Producer Ivan Tors (1916-1983) was born on this date in Budapest.
He became a family TV mogul in the 1950s and '60s w/ shows like SEA HUNT, FLIPPER, DAKTARI and GENTLE BEN.
Tors was a genius, launching his shows w/ movies that became matinee favorites and heavily merchandising them. A true American success story!
A #vintageSciFi question: there are lots of plots where evil or misguided AI that controls everything runs amok (HAL) or not (COLOSSUS), but the #IvanTors film Gog (1954) is the earliest I know where a perfectly fine AI master-controller gets hijacked by code-injection from the real enemy; this happens again a decade later in Godzilla vs Megalon, but are there any earlier master-AI takeover films, books or short stories?
(fwiw, any PhD who names his bots Gog and Magog should expect trouble)
Tonight in 1966 — #Daktari debuted on CBS.
Producer #IvanTors’ family drama series was adapted from his 1965 film #ClarenceTheCrossEyedLion.
Both starred #MarshallThompson as a vet running an animal study center in Africa.
Tonight in 1958 — #SeaHunt debuted in first-run syndication.
#LloydBridges starred as former Navy diver Mike Nelson in this adventure series from producer #IvanTors.
It’s streaming on #PlutoTV.
Will McKinley
teledyn 𓂀