Ripcord (1962)

 

Any discussion of the 1962 episodes of parachuting adventure series Ripcord must at some point deal with its confusing chronology and, with it, syndicated series in general. Unlike network-sponsored shows, syndicated series such as this one were developed by independent companies and sold to local stations to air when and where they chose. And therein lies the rub in terms of historical chronology--since each local station could choose what to air and when, there is no defined first air date for any episode. Further muddying the waters is the confusion over the two different kinds of syndicated shows--newly developed and independently produced shows versus what were essentially reruns of canceled series, which could be network-produced programs or older independently produced shows. Even TV Guide gets it wrong in their September 15, 1962 Fall Preview issue when they say that syndicated shows are only of the canceled variety being shown in reruns but include Death Valley Days in their list of examples. Death Valley Days, one of the longest-running westerns in TV history, continued producing new episodes through the 1969-70 season. For Ripcord the confusion stems from the mismatch between the episode numbers for Season 2 both on the DVD reissue and the imdb.com listing and the copyright dates in the closing credits for each episode. For example, while the first two episodes of Season 2, "Aerial Backfire" and "Among Those Missing" have 1962 copyright dates (and I have been able to confirm from my incomplete and random collection of 1962 TV Guide magazines issued from several different regional markets) and were aired at least by October 18 and 25, 1962, respectively, the third episode, "Chute to Kill" has a 1963 copyright date in the closing credits, though it is listed as a 1962 episode on imdb.com. Continuing this hodge-podge sequencing, Episodes 4 and 5 are copyrighted 1962, while Episodes 6, 7, and 8 are copyrighted 1963 (the last of these is listed as a 1962 episode on imdb.com). Episode 9, "Flight to Terror" has a 1962 copyright (imdb.com lists it for 1963), while Episode 10, "A Free Falling Star," has a 1963 copyright. Episodes 11 and 12 are both copyrighted 1962, the last listed by imdb.com for that year. However, Episodes 13, 20, 21, 24, 25, 27, and 29 all have 1962 copyrights, though imdb.com lists them as 1963 episodes. I have been able to confirm from my TV Guide collection that episodes 20, 21, 27, and 29 all aired somewhere in 1962. It would not be unusual for an episode copyrighted in 1962 to be first aired in early 1963 (this happens regularly with network-produced shows which are filmed weeks ahead of their first airing), but I have found no evidence of a 1963 copyrighted show airing in 1962. It is unclear where the episode-numbering scheme originated, whether from production company records or elsewhere, but if it were from the production company itself, it appears that the episodes were not filmed or aired in sequence. All of which brings us to the reason for this lengthy discussion: this blog post will cover all the remaining Season 1 episodes not covered in our first post for Ripcord as well as the Season 2 episodes with a 1962 copyright date, regardless where they appear in the episode-numbering scheme.

We've already covered the show's origins in our previous post on the 1961 episodes, but a 2014 review of the Season 1 DVD set on dvdtalk.com sheds some light on the confusing world of syndicated television mentioned above. Apparently, Ripcord production company Ziv Television Programs, Inc. owner Frederick Ziv had started out as a radio program syndicator but learned in the early 1950s that he could make even more money by producing independent TV series and selling them directly to local stations. Among his other popular productions were The Cisco Kid, Highway Patrol, and Sea Hunt. However, Ziv hit its peak popularity in the mid-to-late 1950s, by which point the major networks saw the money Ziv was making and decided to muscle in on the business by offering local stations reruns of their canceled series, which were more attractive to the stations since they were proven commodities rather than new, untested product. Ziv's money pot began drying up, and by the early 1960s, the time when Ripcord went into production, he was forced to sell out to United Artists, which is why you will see their trademark and logo on Season 2 Ripcord credits. The changing landscape of syndicated television is perhaps as big a reason for Ripcord's short, 2-season run as the danger involved in filming the real parachute jumps mentioned in our previous post on this series. After all, the series was credited with a huge increase in civilian parachuting interest during its run as well as huge sales of its tie-in children's toy parachutist. The fact that Season 2 was filmed in color shows that United Artists was apparently going all-in to make the show a hit, but the odds against it proved too high to continue beyond 1963.

