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In Search Of…

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About This Episode

We dive into one of the most intriguing and mysterious television series of the late 1970s and early ’80, In Search Of… With its eerie narration and fascination with the unexplained, it explored everything from ancient mysteries to paranormal phenomena. We talk about how it came to be, why it captured so many imaginations, and what makes it so fascinating to revisit still today!

(May contain some explicit language.)

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Show Notes

TRANSCRIPT

Speaker Transcript
Jon Welcome back, Gen X Grown Up Podcast listener to this, the backtrack edition of the Gen X Grown Up Podcast. I am John. Joining me as always, of course, is Mo. Hey, man.
Mo Hey, how’s it going?
Jon Good. You know, it’s not a show without George. Hey, George.
George Hey, how’s it going, guys?
Jon In this episode, we’re diving into one of the most intriguing and mysterious television series of the late 70s and early 80s, In Search Of.
Mo ah Dot, dot, dot.
Jon With its eerie narration and fascination with the unexplained, it explored everything from ancient mysteries to paranormal phenomena. We’ll talk about how it came to be, why it captures so many imaginations, and why it makes so fascinating…
Jon and what makes it so fascinating to revisit still today. We’re going jumping into that in just a few minutes. But first, it is time for some fourth listener email. And our fourth listener this time around, this is really interesting, 12-year-old listener, 12 years old.
George Oh, that’s some bad parenting right there, ladies and gentlemen.
Mo Oh, so our age level, huh?
Jon twelve years old Yes, so our intellectual age level, right? Exactly. Bad parenting, says George.
Mo I think it’s awesome parody.
Jon You can’t control these kids listen to. That’s right. The email is from Raul G. Here’s what Raul had to say. Hey, guys, I’m only 12, and already I know so much and yet so little of Gen X.
Jon I can’t believe…
George he
Mo I like him already.
Jon Right. Yeah. I can’t believe I missed out on the best time. You’re right, Raul, but will we’ll keep bringing it to you.
Mo oh
Jon Colorful items, rooms dedicated to playing games, millions of buttons on millions of buttons on and for everything. Your channel has helped me learn so much more of this revolutionary time that I sadly missed out on.
Jon Wow.
Mo Oh, man.
George What?
Jon Raul.
George Okay. Is this 12-year-old chat GPT using words like revolutionary and stuff?
Jon Well, these kids are smart these days.
George I guess.
Mo and well every Well, hey, George, he exactly.
Jon the list Listen to us.
George Jesus.
Jon They’re very smart. You know.
Mo He likes us. He must be intelligent.
George No. That’s the wrong way to look at that.
Mo No, that I’m sticking with that.
Jon He goes on to say, I’m watching your Back to the Future podcast. And this is actually the first podcast I’ve watched at all over on YouTube. Yep.
Mo and Okay.
Jon I love Back to the Future with a passion. I have a whole collection from Universal Studios Back to the Future limited edition collection. John never fails to disappoint with his videos. George is informing us always and bit by bit.
Jon And Mo is just Mo.
Mo I’m okay with that, actually.
Jon Yeah. Hey, its it if you could be Mo, it’s a good job to have. I like it. He wraps it up saying live long and prosper. Spock emoji.
Mo Spock emoji.
Jon Ravel. Thank you, Ravel.
Mo Nice.
Jon He has a PS, by the way. What are each of you guys buying from my arcade’s new wave of epic artifacts coming out a little while?
Mo I have not figured that out yet.
Jon Haven’t figured that out?
Mo I’m sure I’m gonna buy something, but…
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah,
Jon Yeah. Well, that’s,
George I’m just going to wait until they ship me something for free. He must not have listened to this podcast real closely.
Mo that’s going be cool.
Jon ah
Mo ah
Jon to know you’re waiting. Well, I’m really excited about the outrun. the The driving things has outrun on it.
Mo yeah that’s gonna be cool
Jon Of course, the game station go is a big thing for me. I’m excited about that. So ah there’s so much, and some of it sounds like it won’t ship in 2026, but that just means more to look forward to going into 2026. I’m sorry.
Jon Did I say won’t ship in?
George You said not shipping in 2026.
Jon Yeah, sorry. Rewind. It sounds like maybe not every one of their products is going to ship in 2025, but that just gives us more to look forward to going into the beginning of 2026 here in a little bit. So yeah, we’ll keep you informed Raul. We’re happy that you found us, that you’re enjoying the show.
Jon Don’t tell your parents, especially don’t tell him you listen to George because he’s real foul mouth. You got to watch out.
George He is real female.
Mo I know. Yeah.
Jon Yes, said that guy.
Mo Don’t don’t.
George That guy.
Mo Or if you do curse, blame it on George.
Jon Just, but yeah, right.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon It’s my fault. It’s a podcast. It’s our fault.
George I’m expanding his vocabulary.
Jon Thank you.
George Not that it needs it. The guy writes better than I do, but…
Jon but Thank you for listening and writing in, Raul. We appreciate you. Fourth listener, if you’d like your email featured here on the show, it’s drop dead easy. Just hit us up at podcast at genxgrownup.com. Read every single one and most of them, like Raul’s, will eventually make its way to the show.
Jon All right. With that good business behind us, it’s time to jump in the body of this backtrack all about In Search Of right after this. 12 years old. twelve
Jon In this backtrack edition of the show, we are talking all about the 1977 through eighties television series called in search of that. This was hosted by Leonard Nimoy and it focused on mysterious phenomena.
Mo Well, you I’m saying, but don’t forget, it’s in search of dot, dot, dot.
Jon And if you listen to this show,
Jon Dot, dot, dot. Right. Has ellipsis at the end. That’s the official, it’s the official name.
George He, he, he.
Jon If you listen the show more than once ever in the past, you know that I especially have a fixation on weird, mysterious cryptids and mysteries and crime and stuff like that. And my fascination, all of us with documentaries.
Jon And this just really hit that sweet spot for me when I was a kid. Now, as I said, it first aired April 17th, 1977.
