Space patrol
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Space patrol |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | 1950-1955 |
| length | initially 15 minutes, later 25 minutes |
| Episodes | 1110 |
| genre | Science fiction |
| Theme music | Stratosphere |
| idea | Mike Moser |
| production |
|
| music | Eric Spear |
| First broadcast | March 9, 1950 on KABC |
| occupation | |
| |
Space Patrol is from 1950 to 1955 produced American science fiction - television series . After Captain Video and His Video Rangers and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet , it was the third science fiction series in the world and, like the other two series, designed as a space opera . A British series of the same name from 1962 , the content of which is not related to the American production, was broadcast in the USA under the title Planet Patrol to avoid confusion with Space Patrol .
action
The series takes place in the 3rd millennium. Since it did not have a continuous plot that would allow a more precise depiction of the political background, information was provided to fans through the Space Patrol Handbook . Then the United Planets of the Universe were founded after the failure of a solar federation in the Great Solar System War . The United Planets include the planets of the solar system ; in later episodes, mankind will be able to leave the solar system by means of a new drive technology . The first off-solar colony is established in the Sirius system on Sirius IV.
The United Planets government resides on the planet Terra , which is not Earth , but an artificial planet between Earth and Mars with the capital Terra City . The United Planets constitution is modeled on the US constitution . The Secretary General of the United Planets resides analogously in the Capitol . The individual planets are apparently ruled by a governor . At least on Neptune there was a monarchy that was abolished for unknown reasons.
The Space Patrol 's manual says a kind of cosmic police , but also takes research tasks and protects the United Planets against the penetration of aliens . Because of this assignment of tasks, there is a wide range of potential opponents: aliens from the galaxy like the Thormanoids , space pirates like Captain Dagger, Amazons on Venus who enslave strong men and destroy the weak, invisible monsters, space spiders, criminals who appear as common criminals as well as political coup plotters . Since a time machine is available in the later episodes of the series with the Stardrive , Corry and Happy are confronted with Aztecs , Indians or fanatical religious settlers in New England who the astronauts consider magicians .
In the episode Errand of Mercy (No. 94, broadcast on October 11, 1952) Corry, Happy and Tonga travel 1000 years back in time to the Korean War on the Stardrive to initiate a blood donation drive in the United States . This is intended to replenish the supplies of the Red Cross , which have decreased due to the ongoing war. But due to a mistake, the Space Patrollers landed with the Nazis not in 1952, but in the 1940s . They are captured by an unnamed "Nazi major", portrayed by Bela Kovacs, who tries to force Buzz to reveal the real background of his mission. In the episode The Androids of Algol (No. 205 of January 22, 1955), the extraterrestrial conqueror Raymo shows a strong resemblance to the Italian dictator Mussolini .
Protagonists
- Commander Buzz Corry
He is an astrophysicist and was born in Bakersfield , California . He succeeds his older brother Kit Corry as Commander in Chief of the Space Patrol . The flagship of the Space Patrol , the space cruiser Terra V . Buzz Corry is both the inventor of the Brainograph , a brainwashing machine that transforms the opponents of the United Planets into peaceful and cooperative individuals, and the discoverer of the rare "silver metal" endurium.
- Edward Carlisle
As Secretary General, head of government of the United Planets .
- Carol Carlisle
- Edward's daughter is an astrophysicist and part of the Space Patrol's Research and Development Branch . Together with Tonga she develops various technical devices. Carol is also the liaison officer between the Secretary General and Space Patrol Headquarters .
- Tonga
- She comes from the royal family of the planet Neptune and is a chemist . Prince Baccarratti and his twin brother Zarra are her brothers. Originally a criminal with the nickname Lady of Diamonds , treatment with the Brainograph has made her a loyal employee of the Space Patrol .
- Cadet Happy
Member of the Space Patrol Academy and has been selected by Buzz Corry as closest associate and co-astrogator. He was born in Chicago and, like Corry, trained as an astrophysicist.
- Major "Robbie" Robinson
The security chief of the United Planets and thus a kind of intelligence chief. He is a former land forces sergeant who has made it to the officer's career .
- Prince Baccarratti
The son of the King of Neptune and ruler of planet X. His goal is to establish a tyrannical monarchy over the entire solar system . He is the most dangerous opponent of Buzz Corry.
Production history
The series was obviously designed by Mike Moser in 1950 based on the example of Captain Video and His Video Rangers , which went on air the previous year. Served as a visual model probably the serials of Flash Gordon in the 1930s. Moser, who, like Ed Kemmer , had served as a fighter pilot in World War II , used numerous technical terms for the series from the military sector as well as short stories he had read in Astounding Science Fiction . The Columbia Encyclopedia served as additional inspiration ; especially for the use of scientific terms. It was obviously Moser's aim, as far as this is understandable, to draw the attention of advertising agencies to his series and to win them over as sponsors . He succeeded in May 1951 when Ralston Purina got involved as a sponsor and marketed his products such as Wheat Chex , Rice Chex and Hot Ralston in series.
