Date: Sat Feb 22, 2003 0:44am Subject: Re: scanner manufacture & Cannon okuda23392 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email You may also recall that some of the PROBE Control consoles (the desk units) and the big viewscreen appeared (briefly) in a 1975 TV movie entitled "Strange New World." This was the third attempt to do a series based on Gene Roddenberry's "Genesis II" format. "Strange New World" was made without Roddenberry. I would guess that they made two hourlong episodes of "Strange New World," then cancelled the project, after which the two completed episodes were strung together into a single TV movie. One of the episodes, if memory serves, involved a Zardoz-like "perfect society." The episode had an ancient control room, and the PROBE Control set dressing pieces were used in that set. All of the "Genesis II" TV movies were made by Warner, which also did "Search." 1929 From: okuda23392@... Date: Sat Feb 22, 2003 2:27pm Subject: Re: Stars' opening credits billing okuda23392 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email In a message dated 2/22/03 6:24:14 AM, probe_control@yahoogroups.com writes: << But I believe that TV opening credits reflect the order in which a particular talent is signed. >> That's not generally the case. Order of billing is generally determined by a lot of factors, including the producers' opinion of which actors have the greatest name recognition. In many cases, the order of billing is carefully negotiated by both the actors and the show. In some cases, where an actor gets a lesser billing than he or she might normally command, the actor may negotiate a special credit that draws additional attention to his/her name, as apparently happend with Tony Francisosa. In other cases, some or all of the credits will be alphabetical, in an effort to be as fair as possible. For example, in "The West Wing," Rob Lowe had top billing because at the time the series was devised, his was the biggest name on the series. Most of the rest of the principal cast are billed alphabetically in the main titles, except for Martin Sheen, who has a special "And Martin Sheen" credit at the end. 1930 From: "Geoff Willmetts" Date: Sat Feb 22, 2003 11:30pm Subject: Re: Re: Pain in guest-starring gfwillmetts Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hello John the Acting-Man Re: Jonathan Harris - the late lamented. I read an interview with him once where he wasn't sure if he was going to stay in Season One. Originally, he was supposed to have been killed off but viewing figures went up. Billed as a 'Special Guest Star' he got far more money than if he was listed as regular cast so was happy to stay that way. Those of you involved in Hollywood reading this, I'd love to know the ins & outs of how billing affects the fee the actors get, too. Gotta go Geoff ********* GF Willmetts **************************** Commissioning Editor: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com or http://www.computercrowsnestbooks.com THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MAGAZINE THE E-BOOK PUBLISHER THAT TRIES HARDER 'SFCrowsnest.com PageRanked by Google as the 2nd most popular Science Fiction site on the Internet' see: http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ 1st most popular SF PageRanked by Open Directory Project see: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ *************************************************** _________________________________________________________________ Stay in touch with MSN Messenger http://messenger.msn.co.uk 1931 From: ataylor@... Date: Sat Feb 22, 2003 11:47pm Subject: Re: Digest Number 579 Proteus_Crow Offline Offline Send Email Send Email probe_control@yahoogroups.com wrote: > I don't know if it would be the base circuitboard so much as the > miniature components which are visible - that gives the scanner it's > visual appeal. Re: the lens; I would try a hobby type shop that sells > fake gems for toy jewlery as a start, but what about that clolured > transparent plastic that you bake in an oven make those plastic > stained glass doo-dads with? Some blue plastic might be molded inside > a metal ring to the correct dimensions, with a bit of practice. Just > an idea. Give it another decade, and we'll be discussing making the > real thing ;-) The Scanners that Mike Walston makes and sells on ebay use a greenish translucent snap closure (like you find on some women's clothing instead of buttons, its the top portion of the 2 piece snap closure) that he has laser etched the lens configuration onto. Its not exact and would be much closer to the original if it were a frosty blue instead of green, but it looks pretty close. AT 1932 From: "Kendall Gray " Date: Sun Feb 23, 2003 8:44am Subject: Scanner Reproduction. KGray96057 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Two quick remarks: Just joined the list- very pleasantly surprised to find so many people interested in this old show. I am not a professional model or prop maker. These things having been said, I _have_ made the odd bit, here and there, for local theatre or convention use. The most important thing to remember is... Verisimilitude. Most props, even the "hero" props designed for close up work, are _surprisingly_ shabby. Jewelry without backing, watches without internals... They are designed to look _great_- for a few moments- but that's about it. It's all about the _look_, in other words. My suggestion would be to print one of the better scanner images- using a high end color printer and decent stock. Print it full size. Take it to a hardware store and see if you can find some sort of metal end cap or fitting that looks to be the approximate shape, diameter and depth to serve as the housing- otherwise go to a local artisan or jeweler and see if they might be able to manufacture something. Once you have the housing, get an exacto knife, cut the printed color image to fit into the housing. That would give you an exact looking "circuit board" including the inside of the lens. I suspect that there is an electronics part or fitting- or even a cut down bit of hollow tubing- that could be fitted on top of the lens image to give it the right look. I also suspect that something like an old hard contact lens- which where manufacured with a slight bluish tint- might serve as the actual lens cover. Even if you had to have the housing manufactured, you would only have to do that-admittedly expensive- step once. Before assembling the scanner prop, you could make a clay impression or something to use as a basis for, say vacu-forming the thing- so that you could cheaply make more of these. (Alternately, you could pass the cost of manufacture on to someone if you intended to sell these.) There are endless options here- depending on how far you wanted to take this. Cutting and shaping bits of styrene for the left and right side internals-they look like IC Chip sockets- so that they have a little 3d feel, for example. I don't know what