Classic Horrors Club

The descriptions of early sci-fi television series are getting repetitive. We’ll learn next week about a show that was cancelled due to copyright infringement, but there’s little difference in the ones we’ve discussed so far, so I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. I suppose the thing to remember is that some of these shows began as regional productions that gained traction and then expanded nationwide. Such is the case with Space Patrol (1950-1955.)

The first three seasons were broadcast only in Los Angeles on KECA-TV in the form of 15-minute episodes five days a week, beginning on March 9, 1950. In December, KECA added a 30-minute version on Saturdays. Later, it became the first West Coast morning show to be broadcast across the country to the East Coast. FUN FACT: All episodes were broadcast live from the soundstage used in filming The Phantom of the Opera (1925.) 

Like the other shows we’ve discussed, not all episodes of Space Patrol have survived. However, I found 49 of them on Tubi (five from season one, three from season two, nine from season three, thirty from season four, and two from season five.) I watched the earliest and latest episodes: S1.E27, “The Lost City of the Carnacans,” and S5. E5, “Double Trouble.” At some point, the format may have changed because the former was a stand-alone story and the latter was merely one chapter of a continuing story.

Commander-in-Chief Kit Corry is played by Ed Kemmer, although the character was first played by Glen Denning in about 25 episodes. Corry’s sidekick, Cadet Happy, is played by Lyn Osborn. The former is fine in his role, although there’s not much distinguishing about him. The latter grated on my nerves. First, he seemed too old to be a youthful space cadet. Second, he reminded me of a poor man’s Lou Costello with his unfunny antics. Maybe this was the part of the show that appealed to children.

In the first episode, Corry, Happy, and a woman I can’t identify, follow a 790 kilocycle radio signal deep into the lost capital city of a planet that I can’t identify. Mars was mentioned, but I think that’s the planet from which the United Planets Communications Commission operates. Of all the shows we’ve discussed so far, this episode looks like it had the biggest budget. I’m sure the huge set helped with that, but there was also an atmosphere that generated genuine suspense.

The second episode references events that took place previously. Corry and crew have apparently been through earlier encounters with the villains, Raymo (Lawrence Dobkin) and Yula (Valerie Bales.) Here, the bad guys have a “thought booster” used to control robot duplicates of the good guys and plan to infiltrate the United Planets at the highest level. It’s silly fun, but something that would have kept me coming back for more every day if I had watched it as a kid.

Space Patrol was sponsored by Ralston/Purina and Nestle. There are some fun commercials in “Double Trouble.” A character named “Professor Checkerboard” performed them live. In one, he uses reverse psychology to explain to children that Wheat Chex were purposely made for adults, but they could look forward to eating them when they grew up. In another, he demonstrates how one viewer ate his Hot Ralston by mixing jam into it. (In what I thought was going to be another scene in the story, Corry and Happy advertise Nestle Ever Ready Cocoa.)

If for nothing else, Space Patrol has a place in history as being the first television show to broadcast an episode in 3-D. It was 1953’s “The Theft of the Rocket Cockpit” and viewers could obtain 3-D glasses in specially packaged Ralston-Purina cereals. The series took a short break in July of 1954, then returned on September 4 to finish its run. The final broadcast was February 26, 1955. (And it’s not be be confused with the British children’s show of the same name, which aired in the U.S. as “Planet Patrol.”)

Merch

Surprise! Just like the other shows we’ve discussed, Space Patrol had spinoffs and merchandising tie-ins. There was a club, a radio show with the same cast that ran for 129 episodes, at least two records, toys, mail order premiums, contests, and, of course, comic books. However, unlike Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, it never had a newspaper comic strip or book series.

The comic books were published by Ziff-Davis in 1952. The two issues are available on archive.org and you can get more information about each issue at Mike’s Amazing World.

Next Saturday: Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers…