Sky King

[Red Voodoo]

Hi gang?

I hope you?ll all indulge me in a little stroll down Memory Lane. This is going to date me (but who cares?). Back when I was in the first or second grade (after the Earth cooled but before the Kennedy administration), Saturday morning television included a lot of live action adventure shows, as well as cartoons. There was Roy Rogers, and Fury, and Rin Tin Tin, and My Friend Flicka. They were all set in the West, which, to a kid growing up in the flatlands and swamps of southeast Georgia, seemed pretty exotic. All of these programs featured simple plots, lots of action, and usually a lesson about doing right.

But the best (my favorite, at least) was Sky King! I mean, the guy lived on a big ranch in Arizona, flew around in HIS OWN AIRPLANE, and helped people in trouble (or thwarted those trying to cause it). It was great! His constant companion was his young, blonde niece Penny (I was much too little to have any particular interest in her ).

Well, fast forward a few decades, and last week my wife and co-builder, as a reward for services rendered in some home renovation work, allowed me to buy the recently-released, 72-episode DVD box set. Booyah! What a sublime if simple pleasure, to sit down and watch an episode or two. I haven?t seen much that I remember from my childhood, but the feeling I get watching Sky King now is hauntingly familiar; kind of comfortable. I guess it?s just good to escape, if only for a little while, from these tumultuous times and retreat to an era where things at least SEEMED simpler.

And yet, in one of the episodes, Sky breaks up a plot to smuggle Mexican laborers into the U.S. to work for nothing in return for the promise of citizenship in a year. So, there in the middle of a fifty-year-old television show is a theme that still resonates today. Anyway, I just had to share these thoughts; I?ll bet there?s someone else out there who remembers Sky, Penny (and her brother Clipper) and the Songbird, and the Flying Crown Ranch. And I?ll even wager that someone will admit to being influenced toward aviation by the show. I certainly was?

[n5lp]

Originally Posted by Red Voodoo

...I?ll bet there?s someone else out there who remembers Sky, Penny (and her brother Clipper) and the Songbird?

I thought of the show just yesterday.

I drove to the airport and sitting there was a pristine, early model, straight tail, polished, Cessna 310. The registration is Canadian.

I thought it must be a lot of trouble to keep a Cessna 140 polished, can't imagine the trouble a 310 would be.

I also always think of the show when I see a "Bamboo Bomber."

[Rick6a]

Red Voodoo............I?ll bet there?s someone else out there who remembers Sky, Penny (and her brother Clipper) and the Songbird, and the Flying Crown Ranch. And I?ll even wager that someone will admit to being influenced toward aviation by the show. I certainly was?

Oh yea. I don't care where the bad guys were, Sky could always manage to land that 310 close enough to the action to run em down on foot! Here is another show you'll likely remember.......I constantly fought with my 2 brothers over an after-school programming conflict. Daily at 4:30 P.M. they wanted to watch "The Three Stooges" and I vastly preferred Chuck Martin and P.T. Moore as "The WhirlyBirds." You can still watch an occasional episode of "The Whirlybirds" on-line. I bet you remember this rousing theme song.
http://www.newwhirlybirds.com/

[L.Adamson]

Since I'm "dated" too, by the fact that this was my favorite series when I was a youngster, I'll have to pick up the DVD's also.

I recorded quite a few episodes, when they ran a bunch of them for a day or two on cable a few years back.

BTW- In my "failing" memory bank, it seems that there was also a "Jet Jackson"-------- I think. Just have heard nothing about it in 45 years or so. And then later there was the the "Whirlybirds" etc.

edit: as I'm writing and posting "Whirlybirds", I see that someone else did also. Great, my memory isn't as "failed" afterall!

L.Adamson

[Red Voodoo]

Whirlybirds! Heck yes! And a few years later, if I recall correctly, "Ripcord". That one featured skydivers. Ken Curtis (later "Festus" on Gunsmoke) was one of 'em.

[Bob Axsom]

I remember the show But I only saw it in passing. I was too old I guess and it seemed to be aimed at a younger audience. In my youth it was the radio serials that pumped the morals and desire to be a hero, etc. Around Sky King time there was a 15 minute (I think) radio show that came on at 10pm that I snuck a radio under the covers so my brother and I could listen to it. It was called "I Love a Mystery" and the star characters were Jack, Doc and Reggie. TV will never capture the magic of those times and shows for me. In my younger days the radio heros were The Lone Ranger, Captain Midnight, The Green Hornet, Superman, Tom Mix, etc.

Bob Axsom

[dlloyd3]

Some of the camera work done on Ripcord, I think, was by Gus Reynolds. See RV6, N39GR.

[gbrasch]

I have a similiar VHS set of Sky King, now if I could only find some old episodes of "12 O'clock High"......

[captainron]

I'll admit to being a pilot today because of this show. I couldn't wait for Saturday morning when all my favorites, Sky, Fury, Circus Boy, etc. would take me away to some other magical place and time. I'm now fifty-six, but have young kids who are the same age now as when I used to watch these shows. It makes me heartsick to see what they have for the kids to watch today, and to know what they're missing out on. Anyone remember Steve Canyon?

[NYTOM]

Boy, this thread is making me misty eyed. Remembering Saturday mornings back when we only had two TV channels. I remember Steve Canyon. I even had one of those plastic jet Helmets like his. Anybody remember Captain Midnight. I must have drank gallons of Ovaltine because of that show. I even sent away for one of the official Squadron rings. Funny but one of my Grandsons favorite drinks is Ovaltine only he doesnt have a TV show to go with it.
Tom Norwood
RV-6A N822PM ( res)
57 and proud of it.