Retro Sci Fi TV: The Man From Atlantis (1977)

Retro Sci Fi TV: A look at shows from the past that may not have stood the test of time and/or that are relegated to their era, but many of us still have fond memories of them.

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What Is It? A man washes up to shore with no memory of who he is or where he’s from, but he has the ability to live and breathe underwater. He takes the name Mark Harris and joins up with the Foundation for Oceanic Research as a member of the submarine Cetacean in order to assist with their exploration of the ocean and also to find out the truth about his origins.

Aired: NBC, 1977-78, One Season Totaling 13 Episodes plus 4 TV movies

Starring: Patrick Duffy, Belinda Montgomery, Alan Fudge, Victor Buono

Created By: Mayo Simon and Herbert F. Solow

Is It Must-Watch Sci Fi TV? No. The original movies aren’t too bad if you are looking for some 70’s sci fi cheesiness, but the camp factor amped up quickly when this became a weekly television series.

The Skinny: Throughout the early and mid-1970s (especially the latter half of the decade), the broadcast networks shied away from sci fi and fantasy shows higher on genre elements like Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits and instead utilized the superhero format to lure in sci fi fans. Shows like The Six Million Dollar Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Wonder Woman were at times among the only genre entries on the Prime Time schedule. NBC’s The Man from Atlantis joined the fray in 1977, offering yet another superhero-type character, though this one had at least a bit more in the way of sci fi elements. The four TV movies that introduced the character and ran during the second half of the 1976-77 season delivered straightforward action-adventure tales that were rooted in sci fi and veered away from the procedural format that we saw on so many other TV dramas. These proved popular enough for NBC to greenlight a series (and the unexpected success of Star Wars in the theaters in Summer 1977 had the television networks scrambling for sci fi entries) landing it on the schedule as a weekly entry in Fall 1977.

Unfortunately, diminishing returns set in very quickly for this show. Even the four movies had their share of camp and cheesiness about them (especially with Victor Buono hamming it up as the villainous Mr. Schubert), but they usually didn’t go too far overboard. The writers were definitely stretching the boundaries of suspension of disbelief by the time the show became a weekly series, though, with such absurd stories as Mark going back in time and encountering Billy the Kid (who happens to be his lookalike) then Romeo and Juliet. And it also delivered such high camp as Mark facing off against a giant, two-headed, land-walking seahorse (no, really). There was some hope for this show when it first started, and some of us who watched it when we were younger still have fond memories of it. But the series never quite found its sea legs and disappeared after a short run.

Cancelled Too Soon? Yes. The four television movies pulled decent ratings and NBC decided to add it to the schedule as an ongoing series starting in Fall 1977. But they slotted it on Thursdays at 8 PM EST against the top two shows on television, ABC’s Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, which proved disastrous for the ratings. Whether it could have survived in another timeslot considering the ersatz scripts the weekly series delivered is uncertain. But NBC’s attempts to counter-program against ABC (and The Waltons was still drawing good ratings for CBS in that hour) were a complete failure.

Should It Be Rebooted? Perhaps. This was a show that had an interesting idea and at least tried to deliver more in the way of sci fi stories than other genre shows on television at that time offered. With less camp and better scripts (though that doesn’t mean it couldn’t still be fun), a reboot of this could actually work. It never had a huge following, though, so I don’t know that NBC or another network would have much incentive to bring it back. Patrick Duffy did return to the character with a novel written in 2016 which is planned as the first of a trilogy.  And that certainly sets up the possibility for a new series, though he is on the old side to play Mark Harris.

Interesting Fact: This was the first American television series aired in the People’s Republic of China, where it was titled The Man from the Bottom of the Atlantic, and it apparently was very popular in that country. The series also developed a notable following in other countries across the globe.

Where Can You Watch It? The four original movies have been released on DVD and the complete series has also been released on DVD, with only the pilot getting the Blu-ray treatment so far. You can also purchase the series VOD from Amazon, and it is streaming for free (with ads) on Tubi TV.

Read More About the Show: Wikipedia | IMDb.com

More Retro Sci Fi TV at This Link



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Author: johnnyjay

3 thoughts on “Retro Sci Fi TV: The Man From Atlantis (1977)

  1. The show had some of the worst, most juvenile and nonsensical sci-fi writing of the 1970s, but the first TV movie was actually pretty good. And no, Victor Buono did not ham it up in that first movie (he was not in the other three). He played it pretty straight. It was in the show that he became an embarrassing caricature.

  2. I have never replied to anything on your site in this manner before, but My God, you have got to be kidding. This rubbish was not just cheesy but stinky cheesy. This was a pasteurized/homogenized Aquaman whom the writers upped the Pop cheesiness on by dragging Atlantis into it. And, worst of all, Patrick Duffy cannot act! This was nothing but a footlong t.v. commercial sandwich slathered with corny glop!
    If the day comes that Atlantis could be done justice on either t.v. or in a movie, that would be something to cheer about!

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