Wed 28 Dec 2011
A TV Review by Michael Shonk: DEATH RAY 2000, aka T. R. SLOANE (1981).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[13] Comments
DEATH RAY 2000. NBC-TV Movie; aired 05 March 1981. (aka T. R. Sloane) Pilot for NBC-TV series A Man Called Sloane (1979-1980). QM Production/Woodruff Production. CAST: Robert Logan as Thomas R. Sloane, Dan O’Herlihy as The Director, Ann Turkel as Sabina, Maggie Cooper as Chrissy, Clive Revill as Erik Clawson, Ji-Tu Cumbuka as Torque, Michele Carey (voice) as Effie. Written and produced by Cliff Gould. Executive Producer: Philip Saltzman. Director: Lee H. Katzin.
A gang of nuns walk into Gideon Peak Observatory where a scientist is testing a new top-secret “weather machine,†a device that can control the weather by removing all moisture from the atmosphere. The lone security guard informs them closing is in five minutes. The nuns, with the aid of Torque, a seven foot giant with a metal hand, dismantle the giant ray gun and take the large pieces out the backdoor to their van.
Torque is most helpful when he substitutes a screwdriver for his index finger to remove some stubborn screws. The screws put up a better fight than the humans did, since security was virtually non-existent. When the scientist interrupts the heist, one of the nuns kills him with deadly thimble like devices on two of her fingers. The nuns and Torque with his Swiss army hand escape with the device.
OK, I am hooked all ready. But this classic continues to produce more cheese than Wisconsin. Seems the ray gun is so powerful it can drain water for miles, through any object including mountains, and it can dehydrate people into nothing but bones and cute hair.
Naturally the government is upset that someone has stolen a top-secret weapon that could destroy the world, a weapon they had left in a public building with only one friendly guard as security. They come to UNIT looking for help and begging for our hero Thomas R. Sloane.
UNIT is a top-secret agency located in the farmlands of Kentucky where The Director works out of his house. This being a spy movie the house is of course not your typical home. It contains a six-ton computer named Effie, complete with a sexy female voice. And as all females in this story, Effie has fallen for the only man who can save the world, Thomas R. Sloane the 3rd.
Sloane, following in the famous footsteps of his father, is a top secret agent and owner of Sloane & Sons, a successful art and antiquity business. We first meet the great spy as he successfully completes his mission in Cuba. He escapes the soldiers by rocketing an elevator through the roof and into the air where a waiting helicopter catches it.
Robert Logan (77 Sunset Strip, The Adventures of the Wilderness Family) gives Sloane all the passion of someone wanting to take a nap. The rest of the cast is more animated, adding ham to all this cheese.
The story travels the usual path, Sloane drives a great car, the evil mastermind has his pets (this time he cuddles with snakes and a spider), recurring fight scenes, sex interrupted or off stage (this is 70s TV), Rube Goldberg death traps, an evil organization named Kartel (“with a Kâ€), and the villain meeting his end at his own hands.
My favorite moment is when writer Cliff Gould (Mod Squad, Streets of San Francisco) makes his motives clear and uses cheese as a vital clue. Ian Fleming should be so clever.
The most shocking twist didn’t come from the story, but the production credits for this cheese fest that would have made Aaron Spelling giggle. This was from Quinn Martin! The QM Productions of The Fugitive, The FBI, Cannon, etc.
It was the final QM series to debut on television (Barnaby Jones would be the last on the air). There is no better example of how television changed during the seventies than compare Quinn Martin’s first series of 70s, Dan August (1970) to Quinn Martin’s last, A Man Called Sloane (1979).
The movie was released on VHS but not on DVD. It can also be seen on YouTube in ten parts, starting here.
There were changes made when this pilot lead to the series, A Man Called Sloane. Most notable was Robert Conrad replacing Robert Logan as Sloane and Torque the Swiss army hand bad guy becoming Sloane’s good guy sidekick.

December 28th, 2011 at 7:41 pm
I somehow managed to live through the 80s without seeing either this pilot film nor the series with Robert Conrad that came along later. I’m fairly sure that both are available on bootleg DVD, but so far I haven’t taken the time to check.