Jon I pick up on those other things after this. Yeah.
Mo ah Yeah.
Jon I’ll pick up on those specials on that.
Mo Yeah.
Jon first aired April 17th, 1977 ran for initially, there’s more of it, but it ran initially for, i think, six seasons. And it was something that I never missed.
Jon Now, these guys are humoring me, allowing me to talk about in search up on the podcast.
Mo yeah
Jon They watched it some, not as big a fan as I am. But Mo, ah what if you would share with the listeners what other kinds of stuff was going on in television at the time? What was the landscape like back then?
Mo Oh, yeah. So actually, I did a little bit of Google searching here and said, what were the top 10 shows when In Search of first aired, like his first couple of years?
Jon Hmm.
Mo So I’m to start 10, go down real quick.
Jon OK.
Mo Number 10 was Fantasy Island.
Jon Hmm.
George yeah
Mo Number nine, Love Boat.
Jon To play.
Mo Number eight was MASH.
Jon Hmm.
Mo Number seven, Little House on the Prairie.
Mo Number six, All in the Family.
Jon Sure.
Mo Number five, Charlie’s Angels.
George okay
Mo Four, 60 Minutes.
Jon Ooh.
Mo Three, Three’s Company. Just coinkydinky there.
Jon All right. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Mo Two was Happy Days. You guys to take a guess what number one was?
George In 77, Laverne and Shirley?
Jon Oh.
Mo Yeah.
George laverneon shirley
Mo You got it. That was it. Laverne Shirley was number one.
Jon Wow. Wow.
Mo So nothing at all like In Search Of.
Jon That’s…
Mo None of these shows are in the same neighborhood In Search Of.
Jon Yeah. Well, 60 Minutes is at least news documentary in some form or fashion, right?
Mo Yeah.
Jon So nothing else was quite like it.
Mo But it’s news, though. It’s yeah.
Jon Yeah. Yeah. So interesting. I never knew this connection, but I learned in researching for this episode that In Search Of was created after the success of just some standalone documentaries created by Alan Landsberg.
Jon Now, Alan Landsberg is the guy that produced In Search Of itself. He did three documentaries, the first in 73 called Ancient Astronauts. I know, own, and have watched that documentary.
Mo see
Jon In Search of Ancient Mysteries, 1974. I know, own, and have watched that. and And The Outer Space Connection, 1975, which I know, own, and have watched that many, many times.
Mo What’s that one? What’s that one about?
Jon The outer space connection, it’s all about how UFOs are connected.
Mo Yeah.
Jon It’s kind of like ancient aliens.
Mo Okay.
Jon You know, the series now, how they’re connected to, to the connected to paranormal stuff.
Mo Yeah.
Jon I have watched and loved those all my life and never knew they were effectively the the backdoor pilots for this series that I’ve loved all my life. So it turns out because they were so successful,
Jon that they were said, Hey, would you like to just do your own series on all about this? that Sure. Absolutely. So it aired again, starting in 77 in Australia, it aired starting in 1980, but they changed the name. I don’t know why they called it great mysteries of the world.
Mo ah
Jon And but we’re going to talk a bit about the host of this show, the very famous host, Leonard Nimoy. ah They swapped out, and I guess they supplanted, they added a new introduction and conclusion by television presenter Scott Lambert.
Jon like they I don’t know if Leonard Nimoy wasn’t as famous in Australia or why they needed to have somebody else do it.
Mo Was he Australian? Was Scott Lambert Australian?
Jon and No, he’s not, I don’t think.
Mo Oh, have no idea.
George well even still though you you say they put an introduction and conclusion with him on it but Nimoy talks throughout the episode so did they not replace Nimoy’s ah voice during the episode with labor that’s a very odd choice yeah
Jon Throughout the episode. I know he’s still in it.
Jon No, no, no, no. They just like sandwiched it. Isn’t that odd? It’s it’s quite strange. Yeah. Now we’re going to talk more about the kind of topics that they have, but typically this show was It started out, at least, is all the things you expect that you would have seen in the Mysteries of the Unknown books from Time Life, like Pyramids and Bigfoot and Loch Ness Monster and stuff like that.
Jon And it really evolved over time. And um I really want to like to do in these episodes is a quick round, Robin, and get the temperature of the room.
Mo Thank you.
Jon What kind of familiarity each of you have with this series? And I’ve kind of spilled the beans already with mine. So why don’t we start with you, George? How much, if at all, did you watch this show? You’re familiar with it.
George um I don’t think I really watched it. It was more one of those things of osmosis where I knew of it, kind of like you with some of the movies that we’re always shocked that you haven’t watched, like Blade Runner, where you remember parts because you saw something here or there or somebody told you about a scene or something like that.
Jon Right.
Jon Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
George So it forms in your mind that you maybe watched it, but you really didn’t. I’m just aware enough to know that I don’t believe that I watch this. It’s not something that would have been interesting to either of my parents, which it would have needed to be in order for me to get an opportunity to watch it during the late 70s, because we only had the one TV.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Jon For you to get to see it. Yeah. Yeah.
Mo Thank
George ah We didn’t have VCR, obviously, or anything like that. My father pretty much dominated the television when… He was home, and when he wasn’t, I was watching cartoons, Thundar, and you know that kind of stuff.
Jon Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
George So I don’t think I watched it that much, but I definitely knew about it, and I’ll talk a little bit about it when we get into the segment where we each champion an episode of ours, because I did go back and watch it in preparation for this a little bit on your Plex server.
Jon Yeah.
Jon Mm-hmm. Sure.
Jon Right. Cool. Mo, how about you? Familiarity within search of? Mm-hmm.
Mo Oh, yeah, I watched it for sure. um See, I remember watching definitely watching like the first few seasons.
Jon Yeah.
Mo And then I think I probably fell off at some point. I’m not sure why.
Jon Yep.
