As I have repeatedly stated, I feel like 1959 was the best possible year in which to be born. However, I was born too late to enjoy a television show that had a truly rabid following among Boomer kids who were around to watch it from 1951-1959.
The show was Sky King, and it inspired a significant percentage of its viewers to pursue careers in aviation, or at least to obtain the status of private pilots.
The show starred Kirby Grant as the star character, Sky King. Gloria Winters played his beautiful niece, Penny King, no slouch as a pilot herself.
The show's premise was simple, as were all of those of the era: Sky King would save lives, track down criminals, or help out the downtrodden of various flavors within a thirty minute slot every Saturday morning.
The show was a success on radio, as were so many of the TV shows from the 50's. It originally aired on Sunday afternoons, but was rerun on Saturday mornings, and eventually landed there permanently.
My oldest brother was a big fan, and, largely because of this TV show, landed a career in aviation himself. He flew C-130's during the Vietnam war, and flew jets for Fed Ex until his retirement.
It would be interesting to know how many other professional pilots out there were also Sky King fans.
Skyler King flew two planes during the course of the series, both named "Songbird." The first was a Cessna T-50 "Bamboo Bomber." It was a wood-and-fabric classic beauty which was designed for training WWII pilots. The second was a Cessna 310B, a state-of-the-art twin engine plane first produced in 1953. Aerial filming was done from another 310B, both to match the flying characteristics of the primary plane, and also to provide a backup aircraft for ground and low-level flying scenes.
Sky King lived on a ranch in Arizona with a landing strip that rolled right up to his spacious house. Storylines were kept simple. In fact, many have said you could have substituted horses and cowboys for planes and pilots. But there's certainly nothing wrong with simplicity.
The show was extreme high-tech for the Eisenhower era. Bad guys were foiled with the help of two-way radio and expert piloting. It's not difficult to see how kids watching on little black and white TV screens would be hooked.
Sky King himself was an old-fashioned straight shooter who would take responsibility for his occasional mistakes by explaining his humanness to Penny. She would understand, of course, and all would be well by the end of the episode.
Sky flew his last flight in March, 1959. I was born a few months later. But even though I never saw an episode, I was indirectly affected by riding on countless airliners flown by fans of the series who decided that they would be pilots when they grew up.
Comments (6)
HUGE crush on Penny.
Posted by GoingLikeSixty | July 2, 2007 10:03 AM
Posted on July 2, 2007 10:03
I'm the older brother Ron wrote about in the article. There was nothing like flopping on your belly in front of the tv as the deep voice would intone "Out of the clear blue of the western sky comes SKY KING!!!" while that marvelous airplane flew directly overhead at low level. I was fortunate enough to use that little thrill as the basis for 41 years of flying airplanes.
Posted by yobro | July 2, 2007 10:28 AM
Posted on July 2, 2007 10:28
Kirby Grant died in 1985 in an automobile accident while on his way to
watch a launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger at Cape Canaveral. He was
to be honored by the shuttle astronauts for his achievements in
encouraging aviation and space flight.
Posted by Terry | July 2, 2007 12:33 PM
Posted on July 2, 2007 12:33
Actually, the Sky's original "Songbird" was a civilianized UC-78 -- a light cargo version of the T-50 Bobcat used by the USAAF during WW II. It (c/n 6117) is currently owned by Ferro Lawrence of Clinton, MO, but -- last I heard -- is not in flyable condition.
The 310B (c/n 35548) -- Songbird II -- has a confused history. Some researchers claim it crashed during filming in 1957, killing the pilot. A 310C does, in fact, appear in many subsequent episodes. Also, two other 310Bs were used during filming (as photo chase planes or for some on-camera shots).
You can still buy video collections (even on DVD now) of the episodes from the Experimental Aircraft Association. I own about half of them.
You know, those old shows are still worth watching today. Yeah, they were part of my inspiration to become a pilot. And they still bring a smile to this old pilot's face.
Walt Shiel
Lt Col, USAF (Ret)
http://CessnaWarbirds.com
http://RoughWar.com
Posted by Walt Shiel | July 3, 2007 9:20 AM
Posted on July 3, 2007 09:20
We grew up in Chicago with something even more surreal than Sky King....Clutch Cargo...
the cheapest animation
ever caught on film...
actually the film prob cost more than the "animation", which solely consisted of live-action human talking lips superimposed on static
background...I would like to have been there when they created the concept...."Hey Tony, you say we got just 200 bucks? No prob, lets just film talking lips, and have an intro that takes up half the cartoons 5 minutes..that aughtta make the little bastards happy".
Posted by scott | July 12, 2007 9:13 PM
Posted on July 12, 2007 21:13
To young for this one I guess. I do remember Clutch Cargo.
Posted by Riversend | June 24, 2009 8:23 PM
Posted on June 24, 2009 20:23