Space Patrol

The classic television series Space Patrol was a stellar success for ABC from 1950 to 1955. As a pioneer in the hair-raising world of live television, the show had a huge fan base of both children and adults. The magic hinged on the cast: Commander Buzz Corry, Cadet Happy, Carol, Major Robertson and Tonga--five 30th-century personalities whose lives entwined with soap opera strength as they undertook "missions of daring in the name of interplanetary justice." A personal appearance by the cast at a Los Angeles department store drew 30,000 fans. But TV viewers had no idea that the actors and crew faced dramatic as well as galactic peril. In the course of producing an action-packed show live before the nation, with special effects in their infancy, what could go wrong usually did. Ed Kemmer, a real-life World War II fighter pilot shot down and captured by Nazis, who later starred as Commander Corry, learned to improvise for nervous, tongue-tied guest actors and to lean casually against scenery about to fall.

Jean-Noel Bassior is a journalist based in Los Angeles. She has written for Redbook, McCall’s, Parade, AARP The Magazine, Woman’s World and many other publications, and her work has been syndicated worldwide.