Other changes for Season 2 included the dismissal of Ripcord pilot Chuck Lambert played by Paul Comi. While Shug Fister was retained in his role as Charlie Kearn, the other Ripcord pilots for Season 2 were the show's credited "technical advisors" Lyle Cameron and Leigh Hunt using their own first names as character names, a la The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. The plots, however, did not change much from Season 1 to Season 2--medical rescues that sometimes require paramedic Jim Buckley to perform surgery by dictation, kidnapping ransom drops, apprehending escaped convicts, international espionage, insurance fraud schemes, and Ted McKeever jumping out of a plane holding a dog ("Thoroughbred" in Season 1, "Aerial Backfire" in Season 2) are all used in multiple episodes. All of which begs the question, how realistic would it have been to run a parachute-for-hire business in the early 1960s? Granted, the business landscape has changed plenty since then--drones with cameras can perform a lot of the surveillance that Ted and Jim are ostensibly hired to carry out, and it would seem likely that there are fewer inaccessible parts of the country that can be reached only by air (though it is also likely there were not as many such places in 1961-63 as the Ripcord plots seemed to suggest). These days, the only non-military applications for parachutists appear to be training civilian thrill seekers (as the Ripcord boys do regularly, though their students always seem to have some kind of ulterior motive, like insurance fraud) and wildfire "smoke jumpers"--firefighters trained to parachute into dangerous wildfires to help control their spread, which is what we see Ted and Jim doing in the aforementioned "Aerial Backfire" and the Season 1 episode "Millionaire Doctor," which quickly turns into the familiar medical rescue story. It's also worth noting that today's parachute tourism trainers often barely survive financially and live in their own RVs that allow them to travel the country to drum up seasonal business, as opposed to being housed in an expansive warehouse space with front offices, secretaries, intercom systems, etc., as shown on Ripcord. Milt Platt, one of the stuntmen who performed real-life jumps filmed for Ripcord and profiled in a 2009 article in the Orlando Sentinel, ran his own parachute consulting business at the time (while he was also working as a deputy sheriff for the LAPD), Parachuting Associates, but the bulk of his business was providing film and aircraft services for the film industry, such as filming Johnny Carson's 1968 first attempt at parachuting which ended up being shown on The Tonight Show. But then, real-life accuracy isn't the main objective of Ripcord--it's high-flying adventure.

And nothing spells adventure like jumping out of a plane without a parachute, which happens both in Season 1 and Season 2 and provides the most hair-raising film sequences of the series, especially when one considers that the sky-diving sequences are real, not the faked type of Hollywood make-believe seen in Frankie Avalon surfing movies. In Season 1's "Hi-Jack," Ted and Jim are hired by an aerospace company to locate a submerged test space capsule and then fly with the company's owner, a leading space scientist named Dr. Elmo Gossett, and an attractive female meteorologist back to Florida for no real reason only to find the plane hijacked by the president's greedy assistant and a duplicitous airplane steward and flown to what is clearly meant to be Cuba. The assistant's plan is to force everyone aboard except Gossett to parachute out of the plane before it reaches Cuba but keep Gossett hostage so that he can be forced to work for the enemy. So Gossett has no parachute, and after the assistant pushes an unconscious Jim out of the plane only to have him miraculously regain consciousness in time to pull his own ripcord, Ted pushes Gossett out of the plane with no parachute and then dives after him, catches him in mid-air, and lands safely with him using Ted's parachute. As someone with an acute fear of heights, watching someone free-falling from 10,000 feet without a parachute is unsettling, even knowing that it is a filmed TV episode and that everyone survived. The same stunt is repeated in Season 2's "Panic at 10,000" only this time a pair of politicians are trying to fly to an airport dedication in a private plane only to have the landing gear stick so that they can't land and then discover that in their haste to take off they forgot to bring along any parachutes. The airport where they are destined, with Ted Knight as chief air traffic controller, does not have the necessary equipment for a crash landing, so their only option is to abandon the craft over an unpopulated area. Ted McKeever comes up with a scheme to fly over the top of them and lower parachutes down to them on a rope into the open canopy of the damaged plane, but he is only able to successfully drop them one parachute as two others miss the catch of the passenger politician, and with the private plane about to run out of gas, there is no time for Ted and company to land, pick up more parachutes, and try again. So Ted's new plan is to have one of the politicians jump with the parachute he actually caught, while the other politician continues to pilot the plane and then jumps out without a parachute with Ted diving after him from his own plane and catching him in mid-air, just as in "Hi-Jack." This time the stunt doesn't seem quite as scary, perhaps because we've already seen it executed successfully, or maybe because it's filmed in color, which doesn't seem quite as noirish.