Mo um and know my dad it was definitely one those shows. Whenever was watching it, he just kind of walked in, rolled his eyes, and walked out again. You know, he’s like, all right, whatever. um Because it’s over-dramatized. But one thing I would say about this show, though, is it in preparing for this show, it’s like, it’s hard to classify what kind of show it actually was You know, because it’s some of this mystery stuff.
Jon he
Mo Some of it’s not mystery stuff.
Jon Right.
Mo Some of it is very documentary ish. Some of it is pure speculation.
Jon Speculative. Yeah. Yeah.
Mo ah Completely spec.
Jon Yeah.
Mo So it’s it was kind of hard. to It’s kind of hard to say. It’s like, is it a documentary? Is it not? I mean, I don’t know how to put it. I just know that I enjoyed watching it.
Jon Yeah. Well, the gateway in was the fact that it was hosted by Leonard Nimoy for me.
Mo hmm.
Jon And it turns out that was what got me in, but it’s not what kept me there. It was my love of, you know, extra normal anything. And as you said, it wasn’t all extra normal stuff, but that’s what it was in the beginning.
Mo Oh, yeah. yeah
Jon And that’s what got me hooked on it. And I have a specific little story that I want to share is that. I loved watching the episodes about, or maybe more than one, I don’t know, about Stonehenge.
Jon Just amazing. that You know, the the the organization of stones out in the middle of, outside the UK. And I remember watching that and sinknc thinking, that might as well be on the moon.
Jon I would love to like see it, but I will never, ever. This little kid who lives on a dirt road in Central Florida is never going to go to Stonehenge. And then years and years later, my wife and I took a vacation for our 20th anniversary to London and took a day trip out to Stonehenge.
Mo of queer Yeah, great.
Jon And I remember standing there and I… I kid you not, in my ears was ringing the theme song of In Search. like, I never thought I would be here. But it it was a transformative show that let me see things that I was fascinated by that would never probably thought I would ever get to see in my real life.
Jon And even though some of them were kind of weird and creepy and off the wall, some people might say, others were, as you said, Mo, very very like down to earth about real crimes or real leaders of the world or whatever.
Mo Yeah.
Jon And speaking of that theme song, the very reminiscent, I have it here for you guys to hear in a second, haunting synth heavy song composed by Lauren M.
Mo Very synth.
Jon Rinder and W. Michael Lewis. Now they also released an album under the name, the In Search of Orchestra with nine tracks inspired by the series, but they actually wrote the original theme.
George He, he, he.
Jon So if you’ve ever watched it even once, this is going to ring in your ears.
Mo Read triangle.
Jon Yep.
Mo Bigfoot.
Jon Right. it’s popping up these things. Mysteries.
Mo Mysteries.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Lock this monster.
Jon Aliens. Amelia Earhart. You know, different things popping up.
Mo I can’t think of it more.
George It made me feel like the series belonged on PBS.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Really? i think it sounds really 70s.
George Yeah.
Mo Like.
George That’s what I mean.
Jon Oh, it is seventy s Yeah.
George seventy s PBS.
Mo know.
Jon Yeah, it’s and i there’s a chord structure progression in there that… I like this series so much that I’ve even ripped the audio down to audio only so I can listen to it in earbuds like a podcast sometimes when I’m going to sleep or something.
Jon There’s something just… It’s the the the cadence of Leonard Nimoy and the music and the interviews with people that aren’t good in interviews. Just altogether ended up being pretty remarkable package of of a show that i like yeah I still go back and watch it today. And it it is rewatchable for those reasons.
Jon But it’s funny that there are parts of it, not for its own fault, because time has passed, that oddly didn’t hold up. We’re gonna talk about some of that too in a little bit.
Mo Yeah.
Jon um But stick around. We’ll be right back with Moran and Sergio.
Jon Now, the first thing you probably know, if you know anything about In Search Of, and we’ve said it a couple of times, hosted by Leonard Nimoy. And Leonard Nimoy was not the first choice to host this series.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon Those three original documentaries ah that we talked about that were kind of the backdoor pilots, every single one of those was narrated by Rod Serling.
Mo Of course. Of course.
Jon And Rod Serling.
George That makes sense.
Mo Who else would you… Who else? Right.
Jon Of course. And he’s awesome. ah It’s probably why it’s why I like those documentaries themselves. or you know The cadence of Serling’s voice.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon And that’s who they wanted for this, unfortunately. he passed away before production In Search Of began. So they started looking around. And Leonard Nimoy, of course, famous from Star Trek. But by that point, Star Trek had been off for half a decade or so.
Mo Yeah.
Jon He had done some other things, but he was a well-known celebrity, but not currently working on a project. And so they approached him and they said, yeah.
Mo Was he like, oh i wonder, was he like their first choice? I wonder after Cyril and I, you know, just kind of curious about that. i’m I’m sure.
Jon Yeah, I don’t know.
Mo I mean, it’s a smart choice.
Jon Yeah.
Mo It was a smart choice to make, obviously.
Jon It is a smart choice. Yeah. Yeah, and it’s and it helped. My brother, of course, is the one who turned me on to Star Trek. and But he wasn’t into creepy stuff, but he would watch in search of with me because Leonard Nimoy was on it because Spock was on it.
Mo hmm.
George yeah. yeah
Jon Now, interestingly, though, he’s the host. And depending on which ones you saw, you might have noticed Nimoy is rarely seen on camera. He’s sometimes in the beginning and sometimes at the end, but he’s mostly.
Jon just narrating.
Mo Just a voice. Mm-hmm.
Jon Yeah, right. And he had other people who went out. Look, you can imagine Nimoy wasn’t flying around the world interviewing nutcases about the Loch Ness Monster. They had people, second unit people doing that, right? He was narrating it.
Jon But there is one very notable episode called In Search of Van Gogh. Now, you might know Nimoy is a huge Van Gogh nut. He has a fascination. He wrote a one-man play called Vincent that he put on one time.
