Wow! The commenter who called this show "dull" based on viewing a single episode was way off base.
This was one of the first intelligent series! It had a highbrow star, Laurence Luckenbill, who was *supposed to be* not your typical action hero. He was a genius with a photographic memory, but he had little experience in the ways of the world, the ways of spies, and certainly the nefarious ways of Bad Guys.
Not only was the concept intelligent, the execution was all that and funny, too. I remember clearly the hero getting into as much trouble as any action hero ever can, being chased around a field of crops by a guy in a harvester whose blades threatened to chew him up. He kept dodging around until finally he ended up hanging from the undercarriage, bumping along while the driver tried to figure out where he'd gone. Suddenly his perfect memory kicks in as he examines the machine from below. Technical diagrams go through his head and he sees a hydraulic line within easy reach. Aha! He can disable the threat! So he gets out his pocket knife and cuts through the rubber hose. But when he does the black liquid squirts out and gets him right in the face! Sure, he was brilliant, but he couldn't think things through with any kind of common sense.
They had a lot of fun with the concept, and Luckenbill was just the right man to star in the role. The rest of the cast and the guest stars each week, as you can see here on IMDb, reads like a who's who of the top actors of the time.
This was a first rate, light hearted TV show, and I think it helped pave the way from Dragnet and Gunsmoke to the modern era of much better programming.
This was one of the first intelligent series! It had a highbrow star, Laurence Luckenbill, who was *supposed to be* not your typical action hero. He was a genius with a photographic memory, but he had little experience in the ways of the world, the ways of spies, and certainly the nefarious ways of Bad Guys.
Not only was the concept intelligent, the execution was all that and funny, too. I remember clearly the hero getting into as much trouble as any action hero ever can, being chased around a field of crops by a guy in a harvester whose blades threatened to chew him up. He kept dodging around until finally he ended up hanging from the undercarriage, bumping along while the driver tried to figure out where he'd gone. Suddenly his perfect memory kicks in as he examines the machine from below. Technical diagrams go through his head and he sees a hydraulic line within easy reach. Aha! He can disable the threat! So he gets out his pocket knife and cuts through the rubber hose. But when he does the black liquid squirts out and gets him right in the face! Sure, he was brilliant, but he couldn't think things through with any kind of common sense.
They had a lot of fun with the concept, and Luckenbill was just the right man to star in the role. The rest of the cast and the guest stars each week, as you can see here on IMDb, reads like a who's who of the top actors of the time.
This was a first rate, light hearted TV show, and I think it helped pave the way from Dragnet and Gunsmoke to the modern era of much better programming.