Initial release 21 February 1972 Set decoration James W. Payne | Director Russ Mayberry | |
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Similar Peter Pan, The Prime Minister, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young, Galileo, The Barretts of Wimpole | ||
Probe was a two-hour television film first aired on February 21, 1972 on NBC as pilot for a science fiction detective series, originally to have continued under that title. Created by Leslie Stevens, it starred Hugh O'Brian as Hugh Lockwood, one of a group of high-tech private eyes working for the organization “World Securities”. When picked up for series production, the title was changed to Search, because Probe was the name of an existing PBS series.
The investigators, called Probes, were outfitted with various electronic implants including a button-sized "scanner" containing a miniaturized video camera, microphone and transmitter linked to a team of technicians and experts who constantly monitored the Probe's surroundings, actions and vital signs; they were able to supply the Probe with encyclopedic information on any subject.
Lockwood, designated “Probe One”, was a former American astronaut. In the pilot, he sets out for Europe to track down a multimillion-pound stash of gemstones amassed by Hermann Goering during World War II.
The pilot has been released as a publish-on-demand DVD-R, effective May, 2011.
Probe Control
Probe agents reported to V.C. Cameron (Burgess Meredith), the "director" of the investigations, who ran Probe Control, a center patterned on the NASA Mission Control Center. "Cam" was the leader of the expert team who monitored and provided the agent with intelligence. Early in the series the Probe Control set was placed in a darkened isolated space, alluding to a large scale operations center. By the middle of the season, the control room was scaled down and relocated to a well-lit but smaller "bunker rush" room. According to the show's credits, the computer equipment was provided by Control Data Corporation.
The building used as the headquarters for World Securities Corporation is currently the headquarters for Bank of America in San Francisco.