Follow the Sun (TV series)

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Follow the Sun
Format	Drama
Starring	Brett Halsey Barry Coe Gary Lockwood Gigi Perreau Jay Lanin
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	29
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Picture format	Black-and-white (1961-1962)
Original run	September 17, 1961 – April 8, 1962
External links
IMDb profile

Follow the Sun is a dramatic series which ran for twenty-nine episodes on the ABC television network from September 17, 1961, through April 8, 1962, with Brett Halsey and Barry Coe in the roles of Honolulu-based free-lance magazine writers Paul Templin and Ben Gregory, respectively.^[1] Gary Lockwood played their 20-year-old researcher Eric Jason, who was, according to the story line, born on December 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor Day). In reality, Lockwood was born on February 21, 1937, and was hence nearly five years older than the character he played. Gigi Perreau played Katherine Ann "Kathy" Richards, the pretty secretary, and Jay Lanin was Lieutenant Frank Roper, the writers' friend on the police force.^[2]

Lockwood's success on Follow the Sun propelled him thereafter to the role of William T. "Bill" Rice in The Lieutenant, a program about the peacetime United States Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, which aired on NBC during the 1963-1964 season.^[3]

Popular female stars made appearances on Follow the Sun: Rhonda Fleming, Julie London, Joanna Moore, Tuesday Weld, Joanna Barnes, Stella Stevens, Yvonne DeCarlo, Anne Helm, Yvonne Craig, Dyan Cannon, Pippa Scott, and Diane Baker. Male guest stars included Keith Andes, Dennis O'Keefe, Keenan Wynn, Robert Vaughn (who later appeared with Lockwood in The Lieutenant), William Bendix, and Brian Keith.^[4]

Follow the Sun is somewhat similar in theme and tone to Rod Taylor's Hong Kong (1960-1961) and Robert Conrad's Hawaiian Eye (1959-1963). Taylor's role as Glenn Evans, a foreign correspondent, could have fit in with the writers on Follow the Sun who also got involved in detective work -- just like the Hawaiian Eye cast.^[5]

Roy Huggins, the head of production at 20th Century Fox, created Follow the Sun as well as Maverick and "77 Sunset Strip" on ABC and The Rockford Files on NBC. Anthony Lawrence, the producer of Follow the Sun went on to write the Elvis Presley film Paradise, Hawaiian Style. Huggins' Banacek, starring George Peppard, came a decade later.^[6]

In one episode, Follow the Sun featured David Janssen, a year before he became Dr. Richard Kimble in ABC's The Fugitive, as a retired 30-something prize fighter who enters the University of Hawaii as a freshman. Another episode had Bethel Leslie as a beautiful, devious woman. Inger Stevens portrayed a refugee from the former East Germany in "The Girl from the Brandenberg Gate" episode.^[7]

Brian Keith and Jayne Mansfield starred in the episode "The Dumbest Blonde" that reworked the "Born Yesterday" plot, with Barry Coe as reporter Ben Gregory serving as a stand-in for the William Holden character. Jayne played the beautiful "Scottie" who has low self-esteem and is uncomfortable in high society. Scottie's wealthy boyfriend, played by Keith, mostly ignores her needs. In the story line, Ben Gregory introduces Scottie to books and some of his friends so that she gradually moves forward on her own.^[8]

Follow the Sun faced stiff competition at 7:30 Eastern time on Sunday evenings from CBS's Dennis the Menace with Jay North and The Ed Sullivan Show as well as NBC's Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.^[9] Though the program ran for only one shortened season, there were comic books which featured Halsey, Coe, and Lockwood.^[10]

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