The Aquanauts ? Malibu Run TV Show

[heavybreather]

Anyone remember "ASSIGMENT UNDERWATER" featuring Bill Williams? He played Mike Nelson like character - former marine and diver who with young daughter solved underwater mysteries.

Saw DVDs with 4 episodes each in store for only $5! Bought
both sets.

Available from OLDIES.COM for those interested.....

[Terry]

THANK YOU HEAVYBREATHER! Your post regarding "Assignment Underwater" just convinced me that I'm not crazy, and I can now cancel my visit to "The Nut House". For years I've been trying to convince others that this show did exist; but I couldn't remember the name of this show or who stared in it. I was only 13 at the time, and as I recall it was on at the same time near the end of SeaHunts run, and also while The Aquanauts/Malibu Run was also on. I remember this because back then it was a case of; WOW - now we have 3 dive shows on TV; how cool was that? All I could remember about the show was that it was short lived, and that it had a Mike Nelson type character who had a young daughter; but that was all I could remember. Whenever I would ask anyone about this show all I would get were puzzled looks that said: "Sure there was a show like that. We believe you". Then I would get asked if the name of the show was "Diver Dan". I'd tell them no, and that was as far as the conversation would go. Now for the first time in many, many years I finally remember the characters of Bill and Patty Greer. Thanks for your post! Terry

[heavybreather]

Glad to be of help Terry -

On the DVD I got the video/sound quality is sometimes poor. Guess do to low quality master to dupe. The show feature some
well known actors, George Takei (Sulu on Star Trek), Alan Hale
(skipper Gilligans Island)

Could not believe it what saw DVD in store, WOW never heard of
this one before. Figure it was worth $5 per DVD to check it out.

[neo1968]

Yeah. I would love to know if any of those shows exist out there. I can imagine that they are locked up in some warehouse somewhere in L.A. gathering dust. Would love to see more of "Malibu Run/Aquanauts". In fact I think it was Jerry who also sent me a copy of the one episode. That was a long time ago though.

[heavybreather]

Any chance can get that copy of "AQUANAUTS" available?

send msg to

[e-mail]

Thanx

[neo1968]

Yes. If anybody has some copies of "The Aquanauts/Malibu Run" please contact me.

[e-mail]


Thanks!

John

[andro]

Hello, I'm new here, this is my first post. I've searched long and hard for years to find episodes of The Aquanauts/Malibu Run, and have come up with four (4) episodes. There is a fellow named Tom Kleinschmidt who has a website from which he sells a lot of vintage TV shows. The web address is home.comcast.net/net/tomkle/. The site is currently down until further notice, but I expect it will be back. There is an episode of Malibu Run titled "The Double Adventure" starring Peter Falk, about a guy who's a dead ringer for Mike Madison (Ron Ely) and up to no good. An episode of The Aquanauts in which Drake is menaced by killer whales, is framed for a murder and recovers the nose cone of a rocket. This one has some Sea Hunt footage, not too surprising since both shows were produced by Ivan Tors, and I'm guessing that Sea Hunt footage appeared throughout the series. The killer whale bit reminded me of the Sea Hunt episode where a diver gets swallowed by "the world's most savage monster", and it probably inspired the idea for The Aquanauts. An Aquanauts episode I don't own but remember from 1960 had divers being lowered into shark infested water in a shark cage, only to have the line break and the cage plummet down, and there was a Sea Hunt episode with that same plot line. An episode of Malibu Run I obtained on Ebay from a seller named "Admiral Nelson" was titled "The Jeremiah Adventure" which also starred Peter Falk. This guy is still selling stuff and I see that episode on Ebay from time to time. From the research I've done, The Aquanauts/Malibu Run was never placed in syndication, so after it's brief CBS network run it simply vanished. Keith Larsen, who played Drake Andrews, left the show because he had sinus problems which caused him to "bleed like a sieve when I went down thirty feet" and was replaced by Ron Ely, who later starred in the TV show "Tarzan", and still later became famous for hosting Miss America paegents.

[canadianbob]

I'm brand new around here and this my first post - but I had to jump in . When the "Aquanauts" first aired I was blown away by the "Waterlung" regulators and the triple tanks , the hard hat rig that Drake Andrews(played by Keith Larsen) used in the first or second episode and the fact that it was a one hour diving show (as opposed to "Sea Hunt" at 1/2 hour).

Larsen apparently had bad sinuses and diving was a chore for him but I don't know if that was the real reason he left the show (not likely , knowing show biz!). The first season was great with a number of interesting scenarios (including one involving a hard hat diver below Niagara Falls!!I remember.) Keith Larsen's narration over the episodes ("What was happening was....")was interesting.

Then - Larsen Leaves the show and Ron Ely comes on board (I think his character's name was Mike Madison, not sure though) and he and Jeremy Slate (Larry Lahr) become partners in "Malibu Run" . WHY they changed a perfectly good diving show into a "detective-buddy" policier is anybody's guess but I'm sure the "suits" at CBS were culpable.

"Malibu Run" had hardly any underwater scenes at all and morphed into a routine action show. In the final episodes they did feature more underwater shots (including an episode on a shipwreck that featured in "Thunderball" years later ) but it was too late. What could have been a great diving show just finally drifted away.

And that , my friends , is why "Sea Hunt"(which didn't stray from its roots) remains fondly in our memories as the show which probably got most of us diving.

[wrcook]

I too remember that show, It started out as the Aquanauts and was pretty good ( lots of diving), but after it changed title to Malibu Run, it was more land based and became like every other show out there. Sea Hunt was/is still my favorite. We still have some tapes that we watch.

[abandoned2012]

There are a few episodes of Aquanauts and Malibu Run available at www.robertsvideos.com

[OystrPir8]

I am wondering... The Aquanauts was a CBS show. It was produced by ZIV and was a United Artists production and UA TV was acquired by MGM years later. It could be that its not at CBS but rather at MGM. I wonder what has become of all of the old ZIV stuff.