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12903Re: [probe_control] Ralph Senensky On Ends Of The Earth

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  • Bryan Durk
    Aug 17
      Your depth & generosity of knowledge never ceases to amaze me!

      Gotta say it’s always fantastic to read posts from you, Don & Jim.

      And of course all the other members like Geoff, Dino, etc. I always learn something. : )

      On Aug 17, 2019, at 4:22 PM, John actingman6@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


      Between Don and Myself we have Lincoln and Search covered.  I think around 1975, after I had all the scripts, I stopped ordering clips because I kept getting the same ones.

      Don on the other hand kept ordering and managed to get all the good stuff like the idling patterns, and more of the slate shots that I did not.

      I still have one of the small manila envelopes with the clips in them uncut, because they were the same ones I already had..

      I had concluded that I was the only one ordering and I asked them to pull out a deeper envelope, but I got the same shots.

      So I gave up and never heard from Lincoln again.

      I learned about Lincoln inadvertently.  My fourth printing (March, 1969) copy of The Making of Star Trek had at the bottom of the episode listing at the back of the book a notice  saying if we want more information, to write to Star Trek Enterprises at (address).

      Don't remember what I asked, but what I got in response was Star Trek catalogue number 2.

      This might have been in 1970.

      On Sat, Aug 17, 2019 at 6:26 PM Bryan Durk bryankd@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
       

      HI John,

      Ha! Thanks! I have seen that press release, but not sure I made the connection that it was being sold through the Lincoln Enterprises Catalog as “About Search”. Or, if I did, I’ve forgotten—you're right it has been a very long time :)

      Thanks for posting this again!

      I’ve been going down the internet search rabbit hole for the last couple of hours (despite needing to doing other things). I’ve been looking to find other Lincoln Enterprise Catalogs mentioning Search. I found a few catalog covers, but all the posted interior pages are, of course, so far, Star Trek related :)

      I really doubt they ever sold the scanner through the catalog; however, it would be fantastic to find all the old Lincoln Enterprise catalogs that mentioned Search. And will kick my 13-year old self if there really were scanners for sale back in the day!

      I remember receiving two Lincoln Enterprise catalogs as a kid. My long-timer memory is very foggy, but I think I responded to a ad in a comic book and sent in some money for postage & handling specifically because they had Search merch. But didn’t save mine like you did! Any remembrance on how you knew about the catalog?

      Bryan

      On Aug 17, 2019, at 2:36 PM, John actingman6@... [probe_control] <probe_control@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


      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:

      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@aol..com' 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


      (Message over 64 KB, truncated)
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