Steve Canyon

When I was a kid, growing up in the 70s, Steve Canyon was a comic strip that I didn't particularly read. It looked a bit long and involved for somebody who was 8.

Out of pure curiosity, I started watching this on streaming, and just kept going. My main interest was in the episodes that featured extended flying sequences, as they show the development of jet aircraft in the fairly new Air Force at the time.

The episodes featuring more intrigue and less flying are not particularly strong. The one episode where the two actors who later played Tarzan and Sheriff Lobo, respectively, pounding the daylights out of each other in an alley is mildly amusing. Overall, not a total waste of time.

Having a successful comic adapted to the Radio, Television or the Movies is a great feat and a real feather in a Cartoonist's cap; as well as causing a corresponding bulge in his Wallet and Bank Account. But, just imagine a cartoonist's creating two highly successful and highly merchandised strips! It's like catching lightening in a bottle, with all of its perks, except that it's doubled! After having some successes with a single panel humor feature, in 1933, Milton Canniff came up with a kiddie adventure trip titled, "DICKIE DARE". He got plenty of notice and he got the assignment to come up with an Adventure Comic Strip featuring a kid and his grown man mentor. What Mr. Canniff created was "TERRY AND THE PIRATES", an adventure with continuing story lines. His employer, The Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate, retained the rights, but Milton was the regular artist on it and continued in that capacity until 1947, when he parted company with the Tribune organization.

In the 13 or so years that had elapsed ever since Terry's debut, the Strip ha proved to be extremely popular, spawning a host of Merchandising in the likes of Toys, Coloring Books, Big Little Books and the like. There was also a daily TERRY AND THE PIRATES on the Radio.

In 1940, Columbia Pictures purchased the screen rights and came out with TERRY AND THE PIRATES as a 15 Chapter, Cliff-Hanger Movie Serial. The serial starred a bleach-blond William Tracy as young Terry Lee, with Granville Owen (Jeff York) as his mentor, A dozen years later, it was Television that was the reigning King and the DuMont Television Network presented the ½ hour long series of "TERRY AND THE PIRATES" (Don Sharpe Prod. /Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Prod., 1952-53). This featured a now grown-up Terry (John Baer) and his sidekick, Charles C. Charles aka "Hot Shot Charlie" (William Tracy*). They worked for an Airline in China named Air Cathay. (But that's another story!).

As for STEVE CANYON, the strip was highly successful for Mr. Canniff. It probably had a more true to life set of story lines (aka "continuities" in the Newspaper Trade), which were also more appealing to the older readers, affectionately known as "Adults." Another plus that Canniff had with his new airborne hero was it was just about this time in 1947 that the United States Air Force was born. Having started its gestation period as the Army Air Corps, then the Army Air Force; it became a completely independent branch of the U.S.Armed Forces.

As for the TV Series, it did all right as far as it went with the adaptation. It featured the Star, Dean Fredericks, sporting the peroxide treatment on the hair, but retaining the black eyebrows, just like Steve in the Sunday Color Comics (but now in our Chicago Sun-Times, rather than Mr. Canniff's former stompin' grounds over at the Chicago Tribune.) Otherwise, the late Mr. Fredericks had a trim, solid athletic look about him and looked that he was ready for whatever the trouble was that particular Saturday evening. (on NBC, 8:00 P.M., EST.

The individual episodes were just that, complete stories in themselves. There were no continued stories ("continuities", if you please!) in the series. The opening would show Steve piloting his Sabre Jet through "the Wild Blue Yonder", all decked-out with his helmet, flying suit and full face oxygen mask with goggles. As we hear the very good original theme, composed by "DRAGNET" composer, Walter Schumann; we hear the voice-over narrator (Paul Frees, I think!) reciting the narrative of the orders that Steve was to follow this week. It always went something lika thisa: "15 OCT 1958. From Strategic Air Command, To: Canyon, Stevenson B., Lt. Colonel. Proceed at once to Chennault Air Force Base, Lake Charles, Louisiana concerning the matter of the recent rash of jet mal-functions, uh, ya ya ya ya ya …….."

Steve was a sort of trouble shooter for the Air Force; you know, kinda like today's TV series JAG or NCIS; or maybe even a little like Bing Crosby's Fr. O'Malley in GOING MY WAY or THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S.

"Steve Canyon" is a TV series based on the Milt Caniff comic strip of the same name. Each episode consists of the Air Force troubleshooter, Lt. Col. Steve Canyon traveling to yet another air base to help deal with some sort of concern, such as testing out new equipment, problems with personnel or to assess whether there is a particular problem. Later episodes found Canyon in charge of an airbase and that seemed to take up much of his time.

So is it any good? Yes...quite good. While not as interesting as another airplane TV show, "12 O'Clock High", I think much of it is because "12 O'Clock High" was an hour long program, whereas "Steve Canyon" was made to fit a half hour time slot. As a result, to me, many of the shows seemed rushed and could have used more time to realistically deal with the issues at hand. Still, it was a most unique series and has some amazing aerial cinematography. Well worth seeing...especially if you love planes.

This show is largely unknown due to the fact that it hasn't aired in the USA since August of 1960, and hasn't aired ANYWHERE in the world since it aired on Armed Forces Pacific Television in early 1965. It was aired in Australia and Japan (and possibly other foreign countries) in the early sixties. The Pilot was shot in late January 1958, and the show was in full production from mid July 1958 until the office closed at the end of May 1959.

