THE AQUANAUTS ‘66
The 1970—71
paperback men’s adventure series The
Aquanauts did not originate the clever moniker referring to risk-taking
SCUB divers—or underwater astronauts. The
Aquanauts was also the name of an hour long TV show, which ran for 32 episodes
on the CBS network during the 1960-61 season.
The Aquanauts aired Wednesday nights on CBS at 7:30
opposite the hugely popular Wagon Train
on NBC and Hong Kong with Rod Taylor
on ABC. It was followed on CBS by Secret
Agent with Patrick McGoohan at 8:30.
The show
chronicled the adventures of ex-Navy frogmen Larry Lhar (Jeremy Slate) and
Drake Andrews (Keith Larson). As civilians, Lahr and Andrews kept their SCUBA
tanks filled by becoming professional salvage divers. Braving the dangers of
the deep while recovering sunken wrecks, the duo often came into conflict with
dangerous adversaries who wanted to reach the wrecks first, had a vested
interest in seeing what had been sent to the bottom stayed there, or were
trying to hide something else in the vicinity.
The early
episodes of The Aquanauts were
produced by Ivan Tors, who had previously created Sea Hunt—which ran in original syndication from 1958 to 1961 and
turned Lloyd Bridges into a cultural icon. Underwater footage from Sea Hunt was often recycled by Tors for
use in The Aquanauts.
In The Aquanauts, Larson’s and Slate’s
characters were younger, hipper versions of Lloyd Bridges’ Sea Hunt character, Mike Nelson. However, the plotlines of both
shows were remarkably similar—each week, a given crime or eco-disaster could
only be solved/prevented by scuba diving adventurers. The heroes were menaced
by killer whales, killer sharks, found buried treasure, recovered rocket nose
cones, were trapped in free falling shark cages, became the victims of
murderous doubles, and were framed for murder.
After 14
episodes, Larson developed a sinus issue making it impossible to for him to
dive. As Larson put it, "I began bleeding like a sieve when I went down
thirty feet." His character was written out of the show as having rejoined
the Navy. Ron Ely (later to become famous as Tarzan and Doc Savage)
joined the show as Mike Madison, another ex-Navy diver. In an
unforeseen future twist, Ely would take over Bridges’ role as Mike Nelson in a
syndicated revival of Sea Hunt in
1987. The updated version was canceled after only one season.
With the
departure of Larson came other changes in the show. While still accepting
freelance diving jobs, the characters of Madison and Lahr decided to move to
Malibu and open a dive shop (appropriately called, The Aquanauts). Both divers were given cool ‘60s era bachelor pads,
giving pretty girls in bikinis a place to show up in distress. Another new
character, a salty sea dog named The Captain, was added to the cast as a good
friend of the divers. CBS also took the opportunity to rebrand the show as Malibu Run, instantly making the sleepy
little namesake beach town famous.
The network
further meddled with the concept by trading exciting underwater dangers in
favor of more traditional, clichéd, and cheaper land-based shenanigans. Consequently,
the show sunk faster than a million dollar yacht scuttled for insurance money.
Despite its
short run, The Aquanauts was popular
with the programmers at Buffalo TV station WNYP-TV, who at one point were
airing the series every day at the same time. Unfortunately, the station
inadvertently played the same episode every day for two weeks until someone
noticed.
Even as the
name and format changed from The
Aquanauts to Malibu Run, Dell put
out a one shot comic tie-in under The
Aquanauts banner. It was dated May 1971, with art by Dan Spiegle, and listed
as #119 in Dell’s four color series.
There was
also a 1961 TV tie-in novel, The
Aquanauts by Daniel Bard, published by Popular Library. The story featured
Keith Larsen's character Drake Andrews.
As was obligatory
for any show worthy of TV tie-in items, The Aquanauts had their own roll, spin, and move board game produced
by Transogram.
The Aquanauts producer Ivan Tors also produced the
1966 film Around the World Under the Sea.
The movie starred Sea Hunt stalwart Lloyd
Bridges. ATWUTS charted the
adventures of the Hydronaut, a deep-diving nuclear-powered submarine with a
civilian crew. The Hydronaut’s mandate was to circumnavigate the globe
underwater while planting monitoring sensors to predict impending earthquakes.
Although Jules Verne was not credited, his influence was clear throughout the
film.