Filmed in Australia before Australia themselves even had television, and created to air on ABC (the American one) in 1955, The Adventures of Long John Silver follows up on the previous two films of immense success with a budget family serial. The series sits at 26 episodes at length before cancellation, though only the first 13 were available to me, and looking online I couldn't find the others with relatively ease, some may be considered lost. Not as much of a shame as you might think, the series never made it to prime time, and wasn't even on the list for top 25 series in the seasons it aired. Again following the titular pirate captain Long John Silver after his adventures trying to find the famous Treasure Island, the series takes place after John has acquiesced to giving up piracy and joining a life of relative peace in the Caribbean. Each episode follows a new adventure as they need a young islanders tooth pulled, to recoup funds for a local tavern, or simply to rescue a far off sinking ship. The plots are simple and the acting and sets are simpler. Most of this series was shot in an inside studio and you can really tell (especially the "far off at sea" ship scenes. Halliwell's television companion even brings this up and gives the series a quaint review: "Cramped, studio-bound adventures of a rascally pirate, notable chiefly for preserving a famous star performance." And that's probably all you need, while it did re-enforce the famous pirate voice we now all expect from pirates everywhere thanks to the lead Robert Newton who played Long John Silver, if you must check out this performance I would highly recommend you instead just watch the original 1950 film Treasure Island. And honestly maybe even skip that one too.