Speaking of dangerous mid-air stunts, we mentioned in our previous post that a mid-air accident during the filming of Season 2 caused the production company to begin using more stock footage. That accident occurred when two planes were trying to allow a stuntman to lower himself from a rope tied around the wheel well of the Ripcord plane onto the tail fin of a second plane while being filmed from a third plane. Due to unexpected turbulence, the two planes touched and crashed, though both pilots and the stuntman were able to parachute safely. The footage from that accident, available for viewing on youtube.com, was reportedly incorporated into two Season 2 episodes, one of which was "The Lost Ones" in which Jim Buckley almost dies doing the stunt from the real-life accident and suffers from PTSD so that he does not want to jump again. However, after refusing to accompany Ted on a jump into the Baja desert as part of a U.S. Coast Guard test of their search and rescue capabilities (who knew the Coast Guard rescued people in mountainous deserts?), Jim is forced to power through his nerves when Ted is lost after slipping over the edge of a cliff while spreading out his parachute as a signal for the Coast Guard to find him, and Jim has to jump down to his location to pull him back to safety (for some reason, the Coast Guard can't do this). The use of stock footage, however, appears to have been confined to other story elements besides Ted and Jim parachuting, at least in the episodes copyrighted in 1962. In any case, the series should be commended for handling a topic like PTSD (though it isn't called that here) and depicting the very real dangers of the sport of sky-diving, even when carried out by experienced professionals. A little more of that vulnerability from the main characters and a little less uber macho bravado would have made for a more interesting and less formulaic series.

One more trivia tidbit: in the final episode for Season 1, "Para-Nurse," Allison Hayes plays a wise-cracking parachuting nurse who Ted and Jim compete for (and lose). Kudos to whoever came up with the idea of filming her from the ground up to make her look taller when she makes her first appearance, since her most famous movie role was the title character in The Attack of the 50-Foot Woman.

The Actors

For the biographies of Larry Pennell, Ken Curtis, Shug Fisher, and Paul Comi, see the 1961 post on Ripcord.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 1, Episode 15, "The Silver Cord": Robert F. Simon  (shown on the left, played Dave Tabak on Saints and Sinners, Gen. Alfred Terry on Custer, Frank Stephens on Bewitched, Uncle Everett McPherson on Nancy, Capt. Rudy Olsen on The Streets of San Francisco, and J. Jonah Jameson on The Amazing Spiderman) plays former military paratrooper Speed Domaine. George Dunn (Jessie Williams on Cimarron City and the Sheriff on Camp Runamuck) plays Ripcord pilot John Chapman.

Season 1, Episode 16, "Thoroughbred": Doris Dowling (starred in The Lost Weekend, The Blue Dahlia, Bitter Rice, and Othello and played Irene Adams on My Living Doll) plays thoroughbred race horse owner Margo Kane. Lee Van Cleef (shown on the right, starred in High Noon, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and played John Peter McAllister on The Master) plays her husband Henry. Grant Woods (Capt. Myles Keogh on Custer) plays a local sheriff.

Season 1, Episode 17, "Ransom Drop": Ric Marlow (shown on the left, wrote the lyrics to "A Taste of Honey" for which he won a Grammy) plays a kidnapper. Jack Raine (appeared in Mine Own Executioner, Dangerous When Wet, and Julius Caesar) plays inventor Brandon Oliver.