Jon Now, in this episode, you spend the entire episode riding shotgun with Nimoy. You dine in French cafes. You visit Vincent van Gogh’s old haunts. And at one point, he delivers a moving dramatic monologue based on van Gogh’s last moments with his brother.
Jon This was a passion project for Nimoy in this episode.
Mo Yeah, for sure.
Jon And it was the only one really that you got to see him throughout the episode. Otherwise, he’s just the voice in your head.
Mo I wonder if that was a condition of him doing the show. It’s like, I get a Van Gogh episode.
Jon A writer?
George Ha ha ha.
Jon Yeah, probably.
Mo ah You know, I’ll do anything you want to. Just give me Van Gogh episode is one of them.
Jon Right? Yeah. It’s already written. Now,
Mo Yeah.
Jon you alluded to this, Mo. The show evolved over time. You said, oh, it wasn’t always about creepy paranormal stuff.
Mo Yeah.
Jon but So I jotted down, what I went through is the first six seasons. I mentioned for the original run is six seasons. We’ll talk about what I mean by first in a little while. But I pulled some samples of how the show evolved over time. I get the feeling…
Jon that it ran longer than they expected it to. I get the feeling they ran out of core creepy things and mysterious things to do.
Mo He ran out of ideas.
Jon So let me get your reaction to this. let’s start season one. Of course, they’re to load everything up. Bermuda Triangle, Bigfoot, Martians, Atlantis,
Mo Yeah.
Jon yeah ESP, Amelia Earhart, UFOs, Life After Death. It’s all the core stuff.
Mo Just the small mysteries.
George Right.
Jon Yeah, yeah. It’s the things you’re going to cover, right?
Mo Right.
Jon So, look, they they got renewed for a second season. And they’re like, great. What are we going to do? We still got plenty. Firewalkers. Mayan mysteries. Okay. Astrology.
Jon The pyramids. Good mystery there in Egypt.
Mo Yeah, yeah.
Jon Reincarnation. All right.
Mo Good one. Always a good one.
Jon Witch doctors, haunted castles.
Mo Crowd pleaser. Oh, yeah.
Jon Not bad, right?
Mo I love how it’s haunted castle specifically, you know, not haunted houses or haunted castles.
Jon Right, not regular castles there. Oh, it’s the haunted castles. I see, yeah, yeah. And that’s where it kind of takes a turn. And I remember noticing this myself when I was young and watching this, and even throughout the years, like the later seasons They’re not worse or better.
Jon they They cover more diverse things. because they How many times can you talk about Bigfoot? Well, we talked about Bigfoot and Skunk Ape and the Yeti. That’s three different versions of Bigfoot, basically. What are you going to do So let’s roll into the third season. All right.
Jon Tornadoes.
Jon Cloning.
Mo Okay.
Jon Jack the Ripper.
George Ooh.
Jon Yeah. right.
Mo Yeah, okay.
Jon Good mystery. Right. Not paranormal.
Mo Yeah.
Jon It’s a real mystery. Yeah. Very much like a documentary, like most of it. Cryogenics.
George Hmm.
Jon ah The Great Lakes Triangle. That’s where I learned about that.
Mo I remember that episode. Yeah.
Jon In addition to the Bermuda Triangle.
George Right.
Jon Yeah. ah Sherlock Holmes.
Mo Oh, did he exist, I guess? is Was he a real person? Was that it? Or…
Jon and You ready for this one? Here’s where we’re. We haven’t jumped the shark yet, but we’re putting on the skis. Animal ESP.
George Oh.
George You know, the title of that sounds awful, but I understand that episode almost instinctively because how many times do we see like a disaster about to happen and animals start going nuts, right?
Jon right
Mo Yeah.
Jon Exactly.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Exactly.
George Yeah, I can see that episode. The title is a little little off, but still.
Jon And that’s right. Yeah. Now, as I said, they’re still good. They’re just not what you might expect would be happening in in search of.
Mo Yeah. And it’s funny, I mean, you also kind of forget like the reenactments in these things.
Jon hmm. Yeah.
Mo know, and some were just so goofy, but and I find like the, like the more true life ones were, i don’t know if they were actually worse in a way, the reenactments, because it’s like reenacting something real.
George I mean,
Mo So it’s like, you know, it’s like, that’s interesting.
George reenactments are hardly ever good, though.
Mo Like, yeah, it’s true.
George I mean, it was almost a decade later, and we get America’s Most Wanted, and that was some of the worst reenactments in history.
Mo It’s very true.
Mo Oh, those are terrible.
George They even made fun of those in other TV series.
Jon Right, right. But they’re fun to watch ironically because they’re so goofy and silly, right?
George Right.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Okay. We’re midway through the run. Fourth season. Tidal waves.
Mo I just watched that one, actually.
Jon Did you?
Mo Because i was sitting there like random, with like tidal waves. I watched it.
Jon Yeah. Amityville horror.
Mo Oh, yeah.
Jon Right?
George and Okay, yeah.
Mo Very topical.
Jon Yeah. Immortal sharks.
Mo ah
George Hmm.
Mo um
Jon and Okay. All right. Then straight up history. Pompeii.
Mo Yeah.
George Yeah,
Jon Okay. DB Cooper.
Mo That’s a big mystery, actually.
George Oh, yeah, that was a good one for me.
Mo Yeah.
George I should have watched that one.
Jon and ah And a great episode, too. it was really well done.
Mo Yeah.
George Yep.
Jon It’s a documentary of a true thing. Yeah. ah San Andreas Fault.
George Before The Rock got a hold of that movie.
Mo Yeah. Oh, God. Volcano of Los Angeles.
Jon Yeah. OK, so let’s keep rolling. ready? Fifth season. Really going somewhere now. like They’re like, it’s still going. We’re still doing.
Mo Yeah.
Jon All right. We got some more episodes. Faith Healing.
Mo Okay, that’s ah that’s a mystery.
George oh they they got that they got that one ahead of pen and teller’s bullshit series
Mo Yeah.
Jon you’re Right.
Mo Oh, yeah.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Big time.
