Assignment Foreign Legion
American TV anthology series (1957)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Assignment Foreign Legion is an American TV series that starred Merle Oberon.[1] It ran on CBS from October 1, 1957, until December 24, 1957.[2]
Premise
The series related activities of the French Foreign Legion during World War II.[2] Oberon narrated episodes and played a newspaper correspondent in search of stories about the Foreign Legion.[3]
Production
The show's producers were M. Smedley Aston and Anthony C. Bartlett.[4] Directors included Don Chaffey, Michael McCarthy and Lance Comfort.[5] Writers included Max Ehrlich.[6] The series was filmed in Morocco, Algiers,[4] England and Spain.[3] Eventually it became too dangerous and filming was completed at Beaconsfield Studios in London.[citation needed] CBS Television Film Sales Inc. distributed the series.[3]
Assignment Foreign Legion was broadcast on Tuesdays from 10:30 to 11 p.m. Eastern Time.[7] Its average cost was $26,000 an episode.[8] It was sponsored by P. Lorillard Company[9] for Kent cigarettes. The trade publication Variety reported, "there was some worry" prior to Lorillard's taking on the show because it "may be too controversial, possibly alienating nationalistic Arabs."[10] The program ended when Lorillard decided to move its sponsorship to Richard Diamond, Private Detective, which began on January 2, 1958.[11]
