The MAN FROM ATLANTIS

   US tv series (1977). Solow Productions for NBC TV. Created Lee Katzin (who also dir the 1st episode), starring Patrick Duffy, Belinda J. Montgomery, Victor Buono. Special effects Tom Fisher. The first 4 episodes, 90min telefilms, were followed by 13 50min episodes. Colour.

   A green-eyed stranger with gills and webbed hands is found nearly dead on a beach. He is revived by an attractive female scientist who, realizing that he is not human, places him in a tank of water. Believed to come from ATLANTIS, he is persuaded to work for the Foundation for Oceanic Research,and is soon off on his first mission, to tackle an overweight villain in his underwater headquarters. Though the settings and special effects were sometimes eye-catching, the general intellectual level of this and subsequent episodes, which featured aliens, monsters, time-warps, etc., was no higher than that of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. The series was cancelled after 1 season.Novelized versions of the first 2 episodes were Man from Atlantis: Sea Kill * (1977) and Man from Atlantis: Death Scouts *(1977), both by Richard Woodley.

   JB