A 1972 Warner Brothers Press Release on Search

NEWS FROM
WARNER BROS. TELEVISION

About

"SEARCH"

As a primary guideline to authors working on scripts for his Search series which he created,
prolific executive producer Leslie Stevens says, "The ultimate impact of Search depends
upon a simple concept: The show is intended as entertainment."

TV being the widespread medium it is, entertainment shouldn't be all that difficult to come
by nightly - but often it is. Since Stevens admonition to the authors is closely supervised
by himself, entertainment is what's found in NBC-TV's 10 to 11 (PST) time slot on
Wednesday evenings beginning this fall.

The Leslie Stevens Productions Search series, made in conjunction with Warner Bros.
Television, is a contemporary look at today's world, tinged with a touch of little-known
electronic magic, plus a peek into the future based on existing techniques and what they
may expand into.

Search, as a series, grew from a two-hour film televised last fall, titled "World Premiere"
Probe," starring Hugh O' Brien as an electronic private-eye. He's in the employ of World
Securities, a firm which protects and insures banks, national treasures, art collections and
the like. As a Probe - the firm's designation for its "agent" or "operative" - O'Brien works
in Probe Division, specializing in the search and recovery of "that which is missing."

With the expansion of the original film into a series of one-hour episodes under the new
title, Search, operations of Probe adventures have been expanded to include another two
stars - Tony Franciosa and Doug McClure. This makes certain O'Brian's talents aren't
overexposed, and that personality and physical traits of the three stars can be matched up
to ever-varying storylines to pique continuing audience interest through variety.

After his initial admonition to authors, as noted above, that the Search series is "intended
as entertainment," Stevens continued: "It is designed as an exciting, enjoyable hour of
escape from the cares of the day. It is not a message show - but that doesn't mean that
the pendulum automatically swings to an empty vacuum. Real entertainment requires real
showmanship and demands genuine creativity to blend the exciting ingredients: wit,
invention, romance, glamor - that which pleases intelligent audiences."

Briefly, in Search, Probe Division is split into several units titled Probe Control, its activities
overseen by Burgess Meredith.

Physically, Probe Control resembles the cockpit of a giant airship - it is dark and glowing
with telemetry instruments. Banks of computers flicker like fire-flies, reels of tape whirl,
shot
and reverse, and a large TV screen looms high overall. In the dark void of the background,
other Probe units can be seen working on other cases. An elite corps of five computer
telemetry specialists work at Meredith's command; they sit before individual consoles and
panels, their faces glow-lit by blinking, staccato lights. It resembles Houston Control at
NASA.

When a Probe - be it O'Brian, Franciosa or McClure - is on a job, his every movement
constantly is monitored by Probe Control via modern miracles of miniaturized systems: one
is a TV scanner-camera the size of a postage stamp. Magnetized to loci-on, it is worn as
a tie-tack, cufflink, wrist-watch, hand-held - or whatever. It has all-frequencies micro-wave
capability. It picks up picture, sound, infra-red heat, ultra sonics-chemical radiation - the
full
spectrum. Too, he has a tiny receiving-set neuro implant behind his ear which can be
heard by him only. He can communicate silently with Probe Control by tooth radio
implants:
tightening the jaw once signals affirmative; twice, negative. A twitch calls "more
information," a continuing clampdown signals "emergency."

Individual searches by individual Probes in the "Search" episodes vary as widely as do the
individual stars chosen for the roles: in "The Gold Machine," Hugh O'Brian travels to San
Francisco to locate an Eurasian "source of missing funds," and a paroled convict along a
trail fast disappearing into limbo. His adventure is shared by glamorous, blonde Angel
Tompkins, liberated by vacation from her medical telemetry duties behind a Probe Control
console.

Again, in "One of Our Probes Is Missing," Tony Franciosa follows a dangerous and
obscure
London trail searching for a missing fellow Probe and counterfeiters whose activities
threaten the entire European acceptance of American currency. Franciosa's companion
in adventure is the titian-haired beauty, Stefanie Powers, with more curves than an All-Star
pitcher.

In a third episode, "Short Circuit," starring Doug McClure, the Probe has less than 12-hours
to find and capture an original designer of Probe Division and many of its electronic
miracles. The temporarily-crazed man threatens completely to destroy World Security
Corporation and Probe Division with a new invention - and has demonstrated that he can.
McClure's feminine foil here is Mary Ann Mobley, former Miss America.

After a decade away from series TV, Hugh O'Brian was lured back via the "Search" project,
the first of more than 50 offered which he felt was fresh enough to hold his interest; he'd
earlier wearied of the medium after six long years as TV's Wyatt Earp.

Variety typifies O'Brian, the man. He diversifies constantly. His money is in stocks and
bonds, real estate, bowling alleys, a building equipment firm, a theatre-in-the-round, an oil
syndicate and his own TV production company. Born in Rochester, New York, his family
reared him subsequently in such diverse places as Chicago, Pennsylvania, Long Island,
Illinois, and Mississippi. He's played a diversity of roles ranging from Hamlet to Wyatt
Earp,
in films, films for TV; TV documentaries and on-stage; a confirmed bachelor, he lives atop
a hill overlooking Beverly Hills with gossip columnists constantly wondering in print which
of his many dates is sharing the pad with him. He admits only to Brut and Panda,
respectively a white German Shepherd and a Spaniel of questionable lineage.

