Search (American TV series)

The series centers on World Securities Corporation, a high-tech international private investigation company that employs field operatives, the elite of whom, probes, are aided by implanted audio receivers and scanners, tiny video camera/telemetry units that can be attached to tie clips or other jewelry. A common method is to wear the scanner on a ring, enabling it to be discreetly aimed. Each episode features one of three primary agents on investigations which often have political or organized crime elements. The probes do not carry firearms and while they and other characters are regularly in jeopardy, deaths are rare. Search finished in the Nielsen ratings for the 1972-1973 TV season with a 14.6 average audience. It was rated #63 out of #75 shows for that season. ==Cast==

Search was featured in the November 1972 edition of TV Guide, with an illustration of the three actors playing the show's "probes" on the cover. Probe field agents • Hugh O'Brian as Hugh Lockwood, Probe One - lead operative (eight episodes and pilot) • Tony Franciosa as Nick Bianco, head of Omega division, which specializes in organized-crime cases (eight episodes) • Doug McClure as C.R. Grover, standby probe - described as an emergency backup agent on his first appearance, he nonetheless appears in seven episodes. The three main characters are rotated between episodes. Only one is featured per show, and they do not have any scenes together. Probe control staff • Burgess Meredith as V.C.R. Cameron, Director of Probe Control Unit 1 • Tom Hallick as Harris, deputy director of Probe Control Unit 1 • Angel Tompkins as Gloria Harding, senior medical technician monitoring pulse, respiration, and temperature • Albert Popwell as Albert Griffin, linguist and code-breaker; former chief translator at the United Nations • Byron Chung as Kuroda, telemetry and electronics specialist • Amy Farrell as Amy Murdock, medical doctor • Ginny Golden as Ginny Keach, data specialist • Ron Castro as Carlos Lobos, technician ==Probe Control==

Probe agents report to V.C.R. Cameron (Burgess Meredith), the director of the investigations, who runs Probe Control, a center reminiscent of the NASA Mission Control Center. "Cam" is the leader of the expert team who monitors and provides the agent with intelligence. On-duty experts include a translator fluent in several languages and a medical-telemetry specialist. 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" room. According to the show's credits, the computer equipment was provided by Control Data Corporation. Two modern buildings were shown as the headquarters for World Securities Corporation. In the pilot movie, 555 California Street in San Francisco was used. This building, completed in 1969, was once the headquarters building for Bank of America. In the TV series, World Securities headquarters was 600 Commonwealth Avenue in Los Angeles. This is actually the Central Civil West Courthouse, which belongs to the Central Judicial District of Los Angeles. ==Probe hardware==

Each field agent is outfitted with a miniature scanner disguised as a piece of jewelry, which can be magnetically attached to special cuff links, tie clips, rings or pendants. This device continuously monitors the agent's progress, transmitting audio, video, and physical telemetry to Probe Control. These images were stabilized and rotated to permit real-time observation by a team of specialists at Probe Control who analyze the data, consult databases worldwide, and immediately provide information covertly to the field agent via a subcutaneous ear piece (or "earjack") implanted in the agent's mastoid process. (First-generation earjacks had platinum housings, later replaced with zirconium for unspecified reasons.) The agent can respond to Probe Control either audibly (via the microphone in the scanner) or by tapping out code with a dental implant, even when they don't have their scanner operating. ==Episodes==

On February 4, 2014, Warner Bros. released Search: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1, via their Warner Archive Collection. ==References==