Jon Yeah. ah Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mo So JFK, really, right?
George okay they did that first season
Jon Yeah. Yeah. Life After Death. Okay.
Mo Again?
Jon Creepy.
Mo Is that repeat?
Jon Well, we’re. No, I think that that was. ah Oh, yeah yeah.
George Life after death.
Jon They did another one, apparently. Yeah, they did another one.
George Yeah.
Jon Same name, apparently.
Mo well Well, there’s a lot to cover there.
Jon Right. Right. ah The Lindbergh kidnapping. Lindbergh baby. True crime again.
Mo Oh, just a must of a second.
Jon Yeah.
Mo It’s actually life after life was the title of that episode.
Jon Oh, was it? Oh, really?
Mo And it’s about is about people who claim to had an afterlife experience.
Jon Oh, thank you.
Jon Oh, sorry.
George An after death experience, you mean?
Jon Okay.
Mo Well, they calling it life after life experience, but that’s what the the thing says. Have I say had an afterlife experience? So, yeah.
Jon and An afterlife experience.
Mo they
Jon Okay. I don’t know all right.
Mo So I know if you want to.
Jon I’ll fix that. All right.
Mo Yeah.
Jon So I’ll go back. After Oswald. Life after life, which I’m not sure what that is.
Mo That’s an odd one.
Jon An afterlife something. I don’t know. Yeah. um More true crime. The Lindbergh kidnapping. The Lindbergh baby. Right. So did that.
Mo There’s some controversy there on that one, so I can see that.
Jon Right. Right. Right. ah Jimmy Hoffa. Unsolved mystery of Jimmy Hoffa.
George yeah
Jon Right.
Mo Where he’s buried? Everyone knows it’s Giant Stadium. I mean, come on.
Jon Right. it’s in the end zone, right? We just.
Mo Is
Jon ah Here’s another one, George. You said weird name, but you right away understand it. Super children.
George I don’t think I understand that one right away yeah ah gotcha
Jon No, it’s like.
Mo that eugenic stuff they’re talking about?
Jon like prodigy kids, like um kids who have amazing abilities that like, how can kids learn these languages so fast or play piano so fast or whatever?
Mo Like breeding? okay. Okay.
Jon They’re super children. Yeah. Yeah. And then, so maybe now we’re probably hitting, heading towards the shark ramp, I think. So sixth season, I just pulled a sampling, uh, they don’t go off the rails, but they’re reaching a little further.
Jon Jesse James.
Mo Yeah.
Jon I mean, yeah.
Mo There was a mystery about whether he actually died, right?
Jon Yeah.
George A lot of different stuff around Jesse James and his gang.
Jon Hmm.
Mo Yeah.
George Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
George Okay.
Jon Yep. The Elephant Man. Sure.
Mo Not so much how much mystery there, but okay.
Jon Right. So it’s just a medical mystery, I guess. Right.
Mo i suppose, yeah.
Jon But I mean, we know what happened. Houdini. All right.
Mo Okay.
Jon Nostradamus. Not bad.
Mo Okay, I can see that one.
Jon Ava Braun.
Mo What the hell?
Mo ah I’m trying to figure what the mystery is there about that one.
George Okay. I’m all right.
Jon Right.
George So you guys keep saying the word mystery.
Jon Yep.
George That’s not the title of this series.
Mo Let’s say it’s search of, which means that there’s something to find, which means there’s something to find, right?
Jon No, I know. Yeah.
George In search of meaning learning about the topic.
Mo That means there’s something to find.
Jon Yeah, right.
George No, no, no, it doesn’t. It could mean in search of the the knowledge of the thing.
Mo Yeah, it does. Yeah, it does. You don’t search for things. You know where they are. If you know where it is, you wouldn’t be searching. You just say, there it is.
George You don’t have to.
Mo just point.
George You can search for knowledge.
Mo But you don’t know it ahead of time you’re searching for it.
George So people may not know about Eva Braun.
Jon so
Mo But
Jon They clearly set up the show initially for mysterious paranormal things. To your point, George, they clearly expanded the range because the title was so imprecise that they were able to go in all these different directions and still maintain the course of the show.
Mo true.
Jon So you could be in search of Bigfoot or you could be in search of knowledge about Ava Braun or whatever. ah Last couple I pulled from this one, Spirit Voices.
Jon and The Walls of Jericho.
Mo I guess, whether they existed, whether it happened not, I guess, right?
Jon i I don’t know. Yeah. Yeah. it’s It’s really interesting how this series continued for so long. And even after it was canceled, we’ll talk about in a little while. Even after it was canceled, it wasn’t forgotten. knew They kind of revivals came along. But as it progressed…
Jon You got to watch Leonard Nimoy have a mustache, not have a mustache when you saw him at different times.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon ah But he was always the same kind of serious host, regardless of whether they gave him something really juicy that was based in the core of the show or whether it was something off the wall like Immortal Sharks or whatever.
Mo species
Jon They they approach it like it’s not weird. It’s just we’re going to dig into this and find out what it’s about.
Mo yeah that’s the thing though it’s like it’s kind of like regardless of what they were covering the tone of the show never changed like the tone and the format even like it kind of treated them all the same I guess in a way um but yeah I see what you mean though like how i mean honestly if you had a show about like mysteries like weird mysteries I mean how long can you go before you start repeating yourself really you know
Jon hmm. Yeah.
Jon yep
Jon You run out of stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
Mo know, without expanding it out or expanding your definition some.
Jon Yeah.
Mo So I said, I mean, it was a still popular show up until the end, I believe.
Jon Yep.
Mo So, you know, I guess they, they tapped into something.
Jon Kept running it. Yeah, absolutely. All right. When we get back, we’re going to each pick a notable or memorable episode from In Search ah Of to talk about. Stick around.
Jon So we all have either watched or absorbed via osmosis in search of, but more importantly, leading up to this backtrack, we all went back and watched some of this Leonard Nimoy series.
Mo Oh, really?
