Spoilers

“Pilot”

I recently purchased the entire run of comics of a short-lived series from the late 1970s called Man from Atlantis on eBay. I remembered being a fan of the series when it was on TV back in the 70s. Honestly, the comic was not great, but I was happy to have it in my collection.

As I was writing about it today in the EYG Comic Cavalcade #87, I mused about what I might think about the show if I could see it today. That sent me to Google to see if it was streaming anywhere I might be able to watch it. Amazingly, I found that the entire series was available for purchase on Amazon Prime.

The series included four television movies to start in 1977 and then a weekly show ran 13 more episodes. The show was canceled after the 13 episodes because of a dwindling viewership and high cost.

The series starred Patrick Duffy as Mark Harris, a mysterious man who had gills, webbed fingers and feet, but who could not remember anything about where he was from. Duffy would go from this series to his iconic role as Bobby Ewing on CBS’ Dallas.

The first of the movies, entitled “Pilot” featured the discovery of the mysterious man washed up on the beach, entangled in a fishing net. He was gasping and having terrible difficulties breathing. No matter what was done, no one seemed to be able to help him.

When Dr. Elizabeth Merrill was called in, she discovered his gills and took him to the ocean, where she had him placed face down in the water. This did the trick and he was taken back to the  Foundation for Oceanic Research. Elizabeth named him ‘Mark Harris’ and the military became very intrigued by the possibilities of the water-breathing man.

I was very impressed by the swimming/underwater scenes. I am not sure how these were filmed because Patrick Duffy spent what seemed to be plenty of time under water. These scenes looked really well done.

Victor Buono, who was known as Batman villain King Tut in the 1960’s series, played the villain of the pilot, Mr. Schubert, who was set up as a reoccurring antagonist for the future of the series. Buono was a solid villain, with his line delivery.

I liked the pilot enough. I was worried that I wouldn’t enjoy the pilot and that I would not be happy doing this watch/rewatch (I know I used to watch the show, but I can’t say that I saw every episode), but I think things will be okay.