海角大神

My dad was never a fan of the kind of evening TV programs that entertained us kids in the 1950s and early 鈥�60s. While we settled down to our weekly favorites 鈥� 鈥淟eave It to Beaver,鈥� 鈥淟assie,鈥� and 鈥淒ennis the Menace,鈥� to name a few 鈥� he鈥檇 relax with his newspaper, oblivious to the shows that held us rapt. There were some exceptions, of course, programs he鈥檇 be loath to miss. The nightly news was sacrosanct to him, and the daily signoff between NBC鈥檚 Chet Huntley and David Brinkley after they delivered the news still rings in my ears all these years later:

鈥淕oodnight, Chet.鈥�

鈥淕oodnight, David.鈥�

鈥淎nd good night from all of us at NBC News.鈥�

It signaled a rite of passage from his time with the old black-and-white RCA television to ours.

But there was one series he almost never missed, and loved to have me watch with him: 鈥淪ea Hunt.鈥� It was an action-adventure drama starring actor Lloyd Bridges as a former US Navy frogman who risked his life week after week exploring, filming, harvesting, and simply appreciating marine environments and depths wherever his diving expertise was needed.聽

A crisis or mystery was usually involved, of course. The stalwart main character Mike Nelson caught smugglers, prison escapees, and counterfeiters. He rescued children from coastal caves with tidewaters pouring in, and saved a pilot who鈥檇 crash-landed into the sea 鈥� not to mention the obligatory bikini-clad damsels in distress (Dad? Dad?). One week, Mike even brought up a dog that was about to drown in a sunken freighter by ingeniously improvising an air pocket in a kettle from the submerged galley.聽

It was not, I realized years later, so much the plots that my dad found so engaging, but the underwater environments that the series portrayed, as well as the science and technology woven into the stories. Dad was fascinated by both. When I was older, he gave me two of Rachel Carson鈥檚 classics about the sea 鈥� 鈥淯nder the Sea Wind鈥� and 鈥淭he Sea Around Us,鈥� both well-thumbed by him 鈥� and encouraged me to read them. But when we shared 鈥淪ea Hunt,鈥� I was too young to appreciate much more than what the drama鈥檚 narration provided.

Ah, reruns. I recently revisited a few episodes of the series via YouTube. They popped up in a 鈥渟uggested鈥� watch queue after I鈥檇 indulged in a movie with Jeff Bridges (one of Lloyd鈥檚 two actor sons, along with Beau). Why not revisit my dad鈥檚 favorite old show? In fact, I ended up binge-watching it for the better part of a rainy day.聽

Now I appreciated Lloyd Bridges鈥檚 ruggedly handsome physique in a way I hadn鈥檛 before. And I found other well-known actors in some of their earliest roles: Leonard Nimoy, Larry Hagman, Bruce Dern, Jack Nicholson, and Barbara Eden (another favorite of Dad鈥檚, which reminds me that he also rarely missed 鈥淚 Dream of Jeannie鈥�). And, oh, my, even Jeff and Beau as young boys 鈥� what an unexpected treat!聽

But watching the series will never be quite the same as it was in the old days, with Dad in his easy chair, and my innocent focus 鈥� like his, most of the time 鈥� on the fascinating marine environments and what was then state-of-the-art scuba, photographic, and surveillance equipment (and oh, that kelp harvester one week!). It was something we enjoyed with complete abandon as we descended with Mike into an enthralling and often treacherous world below the surface of the sea. 聽

Though the series didn鈥檛 inspire me to become a scuba diver, it had an impact, and I took to the Caribbean with snorkel and mask several times as a graduate student studying reef ecosystems. And one day a vision worthy of the series鈥� soulful glimpses of oceanic life materialized directly below me in the form of a giant manta ray. The graceful winged fish posed no threat, I knew, as it briefly and completely blocked my view of the bottom in passing. I could almost hear Mike鈥檚 narrative description of the animal as a pelagic filter feeder that could grow to seven meters across. This one was close to that.聽

Dad should have been there.聽