It is not widely remembered that Flipper, dolphin hero of two feature films and a beloved 1964-1967 TV series, was the creation of Ricou Browning, the Florida diver turned Hollywood stuntman who played The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Inspired by Lassie, Browning and co-writer Jack Cowden pitched the idea of a boy and his porpoise to producer Ivan Tors, whose own interests had segued from science fiction (The Magnetic Monster) to the wonders of the natural world (Underwater Warrior). With the backing of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Tors produced the feature length aquatic adventure Flipper (1963), whose popularity with moviegoers of all ages demanded a follow-up. Flipper's New Adventure (1964) brought back teen actor Luke Halpin as Flipper's best friend while Chuck Connors, who played Halpin's father in the original film (and was busy with his new weekly series Arrest and Trial) was replaced by Brian Kelly. Shifting its location from the Florida Keys to the Bahamas, Flipper's New Adventure pits its heroes against modern day pirates, from whose clutches must be rescued the tender likes of Francesca Annis (later Roman Polanski's Lady Macbeth) and Pamela Franklin (who had made her startling film debut in Jack Clayton's The Innocents). Halpin and Kelly reprised their roles for three seasons on the NBC spin-off series. Partially paralyzed in a 1970 motorcycle crash, Kelly transitioned from acting to producing and helped bring Philip K. Dick's sci-fi story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" to the big screen as Blade Runner (1982).

By Richard Harland Smith