Classic Sci Fi TV: Our ongoing look back at many of the classics of science fiction and fantasy television.
[Updated]
What Is It? This was one of the first sci fi series to debut during the early days of television and it followed the adventures of Commander Buzz Corry of the United Planets Space Patrol, his sidekick Cadet Happy, and the rest of his team as they face the many nefarious villains that threaten Earth in the 30th Century.
Aired: ABC, 1950-55, 210 30 Min Episodes & 900 15 Min Episodes
Starring: Ed Kemmer, Lyn Osborn, Ken Mayer, Virginia Hewitt
Created By: Mike Moser
Is It Must-Watch Sci Fi TV? It is worth a look as an early example of sci fi TV. Despite the fact that it was primarily targeted at kids, it sets some precedents that would recur in later genre entries.
The Skinny: Space Patrol is of course one of the quintessential “kiddie space operas” of the 1950s that largely defined the sci fi genre throughout that decade. It was primarily aimed at a younger audience, but it could deliver some decent and imaginative tales for its day and it started to attract an older crowd the longer it remained on the air. The show definitely delivered plenty of cheesy fun with its 50’s style machismo, heroines in peril, cackling villains, and xenophobic glee; much like the movie serials that preceded it. The good guys are all clean as a whistle (no moral ambiguities here), and they always come out on top. The special effects are cheap but not too bad for that time and still enough to inspire the imagination of a less sophisticated 1950s audience. And you can also see where this show sets many of the early standards for the space opera and science fiction entries that would follow it in the years and decades to come (note the similarities to Star Trek mentioned in the comments below).
So why pick this one instead of the progenitor of the format Captain Video and His Video Rangers? Well, for one, Space Patrol received a slightly better budget from ABC (Captain Video‘s DuMont network was notorious for its penny-pinching), and it seems a little less cheesy in retrospect. Of course that’s hard to say for certain because only a handful of Captain Video episodes still exist seeing as most of DuMont’s archives were sadly destroyed in the 1970s. So Space Patrol gets another vote in its favor because over a hundred of the original episodes are still available from the kinescopes (filmed recordings of the live broadcast over television for archival purposes). Space Patrol is probably as good of an example of the kiddie space operas as any, though you can also find episodes of shows like Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger and more. All of those came after Space Patrol which already lifted much of its premise from Captain Video, so they get progressively more derivative. But Space Patrol was one of the most popular of these shows at that time and a good enough representation of all of them. Sample some episodes of this and you can seek out the others if you find you have a particular liking for this type of retro-sci fi.
Cancelled Too Soon? Not likely. Lasting over five years and producing nine hundred fifteen-minute episodes through its first three seasons and two hundred thirty-minute segments in its fourth and fifth year (plus 129 episodes of the radio series), this show had a very healthy run. I’ve not seen a specific reason on why the show ended, but the death of its creator in 1954 may have factored into that as well as the waning popularity of this type of space opera.
Should It Be Rebooted? Sure, a retro-reboot of this show could be plenty of fun. Maybe even a team-up of Space Patrol with Captain Video, Tom Corbett, Rocky Jones, and more (I believe most of those characters are in the public domain now). A mix of 50s naivete and modern-day special effects with a sense of fun could produce an enjoyable series. Maybe the time is right to revisit these older shows.
Interesting Fact: There was also a Space Patrol television series from the 1960s, but it aired in Britain and featured Gerry Anderson-style puppets (though he did not produce the show). It had a similar premise to the 1950s live-action show and also borrowed heavily from Anderson’s Fireball XL5. The show aired under the name Planet Patrol in the United States so as not to confuse it with the original Space Patrol which was still airing in syndication in some markets.
Where Can You Watch It? A fair number of episodes have been released on DVD, though many of those are now out of print (the Blu-ray set on Amazon is for the British show mentioned above and it is PAL format). Space Patrol is not streaming on any of the major services, but you can find a nice sampling of episodes on YouTube at this link (the old-style commercials are a hoot!).
Read More About the Show: Wikipedia | IMDb.com
More Classic Sci Fi TV at This Link
CancelledSciFi.com: Keep up with the status updates of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Cancellation Watch posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
SciFiTVSite.com: Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and keep up with what is airing/streaming each week with our Weekly Listings.
Space Patrol was amazing, magical and invented many awesome special effects for TV. If you want to know more about the show, you can get the complete story in my book, “Space Patrol: Missions of Daring in the Name of Early Television.” These actors and crew members, most now forgotten, contributed so much to early TV. As one of them put it: “We had to figure out how to get a picture out of a camera and into your living room.” Plus, the ensemble cast were talented actors that made even some ABC crew members suspend disbelief during the live broadcast. “I thought it was really happening — and I’m a guy who went through a war,” one crew member told me. But the best thing for many kids and adults of that era who watched together, was the modeling of good values: Buzz Corry was a compassionate hero, and the camaraderie between him and Cadet Happy is classic. Worth watching on YouTube.
Thanks for letting us know about the book. For those interested, you can buy it at this link.
Smokin’ rockets, thanks for posting the link!
A few comments:
Kids don’t like moral ambiguities, and moral ambiguities in hero would not have played well (or at all!) on a kids show in the 1950s. The sponsors would have quickly killed any attempt at this.
The good guys always finally defeat the villain, but sometimes the villain gets away at the end of the episode, (and gets reused later!).
Cheesy special effects? It was hard to do special effects that weren’t cheesy on live television with the equipment available in the early 1950s. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, (I think), the wonder is not that they did them well, but that they did them at all.
Star Trek TOS owes much to Space Patrol. Some of the things Space Patrol “inspired” on Star Trek:
Female Uniforms
The transporter beam. Even Dr. McCoy’s angst over using the transporter is foreshadowed on Space Patrol.
Cloaking device.
The whole episode of “What are little Girls Made Of” on Star Trek TOS bears a striking resemblance to the Space Patrol Episode titled “The Androids of Algol.”
Time travel to the year in which the episode was aired. Both Star Trek “Yesterday is Tomorrow,” and “Assignment Earth” use this plot device, and it’s used in at least two other Star Trek series that I’m aware of. Space Patrol did it first, with at least one episode titled “Danger..Radiation.
According to some sources I’ve read, Captain Video did not start out as a space opera.
Yes, there are “damsels in distress,” but the said “damsels” also have responsible jobs, fly space ships, and invent things.
“Essential Episodes: I haven’t seen enough that I could pick out the best ones.” Yep.