Sprung aus den Wolken

I watched this show in reruns when I was a kid. Along with Lloyd Bridges "Sea Hunt" and the desert war show "Rat Patrol". These shows seemed to be perfect for young boys to watch to stir up their love of action and adventure. You'd watch them and then go outside and try to emulate them. Back when kids would go outside to play, and their parents didn't know where they were, or what they were doing. You were fine as long as you were back home in time for the next meal. Simpler times? Or just simpler kids? These shows were high quality, if you were 10 years old!

That's the whole point of the show. Every week something happens, these two skydivers take flight and take out the bad guys.

I remember first seeing this show and the 4 year old me and my friends that saw it on syndication would practice jumping off the stairs to "practice" our skydiving for when we were older. 1 stair was for babies. 2 stars were where "big kids" started. 3 stairs were for the really advanced ones. And 4 stairs was the equivalent of a double black diamond run in other words it was too high and we never got enough lift to make it so that was the eventual goal to determine if we graduated. We never did.

But yeah, it's an interesting little bit of forgotten 60's nostalgia that introduced the country to the new found sport of skydiving. It's kinda cheesy in a 60's way. There's elements of adventure, action, drama, comedy and whatever else they felt they could use to fit in some skydiving scenes. Nobody ever said the show was very deep.

These guys were the coolest for a seven-year-old kid! My Ripcord parachute man was one of the coolest toys too, until it floated off on an air current. At the time I had no idea the main characters were 'Festus' and 'Dash Riprock'. I've had fun looking back at these old shows and seeing who played in them, and trying to think where MY mind was in 1962.

Rod Serling and one of the actors were former Rangers. I was inspired to become a paratrooper by them. Went to jump school at Fort Benning in 1966, at 17. Paratroops still sing "Gory, Gory". Some of the story lines were pretty bad but I waited for the jump scenes.

The camera work was superb and I often think about how u mainly cameras were then. Compared to a go pro. Imagine something weighing 25 pounds or so and no special attachment or perhaps a jury-rigged set up.

It was a good idea that needed better story lines. Could be rebooted now that we have such advanced technology. It would take someone with the vision of Rod Serling.

Being a pilot (9000+ hours) and former skydiver (216 jumps) I can tell you that this show is cool yet absurd. The actors are fine, the writing was often good, but sometimes the story lines simply departed reality. I guess the writers were just trying to come up with something exciting. To me, the best parts are the stunt work. You have to remember that to get the great aerial footage, they had to do it for real with a cameraman falling alongside. I think the cameraman were the best skydiver of them all.

when I did my first skydive from a Cessna 182 (in the 1980's) I was amazed that I flashed back to the show. The sound of that engine was exactly the same as in the show.

I wish I could find it on DVD. Get some popcorn, suspend reality and enjoy an often absurd, but always cools show!

PS: I think Larry Pannell was a better actor than Hollywood ever let him be.