Follow the Sun (TV series)
| Follow the Sun | |
|---|---|
 Alan Hale, Jr. and Celeste Holm in the February 18, 1962 episode "The Irresistible Miss Bullfinch" | |
| Genre | Drama |
| Created by | Roy Huggins |
| Written by | Roy Huggins |
| Directed by | Ted Post |
| Starring |
Brett Halsey Barry Coe Gary Lockwood Gigi Perreau Jay Lanin |
| Theme music composer | Sonny Burke |
| Composer(s) | Harry Geller |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 30 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Ellis Kadison Anthony Wilson Roy Huggins |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 45 mins. |
| Production company(s) | 20th Century Fox Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | September 17, 1961 – April 8, 1962 |
Follow the Sun is an American drama series which ran for thirty episodes on the ABC television network from September 17, 1961, through April 8, 1962.
Synopsis
Follow the Sun stars Brett Halsey and Barry Coe in the roles of Honolulu-based free-lance magazine writers Paul Templin and Ben Gregory, respectively. Gary Lockwood plays their 20-year-old researcher Eric Jason, who was, according to the story line, born on December 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor Day). In reality, Lockwood was born on February 21, 1937, and was hence nearly five years older than the character he played. Gigi Perreau played Katherine Ann "Kathy" Richards, the pretty secretary, and Jay Lanin was Lieutenant Frank Roper, the writers' friend on the police force.
Lockwood's success on Follow the Sun propelled him thereafter to the role of William T. "Bill" Rice in The Lieutenant, a program about the peacetime United States Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, which aired on NBC during the 1963-1964 season.[1]
Follow the Sun is somewhat similar in theme and tone to Rod Taylor's Hong Kong (1960-1961) and Robert Conrad's Hawaiian Eye (1959-1963). Taylor's role as Glenn Evans, a foreign correspondent, could have fit in with the writers on Follow the Sun who also got involved in detective work—just like the Hawaiian Eye cast.[2]
Follow the Sun faced stiff competition at 7:30 Eastern time on Sunday evenings from CBS's Dennis the Menace with Jay North and the first half of The Ed Sullivan Show, as well as NBC's Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.[3] Though the program ran for only one shortened season, there were comic books which featured Halsey, Coe, and Lockwood.
Guest stars
Popular female stars made appearances on Follow the Sun: Rhonda Fleming, Julie London, Joanna Moore, Tuesday Weld, Joanna Barnes, Stella Stevens, Yvonne DeCarlo, Anne Helm, Yvonne Craig, Dyan Cannon, Pippa Scott, Vivi Janiss, and Diane Baker.
Male guest stars included Keith Andes, William Bendix, Alan Hale, Jr., Brian Keith, Dennis O'Keefe, Robert Vaughn (who later appeared with Gary Lockwood in The Lieutenant), William Windom, and Keenan Wynn, .[2]
Brian Keith and Jayne Mansfield starred in the episode "The Dumbest Blonde" that reworked the Born Yesterday plot, with Barry Coe as reporter Ben Gregory serving as a stand-in for the William Holden character. Mansfield played the beautiful "Scottie" with low self-esteem and is uncomfortable in high society. Scottie's wealthy boyfriend, played by Keith, mostly ignores her needs. In the story line, Ben Gregory introduces Scottie to books and some of his friends so that she gradually moves forward on her own.[4]
Academy Award-winning actor James Dunn appeared in an episode entitled "Run, Clown, Run." In the episode he sang On the Good Ship Lollipop, a song made famous by Shirley Temple in Bright Eyes, which co-starred Dunn.
In one episode, "A Choice Of Weapons" featured David Janssen as a retired 30-something prize fighter who enters the University of Hawaii as a freshman. Another episode, "The Woman Who Never Was", had Bethel Leslie as a beautiful, devious woman. Inger Stevens portrayed a refugee from the former East Germany in "The Girl from the Brandenberg Gate" episode.[2]
Production notes
Roy Huggins, the head of production at 20th Century Fox, created Follow the Sun as well as Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, and Bus Stop on ABC and The Rockford Files on NBC. Anthony Lawrence, the producer of Follow the Sun went on to write the Elvis Presley film Paradise, Hawaiian Style. Huggins' Banacek, starring George Peppard, came a decade later on NBC.
