World of Giants

World of Giants
GenreSpy-fi
StarringMarshall Thompson
Arthur Franz
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time30 minutes
Production companyZiv Television Programs
Original release
NetworkSyndication
ReleaseSeptember 5 (1959-09-05) –
November 28, 1959 (1959-11-28)

World of Giants is an American 30-minute black-and-white science fiction spy-fi television series[1] that aired in syndication from September 5, 1959, until November 28, 1959. The series starred Marshall Thompson.[2] It was aimed to be aired on CBS but a sponsor could not be found although the series aired on Australian television in 1959, and syndicated in select U.S. markets starting in 1961.[3]

Premise

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American spy Mel Hunter, while on a covert mission, is shrunk to a height of six inches after exposure to a strange radiation.[4] The Federal Counter-Espionage Agent used his small size to infiltrate areas that a full-sized man could not. When not on assignment, he lives in a specially outfitted dollhouse-like miniature. The series co-starred Arthur Franz as his full-sized partner, Agent Bill Winters.[citation needed]

Thompson set up the premise in the show's opening voiceover:

It was up to me to be careful 3600 seconds of every hour. I couldn't expect the rest of the world to live my way. To the rest of the world, my problems are not a matter of life and death. The Bureau guards many fantastic secrets. But none quite so fantastic as Mel Hunter—-me. Following my escape from a nightmare behind the Iron Curtain six months ago, I watched along with 14 doctors and 17 scientists and saw myself shrink to the size of a six-inch ruler. The shrinking had stopped. The scientists were still hoping, still working on my case, and I was still a special agent... a kind of special special agent.

Cast

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Episodes

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No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air date
1"Special Agent"Otto LangDonald Duncan and Jack LairdSeptember 5, 1959 (1959-09-05)
Mel and Bill tries to find the secret hideout of an international spy ring. A cat traps him in a barrel.
2"Time Bomb"Otto LangCharles LawsonSeptember 12, 1959 (1959-09-12)
Mel has to warn Bill about a time bomb in the mail.
3"Teeth of the Watch Dog"Monroe AskinsJoe Stone and Paul KingSeptember 19, 1959 (1959-09-19)
An actress might be involved in a spy ring.
4"Death Trap"Byron HaskinDonald DuncanSeptember 26, 1959 (1959-09-26)
A briefcase containing Mel is lost after a car accident. A squirrel seemingly as big as a grizzly bear pursues him into a gopher hole
5"Gambling Story"Nathan JuranRichard CarrOctober 3, 1959 (1959-10-03)
A casino owner is working with foreign spies.
6"Chemical Story"Eugène LouriéMeyer Dolinsky and Robert C. DennisOctober 10, 1959 (1959-10-10)
Mel tries to recapture several test tubes containing experimental chemicals, but gets locked inside a refrigerator.
7"Feathered Foe"Nathan JuranDan Lundberg and Hugh LaceyOctober 17, 1959 (1959-10-17)
An enemy agent is using carrier pigeons to transport secret documents.
8"The Pool"Nathan JuranLawrence MascottOctober 24, 1959 (1959-10-24)
Mel tries to find a codebook in a pool.
9"Rainbow of Fire"Harry HornerA. Sanford Wolf and Irwin WinehouseOctober 31, 1959 (1959-10-31)
Bill and Mel must find a rocket that landed in the Caribbean after it malfunctioned.
10"The Smugglers"Nathan JuranFred FreibergerNovember 7, 1959 (1959-11-07)
Bill and Mel goes after smugglers who are smuggling people out of China.
11"Unexpected Murder"Jack ArnoldMeyer DolinskyNovember 14, 1959 (1959-11-14)
Bill must stop a pharmacist who has been smuggling counterfeit money.
12"Panic in 3B"Jack ArnoldA. Sanford Wolf and Irwin WinehouseNovember 21, 1959 (1959-11-21)
Agents from Eastern Europe wants to kidnap Mel so they can find out what made him shrink. One reaches into his dollhouse, tears off the roof, and destroys the bathtub.
13"Off Beat"Harry HornerKay Lenard and Jess CarneolNovember 28, 1959 (1959-11-28)
Mel is convinced that a jazz musician is really an imposter.

Production and distribution

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World of Giants was produced by Ziv Television Programs, the company responsible for such hit TV series as Highway Patrol, Sea Hunt, and Bat Masterson.[citation needed]

A 1958 article in Variety magazine stated that CBS would be scheduling the series to be shown on Wednesdays from 8:00 to 8:30 p.m. The article described the series about a six-inch tall man by saying "Whether it is the turning on of a hose, a tipped bottle of glue, the closing of an ice box, the turning on of an electric light – each in its way is a monster or a monstrous situation for the 'little man'."[5]

It was a high-budget program,[4] and used sets and props built for the 1957 film The Incredible Shrinking Man.[1]

The series was not picked up for broadcast by a major network, and a 1961 issue of Sponsor magazine stated that CBS was putting World of Giants into syndication, with a June 19, 1961 release.[4] The series was available until at least 1964, for an entertainment industry yearbook published that year reported that CBS Films was offering the series for world-wide distribution.[6]

Other series with shrunken people

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Nearly a decade later, in 1968, a similarly themed Irwin Allen science fiction TV series, entitled Land of the Giants, starring Gary Conway and Don Marshall, ran on ABC. Two years prior to that series, an animated kids TV show called Tom of T.H.U.M.B., aired as a part of The King Kong Show. In 1973 the Hanna-Barbera's animated series Inch High, Private Eye, about a similarly small detective, premiered on NBC, airing for only one season. The Doctor Who Season Two, Episode One "Planet of the Giants" had the cast shrunk after a TARDIS incident.[citation needed]

Home media

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The complete series of World of Giants was released on Blu-ray from distribution company, ClassicFlix on November 7, 2023.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b Wright, Gene, The Science Fiction Image, page 330, The University of Virginia, 1983
  2. ^ Britton, Wesley, Beyond Bond: Spies in Fiction and Film, page 91, ABC-CLIO, 2005
  3. ^ World Of Giants The Complete Series
  4. ^ a b c Film-Scope, Sponsor, June 5, 1961, page 69
  5. ^ TV Trips The Light-Year Fantastic, Variety, June 6, 1958, page 32
  6. ^ Radio & TV Producers & Distributors - CBS Films, 1964 Yearbook of Radio and Television, Page 681
  7. ^ "World of Giants: The Complete TV Series Blu-ray". blu-ray.com. August 7, 2023. Retrieved August 9, 2023.
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