But Moser achieved the real profit through cooperation with the Gardner Advertising Company , which not only marketed merchandising products from the series, but also called for scripts in which the products were in the foreground to increase advertising and thus sales . To further maximize sales, Ed Kemmer and Lyn Osborn appeared in their roles as Buzz and Happy during the commercials. It also recruited two professional advertisers, Jack Narz and George Barcley, who also appeared as Captain Narz and Captain Barcley in Space Patrol uniforms during the commercials .
Like Captain Video or other early television series, it was shot live for reasons of cost , as film material was too expensive and video technology or VTR technology was not fully developed until 1956 to be used in television production. Merely opening and closing credits were shot on 16 mm material, as to this preserve to use with each new shipment. In order to market the programs outside of the Los Angeles broadcasting area, they were recorded using the kinescope process and sold to other broadcasters. The broadcast was recorded on a television screen with a 16 mm film camera. These films could then be copied and marketed at will.
In a year or two, Space Patrol became a nationwide media phenomenon . In 1952 the series reportedly had seven to ten million regular viewers. The actors' fees rose accordingly. While Ed Kemmer initially received 8 US dollars per day, his annual salary rose to 45,000 US dollars in 1953. Moser was making $ 5,000 a week at times, according to Bassior. According to an announcement from Life on September 1, 1952, the series Gardner Advertising had brought in by this time already 40 million US dollars in merchandising income; according to today's terms (2010) a sum of half a billion to one billion euros.
With the death of Moser, who was killed in a car accident in 1953, production came under pressure because his wife and legal successor, Helen Moser, was not well versed in business. The background to the discontinuation of the series is unclear. What is certain is that Gardner Advertising ended the collaboration with Helen Moser in December 1954. Both the performers and the technicians were completely surprised by the decision.
The end of production was a disaster for the leading actors. While Virginia Hewitt retreated into private life by marrying star designer Ernst Meer , Kemmer, Osborn, Mayer, Bana and Kovacs became unemployed. Osborn and Kovacs in particular were fully identified with their roles as Hap and Prince Baccarratti and were considered "burned". Kemmer, Mayer and Bana finally managed to return to television; Kovacs became an acting teacher in New York. Osborn died in 1958 at the age of 32 from a brain tumor.
According to Kemmer, a total of 1400 television and radio plays were produced; precise statistics are not available. The only thing that is certain is that 210 half-hour programs were recorded, of which the titles, brief synopsis and the dates of the first broadcast have been preserved. The final episode, The Atomic Vault , aired on February 26, 1955.
target group
The commercial target group of the series were children and young people, although none of the roles were occupied by members of the target group as in the series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, which was also produced at the same time .
Was funded Space Patrol by intermediary advertising for the company Ralston Purina (from May 1951) and Nestle (from January 1954), the two protagonists Commander Buzz Corry and Cadet Happy occurred in the commercial breaks. However, the real profit came from the distribution of merchandising products operated by the Gardner Advertising Company .
Merchandising
The Gardner Advertising Company, with offices in New York and St. Louis , was already offering 80 Space Patrol products in September 1952 , including T-shirts, uniforms, hats, boots, aviator scarves, weapons ( rocket gun , cosmic smoke gun , car Sonic rifle ), a mono-view outer space plastic helmet , cardboard models of airports, cities and spaceships through to pajamas and a Martian totem head in the price range from 25 cents to 3.98 US dollars. The membership kit alone , which received a Space Cadet ID, a map of the universe, the Space Patrol Handbook , a photo of the main characters and a badge, produced 664,751 copies. An Official Space Patrol Catalog ensured targeted marketing.
The actors were also used outside of production on special promotional tours in which the so-called Ralston Rocket was used; a 35- foot- long dummy of the space cruiser Terra . It was exposed as the main prize in a competition in 1955. This campaign also served to maximize the sales of Ralston products, since the children and teenagers were more or less forced to take part in the competition to buy lots of packs of Wheat or Rice Chex.
The mostly young fans were strongly tied to the series through advertising, merchandising marketing or letters to the editor and were addressed as space patrollers . The American author Donald A. Wollheim criticized the strong attachment of young people to such science fiction television series in satirical form in 1969 in his short story Order for the Space Grenadiers , in which Tom Corbett and Space Patrol can easily be recognized.
