Man from Atlantis

The series stars Patrick Duffy as an injured amnesiac man found on a beach after a storm.^[1] He possesses exceptional abilities, including the ability to breathe underwater and withstand extreme depth pressures, the ability to understand cetaceans, and superhuman strength. His hands and feet are webbed, his eyes are unusually sensitive to light, and he swims using his arms and legs in a fashion similar to a dolphin kick. Dr. Elizabeth Merrill, working at the Naval Undersea Center, a US Navy research facility, is the first to realize his nature and helps him return to health. She enters all known data into a computer, which speculates that he is the "last citizen of Atlantis ? ? ?" Elizabeth names him Mark Harris. The admiral at NUC recruits Mark to search for a lost Navy submersible. Mark discovers and foils a plot by Mister Schubert to destroy surface civilization in a nuclear war. After the pilot, Mark and Elizabeth leave the Navy to join the Foundation for Oceanic Research, a quasi-governmental agency that conducts secret research and operates a large, sophisticated submarine, the Cetacean, originally owned by Schubert.

The tone of the weekly series shifted away from the relatively serious science fiction tone of the TV movies and further into escapist fantasy, not too dissimilar to Star Trek with Mark as the adventurer captain of the Cetacean like Captain Kirk was of the USS Enterprise (Man from Atlantis producer and co-creator Herbert Solow was one of the people responsible for bringing Star Trek to the screen in the 1960s). In several episodes, Mark would swim through portals in the ocean that led to other places and even other times. In one episode, he crossed into a world set in the 19th century wild west where he met his twin, in another he entered a world inhabited by aliens, and he even travelled to 16th century Verona, Italy where he met the characters of Romeo and Juliet. No explanation was given to how these worlds existed via the ocean. As the scripts became increasingly "sillier" (Duffy himself later likened the series to the campy 60's TV series Batman^[3]), Montgomery's scientist character became more sidelined and the actress managed to get out of her contract with the help of lawyers after 11 episodes.^[4] In the 12th episode, a new female lead character, Dr. Jenny Reynolds (played by Lisa Blake Richards) briefly replaced Elizabeth Merrill. However, the last episode did not feature any female lead character.^{[citation needed]} Producer Herbert Solow also cast his then-wife Pamela Peters Solow, who was twenty years his junior, in the show twice. She first appeared in the fourth TV movie "The Disappearances", and then again (as a different character) in the ninth episode of the series, "C.W. Hyde". On both occasions she was given the prestigious screen billing of "and Pamela Peters Solow as...." despite being a relative unknown.^{[citation needed]}

• Patrick Duffy as Mark Harris
• Belinda J. Montgomery as Dr. Elizabeth Merrill, a marine biologist, originally with the Naval Undersea Center and later the Foundation for Oceanic Research.
• Alan Fudge as C.W. Crawford, administrator of the Foundation for Oceanic Research.
• Victor Buono as Mr. Schubert. Originally in the pilot, Schubert was an amoral man who thought human society was fatally flawed and wanted to create an undersea utopia after inciting a nuclear apocalypse on the surface, similar to Stromberg in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, also from 1977. When Schubert was reintroduced in the series, he became a stereotypical villain interested only in achieving wealth and power.
• Kenneth Tigar appeared in the second, third, and fourth movies as Dr Miller Simon, scientific director of the Foundation for Oceanic Research
• Fred Beir appeared in the third and fourth films as Captain Bracy, commanding officer of the Cetacean.
• Richard Laurance Williams as Jomo, helmsman of the Cetacean in the series
• J. Victor Lopez as Chuey, a Cetacean bridge crewman in the series
• Jean Marie Hon as Jane Bryan, Cetacean communications officer^[5] in the series
• Anson Downes as a Cetacean crewman in the series

The show was produced by Herbert Franklin Solow's studio Solow Production Company, a company spun off from the live-action arm of American animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions.^[6] The Foundation for Oceanic Research headquarters building was represented by the Point Fermin lighthouse in San Pedro, California.

The Cetacean submarine's voyages were shown through miniature work by the special effects team of Gene Warren.^[7] While the TV movies reused Cetacean docking footage from the pilot, the series introduced new sequences with a Seabase featuring a moving cradle and an enclosed walkway for the submersible to avoid having to create diving and surfacing effects.

