TV Series with Vintage Century-Series Fighters

[rwanttaja]

Stumbled on re-runs of the old "Steve Canyon" series from the late '50s on cable TV. It's on the "Decade" network.

Nothing much to praise about the story lines or acting, but the episodes feature a lot of great footage of Air Force aircraft of the 1950s. Two episodes I've seen so far featured air-refueling scenes of a KB-50 with three F-102s, and testing of the zero-length launch system for the F-100. The zero-length launch episode showed initial testing using a dummy aircraft made of steel and concrete, which of course is allowed to slam back into the desert floor.

If you've got a TIVO or other DVR with a search function, search for "Steve Canyon." Have to say I'd never even heard of the series; according to Wikipedia, they did 33 episodes in 1958-1959.

Ron Wanttaja

[DaleB]

I remember the Steve Canyon comic strip, but never knew there was a TV series. Thanks for the tip!

[Joda]

If you've got a TIVO or other DVR with a search function, search for "Steve Canyon." Have to say I'd never even heard of the series; according to Wikipedia, they did 33 episodes in 1958-1959.

I remember the Steve Canyon show! I was just a wee 4 year old but was already airplane-nuts so watched every episode I could. I'll have to search the series out. It will be a fun "blast from the past".

[Hal Bryan]

A friend of mine worked with the Milt Caniff estate to get these once thought lost episodes restored and released on DVD (and in limited release on niche cable channels) a few years ago. The whole set is well worth getting if you have any interest at all in early cold war USAF stuff. Some of the footage (especially the zero-length launch episode Ron mentioned) seems to be higher quality than typical documentary footage of the era. Beautiful time capsule!

https://stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com/