One thing that caught my notice was the conversion of the Bad Guy in the pilot to a Good Guy in the series. This happened at least once before, and maybe even later.
The one time I’m thinking of was Edd Byrnes, a serial killer in the pilot for 77 SUNSET STRIP, whose hair-combing technique caught on so well that they made a Big Part for him the series.
And here’s a coincidence for you. The fellow that replaced Kookie as the show’s young parking lot attendant? None other than Robert Logan.
December 28th, 2011 at 7:46 pm
I was just looking at the dates involved when it suddenly dawned on me that this pilot film was telecast AFTER the series itself had come and gone.
I wonder how many times that happened?
December 29th, 2011 at 1:28 am
Steve, the series with Robert Conrad is available with bad copies on bootlegs. I have not seen this TV-Movie available anywhere by YouTube.
Yes, it was even noted at the time NBC was dusting off an old TV pilot to air as the NBC Thursday Night Movie.
I have not seen the series and from what I read about it makes it sound as if Robert Conrad took over and made it in his own image. Early ratings were great, so I read, but ABC put FANTASY ISLAND up against the series and it was gone by midseason. If I ever see the series I would go deeper in to my research but life on the set sounded like Hell.
December 29th, 2011 at 7:20 am
Were the nuns who heisted the MacGuffin real nuns? Sounds like thematic inspiration for DA VINCI CODE!
December 29th, 2011 at 10:46 am
No, not real nuns. They reminded me of Pussy Galore’s troop in GOLDFINGER, but with a tough middle aged “broad” as their leader. She apparently ran a business offering services to evil masterminds.
They certainly would have improved the movie DA VINCI CODE.
December 29th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Some years back, a book appeared called (I think) The Producer’s Medium, consisting of interviews with notable TV producers. Quinn Martin was one of the interviewees. In his interview, he pretty much disclaims credit for A Man Called Sloane, either as it started out, or what it ultimately became, laying the whole thing off on the legendary Fred Silverman, who was running NBC at the time.
According to QM, it was Silverman’s idea to do a James Bond-type show, not his. QM took it on to fill out a contract (the property originated with another company), and then was bombarded by notes from Silverman with “proposed changes” (read: orders), such as replacing Logan with Robert Conrad and making “the man with the funny hand” (QM’s words) his assistant, among many others.
Quinn Martin cited this experience as what led to his retirement from active TV production; he left Barnaby Jones, the last show he still had on the air, in the hands of Philip Saltzman, the line producer, and sold his company.
Robert Conrad also spoke of this series in one of Tom Weaver’s interview books; he doesn’t want to take credit for it either.
December 29th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
I had thought to wait and do a review on both the pilot movie and series together, but the more I read the more I suspect the series and pilot were two separate creations.
Behind the scenes for the series sounded so depressing while this movie was so wonderfully awful and yet entertaining. I decided to focus on the silliness of 70’s TV.
I was surprised to learn my view of what I thought was QM Productions style was not true. He had spent years attempting to get a sitcom on the air.
Over at Google books you can read long excerpts from the book, QUINN MARTIN PRODUCER: A BEHIND THE SCENES HISTORY OF QM PRODUCTIONS AND ITS FOUNDER (McFarland. 2008) by Jonathan Etter and Walter (FRW) Grauman.
While Philip Saltzman was the showrunner, Martin had some involvement. Producer Gerald Sanford was more worried about his failing love life than the scripts. NBC’s Silverman was being a pain in the neck. Martin asked Michael Preece to get the series under control. Martin admitted to the film editor he rarely watched the dailies and asked the editor if he thought Martin should watch more.
Conrad was a womanizing drunk, always late, refused to listen to anyone and was rough on everyone including his co-star Ji-Tu Cumbuka.
After the series was cancelled (December 1979), Martin continued to produce one unsold pilot after another. He would never reach his goal of producing a TV comedy. In 1981 he tried to start QM Films put never got the financial backing. The last few years of his life were spent away from production, except when he died (August 6,1987 of a heart attack) he was busy trying to get THE FUGITIVE for Warner Brothers.
