The Lieutenant is an American television series, 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.