What Might've Been: Born Free (1974)

Born Free, by Joy Adamson, was adapted into a TV series by Columbia Pictures Television and NBC in 1974, with Diana Muldaur as Adamson, an Gary Collins (ex-The Sixth Sense) as George Adamson in the tale about the Adamsons & their adopted pet lioness, Elsa.

NBC's mistake was putting the show on Mondays, opposite Gunsmoke (in its final season) and The Rookies. Thanks for coming. Born Free barely made it to Christmas.

At home, my folks were into Gunsmoke, and Born Free was barely, if at all, considered, so no rating.

In this sampler, Juliet Mills guests as a surgeon transitioning into a bush doctor traveling by plane. Hal Frederick (ex-The Interns) co-stars.

The episode reunited Mills with her former boss at 20th Century Fox, David Gerber, who was the executive producer of Nanny & The Professor, and had the same gig at Columbia on this series and a few others (i.e. Police Story).