The "World Securities" Buildings in Search

There were two different building exteriors used for World Securities Corporation during the Search series. Above is the ridged building used in the "Probe" pilot movie, which has been identified as the Bank of America building in San Francisco. Exterior footage of this building was also used as the establishing shot of Timothy O'Toole's office building in "Moment of Madness."

One website says the address for the building above is 555 California Street in San Francisco. Those attempting to find this building for themselves may want to double check that information to be certain.

The photo above left shows the sign that was used for World Securities Corporation in the "Probe" pilot. Notice that the sign on the left simply seems to be sitting there on a concrete slab, as if the slightest wind could blow it away. Notice also in the photo above right that the same sign was used again during the series, only mounted differently on a distinctive sign post.

By the time the first regular episode was filmed, a different flat glass tower was used. For the sake of expediency, it makes sense that the producers would pick a building in the Los Angeles area as opposed to flying a crew to film in and around the Bank of America building in San Francisco. Above left is the building as seen in "The Murrow Disappearance" in 1972. Above right is the same building as seen in the 1979 NBC Robert Conrad series, A Man Called Sloane, during the episode entitled "The Seduction Squad." The real giveaway is the unique white concrete structure which emanates from the bottom of the building.

Again, both photos above are from A Man Called Sloane, however notice above left that you see more of the street and neighboring buildings than you ever did in Search. The smallish blue street sign at the corner says "Commonwealth." Unfortunately no sign of a cross street was shown.

A MapQuest search reveals that there is a North and South Commonwealth Avenue extending from Melrose Ave. to Hwy. 101 to Wilshire Blvd., which seems likely to me. There is another shorter Commonwealth Ave. southeast of that toward Culver City near Interstate 405, but the road has no four-way intersection. For those who are trying to find this building, double check area maps to be sure. If the building still exists, that is.

Above are the night time views of the building as seen in one of the last Search episodes, "Moment of Madness." Interesting that despite all the notable changes that occurred at the midseason point, they decided to maintain the same building for World Securities. Notice that each single floor takes up two rows of windows, seemingly making the building appear much taller than it actually is. That building only has about 20 floors if I counted correctly. But if you were to simply count the rows of windows you would see during the daytime, you might think the building has 40 floors, thereby giving the building a "forced perspective" quality.

All of the interior scenes involving Probe Control, of course, were not filmed inside these buildings, but were filmed on a separate sound stage available to Warner studios.

Does anyone know of other movies or TV shows in which these two different buildings appeared? The McMillan & Wife episode "Aftershock" opens with a shot of San Francisco's Bank of America building, which pans from near the top of the building to downward along it's side to street level.

Some of this information was also covered in the Search Yahoo group:

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/probe_control/message/2449

--compiled by Don Harden
thanks also to Bill Webb