Sea Hunt | |
---|---|
Genre | Action Adventure |
Created by | Ivan Tors and James Buxbaum |
Developed by | Ivan Tors |
Starring | Lloyd Bridges |
Narrated by | Lloyd Bridges |
Theme music composer |
David Rose (as "Ray Llewellyn") |
Opening theme | "The Sea Hunt Theme" |
Ending theme | "The Sea Hunt Theme" |
Composer(s) | David Rose |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 155 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
Frederick Ziv Maurice Ziv |
Producer(s) |
Herbert L. Strock Ivan Tors |
Cinematography | Monroe P. Askins Edward Cronjager Robert Hoffman |
Editor(s) | James Buxbaum Charles Craft Harold V. McKenzie Thomas Scott |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company(s) |
Ziv Television Programs United Artists Television = MGM Television Peter Rodgers Organization |
Release | |
Original network | Syndication |
Picture format | Black and white |
Audio format | Monaural |
Original release | January 4, 1958 | – September 23, 1961
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.
Series executive producer Ivan Tors conceived the idea for Sea Hunt while working on the 1958 film Underwater Warrior. 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. 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.
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.
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.