Sea Hunt
| Sea Hunt | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Ivan Tors |
| Developed by | Ivan Tors |
| Starring | Lloyd Bridges |
| Narrated by | Lloyd Bridges |
| Theme music composer | David Rose (Ray Llewellyn, credited pseudonym) |
| Opening theme | "The Sea Hunt Theme" (BMI) |
| Ending theme | "The Sea Hunt Theme" (BMI) |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 155 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Frederic Ziv and Maurice Ziv |
| Producer | Frederic Ziv |
| Camera setup | 35 mm |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | Syndicated |
| Release | 1958 – 1961 |
Sea Hunt was an American television adventure series from syndicator Ziv TV that ran from 1958 to 1961 and was popular in syndication for decades afterwards. 155 episodes were produced in all.
The program followed the adventures of scuba diver Mike Nelson, an ex-Navy frogman turned freelance diver, played by Lloyd Bridges. He outmaneuvered villains, salvaged everything from a bicycle to a nuclear missile, and rescued a downed Air Force pilot (in his sunken jet, in the pilot episode), children trapped in a flooded cave, and even a dog. One unusual aspect of the series was that at the end of each episode, Bridges made a plea to protect the oceans.
After Bridges was cast, he was given a crash course on scuba diving by Courtney Brown, who would serve as his underwater stunt double. Over the course of the show's run, Bridges would get 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.
The series served as a stepping stone for some of Hollywood's most notable actors, including Leonard Nimoy, Robert Conrad, Bruce Dern, Larry Hagman, Jack Nicholson (in the last episode of the series) and Bridges' own sons, Beau and Jeff.
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. Large quantities of stock footage were 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, and Grand Bahama Island. On-land location shots were filmed throughout Los Angeles, central Florida, and Nassau, or on a soundstage.
Famous divers such as Zale Parry and Albert Tillman were involved in production of the show, as was cross-Atlantic flight hero Charles Lindbergh's son, John. Parry was joined in 1960 by 18-year-old Wende Wagner as female underwater stunt double. Pioneering underwater cinematographer Lamar Boren, who would work on other Ivan Tors' productions (e.g., 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.
The show's producer Ivan Tors had tried in vain to sell the series to CBS, NBC and ABC, each citing the opinion that storylines involving an ex-frogman couldn't be sustained. (A running gag decades later on Mystery Science Theater 3000 involved how Nelson almost always became imperiled by someone or something cutting off his air supply.) Each of the networks was embarrassed over the show's subsequent popularity and success.
A short-lived revival starring Ron Ely and Kimber Sissons appeared in 1987. 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.
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, Hollywood actress Susan Silo, who guest starred in the Cougar episode of Sea Hunt, and Jeff Bridges, who shared memories of his father and Sea Hunt.