World of Giants

World of Giants
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Ziv Television Programs
Distributor	MGM Television Peter Rodgers Organization
Release
Original network	Syndication
Original release	September 5 – November 28, 1959

World of Giants (aka W-O-G) is an American black-and-white science fiction spy-fi television series that aired in CBS syndication from September 5, 1959 until November 28, 1959.

Premise

An American spy Marshall Thompson, while on a covert mission, shrinks to a height of 6 inches after an accident.^[1] This series stars Marshall Thompson as Federal Counter-Espionage Agent Mel Hunter, who uses 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-stars Arthur Franz as his full-sized partner, Agent Bill Winters.

Agent Mel Hunter quote

"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

Marshall Thompson as Mel Hunter
Arthur Franz as Bill Winters
John Gallaudet as Commissioner Hogg
Marcia Henderson as Miss Brown

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	"Special Agent"	Otto Lang	Donald Duncan and Jack Laird	September 5, 1959 (1959-09-05)
Mel and Bill tries to find the secret hudeout of an international spy ring.
2	"Time Bomb"	Otto Lang	Charles Lawson	September 12, 1959 (1959-09-12)
Mel has to warn Bill about a time bomb in the mail.
3	"Teeth of the Watch Dog"	Monroe Askins	Joe Stone and Paul King	September 19, 1959 (1959-09-19)
An actress might be involved in a spy ring.
4	"Death Trap"	Byron Haskin	Donald Duncan	September 26, 1959 (1959-09-26)
A briefcase containing Mel is lost after a car accident.
5	"Gambling Story"	Nathan Juran	Richard Carr	October 3, 1959 (1959-10-03)
A casino owner is working with foreign spies.
6	"Chemical Story"	Eugène Lourié	Meyer Dolinsky and Robert C. Dennis	October 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 Juran	Dan Lundberg and Hugh Lacey	October 17, 1959 (1959-10-17)
An enemy agent is using carrier pigeons to transport secret documents.
8	"The Pool"	Nathan Juran	Lawrence Mascott	October 24, 1959 (1959-10-24)
Mel tries to find a codebook in a pool.
9	"Rainbow of Fire"	Harry Horner	A. Sanford Wolf and Irwin Winehouse	October 31, 1959 (1959-10-31)
Bill and Mel must find a rocket that landed in the Caribbean after it malfunctioned.
10	"The Smugglers"	Nathan Juran	Fred Freiberger	November 7, 1959 (1959-11-07)
Bill and Mel goes after smugglers who are smuggling people out of China.
11	"Unexpected Murder"	Jack Arnold	Meyer Dolinsky	November 14, 1959 (1959-11-14)
Bill must stop a pharmacist who has been smuggling counterfeit money.
12	"Panic in 3B"	Jack Arnold	A. Sanford Wolf and Irwin Winehouse	November 21, 1959 (1959-11-21)
Agents from Eastern Europe wants to kidnap Mel so they can find out what made him shrink.
13	"Off Beat"	Harry Horner	Kay Lenard and Jess Carneol	November 28, 1959 (1959-11-28)
Mel is convinced that a jazz musician is really an imposter.

Production

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.

Not a success, this series only lasted through its initial production order of 13 episodes. Thompson later went on to star in the successful CBS TV series Daktari (1966-1969).

In popular culture

Nearly a decade later, in 1968, a similarly-themed Irwin Allen TV series, entitled Land of the Giants, starring Gary Conway and Don Marshall, ran on ABC. Two years prior to that series, an animated 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.

References

↑ IMDb. "World of Giants - Plot Summary". IMDb. Retrieved 2013-01-14.

External links

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