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Series Producer: Robert L. Long,
Richard J. Wells, J. Francis Hichting a. o. This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanation, but not necessarily the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. The Voice speaks... The following is Leonard Nimoy's complete foreword to Allan Landsburg's book In Search of Missing Persons, (Bantan Books, New York, 1978)*. It offers a unique perspective on the series as a whole -- Nimoy's role and thoughts about the show's objectives... My first working association with the television series In Search Of... was a narration session in which I was asked to read aloud the major objectives of the various categories - Lost Civilizations, Strange Phenomena, Missing Persons, Magic and Witchcraft, Myths and Monsters, and, finally, Extraterrestrials. The roll call of subjects was mind-bending. I kept on reading the sentences appended to the list but my mind was focused on the prospect of walking the electrifying path between what is scientific fact and what is considered far-out science fiction. Alan Landsburg is a much-honored producer of television documentary films, and his extraordinarily talented staff of directors, writers, cameramen, and editors were out in the field collecting some of the most unusual images ever recorded for the television screen. What appealed to me most was the very range of subjects. On one hand, we might be searching for Amelia Earhart, lost on a trans-Pacific flight in 1937; on the other, for the famed Count Dracula of myth and fact. Who really did build Stonehenge? Where do UFO's land? Is there really life after death? Do plants speak? The quest and the questions presented a virtually unlimited source of adventure. More than a hundred people were scattered around the world recording data, clues, evidence that fulfilled Hamlet’s promise that "there are more things on earth than you have dreamed of in your philosophy." I liked the experience of butting up against old ideas and demonstrating the new explanations possible. In pursuit of old and baffling mysteries, the programs opened new directions to pursue in search of more illuminating answers. For all these reasons, I immersed myself in the fascinating game. It's good to know that our television series In Search Of... has now become something of a byword for many viewers. This book is a chronicle of the efforts that have gone into making the television series. It's a fascinating log-book to me, filled with the excitement of overcoming the seemingly impossible and with the fulfillment of discovery. I hope you find it as intriguing as I did. -Leonard Nimoy - 12/31/1977
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