Season 1, Episode 19, "Double Drop": James Coburn (shown on the right, starred in The Magnificent Seven, Charade, Our Man Flint, and In Like Flint and played Jeff Durain on Klondike and Gregg Miles on Acapulco) plays fugitive payroll robber Bert Tucker. Kenneth MacDonald (played the judge 32 times on Perry Mason, played Col. Parker on Colt .45, and appeared in several Three Stooges shorts) plays kidnapped Dr. Page.

Season 1, Episode 20, "The Financier": Russ Conway (Fenton Hardy on The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure, Gen. Devon on Men Into Space, and Lt. Pete Kile on Richard Diamond, Private Detective) plays presumed dead financier E.J. Bowen. Myron Healey (shown on the left, played Doc Holliday on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays his business partner Joe Manson.

Season 1, Episode 22, "Desperate Choice": Dan White (appeared in Arizona Whirlwind, Taza, Son of Cochise, Attack of the Giant Leeches, and The Sergeant Was a Lady and played Dan Fraser on From These Roots) plays prospector Simmons. Leslie Barrett (Judge Hanley on Dark Shadows) plays college professor David Croft. Wayne Heffley (Officer Dennis on Highway Patrol and Vern Scofield on Days of Our Lives) plays a park ranger.

Season 1, Episode 23, "Diplomatic Mission": Dick Simmons (shown on the right, appeared in Lady in the Lake, Love Laughs at Andy Hardy, Look for the Silver Lining, and Battle Circus and played Sgt. Preston on Sergeant Preston of the Yukon) plays Army commander Col. Jock Sutherland. Walter Brooke (appeared in The Graduate, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and The Nude Bomb and played Henry Forsythe on The Young Marrieds, D.A. Frank Scanlon on The Green Hornet, Mr. Gibson on Bright Promise, and Clarence Johnson on The Waltons) plays imposter U.N. agent Frank Taylor.

Season 1, Episode 24, "Hagen Charm": Arthur Franz (shown on the left, starred in Flight to Mars, The Member of the Wedding, and The Caine Mutiny and played Bill Winters on World of Giants and Hugh McLeod on The Nurses) plays sports and war hero Dr. Joe Hagen.

Season 1, Episode 25, "The Helicopter Race": Tom Brown (see the biography section for the 1960 post on Mr. Lucky) plays business owner Frederick Stanton. Norman Alden (Lucius Grundy on Not for Hire, Johnny Ringo on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Captain Horton on Rango, Tom Williams on My Three Sons, Coach Leroy Fedders on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Al Cassidy on Fay, and Frank Heflin on Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and voiced Aquaman on Super Friends and The All-New Super Friends Hour and Hank McSummers on Devlin) plays his pilot Owen Driskill. John Bryant (Dr. Carl Spaulding on The Virginian) plays Driskill's boss and co-conspirator. Dyan Cannon (shown on the right, starred in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Shamus, Heaven Can Wait, Revenge of the Pink Panther, and Deathtrap and played Lisa Crowder on Full Circle, Judge Jennifer Cone on Ally McBeal and Ally and Honey Bernstein-Flynn on Three Sisters) plays secretary Marion Hines.

Season 1, Episode 27, "Hi-Jack": Whit Bissell (shown on the left, starred in He Walked by Night, Creature From the Black Lagoon, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, and Hud and played Bert Loomis on Bachelor Father, Calvin Hanley on Peyton Place, and Lt. Gen. Heywood Kirk on The Time Tunnel) plays space scientist Dr. Elmo Gossett. Vinton Hayworth (see the biography section for the 1961 post on Lawman) plays space capsule company owner Mr. Burton. Betty Lou Gerson (appeared in The Red Menace, The Fly, and The Miracle of the Hills and voiced Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmations) plays his wife Emily. Liam Sullivan (Major Mapoy on The Monroes, Dr. Joseph Lerner on The Young and the Restless, Dr. Wallace on General Hospital, and Mr. Willis on Knots Landing) plays Burton's assistant Jeffrey Hamlin. Elaine Devry (daughter of a Disney animator and Mickey Rooney's fourth wife) plays meteorologist Dr. Eve Malloy. Bing Russell (father of Kurt Russell, played Deputy Clem Foster on Bonanza) plays Burton's private pilot Capt. Larkin. Don Edmonds (appeared in Gidget Goes Hawaiian, Beach Ball, and Wild Wild Winter and played Nicky D'Angelo on Broadside) plays his co-pilot Capt. Finchon.

