Classic Television - Prime Time

The Immortal

Original channel

ABC

Original run

September 24, 1970 – January 14, 1971

Starring

Christopher George

Don Knight

David Brian

The Immortal is an American television series, which aired on ABC from September 1970 to January 1971. The series is based on a pilot movie of the same name, which aired in September 1969. The pilot is based on the science fiction novel The Immortals, by James Gunn. Although the series was canceled at midseason, episodes were rerun by ABC in the summer of 1971. It was later shown in reruns on the Sci Fi Channel.

Ben Richards is a test car driver for a large corporation. He's 42 years old, but looks young enough to pass for 25 -- and he's never been sick a day in his life. Ben's life changes when he donates a pint of blood. When a dying billionaire is given a transfusion of his donated blood, and is brought back from the brink of death, Ben's phsyician determines that his O negative blood contains all known antibodies and immunities. This gives Ben immunity to every known disease and an estimated lifespan five to ten times that of other humans, making him, in the doctor's words, "virtually immortal". The billionaire decides that he has to control Richards' life so he can access his life-saving blood.

When Richards rejects all of the billionaire's offers to remain with him, the billionaire has him imprisoned, but he ultimately escapes. Richards is now on the run because although the billionaire dies, he is now being pursued by one of the billionaire's former employees, Fletcher, who is now employed by another billionaire, Arthur Maitland, who also wants access to Richards' blood.

The series' dramatic tension is based on the idea that Richards would probably never lose his life if he were to live quietly, since he would never succumb to any known diseases. But his flight from Fletcher puts his life at great risk, constantly engaging in dangerous efforts to avoid capture, and his "immortal" blood did not make him immune from losing his life from trauma.

The series primarily focuses on Richards' journeys and the people he meets while trying to avoid Fletcher. A secondary plot involved Richards' search for a brother he has never known, with the implication that that brother may share his gift and thus be at risk from the billionaire as well.

The plotline of The Immortal is quite different from that of the book on which it is based. Instead, The Immortal bears more than a superficial resemblance to the popular show The Fugitive, which ended its four-season run a few years before The Immortal began.