The Man and the Challenge

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.

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 The Man And The Challenge when it was first on in 1960 and was intrigued. I was born destined to become an electrical engineer so this program presented a scientific challenge each episode that challenged my future knowledge of physics. Finally a show that wasn't complete fluff like a talking horse or a guy married to a witch. A thinking adult man who was drastically challenged each week and had to save himself or the situation using scientific principles. I wanted to learn so bad! And I wanted to solve the puzzles before the show revealed the solution. This show has never been publicized since, but I always remembered it all these years, and could stump most everybody else who had never ever heard of it. I'd love to see a show today to see how it matches my recollections.

So glad to find others who loved this show, too. No one I ever asked remembered the show. I found it inspiring as well. I was all psyched by science and space, too, and at the time wanted to be "the first woman geologist on the moon." I understand that position has not been filled, but I probably won't make it now ;-) I was in a science club in Niagara Falls, where Bell Labs tested their rocket belt. We were scheduled to see one of those tests, although I think the day we went it was postponed and we missed it.

Kudos to all of you who went on to pursue your dreams. Mine changed to the field of psychology, and I now work with adults who have AD(H)D as a coach. Many people who have ADD are the very ones who have become the adventurers and entrepreneurs, etc., who make a difference in the world and inspire us. It is very gratifying work.

My precocious cousin and I were avid watchers of this Friday (?) night show. The space programme was in its enthusiastic first blush, and was undoubtedly the inspiration for the series. I believe that my cousin turned to a lot of physical self-punishment under the inspiration of THE MAN AND THE CHALLENGE (younger and reckless at 12) to show that he too could "take it." It was from the series that I learned the term "human factors research." I was going to be a scientist, then.

Thinking back, however, I can see why the show was so short-lived. Some of the adventures were definitely contrived -- working from 40 years' memory -- and there were not enough interesting principals, even the hero. One could not delve TOO much into the science, and at bottom it had little mass appeal.