Season 1, Episode 28, "The Human Kind": Kenneth Tobey (shown on the right, starred in The Thing From Another World, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, and It Came From Beneath the Sea and played Chuck Martin on Whirlybirds, Dick Robinson on Our Private World, and Russ Conway on I Spy) plays itinerant rural preacher Rev. Dr. Darrell. Paul Lambert (appeared in Spartacus, House of Women, The Big Mouth, and Mama's Dirty Girls and played Tom Dalessio on Executive Suite) plays rogue ranch hand Colin Garth.

Season 1, Episode 31, "Elegy for a Hero": Lang Jeffries (shown on the left, one-time husband of Rhonda Fleming, played Skip Johnson on Rescue 8) plays former Army hero Lt. Wally Griffin.

Season 1, Episode 32, "Cougar Mesa": Michael Pate (starred in Face to Face, Julius Caesar, Hondo, and Tower of London and played Chief Vittoro on Hondo and Det. Sgt. Vic Maddern on Matlock) plays insurance fraudster John Durlin. Della Sharman (shown on the right, wife of Skip Homeier, played Nurse Johnson on Dr. Kildare) plays his girlfriend Jackie Campbell. William "Billy" Benedict (played Trouble in 4 Little Tough Guys features, Skinny in 5 East Side Kids features, and Whitey in 23 Bowery Boys features) plays dude ranch owner Mr. Wheelwright. Joey Faye (Myer in Mack and Myer for Hire) plays insurance adjuster Harry J. Babbitt.

Season 1, Episode 33, "Last Chance": Hank Patterson (shown on the left, played Pete Duggan on The New Adventures of Spin and Marty, Fred Ziffel on Green Acres and Petticoat Junction, and Hank Miller on Gunsmoke) plays flamboyant prospector Harry Travis. Tom London (starred in Six-Shootin' Sheriff, Song of the Buckaroo, and Riders in the Sky) plays claim jumper Garret.

Season 1, Episode 34, "Log Jam": Michael Harvey (appeared in Tycoon, Berlin Express, and Return of the Bad Men and played Capt. Steve Strong on Tom Corbett, Space Cadet) plays lumber company owner George St. Martin. Paul Langton (shown on the right, played Leslie Harrington on Peyton Place) plays his foreman Sam Haney.

Season 1, Episode 35, "Mile High Triangle": Robert Sampson (Sgt. Walsh on Steve Canyon, Father Mike Fitzgerald on Bridget Love Bernie, and Sheriff Turk Tobias on Falcon Crest) plays desperate gambler Eric Ashley. Kathie Browne (shown on the left, played Angie Dow on Hondo and was Darren McGavin's second wife) plays his wealthy wife Liz. Walter Mathews (Clyde Bingham on General Hospital) plays debt collector Charley Carroll.

Season 1, Episode 36, "Millionaire Doctor": George Macready (starred in Gilda, Detective Story, A Kiss Before Dying, Paths of Glory, and Dead Ringer and played Martin Peyton on Peyton Place) plays pushy millionaire Hal Glinders. Lee Philips (shown on the right, starred in Peyton Place and The Hunters, and played Ellery Queen on The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen; also directed 60 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show and multiple episodes of Peyton Place, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Doris Day Show, and The Waltons) plays his son-in-law Dr. Ian Kendrick. Meade Martin (Joe Demarest on Michael Shayne) plays Glinders' son Mark. Norman Leavitt (Ralph on Trackdown) plays air traffic controller Ed.

Season 1, Episode 37, "One for the Money": Johnny Seven (shown on the left, played Lt. Carl Reese on Ironside) plays fugitive murderer Johnny Monday. George E. Carey (Lamont Corbin on General Hospital) plays his associate Al Crown. Marie Worsham (Stacey Lee Balla on Kitty Foyle) plays weather balloon reporter Joan. William Sargent (Jerry Carter on Peyton Place) plays police Sgt. Kenyon. Grant Woods (see "Thoroughbred" above) plays Ripcord pilot Bob Archer.