Critic Tom Shales, reviewing the show for the Washington Post, opined that "kids may be impressed" by the heroics and special effects, but the show lacked "adult appeal" and that the stories would "soon wear thinner than water".^[8]

The New York Times harshly criticized the campy aspects of the series, "The Man From Atlantis may be clever enough to realize that when project is launched on a foolish idea, one solution is merely to escalate the foolishness."^[9]

Academic Nick Stember wrote that in 2014 the series "is almost entirely forgotten in the US".^[10]

The pilot film was released on VHS in 1986 by Worldvision Home Video, and re-released in 1987 by Goodtimes Home Video. It was later released on DVD as a part of the Warner Archive collection from Warner Home Video on October 6, 2009.^[11] On July 26, 2011, Warner Bros. released Man from Atlantis: The Complete TV Movies Collection, featuring all four television films, as well as Man from Atlantis—The Complete Television Series for Region 1 DVD.^[12] The pilot film was released on Blu-ray by Warner Archive Collection on March 12, 2019.

Man from Atlantis was the first American television series to be shown in the People's Republic of China on March 1, 1980,^[13] with the title translated to "The Man from the Bottom of the Atlantic".^[14] It was at the time when the "Gang of Four" lost power to Deng Xiaoping, and science research began to get attention, along with economic development. The impact of the series in China was so high that, around the time it started airing, the start time of a concert of a foreign pianist had to be changed. The series aired on Saturday nights; its novelty came at a time when much of television in China was dominated by propaganda.^[15] In 2014 academic Nick Stember wrote that multiple people from China who had their childhoods and/or adolescences in the 1980s "still remember [the series] with fondness."^[10]

In Brazil it was named O Homem do Fundo do Mar (The Man from the Bottom of the Sea in Portuguese). In Portugal, the title was a direct translation of the original, O Homem da Atlântida, being screened on RTP1 in 1981.^[16] In Kuwait, it was released in the early 1980s in English with Arabic subtitles. In the Netherlands, the series was broadcast by TROS broadcasting association, from June 15, 1978 until September 5, 1980. In Germany, the series was broadcast by ARD from 1982 to 1983 and in 1988 by RTL plus with the title translated to Der Mann aus Atlantis. The show preserved its name in France as well, where it aired as L'Homme de l'Atlantide. In Turkey, the series also preserved its name and was broadcast as Atlantis'ten Gelen Adam. It was also shown on SABC in South Africa in 1979, with the original title.

In the United Kingdom, Man from Atlantis was shown, in most regions, in an early Saturday evening slot on ITV starting 24 September 1977. After airing the four television movies, the series was shown at an earlier time from 5 November 1977, opposite the BBC's long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who, which was then in its 15th season.^[17] Although Man from Atlantis had not been a ratings/audience-share or demographic success in the US, the series actually beat Doctor Who during its transmission in the UK (this happened again in 1980–81 when ITV screened Buck Rogers in the 25th Century against Doctor Who). In Italy, the series was one of the early successes of the then interregional network Telemilano, future Canale 5, that began to air the series on February 11, 1980 under the name L'Uomo di Atlantide. The first TV-film, Man from Atlantis, was released on video in Norway in the 1980s. In Israel, HaIsh MeAtlantis (a literal translation of the English title) was shown on Channel 1, the only channel in Israel at that time. It first aired there in 1982 and was subsequently repeated.^[18]

In 1977, Dell Publishing published a novelization titled Man from Atlantis #1, written by Richard Woodley, which was followed by Man from Atlantis #2: "Death Scouts" from the same author. The line continued unnumbered with Killer Spores (1977) and Ark of Doom (1978), also by Woodley, the latter being the retitled novelization of "The Disappearances".^[19] In 1978, Marvel Comics published seven issues of a Man from Atlantis comic book, written by Bill Mantlo with art by Frank Robbins and Frank Springer.^[20] At the same time as Marvel, the British children's magazine Look-In began publishing a comic strip; this one was drawn by Mike Noble (and later John Cooper for one story). It was short-lived, lasting less than a year before being replaced with Enid Blyton's Famous Five.^[21] Kenner Toys began development on a Man from Atlantis line of action figures and toy vehicles in 1977, but it never proceeded past the prototype stage,^[22] while Denys Fisher Toys passed on making Star Wars action figures for the UK as they thought the Man from Atlantis would be more successful.^[23]

Series star Patrick Duffy wrote a sequel novel, titled simply Man from Atlantis, which was published in June 2016.^[24] The blog space1970, which reported on this novel, described it thus:

When TV unveiled the series Man from Atlantis, no one knew the how, where and why of Mark Harris. Over time the show's star, Patrick Duffy, formulated his own version of the history of Mark and his people. Here at last is the book that gives every reader and fan of the show the life and mythology of Atlantis, who they were and where they came from. Patrick Duffy's close connection to his fictional character makes this a behind the scenes fantasy story.

• List of underwater science fiction works