On Sat, Aug 17, 2019 at 6:25 PM gf willmetts gfwillmetts-2@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Hello John and Bryan

Well, that was an interesting read. Gave a lot more details on Franciosa, O'Brian and Stevens that I didn't know.

  The Search info joins the dots. Looking at which stories he references means it was in production as it was written.

  Most appreciated.

Something else to ponder on. Lincoln Enterprises sold three Star Trek bibles, yet considering it has so much of Search, not its bible.

  Considering how Warner's had things archived, do you think its worth asking to see if a copy is hidden away somewhere??

Geoff

***************  Geoff Willmetts    editor, SFCrowsnest.info and other suffixes ****************
 
           SFCrowsnest.info is the biggest SF website in Europe and second biggest in the world 
                 and that's only because the first is a commerical site and they look to what we do!

  NOTE THE NEW WEBSITE LINK IN YOUR FAVOURITES LIST
 
*************************************************************************************

---

From: probe_control@yahoogroups.com <probe_control@yahoogroups.com> on behalf of John actingman6@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: 17 August 2019 22:36
To: Probe Control <probe_control@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [probe_control] Ralph Senensky On Ends Of The Earth

 

 

Here is the text of "About Search"..  Long timers have seen it before...it has just been a very long time:

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."

On Sat, Aug 17, 2019 at 5:16 PM Bryan Durk bryankd@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Sorry Geoff, I have no idea what was in the “About Search” item, but I wish I did.

On Aug 17, 2019, at 1:19 PM, gf willmetts gfwillmetts-2@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hello Bryan

That's really early. Any idea what was in the 'About Search' item?? It could have been the series bible.

  Just because there was a sketch there doesn't mean either way is there was a scanner for sale.

  I have been thinking a bit though. We know who had the hero scanner but what if the other ones were the stunt models?? That would explain why it/they weren't in the catalogue for long.

Geoff

***************  Geoff Willmetts    editor, SFCrowsnest.info and other suffixes ****************
 
           SFCrowsnest.info is the biggest SF website in Europe and second biggest in the world  
                 and that's only because the first is a commerical site and they look to what we do!

  NOTE THE NEW WEBSITE LINK IN YOUR FAVOURITES LIST
 
*************************************************************************************

---

From: probe_control@yahoogroups.com <probe_control@yahoogroups.com> on behalf of Bryan Durk bryankd@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: 17 August 2019 20:24
To: probe_control@yahoogroups.com <probe_control@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [probe_control] Ralph Senensky On Ends Of The Earth

 

 

Here is a link to a image file from John’s collection of the Lincoln Enterprises 4th catalog page featuring Search: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z6t4xkf7xnpy9o6/Lincoln%20Enterprises%20Cat%204.jpg?dl=0

Here is a link to a image file from Johns collection of the Lincoln Enterprises 5th catalog page featuring Search:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qmk4vfyyjbx22s3/Lincoln%20Enterprises%20Cat%205.jpg?dl=0

On Aug 17, 2019, at 11:55 AM, Jim Alexander II probecontrol@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

No answer yet. :(  It’d be nice if he sees it one day.. 

Senensky’s site is somewhere I can spend hours at a time on. I absolutely adore it. 

Jim Alexander 
Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 16, 2019, at 10:21 PM, 'LambuLambu@...' LambuLambu@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Wow! What a wealth of info in that link! It's like getting a drink from a fire hose (with the nozzle set on straight-stream, not fog, be it high- or low-velocity fog). I do hope that poster, Kit Sullivan, does contact Jim and sends a photo of the scanner replica; like "almost" everyone else, I had no idea such catalogues existed back then, or that one even sold a scanner replica. If Kit does, hopefully Jim will post a copy of the photo here as well as on the Facebook page (since I don't do Facebook).

end run,

Dino.

-----Original Message-----
From: gf willmetts gfwillmetts-2@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com>
To: probe_control@yahoogroups.com <probe_control@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, Aug 16, 2019 2:54 pm
Subject: Re: [probe_control] Ralph Senensky On Ends Of The Earth

 

Hello John

Just read the link.

Would have been interesting to have seen Jim Garner thump Tony Franciosa.

I agree with Jim Alexander. If the scanner had been available on Lincoln Enterprises, we'd all have gone after it at that price.

Some things from what Senensky infers is not seeing any of the earlier episodes so no knowing if there was any house style needed..

  He does sound like a jobbing director though.

Geoff

*********** Geoff Willmetts   editor, SFCrowsnest.info and other suffixes ***********
 
           SFCrowsnest.info is the biggest SF website in Europe and second biggest in the world and that's only because the first is a commerical site and they look to what we do!

  NOTE THE NEW WEBSITE LINK IN YOUR FAVOURITES LIST
 
************************************************************************

---

From: probe_control@yahoogroups.com <probe_control@yahoogroups.com> on behalf of John actingman6@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: 16 August 2019 19:26
To: Probe Control <probe_control@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [probe_control] Ralph Senensky On Ends Of The Earth

I don't know if this site had been mentioned before on this list.  I saw it referenced on the Facebook page.  Director Ralph Senensky talks about directing Ends of the Earth.

http://senensky.com/ends-of-the-earth/

And there is so much on that site about the other shows he has directed, I will be busy reading for years, I think.