Coronet Blue - Plot Details

Plot Details

Frank Converse's character (called Gigot in the first episode), is told by a woman and two men that they know what he is up to, after which they drug him and dump him in the river. He manages to pull himself ashore and the only words he says are Coronet Blue. Suffering from amnesia due to the effects of the drug, he soon discovers that he has been targeted for assassination by the same, mysterious group of killers. He adopts the name "Michael Alden," a combination of the name of his doctor and the name of the hospital where he was taken to recover. Over the remaining episodes he attempts to discover his identity and the identities of his assailants, whom he refers to as 'Greybeards'. The series ended before the solution to these mysteries was revealed, but series creator Larry Cohen later told his biographer:

"The actual secret is that Converse was not really an American at all. He was a Russian who had been trained to appear like an American and was sent to the U.S. as a spy. He belonged to a spy unit called 'Coronet Blue.' He decided to defect, so the Russians tried to kill him before he can give away the identities of the other Soviet agents. And nobody can really identify him because he doesn't exist as an American. Coronet Blue was actually an outgrowth of 'The Traitor' episode of The Defenders."

The series is related to an earlier series entitled The Nurses, which was set at a fictional hospital named "Alden". In the Coronet Blue pilot, the Frank Converse character is taken to Alden hospital, and even takes the name of the hospital for his own last name.