The Man and the Challenge

I've remembered the opening sequence of this show for quite some time, but no one I mentioned it to could ever come up with the show's title. Finally I found it with a properly worded Google search - amazing tools we have today.

I remember a specific episode where there was a crazed driver who was tormenting the motorcycle cops by speeding through their speed traps and - once the motorcycles were in pursuit - releasing numerous logs out of his rigged trunk and the poor policemen would wreck their bikes after running over the logs. Yeah, far-fetched, but it got worse.

The hero of the show then took some sort of mind-altering drug and demonstrated in the lab that - under the drug's influence - he was capable of amazing feats of concentration and dexterity. He grabbed speeding arrows out of the air effortlessly.

So after the lab tests, the cops were given the drug and were then capable of driving their bikes around the logs and catching the demonic motorist.

With some 50 years of retrospection, I'm wondering now if that magic drug might have been LSD? It was a more innocent time...

Anyway, it was a favorite show of my 7-year-old self. That and "The Troubleshooters" and "Rescue 8".

I watched this series when it was on NBC (and I was 9) and a few years later when it had a brief syndicated run.

It made a huge impression on my 9-year-old self. I was already a fan of science fiction by way of Science Fiction Theatre (remember that sf was considered purely of interest to male audiences in those days) and this series was far closer to actual science--I don't think they thought they were reaching 9 year old little girls.

One episode in particular never left me--"Astro Female", which opened with the rescue of a woman who is the only survivor of a shipwreck; all the others, males, died, but the tough woman survived. This led to an exploration of women as astronauts, something the US never did until decades later. In an age where women on TV were almost invariably portrayed as emotional and weak, this show showed a different possibility that probably is part of why I am in a career in the sciences.

Beyond that episode, there were many others exploring human potential beyond the expected.

I'd love to see these episodes again. I'd buy them on DVD. I've gone and watched other series that I enjoyed, and usually I have been pleasantly surprised with how well they hold up, not just classics like Twilight Zone, but others like Route 66.

With the death of GEORGE NADER, on 4 February 2002, I thought of this most interesting program, which even though it had only a short run, was a tremendous idea with good story lines throughout. Generally unseen for over 40+ years it would be worth viewing again. The opening credits showed many differing images, one of which was a snippit of COLONEL JOHN PAUL STAPP, riding his famed rocket sled, at the point where he was often referred to as "The Fastest Man Alive".

I was in my late teens when this program aired and I watched it every week with my older brother. To me it was an inspiring series that seemed to show that man could go beyond his previous limitations and do what had theretofore been considered impossible. One incident comes to mind to serve as an example: The George Nader character is in an elevator with several other people when the elevator begins to fall out of control. Somehow they have to find a way to survive. Because of Nader's quick thinking and resourcefulness, they are able to transcend their human limitations and survive the fall, although in retrospect it stretches one's credibility. Even at that, though, it inspired me to strive to go beyond my own limitations and to try for seemingly impossible goals.

My father was a career Air Force man. So when Col. John P Stapp's famous rocket sled images appeared in the opening credits of THE MAN AND THE CHALLENGE in 1959 I, as a 14-year-old, was immediately hooked.

...and George Nader was the perfectly-cast star. I loved the stories. It didn't matter they were off-center from science-reality, as we knew it then - in my mind, they were 'possible.' The ideas just fascinated me. That it was possible to live through an elevator fall - or that one could survive a marooning at sea by drinking the base nutrients from a raw fish squeezed through a torqued towel, made absolute sense in my young, formative mind - they still do.

I've often reflected on that series over the years, and now realize what a huge impression it made on my ultimate enrollment in the aerospace industry.

I appreciate what all of you have written in remembrance of George Nader and this wonderful TV series. Yes, the film world often brings heroes - but much more than that; 'ideas of quality' can shape and determine one's entire future. It certainly did mine - may you all have been so blessed.