Episode list
| Episode # | Episode title | Original airdate | Episode summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-1 | "A Rage For Justice" (pilot) | September 17, 1961 | Paul helps an internationally known opera singer prove her daughter's death was not an accident. |
| 1-2 | "Cry Fraud" | September 24, 1961 | Ben is charged with fraud and murder in a case of mistaken identity. |
| 1-3 | "The Highest Wall" | October 1, 1961 | Eric uncovers a strange story behind guarded walls while trying to get story material on a young heiress (Tuesday Weld). |
| 1-4 | "Journey Into Darkness" | October 8, 1961 | Ben helps the police learn the mysterious identity of the assailant of a wealthy heiress (Diane Baker). |
| 1-5 | "The Woman Who Never Was" | October 15, 1961 | Paul resorts to unusual tactics to prove himself innocent of murdering a woman who doesn't even exist. |
| 1-6 | "Busman's Holiday" | October 22, 1961 | Greg and Eric suspect that a hitman (Jack Klugman) is posing as a vacationing businessman and is out to get them. |
| 1-7 | "Another Part of the Triangle" | October 29, 1961 | Paul attempts to establish whether a novelist presumed dead really is alive. |
| 1-8 | "The Longest Crap Game In History" | November 5, 1961 | Eric's research on a Pearl Harbor article involves him in a strange dice game. |
| 1-9 | "The Hunters" | November 12, 1961 | Ben is lured on an African safari and instructed to use an assumed name. |
| 1-10 | "Little Girl Lost" | November 19, 1961 | Eric falls in love with a woman he saves from drowning, but her claim of amnesia makes her credibility suspect. |
| 1-11 | "Night Song" | November 26, 1961 | A nightclub singer (Julie London) is hiding her identity, but she becomes a pawn in a double-cross. |
| 1-12 | "The Primitive Clay" | December 3, 1961 | Two girls, both claiming to be the same person, ask Ben's help in finding a wayward father. |
| 1-13 | "Conspiracy In Silence" | December 10, 1961 | Paul is collaborating on the biography of a former movie star and discovers reasons why she stopped making films. |
| 1-14 | "The Far End Of Nowhere" | December 17, 1961 | Eric accepts an assignment to write a history of the near-legendary Randolph family and ends up counting corpses. |
| 1-15 | "Mele Kalikimaka To You" (Christmas episode) | December 24, 1961 | Ben and Eric attempt to rewrite "A Christmas Carol" with real-life counterparts acting out the story in Hawaii. |
| 1-16 | "The Girl From the Brandenburg Gate" | December 31, 1961 | Eric becomes involved in an international counterfeiting ring. |
| 1-17 | "Chicago Style" | January 7, 1962 | Eric's total recall helps him unmask a legendary jazz musician who's spent the past three decades under a death sentence from organized crime. |
| 1-18 | "The Last of the Big Spenders" | January 14, 1962 | A beachcomber turns out to be a one-time big city mayor who disappeared after his administration was discovered to be riddled with graft. |
| 1-19 | "Ghost Story" | January 21, 1962 | A recorded voice puts Ben on the trail of a man who's been dead for 10 years. |
| 1-20 | "Sergeant Kolchak Fades Away" | January 28, 1962 | In the midst of researching an article on a legendary Marine (William Bendix) hero, Paul uncovers a long-held personal secret about the man. |
| 1-21 | "The Dumbest Blonde" | February 4, 1962 | A woman (Jayne Mansfield) helps her fiance outwit a shady financial dealer. |
| 1-22 | "Annie Beeler's Place" | February 11, 1962 | Eric witnesses a strange by-play between a saloon owner (Yvonne DeCarlo) and her prospective bridegroom. |
| 1-23 | "The Irresistible Miss Bullfinch" | February 18, 1962 | A wealthy spinster (Celeste Holm) who's searching for a lost love is the subject of an article by Paul. |
| 1-24 | "A Choice Of Weapons" | February 25, 1962 | A professional boxer who's seeking to quit the sport in order to attend college loses money and is forced to make a difficult decision. |
| 1-25 | "Marine of the Month" | March 4, 1962 | A lady sergeant (Rhonda Fleming) is the subject of an article by Eric and nearly becomes a one-woman recruiting service. |
| 1-26 | "The Inhuman Equation" | March 11, 1962 | A computer selects the wrong man (Wally Cox) for a civic job, which helps create a crisis. |
| 1-27 | "A Ghost In Her Gazebo" | March 18, 1962 | The widowed head of a wealthy corporation (Elsa Lanchester) consults her late husband about a business matter via a con man medium. |
| 1-28 | "Not Aunt Charlotte!" | March 25, 1962 | A sedate librarian (Laraine Day) is charmed by Hawaii and a handsome but mysterious young man. |
| 1-29 | "Run, Clown, Run" | April 1, 1962 | A wealthy man (James Dunn) who's seeking happiness as a circus clown befriends a lonely young boy. |
| 1-30 | "Chalk One Up for Johnny" (pilot for unsold series) | April 8, 1962 | A man's (Lee Tracy) dream of refurbishing a rundown hotel becomes complicated by both money troubles and the appearance of a mysterious waif. |
References
- ↑ "The Lieutenant" (1963)
- 1 2 3 "Follow the Sun" (1961)
- ↑ 1961-1962 Television Network Schedule
- ↑ "Follow the Sun" The Dumbest Blonde (1962)
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Follow the Sun (TV series). |