would happen if you tried to sell these at conventions- licensing issues- but I'd sure love to have one! Kendall 1933 From: dghprobe3@... Date: Sun Feb 23, 2003 1:59pm Subject: Stars billing & Probe set pieces dghprobe3 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hi Mike: Thanks for setting us straight on the question of stars' billing. I think some of us understandably read too much into the Jonathan Harris situation. Many factors go into it, so thanks for sharing with us. On "Strange New World," between my brother and myself, we should have a dub of that. If I run across it, I'll be glad to post screen grabs showing the Probe set pieces you mentioned. Sad that Roddenberry was not able to get his "Genesis II" idea made into a series. As we all know, CBS got blinded by the high ratings of the first "Planet of the Apes" movie, so they went with "Apes" as a series in 1974 instead. I understand, though, that if "Genesis II" or "Planet Earth" ever made it to series, that Gene Roddenberry was planning to call it "Earth Trek." I was wondering if you could confirm that, or it is just another one of those rumors. :-) Earlier on the list, Chris Metz mentioned a "Six Million Dollar Man" episode, "Wine Women & War," that also featured a Probe Control set piece. And it has been pointed out that similar computer equipment appeared in the backgrounds of "The Time Tunnel" and even first season "Mannix" episodes where Joe Mannix worked for the computer-oriented firm INTERTECT. --Don H. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 1934 From: yorktowncmdr@... Date: Sun Feb 23, 2003 3:01pm Subject: Re: Stars billing & Probe set pieces worldsecanalyst Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Regarding the matter of set pieces and crossovers: > been pointed out that similar computer equipment appeared in the backgrounds > of "The Time Tunnel" You must be referring to those vertical standing magtape drives. Those units have been shunted around from series to series. I have seen them as late as in the 1977 Irwin Allen movie The Swarm. They are in all likelihood designed and manufactured in the 1960s, and perhaps discarded or offered for publicity reasons to the studios. I can cite numerous instances on that point. I myself haven't seen a magtape drive since the mid-90s. Such units are very antiquated. The modern models are much smaller in comparison for comparable capacity, and disk drives are greatly efficient. I must say the tape drives make good television though. End Run 1935 From: "Geoff Willmetts" Date: Sun Feb 23, 2003 11:12pm Subject: Re: scanner lens gfwillmetts Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hello Don-2 When I said 'circuitboard' for the background of the TV scanner, it was more in principle than strictly borrowing off an existing board. With a little wire & solder, such things can be easily rigged. Using a circuitboard ensures you have the right medium to stick things on with. As to the lens. You have far more model shops in the US than we do, sir. The problem is moulding plastic is that it's liable to end up opaque. Those of you who own those scanner bought off ebay should be able to spot whether they are plastic, glass or crystal. Making the real thing is less of a problem. Matching it to 70s appearance is more difficult. :-) Things could be worse. We could be making a bionic man. Rumour has it if you amputate an arm & send it to Colorado, then you can get a bionic arm back by return post. I'm not really sure if I trust these mail order firms... Hello Don-H Back to credits. If memory serves, if you look over the 'Name Of The Game' opening credits, they had a similar pattern to 'Search'. Franciosa had a 'as part' there as well, didn't he?? Sounds like a contractual thing arranged by his agent. As you say, a lot of it is psychological & how people remember the credits. Look at how Hugh O'Brian couldn't remember McClure... Gotta go Geoff PS I'm only just downloading the latest messages. ********* GF Willmetts **************************** Commissioning Editor: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com or http://www.computercrowsnestbooks.com THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MAGAZINE THE E-BOOK PUBLISHER THAT TRIES HARDER 'SFCrowsnest.com PageRanked by Google as the 2nd most popular Science Fiction site on the Internet' see: http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ 1st most popular SF PageRanked by Open Directory Project see: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ *************************************************** _________________________________________________________________ 1936 From: "dghprobe3 " Date: Mon Feb 24, 2003 2:09am Subject: Name of the Game opening credits dghprobe3 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email --- In probe_control@yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Willmetts" wrote: > ...If memory serves, if you look over the 'Name Of The Game' > opening credits, they had a similar pattern to 'Search'. Franciosa > had a 'as part' there as well, didn't he?? Sounds like a > contractual thing arranged by his agent... Hi Geoff: "The Name of the Game" was similar to SEARCH insofar as having three revolving stars, TF being one of them, along with Dominic Frontiere doing some background music, and having Leslie Stevens as one of the producers. The "Game" opening credits were a series of very mid-60's quick cut animated graphic shots of the actors' names over posterized images of their faces. No character names appeared with any of the actors' names. Originally, the opening credits would start with the name of the star of that episode. If it was a Franciosa episode, then Franciosa's name appeared first in the opening credits. If it was Gene Barry, you saw Barry's name first, etc. This was true when it first ran on NBC and when it first ran in syndication. I've seen some dubs of Mystery Channel showings from a few years ago and all those episodes use the exact same opening credits, regardless of who was in the episode, as if they wanted to standardize everything. --Don 1937 From: yorktowncmdr@... Date: Sun Feb 23, 2003 10:09pm Subject: Re: Re: Pain in guest-starring worldsecanalyst Offline Offline Send Email Send Email It has it's benefits. I recollect a similar arrangement with Martin Landau for Mission: Impossible. Landau and series producer Bruce Geller were good friends, but Landau did not want to be tied to one series while the pickings were good for movie opportunities. They agreed for a guest star arrangement for Landau. 