World of Giants
American TV series or program
| World of Giants | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Spy-fi |
| Starring | Marshall Thompson Arthur Franz |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company | Ziv Television Programs |
| Original release | |
| Network | Syndication |
| Release | September 5 (1959-09-05) – November 28, 1959 (1959-11-28) |
World of Giants (a.k.a. W-O-G) is an American black-and-white science fiction spy-fi[citation needed] television series that aired in syndication from September 5, 1959, until November 28, 1959. It starred Marshall Thompson and Arthur Franz. It was aimed to be aired on CBS but a sponsor could not be found although the series aired on Australian television in 1959, and syndicated in select U.S. markets starting in 1961. [1]
Premise
American spy Mel Hunter, while on a covert mission, is shrunk to a height of six inches after an accident. This series stars Marshall Thompson as Federal Counter-Espionage Agent Mel Hunter, who uses his small size to infiltrate areas that a full-sized man could not. When not on assignment, he lives in a specially outfitted dollhouse-like miniature. The series co-stars Arthur Franz as his full-sized partner, Agent Bill Winters.
Thompson set up the premise in the show's opening voiceover:
It was up to me to be careful 3600 seconds of every hour. I couldn't expect the rest of the world to live my way. To the rest of the world, my problems are not a matter of life and death. The Bureau guards many fantastic secrets. But none quite so fantastic as Mel Hunter—-me. Following my escape from a nightmare behind the Iron Curtain six months ago, I watched along with 14 doctors and 17 scientists and saw myself shrink to the size of a six-inch ruler. The shrinking had stopped. The scientists were still hoping, still working on my case, and I was still a special agent... a kind of special special agent.
Cast
- Marshall Thompson as Mel Hunter
- Arthur Franz as Bill Winters
- John Gallaudet as Commissioner Hogg
- Marcia Henderson as Miss Brown
Episodes
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Special Agent" | Otto Lang | Donald Duncan and Jack Laird | September 5, 1959 (1959-09-05) | |
| Mel and Bill tries to find the secret hideout of an international spy ring. A cat traps him in a barrel. | |||||
| 2 | "Time Bomb" | Otto Lang | Charles Lawson | September 12, 1959 (1959-09-12) | |
| Mel has to warn Bill about a time bomb in the mail. | |||||
| 3 | "Teeth of the Watch Dog" | Monroe Askins | Joe Stone and Paul King | September 19, 1959 (1959-09-19) | |
| An actress might be involved in a spy ring. | |||||
| 4 | "Death Trap" | Byron Haskin | Donald Duncan | September 26, 1959 (1959-09-26) | |
| A briefcase containing Mel is lost after a car accident. A squirrel seemingly as big as a grizzly bear pursues him into a gopher hole | |||||
| 5 | "Gambling Story" | Nathan Juran | Richard Carr | October 3, 1959 (1959-10-03) | |
| A casino owner is working with foreign spies. | |||||
| 6 | "Chemical Story" | Eugène Lourié | Meyer Dolinsky and Robert C. Dennis | October 10, 1959 (1959-10-10) | |
| Mel tries to recapture several test tubes containing experimental chemicals, but gets locked inside a refrigerator. | |||||
| 7 | "Feathered Foe" | Nathan Juran | Dan Lundberg and Hugh Lacey | October 17, 1959 (1959-10-17) | |
| An enemy agent is using carrier pigeons to transport secret documents. | |||||
| 8 | "The Pool" | Nathan Juran | Lawrence Mascott | October 24, 1959 (1959-10-24) | |
| Mel tries to find a codebook in a pool. | |||||
| 9 | "Rainbow of Fire" | Harry Horner | A. Sanford Wolf and Irwin Winehouse | October 31, 1959 (1959-10-31) | |
| Bill and Mel must find a rocket that landed in the Caribbean after it malfunctioned. | |||||
| 10 | "The Smugglers" | Nathan Juran | Fred Freiberger | November 7, 1959 (1959-11-07) | |
| Bill and Mel goes after smugglers who are smuggling people out of China. | |||||
| 11 | "Unexpected Murder" | Jack Arnold | Meyer Dolinsky | November 14, 1959 (1959-11-14) | |
| Bill must stop a pharmacist who has been smuggling counterfeit money. | |||||
| 12 | "Panic in 3B" | Jack Arnold | A. Sanford Wolf and Irwin Winehouse | November 21, 1959 (1959-11-21) | |
| Agents from Eastern Europe wants to kidnap Mel so they can find out what made him shrink. One reaches into his dollhouse, tears off the roof, and destroys the bathtub. | |||||
| 13 | "Off Beat" | Harry Horner | Kay Lenard and Jess Carneol | November 28, 1959 (1959-11-28) | |
| Mel is convinced that a jazz musician is really an imposter. | |||||
Production
World of Giants was produced by Ziv Television Programs, the company responsible for such hit TV series as Highway Patrol, Sea Hunt, and Bat Masterson.
Not a success, this series only lasted through its initial production order of 13 episodes. Thompson later went on to star in the (much more) successful CBS TV series Daktari (1966-1969).
In popular culture
Nearly a decade later, in 1968, a similarly themed Irwin Allen science fiction TV series, entitled Land of the Giants, starring Gary Conway and Don Marshall, ran on ABC. Two years prior to that series, an animated kids TV show called Tom of T.H.U.M.B., aired as a part of The King Kong Show. In 1973 the Hanna-Barbera's animated series Inch High, Private Eye, about a similarly small detective, premiered on NBC, airing for only one season. The Doctor Who Season Two, Episode One "Planet of the Giants" had the cast shrunk after a TARDIS incident.
Home media
The complete series of World of Giants was released on Blu-ray from distribution company, ClassicFlix on November 7, 2023.[2]
References
External links
- World of Giants at IMDb
- World of Giants at TV Guide
- World of Giants at epguides.com
