Insight: "Locusts Have No King" (syndicated, 1965)

Series: Insight
Episode: “Locusts Have No King” (1965), prod. No. 157

Executive producer and host: Ellwood Kieser C.S.P.
Writer: Gilbert Ralston
Director: Ted Post
Cast: William Shatner, Geraldine Brooks, Kent Smith, Henry Beckman.

Synopsis: A businessman must decide if it is his civic and moral duty to stand against criminal political corruption in his municipality. Preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive; episode presented courtesy of Paulist Productions.

The long-running religious anthology program, Insight (1960-1983), holds a unique place in the history of public service television programming. The revered series, which has obtained underground cult status for its outré storylines and late night airings in the 1970s, was broadcast nationally in major markets for over 20 years without commercial sponsorship. Created, produced and hosted by Fr. Ellwood Kieser (1929-2000), the series boasted a long, diverse list of Hollywood contributors, including the likes of William Peter Blatty, Michael Crichton, Ida Lupino and Flip Wilson—all drawn by the show’s reputation for consistently stretching the creative boundaries of television. Offbeat and experimental by design, the series won numerous Daytime Emmy Awards and received critical praise for addressing social issues (the Vietnam War, nuclear proliferation, and suicide, to name a few), often with black humor or stark realism, and almost always with a humanist theme.--Mark Quigley, the John H. Mitchell Television Archivist.