1938 From: "crayresearch2001 " Date: Mon Feb 24, 2003 4:24am Subject: Re: scanner lens crayresearch... Offline Offline Send Email Send Email First let me say, great first post by Kendall Gray, and welcome to the group. Hi Geoff. Just reading the posts re: scanner, got me thinking. Logically, after analysing all the best captures of it , ideally it would be a good first step to model the scanner in a good 3D modelling program(don't hold me to this), this way it could be reproduced as faithfully as possible(this model could be used for further prototyping). Also it would be pretty cool to make a large, oversize scanner, say, about 1 metre in diameter; which could also be used as a display in a spy museum. Maybe also as a working prototype for a smaller version? ;-) > The problem is moulding plastic is that it's liable to end up opaque. Well I haven't been to London in awhile, but in North America there is a whole whole arts and crafts movement dedicated to making "Shake and Bake" stained glass ornaments, and the plastic i'm refering to is indeed transparent, but would it resemble the original? While chasing down this subject on the Internet, I stumbled upon a veritable motherlode of optical companies, lens manufactures, surplus companies, defense contractors et al. Here's an example: http://www.sciplus.com/category.cfm?subsection=21 Package of 10 tiny glass lenses (under 1/2" or 13mm. dia.)only $1.75 US. I would tend to try to model this in 3D personally, but if someone researches this and sends out a few emails to optics suppliers asking for surplus lenses with blue coating(or even made of blue acrylic plastic) at the correct diameter(would have to be guaged from the photos)I don't think the lens would be all that expensive. Certainly better than the shake and bake approach! Also not as fragile as contact lenses(do they really come in blue?)The scanner casing could easily be made on a metal lathe out of aluminum or such, depending if you wanted it to be magnetized or not. Don-2 1939 From: "Philip Satterley" Date: Mon Feb 24, 2003 4:56pm Subject: Re: Pain in guest-starring progrocktv Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Also I read the Mission: Impossible Dossier and they mentioned the fact that Landau got paid MORE being credited as a guest star, seeing guest stars got paid more per episode then the regular cast, so this "status labeling" has it's benefits. Sort of like the Pink Floyd situation on the Wall tour I guess. Richard Wright got fired from the band in 1980, but did go on tour with the as a "hired musician". Seeing he was only "hired" he did not have any financial obligation for the live show expenses mike Mason, Gilmour and Waters did, so he technically was the only member not to loose money. Cheers! Phil > Message: 5 > Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 22:09:47 EST > From: yorktowncmdr@... > Subject: Re: Re: Pain in guest-starring > > It has it's benefits. I recollect a similar arrangement with Martin Landau > for Mission: Impossible. Landau and series producer Bruce Geller were good > friends, but Landau did not want to be tied to one series while the pickings > were good for movie opportunities. They agreed for a guest star arrangement > for Landau. 1940 From: "Geoff Willmetts" Date: Mon Feb 24, 2003 11:32pm Subject: Re: Re: scanner lens gfwillmetts Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hello ATaylor Do you think Mike Walston has seen the true colour?? He might have a poor picture that he's referring to. Mind you, it might be because he can't get the gem in blue. Hello Kendall Re: Props. Years ago in London, we had one of the full-scale Snowspeeders from 'The Empire Strikes Back' at a convention. Looked very realistic until you gave it a gentle tap & realised it was plywood. Wouldn't be allowed that close these days. I'm very familiar with what props are made of. It all depends on time & budget. The Space: 1999 helmets were made like the real thing so the head had limited movement inside for instance. Had the opportunity to put one on & it was padded with sponge inside to support the head. My original comments still make a lot of sense. Namely what was around in the 70s that could have been used?? I mean, why use a blue lens & not something just transparent which would probably have been more widely available. I was planning to use a scanned image to work from for the base anyway but the problem is always a realistic looking lens. I'll have a look into the button choices though. If you look at the close-ups on the Search website, those straight line bits around the lens are what keeps it in place so there must have been some thought to keeping it rigid. It also means that no resin was poured around the interior as well meaning that someone didn't want a blurred looking close-up prop. You wouldn't need that many to be so exact. Those that were destroyed in the programme were probably less precise. At the scale used, vacu-forming is out. More likely & even easier, you solder or glue the lens in its ring with the metal connectors directly into the ring hub & then the entire assembly onto the decorated base. With the experienced prop-maker, it's a couple hours works tops...for all of them! Re: Computer equipment. It wasn't until the late 70s that computers were no longer depicted as invincible answer machines with loads of flashing lights mainly cos more of us were becoming more knowledgeable about what they could & couldn't do. Look at the fancy computer lights on the computer system on the Seaview as a good example of googligook that didn't do much. Only the Illuminatii knows what the seamen were making of the flashing lights. With 'Search', the computers weren't really shown as being anything more than data retrieval devices & needed experts to do the searching through them. If anything, this was significant even if it didn't sink in elsewhere until much later. Gotta go Geoff PS Still downloading the latest messages but looks like I'm second-guessing some of it already. ********* GF Willmetts **************************** Commissioning Editor: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com or http://www.computercrowsnestbooks.com THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MAGAZINE THE E-BOOK PUBLISHER THAT TRIES HARDER 'SFCrowsnest.com PageRanked by Google as the 2nd most popular Science Fiction site on the Internet' see: http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ 1st most popular SF PageRanked by Open Directory Project see: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ *************************************************** _________________________________________________________________ MSN Messenger - fast, easy and FREE! http://messenger.msn.co.uk 1941 From: yorktowncmdr@... Date: Mon Feb 24, 2003 8:55pm Subject: Computer Equipment worldsecanalyst Offline Offline Send Email Send Email > Re: Computer equipment. It wasn't until the late 70s that computers were no > longer depicted as invincible answer machines with loads of flashing lights > mainly cos more of us were becoming more knowledgeable about what they > could & couldn't do. Look at the fancy computer lights on the computer system on > the Seaview as a good example of googligook that didn't do much. Only the > Illuminatii knows what the seamen were making of the flashing lights. That bank of flashing squares was a recycling of mock