Two attractive kids and their Lassie-like fish

September 14, 2013 10:35 AM

If there was ever one man responsible for how an entire generation of American kids dreamed about science, animals, and nature it might be a producer by the name of Ivan Tors.

Television programs created and/or produced by Ivan Tors:

Science Fiction Theater (The Series)
The Man and the Challenge
Men Into Space
The Aquanauts/ Malibu Run (Excerpt)
Sea Hunt (Season 1)
Ripcord (Ivan Tors' Promo Film)
Flipper, The episode The Red Hot Car
Cowboy in Africa/Africa-Texas Style
Gentle Ben
Daktari, Season 1 Preview
Jambo
Primus
Salty (Flipper, but with a seal)
Expedition: Danger (with mocking contemporary commentary, unfortuantley)

Movies produced and/or created by Ivan Tors:
Storm Over Tibet, (Synopsis)
The Magnetic Monster
The Glass Wall (Shot in public with hidden cameras)
Riders to the Stars (Full Movie)
Gog A Clip
Battle Taxi
Unidentified Flying Objects - The True Story of Flying Saucers
Underwater Warrior
Wink of an Eye (Synopsis)
Flipper
Flipper’s New Adventure
Zebra in the Kitchen (Theme song)
Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion (Clip)
Around the World Under the Sea
Namu, the Killer Whale Full Movie
Birds Do It
Island of the Lost (Partial)
Gentle Giant
Daring Game (Clip)
Hello Down There (A Clip)
The Aquarians (TV Movie, Excerpt)
Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion (Clip)
Escape from Angoloa (Full Movie)
Galyon (Clip 1) (Clip 2)

Tors was also the producer of the underwater photography for the Bond movie Thunderball including this epic battle.
Alternate cut

He also published a book titled: Ivan Tors' My Life in the Wild

posted by Toekneesan (7 comments total)

Yep, that's pretty much my childhood in a convenient list.
posted by tommasz at 11:37 AM on September 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

I fondly remember watching Daktari as a little kid, but I've never dared re-watch as an adult. Can anybody tell me how how patronizing and/or racist it appears to modern eyes?
posted by monotreme at 11:46 AM on September 14, 2013

Man that Flipper theme song brings me back. That don't write them like that anymore.

They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
Flying there-under, under the sea!
Everyone loves the king of the sea,
Ever so kind and gentle is he,
Tricks he will do when children appear,
And how they laugh when he's near!
They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
Flying there-under, under the sea!

posted by dougzilla at 12:25 PM on September 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Its not easy to find and never was released on dvd but Hello Down There is like flipper meets the Monkees in a mid century house (to die for if you like that look) 50 feet underwater. All of the 60s major cultural food groups, all on the same plate. (Look for a teen-aged Richard Dreyfuss as the leader of the band)
posted by Fupped Duck at 1:28 PM on September 14, 2013

Little goldfish
Where you going to
Little goldfish
Let me swim along with you
Pretty goldfish
We could have a whale of a time
Put your fin in mine
posted by Toekneesan at 1:38 PM on September 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wow, pretty catchy.
posted by dougzilla at 2:05 PM on September 14, 2013

This post came out of a second project I've been working on where I'm digitizing a bunch of covers from the large collection of old children's books I've accumulated over the years. It was doing that where I came across Tors' name, like on this Big Little book cover, and this one. The collection I'm organizing is primarily from a particular publisher, Whitman. Whitman was really famous for licensing and partnerships with other media, so they have books based on comic strips, TV shows, cartoon characters, radio shows, and movies. They even did a book with Mr. Zip introducing the Zip Code. Anyway, after I figured out who he was, I came across the documentary about him, and then had a blast finding some sort of Web references to all of his work. This was a very fun post to compile.
posted by Toekneesan at 7:44 PM on September 14, 2013 [1 favorite]