Lucan
Entry updated 10 November 2023. Tagged: TV.
US tv series (1977-1978). MGM Television for ABC-TV. Created by David Greene. Directors included Curtis Harrington, Joseph Pevney, Sutton Roley. Writers included Mann Rubin, Robert Specht, Carey Wilbur. Cast includes Kevin Brophy, Don Gordon and John Randolph. One 74-minute pilot film plus eleven 50-minute episodes. Colour.
This nearly forgotten borderline-sf adventure series centres on Lucan (Brophy), raised until the age of ten by wolves in the Minnesota wilderness after his parents died in a plane crash. Now aged twenty when the story begins, he lives in a special scientific centre where Dr Dan Hoagland (Randolph) and his team try to teach him how to live among humanity. After a near-fatal incident, it is agreed that Lucan should leave to try and find any surviving family members he may have. The series follows his various adventures as he attempts to adjust to human society while pursued by the bounty-hunting special police investigator Prentiss (Gordon). Lucan failed to prove as popular as the pilot film, and was soon cancelled with the storyline unresolved. Lucan himself possesses some minor Superpowers including enhanced strength and speed when angered, along with the apparent ability to see in the dark. He can also summon any wolves who happen to be nearby to come to his aid, presumably by Telepathy. While Lucan is reminiscent of Tarzan, and in his rearing by wolves resembles Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli, the series was most likely based on the accounts of supposed real-life feral children which have surfaced from time to time. [GSt]
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