Classic Horrors Club

In the premiere episode of World of Giants (W.O.G.), “Special Agent,” we learn that while on a secret mission in the U.S.S.R., a rocket explosion during an experiment caused agent Mel Hunter (Marshall Thomson) to shrink to about six inches in height. It was essential to keep his condition classified, of course, because a man his size would be invaluable to “the bureau.”

It was up to me to be careful 3600 seconds of every hour. I couldn’t expect the rest of the world to live my way. To the rest of the world, my problems are not a matter of life and death. The Bureau guards many fantastic secrets. But none quite so fantastic as Mel Hunter—-me. Following my escape from a nightmare behind the Iron Curtain six months ago, I watched along with 14 doctors and 17 scientists and saw myself shrink to the size of a six-inch ruler. The shrinking had stopped. The scientists were still hoping, still working on my case, and I was still a special agent… a kind of special special agent.

Mel’s partner, Bill Winters (Arthur Franz), transports him in a special briefcase with a tiny chair installed in the bottom. During narration that supplements the action throughout the episode, Mel speaks highly of Bill, giving him equal credit for the success they achieve in stopping an international spy ring about which the bureau got information by “devious means.”

World of Giants was a 13-episode syndicated television series that ran between September 5, 1959 and November 28, 1959. It subsequently aired in Australia, then was again syndicated in the United States two years later. Produced by Ziv Television Programs, W.O.G. was not a hit like some of its other shows, Highway Patrol, Bat Masterson, and Sea Hunt. (Ziv also produced Men Into Space.)

As we’ll learn during this 13-week retrospective series, many familiar names from the world of classic horror and science fiction were involved at some point or another with W. O. G. For example, Marshall Thompson was about one-third of the way through his prolific acting career when he starred in Cult of the Cobra (1955.) In 1958, he starred in Fiend Without a Face and It! The Terror from Beyond Space. 

He also guest-starred in such television series as The Web, The Whistler, Science Fiction Theatre, and Men Into Space. His big hit came seven years after W.O.G. with Daktari, which ran for four seasons (89 episodes.) Thompson was also a familiar face on popular TV series of the 1970s, including The Streets of San Francisco, Ironside, and Charlie’s Angels. He died of congestive heart failure at the age of 66 in 1992.

It often takes a few episodes for a television show to hit its groove. All the first episode has to do is pique your interest enough to return. “Special Agent” does that. It establishes the concept quickly and moves directly into its first adventure. Granted, avoiding a security guard to sneak into an office doesn’t sound like the most exciting story, but it does include Bill being shot so that miniature Mel can stand beside his giant head as he lies unconscious on the floor.

It also, as I assume most episodes will, takes advantage of situations that cause peril for only someone six inches tall. Here, Mel is trapped in a wastebasket while avoiding a playful cat and desperately tries to lift a phone receiver off its cradle. In this episode, though, Mel and Bill are only a small part of the overall mission. When Mel does lift that receiver, it’s to alert the bureau, which then swoops in to resolve the situation without them.