Jon Now, even though it came from the late seventies, it lived through the early eighties and I watched it repeats. We all were able to see it in repeats for years. It only came to DVD about 10 years ago. So it used to be, it just had crappy copies, but
Mo ah really
Jon Now that we have kind of talked about how the show evolved, I thought maybe we would kind of like we do with musical episodes, champion an episode. What is an episode that’s notable or memorable for you? And I’m to start with you, Mo.
Jon what What kind of comes to mind?
Mo Okay. So the reason why this is, there’s a reason why this was normal. wasn’t necessarily my favorite episode, but it’s one that stuck in my head for years. And it’s the one on killer bees. Now you guys, I mean, I’m older than you guys, so you probably don’t have quite as vivid a memory of it, but that was like a big, like people were freaked about these killer bees coming up from South America, coming through Central America.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Jon Really?
Mo Oh yeah.
George Oh, yeah.
Mo And they were going to, they’re going to sweep across the United States and kill everybody. Um,
Jon Wow.
Mo And the thing is, I grew up in New York City, so bees weren’t really on the forefront of my brain at all, except I was going to summer camp that year.
Jon Oh.
Jon Oh.
Mo And I saw this episode, and started like – and the only thing that made me feel better after watching this episode was that apparently at that point, killer bees were only in Texas and California. They hadn’t gotten up to New York yet, so I felt okay.
Mo But I still remember watching this thing very intently. Because i was like, what do I do if I find a killer bee? What do I if a killer bee comes after me and I mean, I was 10.
Mo I mean, I’m trying to figure out what to do. But it was also just looking back, it because it was one those I rewatched because i remembered it so well. And it was just funny how it is a very understated show.
Mo Like it wasn’t like and people are going to die. You know, it was like it was just like, you know, the the fear of killer bees are going to sweep across.
Jon Right.
Mo And they had the map United States. You see the killer bees expanding going across the US.
Jon kind of matter of fact, right?
Mo s
Jon It’s like, well, here’s how it is.
Mo Yeah, very factual, you know, and um and of course, it turned out a whole lot of nothing eventually.
Jon Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mo Right. Because we’re so we’re also alive and killer bees haven’t killed the population.
Jon So far. Yeah.
Mo um But, yeah know, it reminded me of the the murder hordes murder horardnets that were around that long ago.
Jon Right. In the Yeah.
Mo But yeah, for somebody, like said, that stuck my head because it was right around the time I started going to summer camp and also so i was like, bees?
Jon Yeah.
Mo You know, because I had no experience with them. So now I had to worry about killer bees. But this actually made me feel better. So that was mine.
Jon Oh, oh, good. Good. So, so George, you had said that you didn’t watch fervently when you were young. You’re a little young for it, maybe, but you’ve watched some now.
George Right.
Jon So do you have a notable one that kind of stuck with you?
George Mm-hmm.
George Yeah, and this is one of those ones where i think, um as I re-watched it in prep for the podcast today, I remember a couple of parts of this episode before I watched it this time, and it was the…
Jon Like they click your, yeah.
Mo Yeah.
George Yeah, it was the episode called Atlantis. So it was all about the mystery of the hidden sunken city and everything.
Mo Oh, yeah.
Jon Good one.
Mo Yeah.
George And the scene that I remembered about it, because it kind of related a little bit to Florida because it was off the Florida coast a little bit, was ah where they found in this part of the world, they found these like big giant stone slabs just underneath the surface of the water.
Jon Oh, yeah.
Mo Oh, yes, yes.
George And they were attributing those to possibly being a roadway to Atlantis.
Jon Yep.
Mo Right. Right.
Jon Mm hmm.
George um And when I saw that part, I’m like, oh, yeah, I remember this exact scene. I remember seeing it in my head or I just conflated something that made me think I remembered it.
Mo The big blocks, yeah.
George But either way, um that episode was, to me, indicative of what ah In Search Of was, because like I was saying earlier, i felt like this was something that was more akin to something that in the early days should have been on a PBS station as opposed to network TV.
Jon Mm-hmm. Right.
George And it felt also to me like it reminded me five, four, three. It reminded me an awful lot of maybe experiences that I had in say middle school, watching like film reels in class that our teacher would show when they didn’t want to teach that day or something.
Jon Right, right.
George This kind of felt like something I would have watched in during one of those sessions of class. So
Mo Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
George ah if it’s definitely homed in on the seventies. I know might’ve ran into the early eighties a little bit and whatnot.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George And you said there were more than just the six seasons later on, but this original series just felt amazing.
Jon Yep.
Jon Right, right, right.
George like it was 100% in the 70s. You mentioned that D.B. Cooper. I want to go back and watch that one now that I realize that that’s there because there have been a ton of documentaries about D.B.
Jon Yeah.
George Cooper since then and every time there’s something new that’s been learned.
Jon Yeah.
George I just want to kind of see where it was back then compared to now.
Jon Right.
Mo Right.
Jon Exactly. You know, it it’s, it’s almost as if you intentionally segued me into mine because one of the interesting things about going back and watching this is because it’s stuck in time.
George Hmm.
Jon And so imagine if, for example, we had discovered Atlantis in 2018 and
George Yeah.
Jon In search of doesn’t know that, right?
George Right, exactly.
Jon And so when it covers it, it’s never been found, right? So it’s not there at all.
Mo right
Jon And so the one that sticks with me is not my favorite episode either. i have many, many favorites. I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite. But most notable in that I discovered it after the fact. Like you’re going to discover D.B. Cooper, George, after the fact, right?
George Right.
Jon So there’s an episode called The Money Pit Mystery, a.k.a.
Mo Oh, yes.
Jon Captain Kidd.
Mo Yep.
Jon Now, this is about this small island off the island of the small island just off the coast of Nova Scotia, where allegedly some pirates buried some treasure.
Mo Nova Scotia. Yeah.
Jon And it has now become like a 15 year running Discovery Channel series called The Curse of Oak Island about this exact same mystery.
Mo Yeah.