There were 34 half hour episodes produced and broadcast originally in prime time on NBC. 14 of these were repeated by NBC during the summer of 1959. ABC ran 20 episodes during the summer of 1960. Altogether there were 10 episodes that were never ever repeated on American television after their premiere on NBC.

Dean Fredericks was hand picked to star by Canyon's artist/writer/creator Milton Caniff after the cartoonist spotted him on the NBC series COURT OF LAST RESORT. Fredericks, a sergeant in the army who was badly wounded in the invasion of Leyte in 1944, had later made a name for himself playing mostly heavies, and as a regular on the RIN TIN TIN and JUNGLE JIM TV series'. Fredericks was credible as Canyon, and was identified with the character for many years after the series ended, doing personal appearances at the behest of Milton Caniff. He retired from acting in 1965 after a string of mostly two-dimensional heavy roles. Starring in Steve Canyon was a tough act to follow.

STEVE CANYON was the most expensive show on television during the 1958/59 season, with each show costing $48,000. It was filmed at Universal Studios in Hollywood, utilizing the vast array of talent and hardware available there, with backing by Chesterfield Cigarettes and full cooperation of the US Air Force. They had the best of everything. Gleaming rocket planes and an open checkbook. So why did it only last one season?

Well, the show was exciting…actually a bit too exciting for the Air Force and for the aircraft industry, who wanted the public to have faith in their men and machines respectively. "Perfect men flying perfect machines"…this credo was the downfall of the show. It wasn't long after the series premiered that the difficulties started, with Pegasus Productions (the production company) on one side of the fence, and the USAF and the Advertising Agency on the other. The shows basic premise of Canyon being a globe-hopping troubleshooter for the Air Force, with planes falling and exploding in all directions, had to go.

Exactly half way into the production schedule, Pegasus gave in to the pressure and retooled the series, firmly planting Canyon safely behind a desk at the fictitious Big Thunder Air Base. They also moved the show from Saturday to Tuesday night, which would further alienate their audience along with the format change. The old adage of "too many cooks" broke the back of both the show and the production company, and that simply was that.

Nearing the end of the run (when they knew the show wasn't going to be renewed), several episodes that had been shelved due to "controversy" were dusted off and completed and put into the broadcast rotation as a "last act of defiance" by the Producers (David Haft and Mike Meshekoff). Among these are OPERATION U.F.O., OPERATION FIREBEE, and the episode TIME Magazine called "a neat exercise in airborne shock", OPERATION INTERCEPT, which follows a few of the same themes as the film FAIL SAFE a few years later.

Make no mistake, this is an interesting series, one that bears re-examination. From its premiere to this day there have always been detractors, who would dismiss it with little regard, often citing it as "hardware oriented" or an extended cigarette commercial. I most often describe it as "you never know what you'll get" when you watch an episode. There isn't a formula or pattern to the series, each show has it's own approach and I find that refreshing.

As of this writing, I've recently viewed all but one episode, so I'm not basing this on memories of broadcasts from nearly 50 years ago. I'm looking forward to seeing that missing show as well as repeat viewings of all of the rest in the near future...

I should mention here that I am the producer of the restoration of the Steve Canyon series and that it will be available as an official release on DVD sometime in 2008, which will be the 50th anniversary of the series. So I may be a wee bit biased, but I sincerely love this show, and my words here are coming from my affection for this great series.

Thank you for your time!

I have just finished watching every episode of this series on Tubi, and it certainly afforded me a lot of nostalgia for my very early childhood (I hadn't seen the series on it's original run, simply because as the son of a USAF sargeant myself we were living in Madrid, Spain at the time where my father was assigned to the U. S. embassy). However, the adult me has discovered that STEVE CANYON holds more than a few surprises in the viewing.

Yes, it certainly has elements of a recruitment for the U. S. Air Force, and there is a lot of hardware on display, including some pretty rare and impressive black and white photography of just about every type of aircraft used in the USAF in the 50s, even as far back as the Korean War. But it seems as the show went along, changes in production personnel took the show to places well beyond Air Force showcase territory, and while a few episodes are predictably clunky, others are surprising in their nature and depth. Subjects like (what eventually became known as) PTSD, abuse of authority, friction between the military and civilians, Cold War espionage, wartime refugees, and even UFOs are featured (although don't expect the UFO episode to be entirely honest about the mysteries still coming to light on the subject today). There is even one episode that has definite elements of Hitchcock, which I will leave you to find.

But another surprise is to be found in the cast and crew of this show. Not only was Jerry Paris, the future neighbor of the Dick Van Dyke Show, a regular on STEVE CANYON, a wealth of future stars also made appearances. Just a basic list includes James Drury (THE VIRGINIAN) in a recurring role, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelly (STAR TREK), Roy Thinnes (THE INVADERS), Russell Johnson (GILLIGAN'S ISLAND), Nick Adams (THE REBEL), Richard Anderson (THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN), Martin Milner (ROUTE 66 and ADAM-12), Marion Ross (HAPPY DAYS), Gavin MacLeod (THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW and THE LOVE BOAT), Ron Ely (TARZAN), Werner Klemperer (HOGAN'S HEROES), Ross Martin (THE WILD WILD WEST), and even in a bit role, Mary Tyler Moore herself. You'll have fun just looking for all these recognizable actors and more. There's even an episode written by classic science fiction writer Ray Bradbury!

So enjoy. It's not a classic, but it's certainly an interesting experience to explore.