He made a pilot for a proposed TV adventure series entitled, "Captain Grief" based on the Jack London character who was the skipper of a three-masted sailing vessel. The series would have been shot in color in the Hawaiian Islands; however the pilot was not picked up by any of the networks. The series was eventually produced for syndication and ran for several seasons.
Joan Collins's first husband, married when she was 19 and Reed was 33. Collins advised him to base his acting style on James Mason. Reed ignored her advice and used Stewart Granger as his role model instead.