Even as the versatile Stevens created the Probe of "Search," O'Brian originated the role
of the electronic private-eye, Lockwood. As a Probe, he is a former astronaut, selected in
the first group to ride the Command Module on Gemini III.

At the peak of his film career 14 years ago, Tony Franciosa said, "I'll never make a TV
series."

Fortunately, Franciosa admits today, no one paid much mind to his declaration. TV's been
good to him. Space doesn't permit listing his overall TV activities in the 14 years, but there
was "Valentine's Day," and "Name of the Game," both series of high success. Today,
Franciosa admits, "I do TV for the bread. I've a lotta family to support."

Franciosa's had his problems; many of them on public record. He's now working at his
fourth marriage; he's a former angry boy of the streets who on occasion drank too much;
police arrest records bear his name. He's a cliche: "a fiery Latin." Obviously Italian, he told
one writer he'd changed his name (from Papaleo) because, "I didn't want to be Italian. I
was under the impression all Italians were gangsters or gamblers or racketeers." An
idealic
boyhood-full of traumas. One acquaintance likens Franciosa to: "A typical operatic Italian
tenor of volcanic temperament. He flows along like a torpid river, then suddenly turns into
a raging rapid. In a frenzy, he gesticulates, he screams imprecations; he quiets. Two
minutes later he's forgotten it ever happened." Ladies seem to sense this controlled
emotion seething below-surface; it attracts.

For "Search," Franciosa's character name is Nick Bianco. Of Bianco, creator Stevens
notes: "A razor-sharp character, he's a smooth, funny street specialist. He knows every
gang, bookie, pool hustler, mobster, consigliere, cop, commissioner, FBI, CIA, DFI
agent...he is an encyclopedia of the underworld...Extremely smooth with women...he is
able
to dazzle the Lady Dean of a wealthy Girls' School or even a Jackie Kennedy..."

Doug McClure, third of the Probe trio starring in "Search" wasn't born with sand between
his toes, but it wasn't long before it appeared.

At the age of three, McClure's parents moved into a home near the Pacific Ocean Sands
at Pacific Palisades. By the time he was five years older, he was riding his own horse and
body-sufing; later, as a student at Santa Monica Jr. College and at U.C.L.A. large portions
of his spare time were spent riding horesback or surfing.

McClure gave up surfing several years ago: "TV's demands won't permit the time required,"
but he continues to own four horses. For years, he rode the rodeo circuit, competing in
specialties of calf-roping, team-roping and bareback riding. Those are ex-luxuries, too:
"When a friend of mine lost a finger roping, I lost a lotta interest," he says, also admitting
time has taken a certain toll.

Again, executive producer Stevens, wittingly or not, has employed personal characteristics
in casting the third Probe of "Search."

McClure is C. R. Grover, "Stand-by Probe, no unit, unassigned. He is the eternal back-up
man, ready for action but rarely called upon...since nothing ever happens, he has learned
to take it easy. In fact, he has become a Super Goof-off. He likes to hang out at the
beach,
surf a little, fish maybe...practice guitar...rest up. The only thing that stirs him into activity
is a good-looking girl.

"As a Probe, he is incredible...he is tough, brilliant operator. The reason for his astounding
capability is that he wants to get it over with so he can return to his life work of goofing-off."

In a 20-year professional career, executive producer Leslie Stevens' energetic mind has
brought forth many a wondrous entertainment for people to behold.

Latest, and perhaps most dramatic of all, comes in his treatment of what he terms: "A
Moon-Walk Down Main Street." It is exemplified in the screenplays (largely form his hand)
of his "Search" series.

A native of Washington, D.C., Stevens at ten became a resident of London, where his
father was American attache. An early interest in drama may have been intensified by his
father's insistence that he earn his allowance by memorizing Shakespeare. Today,
provoked by a proper bet, Stevens yet can soliloquize fluently.

He studied and graduated from the Royal College of Westminister. Stevens dates his
breakthrough at 1939-40, when he worked as Orson Welles' assistant on "Five Kings" with
the Mercury theatre.

At 18, Stevens joined the U.S. Army Air Force, emerging at end of World War II, with
Captain's rank, and enrolled at the Yale University Graduate School of Fine Arts to study
drama.

Returning to off-Broadway productions as a playwright, he also moonlighted as a copy boy
at TIME, inc., in New York, for three years. Charles Boyer and Claudette Colbert were
starred in "Marriage Go Round," on Broadway in 1957. Its author: Leslie Stevens. He
wrote on "Playhouse 90," "Producer's Theatre," "Kraft Theatre," and major specials for
CBS,
NBC and ABC.

With Arthur Penn at Warner Bros. In 1962, Stevens wrote several films, including "Left-
Handed Gun" for Paul Newman. He moved to Twentieth Century Fox and United Artists,
where he created "Outer Limits."

Universal Studios signed Stevens in 1970 as executive producer, where he functioned as
writer-producer-director on such shows as: "Name of the Game," "McCloud," "It Takes a
Thief," "Virginian," "World Premieres," and others.

In 1971, he formed a new company, of which he's President, Leslie Stevens Productions,
Inc. He also is the owner of a giant U.S. missile base near Sacramento, California, (former
launch pad of the huge Titan ICBM) which he purchased for conversion into a major
ecology center. The result, "Earthside Missile Base," he terms a true-to-life demonstration
of "swords into plowshares."