In addition, Space Patrol released at least 107 radio plays from October 25, 1952 to around mid-1955; In addition, there were two comic editions in 1952 .
Trick technique
The miniature sets for Terra City , for example, were made of cardboard , the spaceships in various sizes were made of plastic . The entire technical inventory for the spaceships or spacesuits came from separated war material from B-24 Liberator bombers.
Some of the costumes were borrowed from older film productions, such as Prince Baccarratti's black leather suit, which came from the 1939 Colombia serial Flying G-Men . For reasons unknown, the falcon emblem on the chest of the suit that characterized the protagonist of the old series, the Black Falcon , has been retained.
Since the technicians and screenwriters for early American television mostly came from the radio , the visual implementation of the plots in the early stages of the series was sometimes quite clumsy and heavy on dialogue. The sound engineers, however, were highly professional; the start of the spaceship was effectively highlighted in the opening credits with the sound of a toilet being flushed. However, due to the live broadcast, the simplest, but at the same time most important visual trick technique , the stop-motion process, could not be used.
The film was shot with three television cameras that were very immobile and had to be moved from scene to scene to the sets . Close-ups of people were often not generated by tracking shots, but by the actors' own movements as they approached the camera (so-called internal montage ). Nevertheless, technicians like “Truck” Krone and Bob Trachinger managed to create visual effects that were unusual at the time, such as the pulsating space cruiser Terra V in Powerdrive .
Due to the live nature of the programs, there were numerous breakdowns, as guest actors forgot the text or stagehands crossed the set during the recording. In the event of extreme failures, a pause image was displayed. The regular actors like Kemmer and Osborn often had to improvise in order to cover up failures by the guest actors. In many cases, the scripts were not on set enough to give the actors time to study the lyrics. The texts were then attached to inconspicuous places on the set with notes and could be read during the recording.
Broadcast times
The first strip shows , initially 15 minutes long , were broadcast live weekly on March 9, 1950 by the local Los Angeles television station KABC, which was owned by the American Broadcasting Company . From December 30, 1950 to February 26, 1955, 210 half-hour episodes went on air, which were recorded using the kinescope method and then marketed nationwide. At the same time, however, the 15-minute shows continued to be produced as weekly programs until the summer of 1953; the last broadcast in this format was probably on August 7, 1953.
Lore and re-broadcast
As far as we know, only a fraction of the television broadcasts have survived. These are apparently all kinescope copies of the half-hour broadcasts.
Apparently because of the Sputnik shock in 1957 and the associated renewed interest in space travel , the first broadcasts were re-broadcast in August 1958. Allegedly, the series was also sold to Cuba in 1958 , which had a high density of television receivers. It was broadcast again in 1964 and in the mid-1980s.
From 1990 onwards, a good dozen episodes were edited by the Rhino Home Video company on three VHS cassettes in NTSC format. A DVD has also been available since 2009, which apparently contains the consequences of the video edition.
The journalist Jean-Noel Bassior, an aficionada of Space Patrol , conducted interviews with dozens of actors, producers and technicians involved for a good 20 years, and did extensive research in the contemporary press. It also turned out that apparently no more production documents exist. She published her research in 2005 under the title Space Patrol. Missions of Daring in the Name of Television (Jefferson, NC / London).
See also
Literature and documentation
- Donald F. Glut , Jim Harmon: The Great Television Heroes. New York 1975.
- Jean-Noel Bassior: Space Patrol. Missions of Daring in the Name of Television. Jefferson, NC / London 2005.
- Francis Linke: Space Patrol Memories by Tonga. Vol. 1-3, Los Angeles 1966, 1976, 1977 (private print).
- Jack Haggerty, Jon C. Rogers: Spaceship Handbook. Livermore, CA 2001.
- Donald A. Wollheim: Order for the space grenadiers (LAST STAND OF A SPACE GRENADIER). in: How far is it to Babylon? TWO DOZEN DRAGON EGGS. Utopian-technical narratives. Munich 1972, pp. 139-147.
- TV Guide Looks at Science Fiction. Video documentation from 1997 with William Shatner with excerpts from Space Patrol .
- Cynthia J. Miller / A. Bowdoin Van Riper (ed.): 1950's "rocketman" TV series and their fans. Cadets, rangers, and junior space men , New York (Palgrave Macmillan) 2012. ISBN 978-0-230-37731-8
Web links
- Space Patrol in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Space Patrol at solarguard.com (English)
- Space Patrol at bravepages.com (English)
- Official website of the book by Jean-Noel Bassior at spacepatrolbook.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Space Patrol - Sponsors: Ralston-Purina (1951–54), Nestle Chocolate (1954–55) on solarguard.com, accessed May 20, 2013.