The Lieutenant
Cover of Part 1 of the Complete Series DVD
Created by	Gene Roddenberry
Starring	Gary Lockwood Robert Vaughn John Milford Henry Beckman Richard Anderson Don Penny Carmen Phillips Steve Franken
Composers	Jeff Alexander Arthur Morton Lyn Murray Harry Sukman
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	29
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 14, 1963 (1963-09-14) – April 18, 1964 (1964-04-18)

The Lieutenant is an American television series, the first created by Gene Roddenberry. An hour-long drama, 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 U.S. Marine Corps base Camp Pendleton in California, The Lieutenant focuses on enlisted Marines and officers in peacetime with a Cold War backdrop. The title character is Second Lieutenant William Tiberius Rice, a rifle platoon leader and one of the camp's training instructors.

The series involved a number of actors well known for their other roles, including several who would later appear in Roddenberry's more well known work, Star Trek. The central character—whose middle name would be shared with the character James T. Kirk—was played by Gary Lockwood, who was featured in the second Star Trek pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

Gary Lockwood stars as USMC second lieutenant William Tiberius Rice, a recent graduate of the United States Naval Academy who is assigned his first command, that of a rifle platoon. Rice is a young, educated idealist who still has much to learn from an older mentor. Robert Vaughn played Captain Raymond Rambridge, Rice's company commander, an up-from-the-ranks officer. Richard Anderson, remembered for playing Oscar Goldman in The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, had a recurring role as battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Steve Hiland. Linda Evans, later known for her roles on The Big Valley and as Krystle Carrington in Dynasty, appeared in several early episodes as Colonel Hiland's daughter Nan, who flirted with Rice. The series focused primarily on Rice's various assignments as a junior officer, which often involved special details or difficult situations. Several of the later episodes featured Rice becoming an undercover investigator with military intelligence, allowing for plots and scenarios which Rice would otherwise not be involved with as a second lieutenant.

The episode "To Set It Right" drew attention for its handling of contemporary race issues. It featured a black Marine portrayed by Don Marshall, with Dennis Hopper as a racist white Marine; Nichelle Nichols appeared as the black Marine's fiancée, in her television debut. The U.S. Defense Department, which provided the studio with free production assistance for the series, objected to the unflattering portrayal of racism in the Corps, which reportedly led to production being canceled.^[1][2] Although some sources say the episode was never broadcast,^[3][4] NBC scheduled it for February 22, 1964, and it was carried in at least some markets;^[5][6][7] Variety ran a review of the episode two days later.^[8]

After its original broadcast, The Lieutenant was sparsely rerun in syndication, as its run had not been long enough for episodes to be stripped in daily broadcasts. In 2016, digital subchannel network GetTV aired The Lieutenant on Wednesday evenings at 8 p.m. Eastern Time in a block of four episodes, not following the original airdate order.

The series was released on DVD in two half-season sets by the Warner Archive Collection in 2012.^[9] This release includes a feature film version of the episode "To Kill a Man" that was released in international markets.

• Gary Lockwood – Second Lieutenant William Tiberius Rice
• Robert Vaughn – Captain Raymond Rambridge
• John Milford – Sergeant Kagey
• Henry Beckman – Major Al Barker
• Richard Anderson – Lieutenant Colonel Steve Hiland
• Don Penny – Lieutenant Stanley Harris
• Chuck Haren – Corporal Sandow
• Carmen Phillips – Lily
• Steve Franken – Lieutenant Samwell 'Sanpan' Panosian
• Chris Noel – a regular female cast member, who played various characters

Vaughn received the same compensation as Lockwood, even though he was usually in only one scene per episode.^{[citation needed]} Vaughn asked both MGM Television and Norman Felton (under whose Arena Productions banner The Lieutenant was being produced) for his own series during the run of The Lieutenant. The result was The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which began the next season and proved to be highly successful.

Later Star Trek regulars Majel Barrett (who later married Roddenberry), Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, and Walter Koenig appeared as guest stars. So did Ricardo Montalbán, who played recurring Star Trek antagonist Khan Noonien Singh. Other Star Trek actors included Paul Comi (appearing in the Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror")^[3][10] and veteran actor James Gregory ("Dagger of the Mind").

Other guest stars include Rip Torn as a drill instructor, Ted Knight as a yeoman, Vic Tayback as a Marine Corps sentry, veteran character actor Denver Pyle as a Marine Corps major, Eddie Albert, Jack Albertson, Edward Asner, Barbara Babcock, Barbara Bain, Ina Balin, Marian Collier, Russ Conway, Dennis Cross, Robert Karnes, Paul Newlan, Gregg Palmer, Joe Ploski, Penny Santon, Tom Simcox, Ray Teal, and Kelly Thordsen.

Dell Comics published a single issue tie-in comic book.^[11]

Transogram published a board game based on the series in 1963.^[12]

• The Lieutenant at IMDb