computer hardware from the movie "Desk Set." The magtape drives of season one look to be vintage IBM perhaps the 360 model. > With 'Search', the computers weren't really shown as being anything more > than data retrieval devices & needed experts to do the searching through > them. If anything, this was significant even if it didn't sink in elsewhere > until much later. "Colossus: The Forbin Project" was taking a step in the right direction. The equipment displayed was courtesy of Control Data, and it was reused in many subsequent Universal TV shows and movies. When the Probe Control makeover occurred the vertical magtape drives were replaced with the horizontal units. I believe this was to emphasize more realism of the computer age. 1942 From: "mvscreen " Date: Tue Feb 25, 2003 3:30am Subject: Re: Computer Equipment mvscreen Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Those vertical magtape drives were all over the tube back in those days. I just watched the final episode of Paramount's THE IMMORTAL ("Brother's Keeper", January, 1971) and spotted seemingly-identical units in the scenes set at the evil Maitland Industries... 1943 From: "Geoff Willmetts" Date: Tue Feb 25, 2003 11:27pm Subject: Re: Lens & other stuff gfwillmetts Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hello everyone Hello Don Re: Name Of The Game. If memory serves, the order of stars in the opening credits was Gene Barry, Robert Stack & Tony Franciosa - at least in the UK. Maybe he realised there was a greater effect by being listed last than first?? We were probably watching the development of this in the formative years. Adding who the third player was playing would also give a couple more seconds reading time, too. Having the order changing constantly might have been regarded as confusing to viewers. It's either that or all that's left are the foreign variations. Hello Yorktown According to what I've read, the reason Landau & Bain left Mission: Impossible is because they wanted more money than the star, Peter Graves, & even he said that would have been impossible contractually. Hello Don-2 I think the picture should look fun. Haven't been to London myself for over 8 years now either. I'm a lousy traveller. Give me some tradenames & I can soon find out if they're available in the UK. There is one immediate draw back with contact lens & that is they are on the thin concave side which would make them difficult to mount. Even if that were possible, I can see them popping off or breaking under pressure after a while. I think something a little more solid has to be considered. I think being magnetised is essential if its going to look authentic but that can be done with a simple metal tad. The base is probably the easiest thing to come up with. I'm not entirely convinced you'd be shaping such a tiny piece of aluminium on a lathe though, especially as a hole would have to be made through the centre to hold it in the chuck. Chances are that it's a lot easier to find metal the right size anyway. Whatever metal is used, it's so tiny that weight would be negligible. Gotta go Geoff ********* GF Willmetts **************************** Commissioning Editor: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com or http://www.computercrowsnestbooks.com THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MAGAZINE THE E-BOOK PUBLISHER THAT TRIES HARDER 'SFCrowsnest.com PageRanked by Google as the 2nd most popular Science Fiction site on the Internet' see: http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ 1st most popular SF PageRanked by Open Directory Project see: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ *************************************************** _________________________________________________________________ Overloaded with spam? With MSN 8, you can filter it out http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail&pgmarket=en-gb&XAPID=32&DI=1059 1944 From: "Marta Dawes" Date: Tue Feb 25, 2003 11:43pm Subject: RE: Lens & other stuff martadawes Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Watch crystals should be a lot tougher than a contact lens. Marta http://www.steveandmarta.com Home of "The Graveyards of Omaha" and "The New Twilight Zone" (Read about the TZ Con!) websites as well as "Memories of the Indian Hills Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska" The last round Super-Cinerama theatre in the world Demolished August 20, 2001 for absolutely no reason by Methodist Health Systems Sign the Petition to protest the demolition of the Indian Hills Online! http://www.PetitionOnline.com/steve/petition.html Call Stephen Long, CEO of Methodist, at 402-354-4000 and tell him the theatre should have been reopened as a working film venue. Email comments@..., Methodist's website, and tell them the theatre should have been saved, and pass the email address and phone number on to everyone you know! And --- Join the Indian Hills and Cinerama and Widescreen Discussion Group http://www.egroups.com/group/cinerama_widescreen_movies -----Original Message----- From: Geoff Willmetts [mailto:gfwillmetts@...] Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 5:28 PM To: probe_control@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [probe_control] Lens & other stuff Hello everyone Hello Don Re: Name Of The Game. If memory serves, the order of stars in the opening credits was Gene Barry, Robert Stack & Tony Franciosa - at least in the UK. Maybe he realised there was a greater effect by being listed last than first?? We were probably watching the development of this in the formative years. Adding who the third player was playing would also give a couple more seconds reading time, too. Having the order changing constantly might have been regarded as confusing to viewers. It's either that or all that's left are the foreign variations. Hello Yorktown According to what I've read, the reason Landau & Bain left Mission: Impossible is because they wanted more money than the star, Peter Graves, & even he said that would have been impossible contractually. Hello Don-2 I think the picture should look fun. Haven't been to London myself for over 8 years now either. I'm a lousy traveller. Give me some tradenames & I can soon find out if they're available in the UK. There is one immediate draw back with contact lens & that is they are on the thin concave side which would make them difficult to mount. Even if that were possible, I can see them popping off or breaking under pressure after a while. I think something a little more solid has to be considered. I think being magnetised is essential if its going to look authentic but that can be done with a simple metal tad. The base is probably the easiest thing to come up with. I'm not entirely convinced you'd be shaping such a tiny piece of aluminium on a lathe though, especially as a hole would have to be made through the centre to hold it in the chuck. Chances are that it's a lot easier to find metal the right size anyway. Whatever