Twenty four hours of Sea Hunt

[covediver]

Last week my order from Amazon with my summer scuba reading was delivered. In the package was my order of Sea Hunt TV Series (24 Hour Marathon), a selection of shows from each season. They are in black and white, but the visual quality and audio quality is better than anything I recall seeing as a kid (I saw the show in afternoon reruns) or about 10 years ago when it played on the Outdoor channel as a summer replacement. I am very pleased with the purchase, it is like getting reintroduced to an old friend.

I won't claim to have been influenced by Sea Hunt and our favorite ex-Navy frogman, Mike Nelson, to go out and learn to dive. Getting in the water for me was an evolution not an inspiration. I do recall the show fondly from my youth and wanting to take dive lessons, an activity that was reserved for Senior-level PE class at the high school I attended before moving away at the beginning of my senior year. I do find it ironic that scuba was one of the electives for PE in high school (limited to boys) in a mid-western city whereas the high school I attended on the coast in southern California did not and would not offer it.

I do find the show somewhat amusing because the story lines at times are so cheezy and today so far fetched. And I can see why the show is so fondly remembered for its upholding middle class values., with clear good guys and clear bad guys. One of the story lines that had Mike sleeping out on the balcony of a hotel room so the woman in the room reputation would remain unquestioned. I wonder what a remake of that episode would entail today...Of course today, Mike would probably be killing underwater zombies if recent tastes in television is any indication.

He did seem to get into a lot of underwater fights and cut a lot of air hoses. A non-diver friend of mine who saw the show once asked me, in all seriousness, if I got in a lot of fights underwater. Not to destroy a great myth, I replied "yes" and proceeded to show him my collection of dive knives including the Kabar, jus like Mike used.

 

[drbill]

I remember "Sea Hunt" first run and it probably influenced my decision to dive, but not as much as Cousteau's early work or the fact that I had lived by and loved the ocean as a kid. Imagine my surprise when years after I moved to Toyon Bay on Santa Catalina Island, I realized that the pinnacvle rock in our bay was none other than "Mike Nelson Rock," seen in the closing sequence of the show. And, of course, many of the sites I dive today were dived by Mike Nelson and the beautiful Zale Parry (who still comes out to dive our waters in the spring).

 

[toddster541]

Of course, those old shows look good on DVD because they were originally recorded on high quality black and white film. They didn't look so good in their day, when broadcast on low-res TV systems.

Anyway, I watched "Sea Hunt" religiously as a kid. Probably it somehow affected my career trajectory, if not consciously. BTW, I just recently saw an episode that was a "lifeboat drama" with a very young Leonard Nimoy as the bad guy. It was awful! Time for a slashed air-hose!

 

[covediver]

I remember "Sea Hunt" first run and it probably influenced my decision to dive, but not as much as Cousteau's early work or the fact that I had lived by and loved the ocean as a kid. Imagine my surprise when years after I moved to Toyon Bay on Santa Catalina Island, I realized that the pinnacvle rock in our bay was none other than "Mike Nelson Rock," seen in the closing sequence of the show. And, of course, many of the sites I dive today were dived by Mike Nelson and the beautiful Zale Parry (who still comes out to dive our waters in the spring).

I had the opportunity to meet Zale on a Nautilus Explorer expedition down the inside passage not too many summers ago. At one spot we hiked up through the temperate rain forest that is British Columbia's coast. Not only did she lead most of the way maitaining a pace that would have a ridge-runner gasping for breath, she did trail maintenance along the way. She is one of the most classy people it has ever been my pleasure to meet.

I will enjoy introducing some of the younger divers i know to the series. It was a staple of after-school reruns on the local UHF station for many years in the 1960s.

When I assisted my first open-water class at UCSB nearly 30 years ago, I recall the instructor, who is a year two younger than I, using the phrase "the guy thought he was Mike Nelson" when talking to the college students, using the behavior of the diver as a cautionary tale. At the bbq following the graduation dive, one of the divers, who went on to become an instructor at Club Med (another great venue for itinerant dive instructors back then) came up to me and asked, "who's this Mike Nelson guy he's always talking about, one of his students who really screwed up." All of a sudden in my late 20s I felt a bit ancient.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Sea Hunt lives on..

I have all the episodes on tape...must up date to DVD...Where is the best price and best quality to purchase a set of Sea Hunt DVDs?

Zale was only in two segments of Sea Hunt....Recall the one full lenght movie she was in as a diver's young daughter?

SDM

 

[wedivebc]

Of course, those old shows look good on DVD because they were originally recorded on high quality black and white film. They didn't look so good in their day, when broadcast on low-res TV systems.

Anyway, I watched "Sea Hunt" religiously as a kid. Probably it somehow affected my career trajectory, if not consciously. BTW, I just recently saw an episode that was a "lifeboat drama" with a very young Leonard Nimoy as the bad guy. It was awful! Time for a slashed air-hose!

Nimoy played a bad guy in other episodes too. One he murders his wife and Mike dons "tech diving gear" to go deep and recover the body.

 

[covediver]

Sea Hunt lives on..

I have all the episodes on tape...must up date to DVD...Where is the best price and best quality to purchase a set of Sea Hunt DVDs?

Zale was only in two segments of Sea Hunt....Recall the one full lenght movie she was in as a diver's young daughter?

SDM

I see amazon is now shipping sea hunt complete season 1, 2, 3, and 4 at $12.99 per season. I can't speak to the quality, but it is the same outfit at produced my recently purchased 24-hour marathon version. I am quite happy with it.

 

[Bill Parker]

You can watch the first season for free (with commercials)
online with IMDB/Hulu:

Sea Hunt (1958?1961) - Episodes - IMDb

 

[danvolker]

You know I did not remember Mike being having such an attitude. I did not remember him being so overweighted, and having so much trouble swimming up off the bottom to surface.
It's still nostalgic, and fun to watch.

 

[lionfish-eater]

You can watch episodes on youtube. Not sure what season, but there are about 30 - 40 episodes. I enjoy the flash back to the 60'S. Also enjoy it at a different level now that I have some underwater knowledge. Funny scenes when mike claims to be deep diving and you can see the surface 2 feet above his head, or when he is struggling to ascend but you can see he is just treading water.