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by Don Harden
PART
TWO / / Part
One Here
Search
never received high ratings against Cannon on CBS. The new producers
apparently decided to compete with Cannon by becoming more similar,
instead of offering a contrast. Search became less fun, more dramatic,
focusing on grittier crime stories being solved by the agent himself with
less reliance on Probe Control. The ultimate effect of this made the later
episodes dull by comparison to the earlier episodes.
With
producers of such cult favorites involved, Search should have had
a wide cult following as well, and should have at least turned up in reruns.
What happened? For one thing, after Search left NBC, Warner Brothers
classified the series as "for export only," meaning it has only appeared
overseas since 1973.
Search
has aired repeatedly in countries such as Ireland, Australia, Japan, Argentina,
and Costa Rica, but the only Search seen in the US since 1973 have
been repeats of the two-hour pilot movie guest starring Sir John Gielgud
and Elke Sommer. That pilot was made available on videocassette by Unicorn
Video, but is now out of print, although tapes sometimes show up in the
second hand market.
Nowadays,
one season wonders like The Prisoner, The Time Tunnel, Battlestar Galactica,
Kolchak-The Night Stalker, Planet of the Apes and others are worldwide
cult shows. As there are only 23 episodes (plus the pilot), Search
has never been given a chance in reruns.
Some
famous people got their start on Search. Jaclyn Smith's brief appearance
as an airline stewardess in the Probe pilot was reportedly her
first acting job. She only had one line, asking Hugh O'Brian and Sir John
Gielgud if they preferred white wine or red.
Another
"Charlie's Angel" Cheryl Ladd (identified in the credits as Cheryl Stoppelmoor)
appeared in about four SEARCH episodes as a Probe technician named Miss
Love. She had her own computer terminal and would give reports to Probe
Director Cameron whenever needed. In two of the episodes, she had a number
of lines, in the other two, she is only seen. She was never like a featured
guest star, only one of the background regulars.
Dabney
Coleman, A Martinez, Edward Mulhare, Mary Frann, James B. Sikking, Joanna
Cameron, Michael Conrad, William Smith and many others made guest appearances
on Search and became more famous later in their careers.
While it
is a forgotten series today, those who followed it during its original
run still recall it with fondness. Russ Mayberry, one of the directors
of the series, once said a few years ago, "You never know where a Search
fan is going to turn up."
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