BLUE LIGHT (1966) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

BLUE LIGHT (1966) – Goulet … Robert Goulet. Had to be said. The forgotten television series Blue Light ran 17 half-hour episodes from January to May of 1966 and starred singer Robert Goulet of all people. Despite the odd casting, this series was actually a more sophisticated and grittier spy program than television had yet seen.

Blue Light was condemned for its excessive violence and for depicting its main character ruthlessly knifing enemies to death to prevent them from exposing him as a spy. Viewers were apparently too naive to deal with that. 

The story is set during World War Two. Robert Goulet plays American reporter David March, one of eighteen U.S. spies who have infiltrated Nazi Germany by posing as Americans so taken with Nazi philosophy that before American involvement in the war they renounced their U.S. citizenship to become citizens of the Reich. 

March and the other spies have become hated around the world for this, especially March, who has become a propaganda broadcaster for Hitler’s regime. This lets him hobnob with Nazi authorities while covertly relaying intelligence to enemies of the Third Reich and carrying out sabotage missions.

Blue Light was so grounded compared to other espionage shows that it included story elements like a former girlfriend of David March being driven to suicide over his seeming betrayal and the abuse she suffered because of it.

Larry Cohen, later famed for The Invaders and countless Psychotronic movies, co-created Blue Light and wrote for the show. Christine Carere co-starred with Goulet as Suzanne Duchard, a deep cover agent for France.

NOTEWORTHY EPISODES:

THE LAST MAN (Jan 12th) – The Nazis have gotten wise to the Blue Light operation and have eliminated seventeen of the eighteen American agents involved. Only David March has gone undetected. In this first of a four-part storyline March struggles to maintain his cover while also probing for a Top Secret new weapon developed by Nazi scientists.

TARGET: DAVID MARCH (Jan 19th) – David continues posing as an enthusiastic propagandist for the Nazis and tries to work close to where the Top Secret weapons base is located. All the while, German intelligence tries to learn the identity of the 18th Blue Light spy AND a British intelligence officer, unaware of March’s undercover role, targets him for death for his propaganda activities.

THE FORTRESS BELOW (Jan 26th) – At last, March gets assigned to a location near the Grossmuchen weapons research facility. He secretly relays word to his Allied Intelligence superiors that he will need scientific help destroying the new weapon, so they order him to free a female scientist (Eva Pflug) from a concentration camp to help him with his mission. He succeeds. 

THE WEAPON WITHIN (Feb 2nd) – The liberated Dr. Hoffman (Pflug) agrees to help David March destroy the Nazis’ secret weapon and make it appear too volatile to be worth trying again. She falls in love with David as they carry out their plan. In the end she sacrifices her own life so March can be far enough away to escape harm – and suspicion – as she sets off the device, which is so powerful it also wipes out the Grossmuchen facility.

NOTE: After the Blue Light series was canceled, those first four episodes were edited into a theatrical movie titled I Deal in Danger. 

TRAITOR’S BLOOD (Feb 9th) – David March’s younger brother Brian is in the U.S. Army, in which he enlisted a while back to show his entire family weren’t traitors like David seemed to be. Brian has become a Prisoner of War, and Nazi authorities, by now a bit suspicious of David, send him to prove his loyalty to the Third Reich by killing his brother. March and Suzanne Duchard arrange for the French Underground to free the prisoners in Brian’s camp before David has to go through with the murder.

AGENT OF THE EAST (Feb 16th) – A Soviet spy obtains information about a German Heavy Water facility but is captured in the process. March’s Allied superiors order him to obtain the location from the Russian spy before his torture and execution.

SACRIFICE (Feb 23rd) – Oddly, we get a third prisoner story in a row. The Nazis order David March to help the S.S. interrogate and get classified information out of a POW (James Brolin). The building where the questioning is taking place gets bombed by Allied planes, trapping David, the POW and two S.S. officers in the wreckage.

THE SECRET WAR (Mar 2nd) – Two Soviet agents who knew the captured Russian from two episodes ago decide to use what they learned of David’s mission for the USSR’s benefit. They try blackmailing March by threatening to expose him unless he works for the Soviet Union instead of the U.S. Roger Carmel guest stars.

INVASION BY THE STARS (Mar 9th) – David March is ordered to delay the launch of Hitler’s planned invasion of the British Isles until it’s too late. David covertly cons the Fuhrer’s personal astrologer into thinking it is not a propitious time to invade and that he (the astrologer) will surely be executed when the invasion fails. 

THE RETURN OF ELM (Mar 23rd) – Fanatical Gestapo Captain Elm (Werner Peters), who was framed by David March as a traitor to Germany in the first episode, escapes British custody and sets out to compile evidence to blow March’s cover in order to redeem himself in the eyes of the Nazis. Malachi Throne guest stars.  

JET TRAIL (Apr 6th) – David must lose his Nazi surveillance overseers long enough to pose as an American O.S.S. agent and help Suzanne and the French Underground recover the experimental engine from a downed Nazi plane. Guest starring Tony Lo Bianco. 

HOW TO KILL A TOY SOLDIER (Apr 13th) – March kills a Nazi courier to obtain the list of all rocket sites in Norway. Unfortunately, an 11-year-old member of the Hitler Youth witnesses the slaying, presenting David with the ugly possibility of murdering the child to prevent them informing on him.

THE DESERTERS (Apr 20th) – Okay, this episode pushed me way beyond my willingness to go on suspending my disbelief. David March and a Gestapo agent are sent to infiltrate the American forces in Italy to obtain their war plans for the Third Reich. Stuart Margolin guest stars.

THE OTHER FUHRER (Apr 27th) – Further proving that this series was now FAR beyond any kind of believability, David is assigned by the Nazis to replace a slain Allied spy in order to smoke out a British plan to replace Hitler with a look-alike who will surrender and end the war.

THE KEY TO THE CODE (May 4th) – David and Suzanne are sent to Occupied France to carry out some of their propaganda broadcasts for the Nazis. They discover that the Germans have learned about an imminent commando raid by the Allies and our heroes must prevent the thwarting of that raid while maintaining their cover. Eric Braeden guest stars.  

FIELD OF DISHONOR (May 11th) – A Nazi general surreptitiously informs David he has figured out that he is secretly working for U.S. intelligence. (Well, DUH by this point.) The general claims he wants David’s help defecting to the Allies but David fears a double-cross.

THE FRIENDLY ENEMY (May 18th) – David March is ordered to assassinate a German scientist who is close to developing an atomic bomb for the Nazis. A complication arises when March suspects the scientist may actually be working against the Third Reich. James Doohan and Peter Mark Richman guest star.

After this episode the series was canceled. 

FOR MORE FORGOTTEN TELEVISION CLICK HERE:   https://glitternight.com/category/forgotten-television/