In Search of... is an American television series that was broadcast weekly from 1977 to 1982, devoted to mysterious phenomena. It was created after the success of three one-hour TV documentaries produced by creator Alan Landsburg: In Search of Ancient Astronauts in 1973, In Search of Ancient Mysteries and The Outer Space Connection, both in 1975. All three featured narration by Rod Serling, who was the initial choice to host the spin-off show. Serling died before production started, and Leonard Nimoy was then selected to be the host. The series was revived with host Mitch Pileggi in 2002 and again in 2018 with Zachary Quinto, currently airing on the History Channel. The original series was shown in Australia in the 1980s under the title "Great Mysteries of the World" with each episode having an introduction and conclusion presented by television presenter Scott Lambert.
Format
The program conducted investigations into the controversial and paranormal. Additionally, it featured episodes about mysterious historical events and personalities such as Anna Anderson/Grand Duchess Anastasia, the Lincoln Assassination, the Jack the Ripper murders, infamous cults, and missing persons, cities, and ships. Because the show often presented offbeat subjects and controversial theories, each episode's opening credits included a verbal disclaimer about the conjectural nature of the evidence and theories to be presented: The production values were fairly typical of the period, with interviews, reenactments and scenic footage shot on film, all voiced over by Nimoy. The music was composed by Laurin M. Rinder and W. Michael Lewis. A soundtrack album was released on AVI Records in 1977. Nimoy's popularity among science fiction fans won the show a following in fandom circles. Nimoy wrote an episode about the turbulent life of artist Vincent van Gogh, having earlier played the artist's brother Theo in a one-man show. As part of his research, Nimoy found records in the archives of the hospital where Van Gogh was treated that suggested that he suffered from epilepsy rather than insanity. The show also spawned at least six spin-off books, all written by Landsburg with forewords by Nimoy: In Search of Lost Civilizations,In Search of Extraterrestrials,In Search of Magic and Witchcraft,In Search of Strange Phenomena,In Search of Missing Persons, and In Search of Myths and Monsters, with an additional book that collected the best segments from these existing volumes. In 1978, Landsburg produced a Bigfoot documentary using portions of two In Search of... episodes called Manbeast! Myth or Monster, based on his book In Search of Myths and Monsters. Though Nimoy had written the foreword to Landsburg's book, he did not narrate this documentary. Reruns of the In Search of... series aired during the early 1990s on the A&E Network. In the later 1990s, the show aired on another of the A&E Television Networks' properties, the History Channel. The licensing agreement expired in the early 2000s, ending the show's run. When the show aired on A&E, a re-recording of the original theme music was used plus a new alternate theme. The original opening titles were also modernized. In this incarnation virtually all of Nimoy's on-camera appearances in the series were replaced with reused footage, so viewers could hear Nimoy but not see him. A short-lived revival of the show, featuring Mitch Pileggi, aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2002. In January 2018, it was announced that Zachary Quinto, who, like Nimoy, stars as Spock in the rebooted Star Trek films, will host the revived version of the show on History Channel. On March 27, 2019, History Channel announced the series was renewed for a second season.
In February 2012, it was announced that Visual Entertainment, under license from Universal Studios, had acquired the home video rights to the original series for the United States and Canada. In Search of: The Complete Collection was released in Canada and the U.S. on December 11, 2012 from VEI's website. The 21-DVD set includes all 144 installments hosted by Leonard Nimoy. Also included are two Rod Serling specials: In Search of Ancient Astronauts and In Search of Ancient Mysteries which aired prior to the start of the regular Nimoy series. Three Landsburg specials, The Outer Space Connection, Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle and Manbeast! Myth or Monster, are not included. VEI also included all eight episodes of the short-lived 2002 series, hosted by Mitch Pileggi.
Homages
The style of the original In Search of... has been paid homage to and parodied by many productions. Examples include Mysteries in History, a show-within-a-show that plays a part in the plotline to Men in Black II. Two other examples are Truth from Legend and Fact from Myth, two nearly identical series existing in alternate universes for which "mini-episodes" were created for YouTube as part of the viral marketing campaign for the two-part video game .
