For Science Fiction Day: Eight Spacey Shows from the Early Days of TV

January 2 is the day on which Isaac Asimov celebrated his birthday, and as a consequence it has now been embraced by many as Science Fiction Day. It seems like the perfect time for a brief glimpse into a forgotten TV cul-de-sac, the kid-oriented space adventure series of the late ’40s and early ’50s. These super low budget in-studio productions were modeled on the B movie serials released in cinemas since the late ’30s, as well as certain radio series. There is a wonderful innocence to them, though they proved in the end to be “not long for this world”, eclipsed by the likes of anthology series of the Twilight Zone type, and space adventure shows of a more sophisticated nature like Star Trek. Many of these shows were broadcast live and unrecorded, living on only in the memories of the folks were around to see them. As people born in 1945 will be 80 this year, these futuristic programs speak to nothing today so much as the past.

Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1948-55)

Fans of The Honeymooners will know about this show even if they have never seen an episode: it was Ed Norton’s favorite tv show (an indication of his child-like nature). Captain Video was the world’s first science fiction TV series, and by all accounts it was a shaky one. Like a soap opera, the show was broadcast daily, which sounds like an astounding feat to me, so perhaps the cockamamie plots and moments of filler (as when the characters on the show would look at a video monitor and watch an old western) can be forgiven. Richard Coogan was the first Captain Video; after a couple of years he was replaced by Al Hodge, who had played The Green Hornet on radio. Set on earth in the distant future, the titular squad were based atop a mountain from which they fought crime throughout the solar system and beyond. Shown on the Dumont Network,Captain Video was also famous for the wide array of merch they hawked to the kids at home: space helmets, goggles, de-coder badges, ray guns, secret rings, and the like.

Unusually, Columbia made a theatrical film serial based on the show,  Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere (1951), in which Judd Holdren portrayed the good captain. Dumont also produced a Saturday morning spinoff series The Secret Files of Captain Video, which ran 1953-54.

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (1950-55)

Yes! There once was a time when “space cadet” was not slang for a daydreamer! The term was obviously inspired by this show…I seem to recall it creeping into the public consciousness as derogatory slur in the late ’70s. It had originally been coined by Robert A. Heinlein in 1948 for his eponymous novel. The show had been pitched by Joseph Greene as a comic strip and a radio show before being greenlit as a TV series. The setting was a training academy for astronauts set sometime in the future. Frankie Thomas Jr played the titular cadet, who was constantly getting pulled away from his studies into outer space adventures. Isn’t that always the way? Like Captain Video, the show was produced daily. Over the course of its existence it was shown on all four broadcast networks.

Space Patrol (1950-55)

Broadcast by ABC, Space Patrol had the much easier lift of but one show a week, on Saturday Mornings. It was one of the first shows produced on the west coast, and then beamed back east. Set in the 30th century, it starred Ed Kemmer as Commander-in-Chief Buzz Corry of the United Planets Space Patrol, with young Lyn Osborn as his sidekick Happy. Osborn would later be in such related fodder as Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), and The Cosmic Man (1959). Space Patrol was also adapted into a radio series.

Buck Rogers (1950-51)

The original 1939 Buck Rogers movie serial was obviously one of the models for this tv sub-genre in the first place. It probably seemed a no-brainer to ABC to try it out as a weekly series, though I can think of an even more no-brainier no-brainer: do like Gene Autry and repackage your old movies as a “series”. Productions costs: virtually nil! (Not that the show as produced had a stellar budget either!) No fewer than three actors played Buck in the show’s few months of production: Earl Hammond, Kem Dibbs, and Robert Pastene. None of them was Buster Crabbe, undoubtedly one of the reasons this show did not take off into the stratosphere. The most compelling tidbit about this show: a young Eva Marie Saint played the love interest Wilma!

Captain Z-Ro (1951-56)

This was originally a local show, produced in Los Angeles and San Francisco, then syndicated nationally. Unusually, the show was written by its star, Roy Steffens. The titular Captain Z-Ro had a time machine; most of the plots involved traveling back in time to straighten out historical figures when they went off-script!

Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers (1953-54)

This is the show that put no less than Cliff Robertson on the interstellar map. He played Rocket Ranger Rod Brown. Jack Weston was the comic relief “Wormsey”. They flew through space in a nuclear powered ship seeking out wrong doers. Each episode began with the narration: “Surging with the power of the atom, gleaming like great silver bullets, the mighty Rocket Ranger space ships stand by for blast-off. Up, up, rockets blazing with white-hot fury, the man-made meteors ride through the atmosphere, breaking the gravity barrier, pushing up and out, faster and faster, and then…outer space and high adventure for the Rocket Rangers!” If it sounds derivative it was. In fact, the producers were sued by Tom Corbett, Space Cadet more than once for plagiarism. It aired on CBS, and ran only one season.

Flash Gordon (1954-55)

Unusually this show was a U.S.-French-West German co-production. It was filmed rather than broadcast live. It came about because Universal Studios, which had produced the earlier cinematic serial, had let the rights lapse. As with the Buck Rogers series, Buster Crabbe was absent from the proceedings. Male model Steve Holland played Flash.

Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954)

Are we getting repetitive now? Yes, we’re getting repetitive. Yes, we’re getting repetitive. Repetitive. Repetitive. After this show, what next? Rocky Rocket, Rocket Ranger? Ranger Rocky and His Range Rockets? Space Rocket Ricky, Cadet Captain? I could go on forever! To the other side of the galaxy, in fact. This one was also a syndicated show, and filmed, so ironically it is much better preserved than many of those earlier, more seminal programs. It starred Richard Crane, who was previously in the movie serial Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (1953), in which he was sidekick to Judd Holdren, star of the Captain Video movie. Got all that? Rocky Jones yet another show about space-based rocket policemen. It did not fire the imagination of audiences however. It was off the air within a few months.

*****

Meanwhile, back in 2025: Tempestuous domestic news may have kept you from learning of all the ways science fiction has become science fact in the realm of space exploration in recent years.

2005: Huygens space probe lands safely on Saturn’s moon Titan and transmits pictures (that was a while back, but I missed it somehow)

2012: Voyager 1 becomes first human spacecraft to enter interstellar space

2013: China becomes third nation to land a probe on the moon (after U.S. and USSR/ Russia)

2015: first vertical rocket landing accomplished

2019: U.S. Space Force established

2021: China becomes third nation (after U.S. and USSR/ Russia) to land probes on Mars

2023: India and Japan became the fourth and fifth nations to land probes on the moon

2024: new record set for largest number of humans in space at one time: 19.

At this writing, the U.S. is scheduled to launch its next crewed mission to the moon next year (2026), although that early date seems ambitious. The fact that the Chinese are working on a similar project will likely speed things along however. As for crewed missions to Mars, the loudest voices vowing to make it so are in the private sector and have names that rhyme with “Busk”. Most responsible scientific people are still guarded and cautious about the near-term prospects due to the many challenges involved. For the present it remains within the province of science fiction.