Ancient TV Greatness

Search, a/k/a Probe.

The original title Probe was copyright claimed by a little seen PBS science series. So when NBC picked up the pilot they changed the series name to Search, including the pilot episode when it reaired. Search was a great sci-fi detective series that only lasted 2 short seasons on NBC (1972-73), but I was a big fan and it really made a lasting impression on me.

Search was the Star Trek of it's genre. Long before Enemy of the State, Eagle Eye or NCIS's MTAC room where Big Brother is always watching on a secure channel, there was World Securities Corporation and their secret team of uber high tech wired agents. Gene Roddenberry would be proud of the sci-fi to reality ratio of this series.

Burgess Meredith starred as Cameron. He was the man in charge of all the covert agents and the high tech Search Control Center team that included a doctor, a multi-lingual translator and a computer hacker all on standby to bail the agent out of any tight spot they may encounter and help them carry out their mission at a moments notice. Everything a covert agent could ask for in the early 1970's.

There was a rotating cast of 3 agents. Hugh Lockwood (Hugh O' Brian), C. R. Grover (Doug McClure) and Nick Bianco (Tony Franciosa) who were constantly under Simon's watchful eye (like it or not). They had various never before imagined futuristic gadgets like real time audio/video communication, sattelite surveillance, pinhole video cameras, body scanners embedded in rings, glasses, cufflinks, ect. They even implanted a false tooth/radio transmitter/beacon in the agents so they could use morse code as back-up.

Very ahead of it's time and maybe that's why it suffered a similar fate to Star Trek. Unfortunately, Search doesn't get the same credit for it's vision.

DVD's of the series are hit and miss on the internet. But I definitely advise watching if you run across online streaming just for the nostalgia effect. Send me a link if you find one!