Search

"Search" is a series that failed to find its audience mainly because most of that audience was already in bed (time slot 9 or 10 PM on a school night; it was the first series I got to stay up late for!). It's also a series that could not have existed before the world watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, since the concept of a room full of specialists monitoring and assisting the agent is, of course, based on the room full of specialists in Houston who monitor and assist our astronauts.

Note that Bob Justman (of Star Trek fame) was involved; undoubtedly it was because of Star Trek's influence that the aforementioned room full of specialists included African-Americans, Asian-Americans and women.

All in all, it's a shame it didn't catch on, but then again, most of the audience had to be in bed early on school nights. Incidentally, the pilot film used to show up on local stations every year or so, though not for quite a few years.

Search had some of the best elements of the spy genre (handsome persuasive and strong male leads, beautiful women, exotic rich locales, and mysterious missing objects, etc) and of the science fiction genre (an elaborate Mission Control center, computer assisted artificial intelligence information, man/machine embedded implants etc).

The plots where were sometimes not that interesting or hung together well but the relationship of the characters (especially Probe Control irascibly trying to keep the three independent minded agents in line) was fun to watch.

When you consider the ongoing popularity of the spy genre and the enthusiastic support of science fiction series by it's fans the series Search should have been a very good success. It could be that it was just a little ahead of its time. I encourage the TV production community to consider the creation of a new Search series or something along the same lines. The TV audience is more interested in both the spy genre (James Bond, the Bourne series etc) and the science fiction series (Star trek, Star Wars, etc than at any time in the past.

This was one of the great shows that didn't last.

The teamwork shown by the group working behind the scenes was perhaps too "upbeat" for people. You didn't watch the show expecting the good guys to fail, but instead tried to guess which specialist or gadget would get them out of a jam this time.

I don't remember how good the writing and dialog was, but I clearly remember Burgess Meredith's character as a very compelling influence in the "control room". I would love this show to return to the air or come out on DVD, but I suppose it has been gone for so long that any chance of that happening is pretty low.

In any case, it is good to see the show immortalized to some extent by being listed properly here (I searched for "Search" a long time ago and couldn't find it).

A very nice set-up for a series that looked like it was going far. In the pilot (The film 'Probe') the controller, B.C. Cameron (The late Burgess Meredith)warns Probe 1 (Hugh Lockwood, played by Hugh O'Brian) that he should avoid a head-cold as it messes with the electronics. Well I think that the Network got a head cold over this ahead-of-its-time semi-sf spy series. Like another reviewer, I would love to see the series restarted, perhaps someone could persuade a network to buy the rights? Leslie Stephens created several series like this (Invisible Man etc), and it seems a pity to waste such inventiveness.

As to casting, I wouldn't dare to put forward a suggestion, except that, as a Brit, I wouldn't mind them filming an episode or two in the U.K. with a British 'Probe'...

As I recall, this show wasn't given a chance. I know that in the San Francisco Bay Area it was preempted 5 times ( ! ) in it's original run, including for 2 shows on the energy crisis !!

I loved the show, but the best episodes were the one's with Hugh O'Brien and I can still hear Burgess Meredith going practically insane and yelling " Lockwood ! Do you copy ! " and Lockwood ignoring him.

The episodes with Doug McClure, and Franciosa weren't as good.

I had a terrible crush on Angel Tompkins, too.

A guy in Palos Verdes Peninsula was selling copies of the Probe scanner. Wish I still had one but I lost it.

George Senda Martinez, Ca