metal is used, it's so tiny that weight would be negligible. Gotta go Geoff ********* GF Willmetts **************************** Commissioning Editor: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com or http://www.computercrowsnestbooks.com THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MAGAZINE THE E-BOOK PUBLISHER THAT TRIES HARDER 'SFCrowsnest.com PageRanked by Google as the 2nd most popular Science Fiction site on the Internet' see: http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ 1st most popular SF PageRanked by Open Directory Project see: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ *************************************************** _________________________________________________________________ Overloaded with spam? With MSN 8, you can filter it out http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail&pgmarket=en-gb&XAPID=32&DI=1 059 Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 1945 From: yorktowncmdr@... Date: Tue Feb 25, 2003 9:36pm Subject: Re: Lens & other stuff worldsecanalyst Offline Offline Send Email Send Email > Hello Yorktown > According to what I've read, the reason Landau & Bain left Mission: > Impossible is because they wanted more money than the star, Peter Graves, & > even he said that would have been impossible contractually. > That was true of Barbara Bain being a series regular inasmuch that she wanted more for the forthcoming TV season. How much more I do not know. Landau, on the other, might not have necessarily have gotten more, but he maintained a guest star status so as to have flexibility for movie parts. Money was not the issue for him. However, when his then wife left the series as a consequence, he chose to leave it as well. 1946 From: "galacticprobe " Date: Wed Feb 26, 2003 3:57am Subject: Rotating Themes & Opening Credits galacticprobe Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Greetings, All, My brain's been idle so random thoughts have cropped up on this topic. I remember the "rotating star" theme was popular back in the days leading up to, & for some time after "Search." Besides "The Name of the Game" others included "The Tuesday Night Movie" which at the time consisted of "McCloud" (Dennis Weaver), "Columbo" (the original with Peter Faulk), & "McMillan & Wife" (Rock hudson & Susan St. James). Also on Wednesdays immediately preceding "Search" (at least in the US) was "The Wednesday Night Movie" (original title, eh?), which ran "Banacek" (George Peppard), "Maddigan" (Richard Widmark), & "Cool Million" (James Farrentino). (And people wonder why I can't remember the important things? I have all this trivia locked in my little grey cells. There's no more room for important things!) I used to sit with my father & watch all of these. I remember with at lease "Search" & the "...Night Movies", the actor featured in the night's episode was usually the first one whose image was flashed during the opening credits. Then, when the episode actually started, you got the banner showing the actor again with "Starring: Hugh O'Brian", "Tonight: Banacek, starring George Peppard", etc. I remember playing the little game with my father of guessing who was being featured each night just by watching to see who was the first one flashed during the opening theme. I always seemed to win, with my father exclaiming to my mother "How does he always figure this out?" Let's face it, I was only 11 then. He knew how it was done. He just never let on that he also knew the secret. I don't know if my ramblings answered any questions about the order of appearances in opening credits, but thanks for listening (reading) anyway. End Run, Dino 1947 From: pdcsnr@... Date: Tue Feb 25, 2003 11:15pm Subject: Re: Rotating Themes & Opening Credits bronco127 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email They were also popular in the late fifties. Maverick had two brothers sharing the same series. Cheyenne also shared his time slot with Conflict, Sugarfoot and Bronco. The reason for this is to be able to produce hour long shows without being rushed to the point where the shoe became substandard. They were able to do 2 or 3 shows at once on different sets. It also kept the series cost down. Paul [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 1948 From: "crayresearch2001 " Date: Wed Feb 26, 2003 6:42am Subject: Re: Lens & other stuff crayresearch... Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hi Geoff, I must say that searching for a scanner lens on the internet has exposed me to websites of companies with some incredible technology, that verges on science fiction, it definitely would be SF in 1972, which reminds me how advanced Search was for it's time. There are companies developing different technologies that were all inherent in the scanner, but in reality theese are all distinct technologies. Each thing that the scanner could do was way ahead of it's time, but all of those things taken together? Well maybe if you diverted some funds from "Star Wars" then you might be able to build something close. I can see a parallel between Search and some failed inernet/dot.com enterprises. It was backed by sound ideas, but there was not the demand for it. > Give me some tradenames & I can soon find out if they're > available in the UK. You could do a search using theese key words: Optics, Optoelectronics, Optical Components and of course refining your search with: Lens, Lenses, UK. However, the companies which sell scientific type surplus would defintely be the cost effective way to go.(considering that a scanner replica dosen't *do anything* the only criteria for a lens is semblance to the original) Don-2 (burning the midnight oil) 1949 From: Mike Valerio Date: Wed Feb 26, 2003 7:14am Subject: Re: Rotating Themes & Opening Credits mvscreen Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Here's the difference: Back in the 50s when Roy Huggins and others pioneered the two-or-three-lead shows, drama series generaly ran about 40 new episodes a year, an exhausting schedule for the lead in a single-star show...and one that a "must-have" name like James Garner wouldn't sign on for. But if Garner only had to star in half the shows, it was more manageable. Huggins and Warner Bros. later continued this practice with shows like 77 SUNSET STRIP, BOURBON STREET BEAT, SURFSIDE SIX and HAWAIIAN EYE. The NBC MYSTERY MOVIES set-up was entirely different. COLUMBO, MCMILLAN, MCCLOUD (and, later, MCCOY, HEC RAMSEY, AMY PRENTISS, QUINCY, LANIGAN'S RABBI) were all SUNDAY MYSTERY MOVIE shows, but they were all separate production units, with their own Execs, Producers, Head Writers and the like. They did not all emanate from the same production office like, say, all the MAVERICK episodes did (whether it Garner, Kelly or Moore). That's why there were never any cross-overs (unlike on MAVERICK and the Warners-derived private eye shows...) SEARCH followed the MAVERICK/SUSNET STRIP model created by Warner Bros. One production, one