George Oh,
Jon And what’s fascinating is. Again, going back and watching it. And if you watch the Curse of Oak Island, the In Search of Episode is a snapshot, right?
Mo The series. Yeah.
Jon If you watch the In Search of Oak Island series, you get to meet all of these guys. You meet this really, really old guy who actually passes away, you know, some way through the run of it. But he was originally working on Oak Island.
Jon He got interviewed. In In Search Of as a young man, because he was already there doing the work.
George ah well
Jon So it’s almost like, well, you watch The Curse of Oak Island. This episode of In Search Of is a prequel, right? Because here’s Leonard Nimoy talking about this thing that I’ve learned so much more about.
Mo Yeah.
Jon And I’ve watched these two Lagina brothers spend millions and millions of their own and Discovery Channel’s money digging around this island, trying to find stuff.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon And all they find is a freaking coin and a belt buckle their whole life. But the In Search of series, episode of it in the series, didn’t know anybody would ever spend this much time and effort in it. So it’s really just kind of a like Atlantis. Well, here’s this thing. It’s a mystery. and Nobody cares. And I guess it’s never going to be solved.
Jon Whoever knew? And now we can look back and see what else they have done.
Mo Yeah, because, John, I mean, you turned me on to the Mystery of Oak Island TV show way back when, because I was both, like, was also something i read about when I was a kid, and I saw the show.
Jon Yeah. Yeah.
Mo I went back and re-watched this episode also, and the but most hilarious part, though, he said, he says, they have spent a total of $300,000.
Jon Did you? Yeah.
Mo three hundred thousand dollars
Jon Oh my goodness.
Mo to search for this treasure over the last 30 years or 100 years. And I’m like, they spent more than in a season right now on this TV show.
Jon Yeah.
George He he he he he.
Jon Yeah. Yeah.
Mo But you’re right, though.
Jon Well,
Mo It was interesting to see some of the it was actually kind of cool to hear the story in in search of was the same backstory you get in Oak Island. Like it really hasn’t changed.
Jon of course. Right.
Mo Like there’s no new facts that really came out from the pre-life stuff.
Jon right
Mo But, you know, it was and they actually they talk about how the ah like ah a father and two sons died because of gas in the pit and they interviewed the mom.
Jon That’s right. Yeah. I know. Yeah.
Mo She was still alive when the show was done, but she’s passed away obviously a long time ago, but they actually interviewed her on this show.
Jon Yeah.
Mo And i was like, holy cow, that’s kind of creepy.
Jon Yeah. It’s nuts. Yeah. it’s It’s a little snapshot in time. And, you know, if there’s any… you might think in search of is just about, you know, cryptids and yeah ESP and stuff like that. But really, if there’s anything you have an interest in, it ran for six seasons, like 30 episodes a season, you almost 200 episodes.
Jon And they were reaching for topics. There’s very likely an in search of topic, the episode covering that topic, that you can go back and watch. And it is an interesting little snapshot in time. And that’s, that’s why I think it’s so cool. All right.
Jon Now, I’ve spent a lot of time in this episode talking about how In Search of its original six seasons is so rewatchable today and worth going back. And there’s there’s stuff in it, even though it’s now 43 years old or whatever it is, really, really old or older, depending on what season you watch.
Mo Yeesh. you
Jon And there are some, it has quite a long lineage. You know, well one of the one of the things I did mention the last episode is how it becomes even more interesting in hindsight is if something has changed.
Jon There’s an episode all about the Titanic.
Mo Oh, yeah.
Jon And at the end of that episode, they’re like, I guess it’ll never be found.
Mo ah like gives it ahead That’s right. They hadn’t even found it at that point. They didn’t know where it was.
Jon Right, right. Of course, they don’t They just know it’s gone. Right.
Mo Yeah, it sank.
Jon And so you can you look back and see, oh, well that’s where they were then. They were in a stalemate. They’re not going to find it. And now, of course, we now have new information. But because it continues to be of interest and it continues to have merit, it had a couple of revivals in 2002.
Jon It’s interesting how they always get these genre actors involved. They had a revival, just ran one season for eight episodes, hosted by Mitch Pelleggi.
Mo Who’s that?
George Oh, cigarette.
Mo Oh, Cancer Man.
Jon Cigarette smoking man from the X-Files.
Mo Yeah.
George Yeah.
Jon Or was he, was that his cigarette smoking man? No, no he was. i i screwed you over, George, you read that. No, yeah I think he was Skinner.
George Yeah, that’s what I was.
Jon Was he Skinner? Maybe that’s what he was.
George Yeah, maybe he was.
Jon I wrote that from memory. Let me check.
George Yeah, cigarette smoking meme was the older guy, wasn’t he?
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon I was wrong. He was Skinner. I’m sorry.
Mo Okay, Skinner.
George Yeah.
Jon Yeah. I’m going to say that part again and you can do this.
Mo Bald guy.
Jon Yeah, i did it wrong. He’s from this’s from the X-Files, of course. Okay. Okay. I don’t know how they keep getting, somehow getting genre actors. I got Leonard Nimoy from SyFy. The guy that hosted this one was Mitch Pileggi.
Jon You might’ve known him from the X-Files. He was it was the the boss of the X-Files.
Mo X-Piles. Which one was he? Who was he in it?
Jon ah Skinner, their boss.
Mo Oh, okay, okay.
Jon So he is very dignified guy, you know, a big guy. So they had him hosting that didn’t last very long, of course. And then well. And then in 2018. They brought it back. The History Channel brought it back for two seasons, 18 episodes spanning two seasons.
Jon And they figured, let’s get another Spock. Zachary Quinto was the host.
George why not? yeah why not
Mo Sure. So if they do it again, they’re going to get Ethan, whatever guy’s name is.
Jon Yeah. and
Mo No,
Jon Right. Yeah. It’s like, there’s there is this stunt casting? Are they just doing it? Because I know that Leonard Nimoy and Quinto were doing a lot of stuff together promotionally back then.
