The Lieutenant (1964): S01E29 – To Kill a Man

Introduction

The Lieutenant is an American television series, the first created by Gene Roddenberry (who also created Star Trek).

It aired on NBC on Saturday evenings in the 1963-1964 television schedule. It was produced by Arena Productions, one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s most successful in-house production companies of the 1960s.

Situated at Camp Pendleton, the West Coast base of the US Marine Corps, The Lieutenant focuses on the men of the Corps in peacetime with a Cold War backdrop. The title character is Second Lieutenant William Tiberius Rice, a rifle platoon leader and one of the training instructors at Camp Pendleton. An hour-long drama, The Lieutenant explores the lives of enlisted Marines and officers alike.

Outline

Rice is assigned to deliver top-secret military information to combat troops in Vietnam, but when his plane is shot down, he and a Vietnamese aide are forced to fight their way back. A feature-film version of this episode was released internationally, though not in the US.

The Lieutenant Series

You can find a full index and overview of The Lieutenant here.

Production & Filming Details