ABC Television Center Memories

     When I went to work at ABC-TV in the 1960s, I got to meet many of the original crew members and engineers who worked the show. One of the technical directors of the show Bob Trachinger had become the chief engineer for the West Coast and hired me into engineering. Another TD, Irwin Stanton was technical director on the live Lawrence Welk show at the time I arrived.

     Many of the engineers who had worked that show were around and eager to tell stories of the fun that had gone into putting that show on the air “Live”. They could still point out existing reminders of what had been Space Patrol. High up in the catwalks of stage E, where Lawrence Welk did his live telecasts, were sections of the walls still painted to resemble the stone walls of the evil villain Prince Baccaratti’s castle hideout. Visits to the prop room’s attic revealed a few dusty, leftover, props and miniatures from the show. I became friends with Marvin Jacobs, a technical engineer who specialized in optics, and he told me stories of how he had gone to local army surplus stores and bought great electronic “junk” to trick up Corry’s Terra V spaceship. He assembled most of those evil inventions for the villains to manipulate in their quest to take over the United Planets from good old WW II army surplus bargain tables…anything he thought might look sci-fi high tech. He bought old bombsights, scopes and anything that could be disguised as something from the future. Later when the show went national and the local 15 minute show was just a memory, a special effects team was hired and the budget of the show escalated to the figure of $25,000, a far cry from what Marv had to work with in the early days of the show. Three brothers; Oscar, Paul and Franz Dallons handled the effects. They went on to movies and even did the effects on Captain Midnight’s TV episodes.

     I was astounded to learn that in the beginning, the lead actors Buzz and Happy made approximately $8 per 15-minute episode and had to hold down second jobs to make ends meet. Their hope was that the show would go full network. It did that in June of 1951. Eventually, by 1955, the leads were making at least $45,000 per year. Their gamble on the show eventually going network had paid off. They made personal appearances all over the country in a mock-up of the Terra V (similar to the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile).

     Space Patrol, being live television, generated many on-camera fluffs. Once when Buzz and Happy were flying through space in their space ship Terra V, the TV camera was viewing them through the cockpit window and a classic blooper occurred. As we looked in on them, on the other side of the far cockpit portal a stage carpenter walked by. He was completely oblivious to the fact the show was on the air. How did that guy live in outer space and walk where there was nothing to stand on? It did not effect Buzz and Happy’s performance in the least; they had to save the world.

     The sets were paper-thin and had a bad habit of falling over during action scenes. Many times the actors had to rush to prop up a wall with their bodies while delivering their lines at the same time. Often Buzz and Happy were required to appear in a live commercial for Ralston or Nestles and would have to rush from a scene, sit down and appear to be very calm and while delivering their lines for the sponsor’s product. This could require some fast footwork as sometimes they were high up in the catwalks of stage “E” and they had to hastily climb down the ladders to the main stage floor and go off to a corner where the commercial was set up. Many times commercials for Nestle’s Quik or Ralston’s cereals were recited by an out of breath Buzz or Happy. In addition, since all the fight scenes were live, sometimes punches that were supposed to miss connected and the blood was real, but that was not sufficient reason to miss doing the commercial.

     In 1953 KECA-TV aired one of the first trials of a three-dimensional broadcast featuring Space Patrol. It was not a great success. The blurry pictures on their screens did not entertain viewers. So much for a 3-D version of Space Patrol.

     Space Patrol faded from the airwaves in 1955 after Ralston and Nestle withdrew their sponsorship. Space Patrol’s creator, Mike Moser had died and ABC attempted to buy the rights to the series from his widow. She would not sell. Reruns ended up in syndication in some places as Satellite Police. Today, you can buy many different collections on video. The Nostalgia Merchant originally released some in 1981 and then again in 1990 Rhino Home Video released virtually the same tapes with different artwork on the boxes. Newly discovered old “kinescope recordings” have surfaced and are available on the collector’s secondary market. My favorite premium, the Cosmic Smoke Gun, sells regularly on E-bay for many hundreds of dollars. All the Space Patrol good “junk” has become prized collector’s items.

And so, Space Patrol lives on in memory, cherished by us “Pre-Star Wars” space opera junkies.

     Recently I had the chance to talk with a writer, Jean-Noel Bassior. She called in conjunction with a book she is writing: the defining book on Space Patrol. She had just toured the ABC Hollywood lot and my name was given to her by a manager who knew of my passion for the show. We spoke of the old KECA-TV days and of the people and things that made Space Patrol what it was. When this book is published, I will be first in line to buy a copy. Look for it.
     I have often wished aloud in these pages that I still had my Cosmic Smoke Gun and Space Patrol Rocket Dart pistols to place on the shelf alongside my Buck Rogers Atomic Pistol and other assorted ray guns…Just recently I have acquired both guns through constant searching of the internet. They will go up with their companion pieces in places of honor. As Cadet Happy so often exclaimed, “Smokin’ Rockets!”

To see these premiums in all their glory, click the picture.

Link to Space Patrol Memories Pt. 1.

© Tom Mason 2000