Controle Remoto

As a brat raised in LA during the mid 60s, I was mad about UNCLE, I Spy, The Avengers, THE Cat, all the good old TV spy and action shows. Returning to Japan in '68 was a big culture change, especially the dull and boring TV shows (not much change in 2006, even worse). It was around '73 that one of the network here aired 5 or 6 episodes of Search. It was called Purobu Sousa Shirei (Probe Criminal Investigations Command). It was dubbed in Japanese (no bilingual TV at that time), and I can't remember any story, but the brilliant titleback and the superb theme music is something that I wish to see and hear again. One scene I recall is a bird's eye view of an orange Nissan Z car driven by one of the Probe agent. I thought it was so cool! Oh, and did I mention Angel Tompkins, she was so beautiful! It seems difficult to see this series even in the USA now, but I am sure that there are thousands of "hidden Search fans" in the world. I will definitely buy the whole series if sold on DVD.

I used to watch "Search" all the time. It was as other viewers have said, part Spy, part sci-fi, part drama, and of course, a very watchable show. The Probe headquarters was so advanced, that they could use one of the Probe agent's ring for a camera, recorder, Geiger counter around radiation, and a reviver, if one of the agents was knocked out, on thrown overboard into the Sea(like one of the episodes.) What some viewers have failed to mention, is that Probe agents had a dental implant too, so they could click their teeth and send a signal if they were in trouble, and could not talk. The ear implant was ingenious, and could not be detected by the enemy. However; one episode where a Probe agent was captured by terrorists(or mad scientists)the enemy became aware of the implant and used it to send their signals into it, to cause pain, obedience, and to basically control the agent like a robot. However; Probe found the agent's location, and blocked the signals of the enemy, and even talked to the enemy, warning them, to release their prisoner, of Probe would bombard them with an electronic attack. Is the cool or what? Shows written today don't have this kind of writing, like Search. The Actors were well seasoned, and played their roles very well. Search was best when Probe control room was black with red lights shining down. Burgess Merridith played his part very well as the Head of Probe, and the Agents, Lockwood(Hugh O'Brian), Nic Bianco(Anthony Franciosa)(My favorite agent.) I loved it when Nic would say to the Probe headquarters; "We did it your way first; now we are doing it Nic Bianco's way." Search at times, was along the lines of Star Trek characters too. You could see them going through all the switching, and powering up for each Agent they sent out. Search ran from 1972-1973, but it spawned other shows that came later; like "LeFemme Nikita", movies like "Johnny Neumonic", and of course "24". Search was a pleasant alternative to the other shows available in 1972, on a WED night. Re-runs of the show would be welcome. Some of the episodes would appear very 70s, but in it's time, Search was with the times, if not ahead of the times.

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).

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.

"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.