Season 1, Episode 38, "Para-Nurse": Allison Hayes (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Bat Masterson) plays nurse Laura Coakley. Harry Carey, Jr. (starred in Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Mister Roberts, and The Searchers and played Bill Burnett on The Adventures of Spin and Marty) plays forest ranger Carl Devlin. Grant Woods (see "Thoroughbred" above) returns as Ripcord pilot Bob Archer.

Season 2, Episode 2, "Among Those Missing": Gordon Jones (shown on the left, appeared in The Green Hornet, Flying Tigers, My Sister Eileen, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and McLintock! and played Mike Kelley on The Abbott and Costello Show, Pete Thompson on The Ray Milland Show, Hubie Dodd on So This Is Hollywood, and Butch Barton on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays police Capt. Tom Blacker. Paul Lambert (see "The Human Kind" above) plays fugitive Joe Sandoe. Lyle Cameron (technical advisor on Ripcord) plays the Ripcord pilot.

Season 2, Episode 4, "Day of the Hunter": King Calder (Lt. Gray on Martin Kane) plays munitions company CEO John Harland. Karl Swenson (shown on the right, played Lars Hanson on Little House on the Prairie) plays his employee Will Gorman. Richard Evans (Paul Hanley on Peyton Place) plays Gorman's son Billy.

Season 2, Episode 5, "Devil's Canyon": Pat Conway (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Tombstone Territory) plays escaped convict Johnny Bicker. Paul Birch (Erle Stanley Gardner on The Court of Last Resort, Mike Malone on Cannonball, and Capt. Carpenter on The Fugitive) plays his former boss Bill Dean. Audrey Dalton (appeared in Titanic (1953), Separate Tables, and Kitten With a Whip) plays Dean's wife Janice. William Boyett (Sgt. Ken Williams on Highway Patrol and Sgt. MacDonald on Adam-12) plays State Police officer Capt. Paris.

Season 2, Episode 9, "Flight to Terror": Joe De Santis (appeared in Deadline - U.S.A., I Want to Live!, Al Capone, and Madame X) plays fleeing racketeer Louis Santee. Al Ruscio (shown on the right, played Paul Locatelli on Shannon, Sal Giordano on Life Goes On, Frank Ruscio on Joe's Life, and Kosta Kanelos on Port Charles) plays his bodyguard Carlo Minelli. Jay Douglas (Officer Len Dorsey on Highway Patrol) plays FBI agent Bill Cramden. Leigh Hunt (technical advisor on Ripcord) plays Ripcord pilot Leigh.

Season 2, Episode 11, "Hostage Below": Richard Eastham (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Tombstone Territory) plays wealthy businessman Don Hart. Mikki Jamison (first wife of musician Jimmy Griffin later of the group Bread, appeared in Ski Party, Beach Ball, and played Veronica Lodge in two Archie-comics-based TV movies that were unsold pilots) plays his daughter Laurie. Paul Lambert (see "The Human Kind" above) plays kidnapper Dick Kupper.

Season 2, Episode 12, "The Hunter": Gerald Mohr (shown on the right, narrator on 19 episodes of The Lone Ranger, Christopher Storm on Foreign Intrigue, voice of Mr. Fantastic and Reed Richards on Fantastic 4) plays professional assassin Cliff Street. Russ Conway (see "The Financier" above) plays Secret Service agent Mr. Scott.

Season 2, Episode 13, "Infiltration": John Zaremba (shown on the left, played Special Agent Jerry Dressler on I Led 3 Lives, Dr. Harold Jensen on Ben Casey, Admiral Hardesy on McHale's Navy, Dr. Raymond Swain on The Time Tunnel, and Dr, Harlem Danvers on Dallas) plays drug-smuggling boss Harvey Stanton. Ric Marlow (see "Ransom Drop" above) plays his employee Steve Neven. William Sargent (see "One for the Money" above) plays police Lt. Carney. Leigh Hunt (see "Flight to Terror" above) returns as Ripcord pilot Leigh.

