Sea Hunt

Sea Hunt is an American action adventure television series that aired in syndication from 1958 to 1961 and was popular in syndication for decades afterwards. The series originally aired for four seasons, with 155 episodes produced. It stars Lloyd Bridges as former United States Navy frogman Mike Nelson, and was produced by Ivan Tors.

Development

Series executive producer Ivan Tors conceived the idea for Sea Hunt while working on the 1958 film Underwater Warrior.^[1] Tors tried in vain to sell the series to all three major networks, but each network passed on the show because they felt a series set underwater could not be sustained.^[2] Tors then decided to sell the series into the first-run syndication market. Tors teamed up with Ziv Television Programs and was able to sell the show to over 100 syndicated markets before the series debuted in January 1958.^[1]

Lloyd Bridges was soon cast as lead character Mike Nelson. Sea Hunt was intended as a comeback vehicle for Bridges due to his brief blacklisting from acting. Bridges was blacklisted after admitting to the House Un-American Activities Committee that he had been a member of the Actors' Laboratory Theatre, a group that was tied to the Communist party.^[3][4]

After winning the role, Bridges was given a crash course in scuba diving by Zale Parry and Courtney Brown. Brown served as his underwater stunt double. Bridges was also educated in the art of Scuba equipment by Brad Pinkernell on the beach in Southern California from 1956 to 1957. It was at a chance meeting when Pinkernell was coming out of the ocean with his scuba gear on. Over the course of the show's run, Bridges got more involved in the underwater stunt work, graduating from close-ups in the earliest episodes, to doing all but the most dangerous stunts by the end of the series' run.

Synopsis

Mike Nelson (Bridges) is a free-lance scuba diver who has various adventures. Nelson, a former U.S. Navy frogman (having left the service about four years before the series began), is a well-known expert on diving who is often called on for difficult or dangerous projects. Traveling on his boat the Argonaut, Nelson outmaneuvers villains, salvages everything from a bicycle to a nuclear missile, rescues children trapped in a flooded cave, and even a dog. In the pilot episode, Mike rescues a downed Navy pilot from his sunken jet. Since no dialogue was possible during the underwater sequences, Bridges provided voice-over narration for all the installments. Nelson also educated non-diving characters (and the audience) in various aspects of diving and the underwater world.

The series made frequent references to Marineland of the Pacific, which provided facilities, resources and technical advice to the production company.

At the end of each episode, Bridges would appear as himself to deliver a brief comment. These comments sometimes included a plea to viewers to understand and protect the marine environment, along with gems of wisdom from Bridges' own experiences.

Guest stars

The series served as a stepping stone for some of Hollywood's most notable actors, including Leonard Nimoy, Bruce Dern, Robert Conrad, Ross Martin, Larry Hagman, Barbara Eden, Larry Pennell, Ken Curtis, Jack Nicholson, seen in the last episode of this series, and Bridges' own sons, Beau and Jeff. The Mexican character actor Rodolfo Hoyos, Jr. appeared five times playing different roles on this show.

Production notes

Filming

The underwater sequences were filmed in a matrix fashion at many locations including studio tanks and outdoor locations in California, Florida, and eventually the Bahamas. Much stock footage was shot and later mixed with episode-specific character footage. Filming locations included

• Marineland of the Pacific (Park operated 1954–1987)
• the front side of Catalina Island
• Paradise Cove west of Malibu
• Silver Springs, Florida
• Cypress Gardens, Florida
• Tarpon Springs, Florida
• Nassau
• Grand Bahama Island.

On-land location shots were filmed throughout Los Angeles, in central Florida, Nassau, or on a sound stage. Barry Cohon was production manager for the first year in Hollywood and in Silver Springs, as he had been on Underwater Warrior.