December 30th, 2011 at 12:10 am
Mike, after reading the book I cited above I reread your comment #6. This is a good example of multiple point of views. Your example cited Martin’s own point of view, while the book I read site others such as Saltzman’s point of view.
I noticed QUINN MARTIN PRODUCER had gotten three of five stars in a review by Lee Goldberg (who has done enough work in and books about television to be taken seriously) at Goodreads. While I have not read the review, I wonder if this gossipy book had some errors with facts.
December 30th, 2011 at 6:37 pm
I have to laugh at reports above about how Martin and Conrad disavow any responsibility for this monstrosity, because of course success has a thousand fathers and failure is an orphan. I know a writer/producer who created a show for ABC and was then forcibly paired with Martin by the network, and I completely believe him when he tells me that if you worked for Martin it was his way or the highway (and for this particular writer, it was the highway). I wish I was at work because I have several books there that deal with Martin’s work, including Producer’s Medium, and the comments above by Mike and Michael really make me want to sit down and read them, but that will have to wait until Tuesday. I am also amused that QM tried for years to get a sitcom on air — if you ask me, the one thing his most successful shows (The Fugitive, The invaders, The Untouchables, etc.) all have in common is that they are utterly humorless, at least intentionally, unless I am missing something. This telefilm to me has Roger Moore’s 007 written all over it, and the timing works; I always thought Moore was completely useless in the role, so it was very interesting to me a few years back when a producer I greatly admire, JJ Abrams, during a Paley Center panel on Alias spoke about how much he idolized Moore’s Bond (so much so that he invited Moore to guest-appear on Alias). Go figure.
December 30th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
David, I find the Bond you watched first (usually in your teens) is your Bond forever. I know people who think Timothy Dalton was the best Bond.
I loved the humor of Connery, but found Moore’s Bond was too slapstick with too many kicks to the groin.
The only thing in DEATH RAY 2000 that was not over the top was Robert Logan. At one point he kissed a love interest on the cheek, he was too bland and nice for the character of Sloane.
In the book I cited in comment 7 and 8, it stated Marty Katz was running QM’s sitcom department.
January 11th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
The pilot went out here in Britain late in 1979 under the title ‘T.R. Sloane Of The Secret Service’. The series followed a few weeks later. I liked it enormously at the time, and still do. It was a cool spy show, like ‘The Avengers’ in that it was never meant to be taken seriously. Conrad was better than Logan, the latter was badly miscast as a globetrotting secret agent. If he kissed a girl on the cheek, its only because he was too probably dumb to get her in the sack! Stephen Kandel’s ‘The Seduction Squad’, Jimmy Sangster’s ‘Demon’s Triangle’, and B.W. Sandefur’s ‘Masquerade Of Terror’ were among the best episodes. Like the original ‘Battlestar Galactica’, ‘Sloane’ had the potential to be develop into something special, but did not get the chance. Even so, its hardly a ‘failure’ nor a ‘monstrosity’. Sam Raimi’s even shorter-lived ‘Spy Games’ was both of these, however. As for Conrad dissing the show years later, I don’t think we should pay any attention to that. If he hated it so much at the time, why did he direct one of the episodes? ( ‘The Shangri-La Syndrome’ was the worst one, to boot! )
January 11th, 2012 at 8:34 pm
Zokko,from what I have read quoting the people who worked on the series, Conrad’s interest was more aimed at getting drunk and bedding the women he always had in each arm. I think he directed an episode to show who is boss and make more money.
There is a story in the book I mention in comment #7 about his directing “The Shangri-La Syndrome.” The show was short. The editor needed the director to come in and help fix the problem. Conrad sets up an appointment to meet. He arrives late on the lot with some ladies. They disappears into his trailer for a few hours. Once he arrives he looked at the episode and told the editor to let the scenes run longer and then went back to his party. This of course killed pacing and slowed the action down.
I think everyone would agree MAN CALLED SLOANE was not a highlight in Robert Conrad’s career.
March 7th, 2023 at 5:42 pm
I loved The Man Called Sloan in the 1970’s or 1980’s ! It’s nice to have A Nice TRIP down memory lane !