Space Patrol

I grew up in Las Vegas NV, where there was no television until 1954. I was in the 4th grade, and it changed life for us kids quite dramatically.

Having listened to the likes of Superman and The Lone Ranger on the radio, and developing a mental picture of what the characters were "sposta" look like, it was sometimes a letdown to see "impostors", even though the voices were the same.

"Space Patrol" never was televised in Vegas, as far as I can remember. I was a faithful follower of the Saturday morning radio show, however: "High adventure in the wild, vast reaches of space! Missions of daring in the name of interplanetary justice! Travel into the future with BUZZ CORY, Commander-in-Chief of the SPAAAAACE PATROL!"

"....Buzz Corey, Commander-in-Chief of the SPACE PATROL!" I was eight years old when my Mother bought our first television set. Space Patrol was already halfway through its run on Detroit television, Channel 7, WXYZ, the ABC station if I remember correctly. Saturday morning was time for Space Patrol, my first favourite television programme. Buzz Corey was the perfect hero: stalwart, honest, dignified, mature, courageous: the apotheosis of all virtues. I even named my dog after him.

All things must end and little boys grow up; yet Space Patrol (at least as remembered) remains the standard by which all adventure entertainment is judged. The lifelong interest in science fiction which many of us have may be traced to this primitive space opera.

Boys need heroes and far more than Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Buzz Corey provided an example and a needed role model. If all little boys could grow up to be Buzz Corey our planet would be a better place.

I at least owe Space Patrol a great debt.

The headline of that month was of Ernest Hemingway and a short version of The Old Man and the Sea.

It explained that a WWII fighter pilot had thought the whole thing up while flying raids in the Pacific during the War. He and two other writers were cranking out 85,000 words a week to keep the show running. It had a lot of the behind the scenes stories of the actors, etc. Some of the actors in this series died from Cancer at relatively early ages, and some were destitute. Nina Bara, from Argentina, was one of them. She had been married to Dwight Eisenhower's golf pro (also a relatively obscure actor himself) from Austraila for about five years...until Ike was out of power, then his popularity as an actor waned quickly. I understand he's still alive. She died in poverty.

If you craved thrills and action with not much science fiction underpinning, and an unabashedly total lack of realism, this was the early 1950s space adventure program for you. Square-jawed, intelligent and courageous Commander Buzz Corry and his comical sidekick Cadet Happy faced certain death in nearly every once-a-week Saturday morning broadcast. Done live, with very impressive sets, and a wide variety of Hollywood character actors as villains, this was almost always worth tuning in to. Almost all the programs survived on 16 mm and 35 mm kinescopes, and are readily available today from video retail sources.

Space Patrol really started a long tradition of the love of science fiction and space adventure that continues to this day. As a youth in San Francisco I watched it every chance. From this experience, when I started reading in earnest it was science fiction that I turned to, and haven't turned back since.

One of my most precious possessions from childhood came from a visit of the Space Patrol cast to San Francisco. There is a page in my autograph book that I treasure signed by each of the members of the cast in their screen name. My name is Robbie, and Robbie's signature on the cast page was made with a drawing of a rocket ship that formed my impression of what a true rocket ship should be like.

Space Patrol was so much a part of my life that for Christmas my brothers constructed and gave me a "spaceship control panel" with view screen, lights, and microphone (all this before any modern electronics) and my friends and I played "Space Patrol" adventures. Looking back this show was one of my best childhood memories that influenced a love of reading, sci-fi, and eventually my career in the computer industry, as well as influencing me in what real teamwork was like.

This show was awesome!