Famous divers such as Zale Parry and Albert Tillman were involved in production of the show, as was Jon Lindbergh, son of aviator Charles Lindbergh. Parry was joined in 1960 by 18-year-old Wende Wagner as female underwater stunt double. Pioneering underwater cinematographer Lamar Boren, who also worked on other Ivan Tors productions (such as the motion picture and TV series versions of Flipper, and three James Bond films—Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and The Spy Who Loved Me—shot nearly all of the underwater footage for the series. John Lamb, who went on to shoot the underwater sequences for both the movie and TV versions of Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, also filmed some episodes. Stunt diver Ricou Browning is credited at the show's end credit runs with coordination of the underwater action sequences during the second season. Browning was also the actor who performed in costume as The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Props

The boat used in the series was named after the mythological Greek heroes who sailed with Jason on the quest of the Golden Fleece, the Argonaut. While several cabin cruisers were utilized in filming,^[5] one notable model was the Trojan Express custom built by Trojan Yachts in 1960 with mahogany planking and teak decks and trim, measuring 33 feet long and 12 feet wide.^[6]

A running gag decades later on Mystery Science Theater 3000 involved how Nelson almost always became imperiled by someone or something cutting a hose on his dual-hose (scuba set) air supply: "By that time, my lungs were aching for air." Coincidentally, "Mike Nelson" is also the name of one of Mystery Science Theater 3000's head writers/hosts.

Music

Although David Rose is credited with music, a number of the Sea Hunt stock cues are heard in "Buchanan Rides Alone", a 1958 Columbia western feature that used stock music from composers including Mischa Bakaleinikoff, George Duning, Heinz Roenheld, and Paul Sawtell.^[7]

Reception

Sea Hunt proved to be popular with viewers and was a hit throughout its four-season run. It became one of the best remembered and most watched syndicated series in the United States.^[2][8]

During the first nine months of its debut, Sea Hunt came in #1 in the ratings. The show attracted half of the viewing audience in 50 major cities, and averaged 59 percent of audiences in New York City. Producer Ivan Tors later estimated that 40 million people viewed the series weekly.^[9]

Cancellation

Despite its solid ratings, Sea Hunt was canceled in 1961 due to the dwindling first-run syndication market.^[10] The series ran for a total of 155 episodes.^[11]

Syndication

Sea Hunt went into reruns in 1961,^[12] and has aired on various channels since. The series currently airs on weekdays on This TV, a classic television and movie network carried on digital subchannels of local stations around the country.

1987 revival series

A revival series starring Ron Ely and Kimber Sissons appeared in syndication in 1987. Ironically, Ely had starred in a competing undersea adventure series called The Aquanauts during the run of the original series. For budgetary reasons, land scenes from this second series were filmed in Canada (specifically Victoria, British Columbia), despite the stories being set in Florida. Underwater scenes were filmed in tropical locations.^[13]

The updated version of Sea Hunt was canceled after only one season.^[14]

Merchandising

Due to the show's popularity, Dell Comics released a series of Sea Hunt comic books.^[15] Series star Lloyd Bridges also endorsed swim equipment by Voit.^[16]

DVD releases

TGG Direct released all 4 seasons on DVD in Region 1 for the first time on January 29, 2013.^{[17][18][19][20]}

50th anniversary

The Underwater Videographer Podcast presented a Sea Hunt 50th Anniversary podcast in December 2007. Appearing on the podcast were author Eric Hanauer, who interviewed Lloyd Bridges shortly before he died, actress Susan Silo, who guest starred in the "Cougar" episode, and Jeff Bridges, who shared memories of his father and Sea Hunt.

While the podcast seems to now be defunct, the episode can be found on YouTube.

See also

• Assignment: Underwater

References

External links

• Sea Hunt at the Internet Movie Database
• Sea Hunt (1987 series) at the Internet Movie Database
• Sea Hunt at TV.com
• Sea Hunt at epguides.com
• Sea Hunt Trivia Guide from The Scuba Guy
• "The Legend of Ivan Tors" documentary