big star, two other stars to lighten the load. The NBC SUNDAY MYSTERY MOVIE, THE NBC WEDNESDAY/TUESDAY MYSTERY (COOL MILLION, BANACEK, MADIGAN, SNOOP SISTERS, FARADAY & COMPANY, TENAFLY) and ABC's THE MEN (ASSIGNMENT: VIENNA, JIGSAW and THE DELPHI BUREAU) all followed the model pioneered by Universal with THE BOLD ONES (THE LAWYERS, THE NEW DOCTORS, THE PROTECTORS and THE SENATOR)and FOUR-IN-ONE (MCCLOUD, NIGHT GALLERY, THE PSYCHIATRIST and SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT). Hope all that's clear. - MV 1950 From: pdcsnr@... Date: Wed Feb 26, 2003 6:34am Subject: Re: Rotating Themes & Opening Credits bronco127 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email In a message dated 2/26/2003 2:15:07 AM Eastern Standard Time, mvscreen@... writes: > Here's the difference: Back in the 50s when Roy > Huggins and others pioneered the two-or-three-lead > shows, drama series generaly ran about 40 new episodes > a year, an exhausting schedule for the lead in a > single-star show...and one that a "must-have" name > like James Garner wouldn't sign on for. But if Garner > only had to star in half the shows, it was more > manageable. > Garner at that time was not a big star until the series. At that time the actors were signed with the studios and pretty much had to do the parts they were given, or be prepared to do nothing. Garner was one of the first stars that rebeled against this during the Maverick series. It eventually resulted in the independent system they have today. Paul [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 1951 From: yorktowncmdr@... Date: Wed Feb 26, 2003 0:30pm Subject: Re: Rotating Themes & Opening Credits worldsecanalyst Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Rotating casts goes back to "Maverck" too. Jim Garner was very coveted throughout the industry for movies. He was a very busy man during the early 60s. Jack Warner knew the drawing power Garner possessed so that Warner provided the flexibilty for Garner to work movies. In the meantime Jack Kelly was on scene as Bart, and later both Bob Colbert and Roger Moore were tested as Maverick cousins. 1952 From: "Geoff Willmetts" Date: Wed Feb 26, 2003 11:16pm Subject: RE: TV computers gfwillmetts Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hello Yorktown Did you see them link Steve Austin’s bionics into Colossus footage in an early ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ episode?? The problem with TV dynamics is, especially in those days, is that unless they showed the computer doing something it looks pretty dead. Must have scared most of the TV companies when solid state came along. Gotta go Geoff ********* GF Willmetts **************************** Commissioning Editor: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com or http://www.computercrowsnestbooks.com THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MAGAZINE THE E-BOOK PUBLISHER THAT TRIES HARDER 'SFCrowsnest.com PageRanked by Google as the 2nd most popular Science Fiction site on the Internet' see: http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ 1st most popular SF PageRanked by Open Directory Project see: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ *************************************************** _________________________________________________________________ It's fast, it's easy and it's free. Get MSN Messenger today! http://messenger.msn.co.uk 1953 From: yorktowncmdr@... Date: Wed Feb 26, 2003 7:38pm Subject: Re: TV computers worldsecanalyst Offline Offline Send Email Send Email In a message dated 2/26/03 6:18:52 PM Eastern Standard Time, gfwillmetts@... writes: > Did you see them link Steve Austin’s bionics into Colossus footage in an > early ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ episode?? LOL - I remember that. > The problem with TV dynamics is, especially in those days, is that unless > they showed the computer doing something it looks pretty dead. Must have > scared most of the TV companies when solid state came along. Battlestar Galactica was the last series to get away with the hardware glut. When the 80s was beginning set designers had to think of ways to scale it back due to tighter budgets. V was one example. I've nearly overlooked the miniseries World War III with Rock Hudson, David Soul, and Brian Keith. Without featuring a lavished War Room you saw a profusion of TV monitors and telephone to help sustain the story. 1954 From: "observer345 " Date: Thu Feb 27, 2003 3:36am Subject: Marscon observer345 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email http://marscon.org/2003/index.html I'm just a little curious if anyone here is attending Marscon this weekend? Seems to me that if I had a party room reserved there, and if I had a tape of the pilot movie, I just might be inclined to prop the door open and stick it in a VCR and... Oh, wait... I DO have a party room reserved there! Gosh... Imagine that! 1955 From: "dghprobe3 " Date: Thu Feb 27, 2003 5:42am Subject: Re: Marscon dghprobe3 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email --- In probe_control, "observer345 " wrote: > http://marscon.org/2003/index.html > Hi: If the con allows you to tape signs to the wall announcing room parties, why not make a sign saying something along the lines of, "Do you remember the SEARCH series of 1972?" Then put the SEARCH logo under that, along with your room party info. Why not send us a report (if you get some people to show up) along with some of the comments that are made as the movie or episode runs? Good luck and have fun at the con. :-) --Don H. 1956 From: "Geoff Willmetts" Date: Thu Feb 27, 2003 11:21pm Subject: Re: we have a lens what about the mounting gfwillmetts Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hello Marta But do watch crystals come in blue?? I'm a bit confused here. Do you mean watch crystals as in their jewel movement in the old fashioned watches?? Hello Yorktown Like the other chap who mentioned Mission: Impossible, I'm quoting from the book about the series. The Landau/Bain problem was seen as a joint thing. If one got it, then so would the other in a two-prong attack. It's all history now anyway. It must have made a mess on their records as neither of them appeared to have done much work of significance since. I lost track of Landau until the 'Ed Wood' film & 'The X-Files Movie'. Bain literally disappeared into the woodwork. Hello Dino The Tuesday Night Mystery Movies weren't seen as star rotation, just different series in rotation over the weeks as Mike Valerio pointed out. It worked out quite nicely cos now we can get a Columbo season without seeing the others. We never saw the star rotation thing in the UK so it must have been a purely US ploy to get you people watching. I'm surprised your father didn't let you read the TV channel list to work out who was being shown. Mind you, they might have left it vague there to keep everyone guessing. Hello Don-2 Now you know why I refer to the