TV Guide (August 13, 1955)

speech clinic at the University of Iowa. For the following seven months The Search probed university labora¬ tories and classrooms, police stations and slums, mountain caves and mines. Though it never found a sponsor, it built an audience of 10,000,000 and drew rave reactions from critics and educators alike. Soon The Search will end—at least, for a while. The 26 episodes originally planned have been completed, except for reruns of some of the more out¬ standing stories as summer fillers in the See It Now spot • But The Seorch is not over. A new series is being planned, with the same title and format. No date has been set, however, as a great deal of time is needed to prepare it. In many ways, CBS officials feel, the network’s old proud dream already has been fulfilled. One of the best ex¬ amples of The Search’s penetrating study of Man and his problems was its program on juvenile delinquency in Detroit. The program explored case histories of two boys, first taking Sonny, 12, who had stolen a pair of gloves from a department store. After questioning the boy and establishing that he was definitely a good risk, the city’s Youth Bureau concluded that drastic correc¬ tive action would do him harm and released Sonny to his family. Viewers next encountered Arthur, 8, brought in for breaking windows. In the course of a psychological ex¬ amination it was made clear that Arthur was mentally ill. The Juvenile Court’s Psychological Clinic recom¬ mended that Arthur be given therapy. Another example of the “savable” delinquent shown on The Search was Larry, the boy gang-member, product of a broken home. He is now in a boarding home, where his school marks are improving, and he’s look¬ ing forward hopefully toward re¬ joining his own mother some day. The fourth—and perhaps potentially the most dangerous—delinquent was Howard, the “lone wolf,” a boy who couldn’t get along with anyone, who kept getting deeper into serious trouble until he wound up in Juvenile Court. The judge, realizing the hope¬ lessness of Howard’s life in a home atmosphere of squalor, hate and vio¬ lence, had Howard transferred to an¬ other environment entirely. The juvenile delinquency program was in many ways typical of the shows filmed by The Search, accord¬ ing to Irving Gitlin, producer of the show. “In it, we used the direct and simple documentary approach. We told a story through the eyes of its participants. It took us two months to research this show, several weeks to tape-record the interviews and two weeks to shoot the film.” First, Gitlin and his staff tried to produce The Search by building up Medic-like dramatic interest in the shows. They shot several films with actual plotlines and built-in suspense. “But we found that, for us, this technique didn’t work at all,” Gitlin recalls. “We discovered that you have to shoot straight drama or straight documentary. You can’t successfully combine the two. So we threw out all the film and started over again.” Two years later, when the first Search film was released to the public, the program’s title card described the show in words recalling Gitlin’s own: “This is The Search —the search to know and understand Man and his world—the search for a richer, hap¬ pier life for all.” This concept has reached far beyond the original series. The documentary approach has become the backbone of many new programs, such as Let’s Take a Trip. And major documentary films on broad, national issues—done by The Search crew, using The Search techniques—will carry on the idea. 19