George Sure, but he doesn’t have the voice Nimoy had.
Mo now
Jon No, no, not the presence nearly.
Mo no
Jon But i I thought it was funny that he brought another character who played Spock and brought him in to play, to host a revival of it.
George Yeah.
Jon So, ah but that that’s it. Nothing since 2018 or 2019 is when that ended. And it was okay. It was a little more documentary and a little more experimental.
Jon Like Zachary Quinto was very involved, unlike Nimoy, who was just narrating.
George Hmm.
Mo ah
Jon He was actually on site. He was talking to people and that kind of thing. And then there were spinoff books, which I didn’t know about this. I get mode. You find this in the in in your research.
Mo Yeah.
Jon ah Six different books in search of lost civilizations, extraterrestrials, magic and witchcraft, strange phenomena, missing persons. There’s your D.B. Cooper. And in search of myths and monsters.
Jon And I didn’t know.
George i mean, it feels like it should be a Time Life series.
Jon I know
Mo doesn’t it Doesn’t it sound like it?
Jon I think it’s a copy of I think all six of those were time like books at one point.
Mo Get them all for the low, low price of you know six easy installments of $9.99.
Jon but like i
Mo hey
Jon Now I need those books. I didn’t know they even existed.
George Read the book.
Mo He doesn’t want them. He needs those books.
Jon i need them now.
Mo I don’t know if you guys remember if you saw ah men in Black 2. don’t know if you guys remember that much that movie.
Jon Sure.
Mo But there was a thing in it where… um like the real story that was happening in the movie was fictionalized in a TV show. They were watching in the movie that was very similar to like in search of, but it was Peter Graves was narrating it.
Jon Oh, oh, that make Peter Graves.
Mo And so, but he’s like, where did these aliens come to earth?
Jon Makes sense.
Mo And then Mr. Who are these mysterious men in black that appear? It was pretty funny. Yeah.
Jon That almost gives more credence to the original series. It’s like, oh, maybe they actually did know what was going on and it was actually based on real stuff.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Right. That’s yeah, that’s nuts.
Mo Yeah. We have to talk about the rest of it.
Jon What’s this other thing you’ve got here?
Mo It’s all random stuff I just do in there, so…
Jon Okay. All right. Okay. This week’s get out. Wrap it up. Okay.
Jon you get It continues to be something that is referenced in modern pop culture and stuff, even as recent as Men in Black 2, like you said. and yeah And it’s a touchstone kind of thing where maybe it wasn’t front and center.
Jon Like for you, know like trio George, it was kind of in the background. It was part of the texture of what was going on the late 70s and early 80s. And it’s definitely worth seeking out and checking out now if you have it in search of. It’s Great.
Jon I appreciate you guys for humoring me, allowing you to take in the this ah memorable walk through this series that I really, really enjoy and still watch today.
Mo This is fun.
George He he he.
Jon And it’s because of part because of Nimoy, but partly because it’s just well done. i would say it’s well done for the 70s and 80s. It’s just well done, period. ah Yeah, it’s cheesy reenactments and all that. But at the surface, they take everything seriously.
Jon And you’re going to learn something about every single one of them, even if they’re weird and speculative. You’re going to learn something about it. That is going to wrap it up for this backtrack edition of the show. Before I leave you, I want to talk just about another. Oh, and I do.
Jon That’s going to wrap it up later. All right. Three, two. think that’s going to just about wind it up for this backtrack on in search. of Before I leave you though, I want to as always, want to thank another Patreon supporter over at genxgrownup.com slash Patreon.
Jon And this is another one of those crazy upgrades. We talk about those every now and again. Sometimes we get new patrons, but I want to call out, I’m going to give you his whole name, Vincent Ferrari. He’s an internet celebrity in his own right. Anyway, his last name is out there.
Mo That’s very cool.
Jon He’s been a supporter for a long time. He’s been up and down when he’s able to. And just recently he came in and bumped up to that $25 level. Vincent has been a supporter of our show and our endeavors for a long time.
Jon And like so many people, like all of us, we have to go through our ups and downs. You know, maybe we’ve got to pull back, maybe got to pull forward. And Vincent has always been there for us. And I wanted to just ah recognize him and thank him for coming back and upping that pledge.
Mo that’s very cool
Jon Very much supporting, keeping the lights on here at Gen X Grown to make sure we can keep doing what we do. Vincent, we appreciate you. You know, you’re part of a roster of amazing folks who support Gen X Grown Up at every turn of the way.
Jon every Support Gen X Grown Up and have all along the way ever since we met one another. And we’re thankful that you did. ah You can be like Vincent. Just head over to GenXGrowedUp.com slash Patreon. Open up your heart, your wallet.
Jon Set up a pledge for as little as a dollar a month. And you can also be part of keeping us going here on Gen X Grown Up. That’s going wrap it up then for this edition of the show. Don’t worry. were back in two weeks with another one.
Jon Next week is the standard edition of our show. Of course, until then, I am John George. Thank you so much for being here.
George Yes, sir.
Jon Mo, you know, appreciate you, brother.
Mo always fun man
Jon Fourth listener, it’s you. We all appreciate most of all, though. We can’t wait to talk to you again next time. Bye-bye.
George see you guys.
Mo take care buddy
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About The Author

Mo As someone who barely manages to squeeze in as a GenXer my memories include more of the 70's than those younger GenXers. Reading and movies are my passions with some video gaming thrown in there for good measure!

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Comment (1)

  1. I wonder if In Search Of was inspiration for the SyFy series Destination Truth, except in DT the host Josh Gates went to the locations with a camera crew to try and document the phenomenon.

    Gates is still on TV with his show Expedition Unknown, which is excellent (we never miss an episode). EU focuses less on the spooky and strange and more on unknown and missing (lost treasures, missing people, and yes DB Cooper). He has a spin off series Expedition X which is more paranormal and cryptids. I think fans of In Search Of should check out these shows, they might just find something new and fun to watch.

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