spy technology here occasionally. If anything, the lens are getting smaller than the TV scanner. Pity they don't have the range into the electromagnetic spectrum. The problem with such bugs if approached a'la 'Search' is that could their continual use be justified. I'm still investigating the button possibility. I've bought a mother of pearl button that has a faint blue tinge to it & has a 7mm diameter. The clasp shape can be seen through the front of the button could almost look like the back shutter. A bit of detail behind that & it looks viable if it can be anchored. I'm not too worried about the straight bits but the loop around the lens itself needs to be perfect. We seem to be sorting these problems out amongst ourselves, so what can we improve from which is a hoop of 8mm?? We can always go back to the lens if the prototype can be made to work. Gotta go Geoff ********* GF Willmetts **************************** Commissioning Editor: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com or http://www.computercrowsnestbooks.com THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MAGAZINE THE E-BOOK PUBLISHER THAT TRIES HARDER 'SFCrowsnest.com PageRanked by Google as the 2nd most popular Science Fiction site on the Internet' see: http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ 1st most popular SF PageRanked by Open Directory Project see: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/ *************************************************** _________________________________________________________________ Stay in touch with absent friends - get MSN Messenger http://messenger.msn.co.uk 1957 From: pdcsnr@... Date: Thu Feb 27, 2003 8:26pm Subject: Re: we have a lens what about the mounting bronco127 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email In a message dated 2/27/2003 6:24:10 PM Eastern Standard Time, gfwillmetts@... writes: > It must have made a mess on their records as neither of them appeared to > have done much work of significance since. I lost track of Landau until the > > 'Ed Wood' film & 'The X-Files Movie'. Bain literally disappeared into the > woodwork. > > They both appeared in a british series called Space 1999. The show was on in 1975 and it turned into a cult classic. Landau has been in several things over the years. Barbara has been in a lot less. Paul [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 1958 From: yorktowncmdr@... Date: Thu Feb 27, 2003 8:47pm Subject: Re: Bain & Landau - OT worldsecanalyst Offline Offline Send Email Send Email > Like the other chap who mentioned Mission: Impossible, I'm quoting from the > book about the series. The Landau/Bain problem was seen as a joint thing. If > one got it, then so would the other in a two-prong attack. It's all history > now anyway. That is true. When Bruce couldn't meet Bain's quote, he decided not to renew Bain's contract. Consequently, when her contract wasn't renewed, Landau chose to leave with her. Leonard Nimoy took over at that point. > It must have made a mess on their records as neither of them appeared to > have done much work of significance since. I lost track of Landau until the > 'Ed Wood' film & 'The X-Files Movie'. Bain literally disappeared into the > woodwork. They did do some work together in TV movies in the 70s. However, their most noteworthy work was Space: 1999. By the 80s their careers declined severely, and they got divorced before the 80s ended. Landau lamented that no director wanted to touch him during this period. Landau's career was making an important comeback when he was casted in Tucker. Matter of fact, he got a nomination as best supported actor in that movie. He won this Oscar after his Lugosi portrayal in Ed Wood. Bain has all but disappeared. Throughout the 90s I saw her make two different appearances in bit parts: Murder, She Wrote and The Visitor. I heard that she was with her former husband in NYC on the weekend of September 13, 1999. Gosh, what was supposed to have happened on that day ;) Their daughter Juliette is making a name in her own right. She was in Ed Wood, and she has been a semi-regular in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel. It is time for me to stop this OT straying. I should constrain my postings to Search. 1959 From: "Marta Dawes" Date: Fri Feb 28, 2003 2:07am Subject: RE: Bain & Landau - OT martadawes Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Barbara Bain showed up at the Twilight Zone convention last year, at the Friday night get-together; don't know why she was there, but I believe it was because Barry Morse was there. We heard about this after the fact, or we would have tried to be there to meet her. Marta http://www.steveandmarta.com Home of "The Graveyards of Omaha" and "The New Twilight Zone" (Read about the TZ Con!) websites as well as "Memories of the Indian Hills Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska" The last round Super-Cinerama theatre in the world Demolished August 20, 2001 for absolutely no reason by Methodist Health Systems Sign the Petition to protest the demolition of the Indian Hills Online! http://www.PetitionOnline.com/steve/petition.html Call Stephen Long, CEO of Methodist, at 402-354-4000 and tell him the theatre should have been reopened as a working film venue. Email comments@..., Methodist's website, and tell them the theatre should have been saved, and pass the email address and phone number on to everyone you know! And --- Join the Indian Hills and Cinerama and Widescreen Discussion Group http://www.egroups.com/group/cinerama_widescreen_movies -----Original Message----- From: yorktowncmdr@... [mailto:yorktowncmdr@...] Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 7:47 PM To: probe_control@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [probe_control] Bain & Landau - OT > Like the other chap who mentioned Mission: Impossible, I'm quoting from the > book about the series. The Landau/Bain problem was seen as a joint thing. If > one got it, then so would the other in a two-prong attack. It's all history > now anyway. That is true. When Bruce couldn't meet Bain's quote, he decided not to renew Bain's contract. Consequently, when her contract wasn't renewed, Landau chose to leave with her. Leonard Nimoy took over at that point. > It must have made a mess on their records as neither of them appeared to > have done much work of significance since. I lost track of Landau until the > 'Ed Wood' film & 'The X-Files Movie'. Bain literally disappeared into the > woodwork. They did do some work together in TV movies in the 70s. However, their most noteworthy work was Space: 1999. By the 80s their careers declined severely, and they got divorced before the 80s ended. Landau lamented that no director wanted to touch him during this period. Landau's career was making an important comeback when he was casted in Tucker. Matter of fact, he got a nomination as best supported actor in that movie. He won this Oscar after his Lugosi portrayal in Ed Wood. Bain has all but disappeared. Throughout the 90s I saw her make two different appearances in bit parts: Murder, She Wrote and The Visitor. I heard that she was with her former husband in NYC on the weekend of September 13, 1999. Gosh, what was supposed to have happened on that day ;) Their daughter Juliette is making a name in her own right. She was in Ed Wood, and she has been a semi-regular in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel. It is time for me to stop this OT straying. I should constrain my postings to Search. