''The Aquanauts'' (later known as ''Malibu Run'') is an American

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...

drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-ge ...

that aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

in the 1960–1961 season. The series stars

Keith Larsen Keith Larsen (born Keith Larsen Burt, June 17, 1924 – December 13, 2006) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer who starred in three short-lived television series between 1955 and 1961. Background Larsen was born in Salt ...

Jeremy Slate Jeremy Slate (born Robert Bullard Perham; February 17, 1926 – November 19, 2006) was an American film and television actor, and songwriter. He is best known for Larry Lahr in ''The Aquanauts'' (1960–1961), Chuck Wilson in ''One Life to Li ...

and

Ron Ely Ronald Pierce Ely (born June 21, 1938) is an American actor and novelist born in Hereford, Texas, and raised in Amarillo. Ely is best known for having portrayed Tarzan in the 1966–1968 NBC series ''Tarzan'' and for playing the lead role in ...

, who later replaced Larsen on midseason.

Synopsis

The hour-long series focuses on the adventures of two

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

divers, Drake Andrews (Larsen) and Larry Lahr (Slate), who made their living salvaging sunken wrecks. In January 1961, Larsen left the series due to health problems. His character rejoined the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

and a new character, Mike Madison (Ron Ely), joined the cast. A month later, the format of the series was also changed with the show's characters, Larry and Mike, opening up a shop in Malibu. No longer encountering underwater dangers, storylines shifted to situations involved on land. To reflect the changes in the format, the series was retitled ''Malibu Run''. The program was in competition with the short-lived ''

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

'' on ABC and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's ''

Wagon Train ''Wagon Train'' is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957–1962), and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and became number one in the Nielsen ratings ...

''. Unable to compete with NBC's highly rated ''Wagon Train'', the series was canceled after one season.

Cast

* Keith Larsen as Drake Andrews * Jeremy Slate as Larry Lahr (1960) * Ron Ely as Mike Madison (1961) * Charles Thompson as The Captain (1961)

Notable guest stars

Dyan Cannon, Russ Conway,

Donna Douglas Donna Douglas (born Doris Ione Smith; September 26, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American actress and singer, known for her role as Elly May Clampett on ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' (1962–1971). Following her acting career, Douglas becam ...

, Peter Falk, Robert Knapp,

Sam Levene Sam Levene (born Scholem Lewin; August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was a Russian Empire-born American Broadway, film, radio, and television actor and director. In a career spanning over five decades, he appeared in over 50 comedy and dr ...

Audrey Meadows Audrey Meadows ( Cotter, February 8, 1922 – February 3, 1996) was an American actress best known for her role as the deadpan housewife Alice Kramden on the 1950s American television comedy ''The Honeymooners''. She was the younger sister of ...

Carroll O'Connor John Carroll O'Connor (August 2, 1924 – June 21, 2001) was an American actor, producer, and director whose television career spanned over four decades. He became a lifelong member of the Actors Studio in 1971. O'Connor found widespread fame a ...

, Susan Oliver, Burt Reynolds,

Sue Randall Sue or SUE may refer to: Music * Sue Records, an American record label * ''Sue'' (album), an album by Frazier Chorus * " Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)", a song by David Bowie Places * Sue Islet (Queensland), one of the Torres Straits isla ...

Inger Stevens Inger Stevens (born Ingrid Stensland; October 18, 1934 – April 30, 1970) was a Swedish-American film, stage and Golden Globe-winning television actress. Early life Inger Stevens was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the eldest child of Per ...

, Jane Withers, Keenan Wynn, James Coburn, Jim Davis,

Larry Pennell Lawrence Kenneth "Larry" Pennell (February 21, 1928 – August 28, 2013) was an American television and film actor, often remembered for his role as "Dash Riprock" in the television series ''The Beverly Hillbillies''. His career spanned ha ...

and

Ken Curtis Ken Curtis (born Curtis Wain Gates; July 2, 1916 – April 28, 1991) was an American singer and actor best known for his role as Festus Haggen on the CBS western television series ''Gunsmoke''. Although he appeared on ''Gunsmoke'' earl ...

, these two last actors, later of Ripcord fame. In the episode "The Double Adventure"

Rue McClanahan Eddi-Rue McClanahan (February 21, 1934 – June 3, 2010) was an American actress and comedian best known for her roles on television as Vivian Harmon on '' Maude'' (1972–78), Aunt Fran Crowley on '' Mama's Family'' (1983–84), and Blanche ...

makes a small appearance as a waitress in a diner.

Production notes

Produced by

Ivan Tors Ivan Tors (born Iván Törzs; June 12, 1916 – June 4, 1983) was a Hungarian playwright, film director, screenwriter, and film and television producer with an emphasis on non-violent but exciting science fiction, underwater sequences, and stori ...

for Ziv-United Artists and the rights to this series are currently held by MGM Television. Despite its short run, ''The Aquanauts'' was popular with the programmers at Buffalo TV station WNYP-TV, who at one point aired the series every day at the same time. Unfortunately, the station inadvertently played the ''same episode'' every day for two weeks until someone noticed.

Episodes

Merchandising

The TV show was also adapted into a comic book by

Dan Spiegle Dan Spiegle (December 10, 1920 – January 28, 2017) was an American comics artist and cartoonist best known for comics based on movie and television characters across a variety of companies, including Dell Comics, DC Comics, and Marvel Com ...

, distributed by

Dell Comics Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1974. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark" ...

as part of their 4-Color series #1197. A paperback novel was published dated February 1961 by Popular Library titled "The Aquanauts" by Daniel Bard and featuring Keith Larsen's character Drake Andrews. It is listed on the cover as Popular Giant G516 with a cost of 35 cents.

References

External links

*
''Sea Hunt Trivia Guide, The Aquanauts''
fro
The Scuba Guy