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 1960 From: "galacticprobe " Date: Fri Feb 28, 2003 5:15am Subject: Re: we have a lens what about the mounting galacticprobe Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Greetings, Just to throw another bit (or 2) into the knowledge pot, Space:1999 returned with about 20 new episodes in the fall of 1976. This series didn't quite have the same magick as the first series, with major character & set changes thanks to Hollywood execs trying to cash in on its initial success. All they really did was "American- ize" what was an already great British programme. Bain & Landau appeared most of those 20 episodes. They both appeared together again in the late '70s (79, maybe even early '80?) in a made-for-TV movie - the 3rd installment of the "Gilligan's Island" reunion movies titled "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island." Landau played a long-standing rival to Thurston Howell III. Bain was a Russian scientist idolised (at least initially) by the Professor. It was a hoot. The only thing I have ever seen Bain in since was a few years ago on an episode of "Diagnosis Murder." It was an old spy TV free-for- all starring Bain in a reprisal of her Cinnamon Carter role from Mission:Impossible. That episode also featured Robert Culp (I Spy) although I can't remember if he was reprising his old role; Patrick MacNee (not as john Steed); Robert Vaughn (again not as Napolean Solo); and an alumnus from the Mission:Impossible of the late '80s, Phil Morris (son of Greg, as some secret service agent who isn't what he seems). Needless to say, in that one, Dick Van Dyke & the other regulars didn't share much screen time. End Run, Dino --- In probe_control@yahoogroups.com, pdcsnr@a... wrote: > In a message dated 2/27/2003 6:24:10 PM Eastern Standard Time, > gfwillmetts@h... writes: > > > They both appeared in a british series called Space 1999. The show was on in > 1975 and it turned into a cult classic. Landau has been in several things > over the years. Barbara has been in a lot less. > > Paul > 1961 From: "crayresearch2001 " Date: Fri Feb 28, 2003 7:25am Subject: Re: we have a lens what about the mounting crayresearch... Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Hi Geoff, Well assuming that we negate power considerations (and incidentally, I've considered integrating an ultra thin "hearing aid" battery into the construction of the scanner casing :-)do not be swayed by the size of pinhole lenses, I don't think any of them have zoom capabilities, as one would have to work alongside infa-red and UV sensors, so in fact the smaller the better. But if one wants to go for "the full monty" then a more integrated approach is required. I've got an idea but the circuitry, as you well know, is minuscule. I think a CCD array (think digital camera) would be right on the circuitboad and we do away with the small lens as the larger scanner lens would also give us zoom in/out capabilities. Perhaps the inner lens would be fixed and your outer hoop holding the scanner lens would move in and out, with the micromotor/servo assembly on the outer periphary of the circuitboard. It's a daunting project :( >We can always go back to the lens if the prototype can be made to work. That sounds like a plan to me. Catch you later, Don-2 1962 From: "observer345 " Date: Fri Feb 28, 2003 0:10pm Subject: Re: Marscon observer345 Offline Offline Send Email Send Email I believe they do allow signage, providing you use masking tape to put them up. They assigned me a room almost across the hall from the legitimate movie/video room and down the hall from the consuite, so even though it's not a big convention I expect a lot of traffic. :) I think I'll show it when the guy across the hall is doing his Anime thing. Anime vs. Search? No contest. --- In probe_control@yahoogroups.com, "dghprobe3 " wrote: > --- In probe_control, "observer345 " wrote: > > http://marscon.org/2003/index.html > > > Hi: If the con allows you to tape signs to the wall announcing room > parties, why not make a sign saying something along the lines of, "Do > you remember the SEARCH series of 1972?" Then put the SEARCH logo > under that, along with your room party info. Why not send us a > report (if you get some people to show up) along with some of the > comments that are made as the movie or episode runs? Good luck and > have fun at the con. :-) > > --Don H. 1963 From: yorktowncmdr@... Date: Fri Feb 28, 2003 9:55pm Subject: Probe Cryptanalysis worldsecanalyst Offline Offline Send Email Send Email Although I haven't seen "The Packager" since the prime time broadcast I do remember fondly Search utilizing cryptography. C. R. Grover does his bit of snooping within a retired general's bunker to find his secret command-and-control center (This doesn't have Probe Control's sophistication). As he rifles through the operational plans we see a cryptogram displayed on Probe Control's monitor with the following text: OPRXO 7OHLZ FHLB2 B8WAV F64EE TZL44 RS774 JM5YY 9HL23 14ZNT T3VVO 143HH PCBAB RX98R WABCZ 23456 26LHD 4BBXA X4227 BABEZ LORKZ ZORXY CBZXB 3344A XAOXA LMTFO ODGH8 8PTTN ACIML L4L5A L4L6A LXXXA (Text taken from Final Draft for the episode) Is the above cryptogram used in the episode proper? Was another cryptogram presented for display on the Probe Control monitor? Griffin promptly evaluates the system. Based on the details from the script we are told that it is a variation of a cipher devised by Dutch Cryptographer Cornelius van der Leevend. I never heard of him! I even check my crypto books which includes David Kahn's Codebreakers and Simon Singh's The Code Book among many others. They don't allude to Leevend at all. Griffin subsequently turns the computer loose on it to render the follow translation: 0800. Capture Central Radio Station. 0900, take airfield, reserve force join palace attack. 0930 shock troops air cover assault Armory. 1200. Second Armored Brigade join strike. 0200 capture palace. Shoot Sinjar. Being a hobbyist cryptographer my eye tells me the cryptogram is writer's gibberish, but a sender always hopes to fool the analyst to dismiss it as such. Does anyone know for a fact if the above is a working cipher? Soon in the future I will provide a presentation on cryptology in the media for a gathering of the American Cryptogram Assoc. "The Packagers" does provide an above average demonstration of TV cryptology. David (WorldSecAnalyst-Probe Div)