Season 2, Episode 20, "The Losers": Leo Gordon (shown on the right, appeared in Gun Fury, Hondo, Quantrill's Raiders, and Big Top Pee-wee and played Big Mike McComb on Maverick) plays uranium prospector Harry. Fred Beir (Larry Atwood on Days of Our Lives) plays his partner Ed Sutton.

Season 2, Episode 21, "The Lost Ones": Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez (shown on the left, appeared in Wings of the Hawk, The High and the Mighty, and Rio Bravo and played Pedro Vasquez on The Texan) plays goat herder Pedro Perez.

Season 2, Episode 24, "The Money Mine": Lee Van Cleef (see "Thoroughbred" above) plays counterfeiting kingpin Jack Martin. John Bryant (shown on the right, see "The Helicopter Race" above) plays government agent Stuart Langton.

Season 2, Episode 25, "Panic at 10,000": Myron Healey (see "The Financier" above) plays Senator Henry Gilbert. Ken Drake (Bragan on Not for Hire) plays his political adversary Rep. Julian Fant. Ted Knight (shown on the left, appeared in The Candidate, Countdown, and Caddyshack and played Phil Buckley on The Young Marrieds, Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Ben Turner on Lassie's Rescue Rangers, Roger Dennis on The Ted Knight Show, and Henry Rush on Too Close for Comfort) plays an air traffic controller. Frank Warren (Officer Simpson on Highway Patrol and grocer Art Crowley on The Andy Griffith Show) plays Gilbert's plane attendant Harry. Lyle Cameron (see "Among Those Missing" above) plays the Ripcord pilot.

Season 2, Episode 27, "A Present for Felipe": BarBara Luna (shown on the right, played Theresa Modesto on Zorro, Maria Roberts on One Life to Live, Anna Ryder on Search for Tomorrow, and Sydney Jacobs on Sunset Beach) plays fiesta sky-diver Domi Dias.

Season 2, Episode 29, "Race Morgan: Bounty Hunter": Johnny Seven (see "One for the Money" above) plays bounty hunter Race Morgan. Lyle Cameron (see "Among Those Missing" above) plays the Ripcord pilot.

 

Ripcord (1961)

After the success of underwater adventure series Sea Hunt, not to mention TV programs about helicopter pilots (Whirlybirds) and twine-engine airplane pilots (Sky King), a series about the then-infant sport of skydiving might seem like the next logical step in television thrills. But the origins of Ripcord, which ran for two seasons from 1961-63, seem to have been less calculated, at least according to the account given in a lengthy 2011 article about the series published on parachutistonline.com by Hal Streckert. Credit for the creation of the series is not crystal clear. Imdb.com credits long-time stunt coordinator Harry Redmond, Jr. with the show's creation, while the Wikipedia article about the series lists Redmond as co-creator with parachutist James Carl "Jim" Hall. Streckert's article says that the series was the "brainchild" of Hall and fellow jumper Dave Burt, based on an interview Streckert had with Hall. In Hall's account, Burt was scheduled to do a promotional stunt jump for Coca Cola in Acapulco, Mexico in 1958 but was injured a few days earlier and was forced to call Hall to fill in for him. With little time for preparation beforehand, Hall missed his landing spot on the beach and instead plunged into the water near a yacht where a going-away party was being held for Hollywood producer Marvin Greenberg. Hall wound up being pulled out of the water onto the yacht and later had a business meeting with Greenberg where they agreed to develop a pilot for a TV series, which was eventually sold to Ivan Tors Films, the same company that was then producing Sea Hunt.

To pull viewers to the edge of their seat and explain the series title, many episodes began with this narration:

"This is the most danger-packed show on television. Every jump, every aerial maneuver is real, photographed just as it happened, without tricks or illusion. All that stands between a jumper and death is his ripcord."

The jumps on the show were in fact real, but not made by lead actors Larry Pennell and Ken Curtis, of course, though Curtis did admit in an interview years later that he and Pennell made some experimental jumps of their own in secret so that they could understand and get the feel of the equipment for their scenes on the ground. The identity of the real parachutists who made the jumps captured on film also seems to be in dispute. Hall told Streckert that the jumpers included Bob Henry, Bud Kiesow, and Vern Williams, whereas the on-screen credits at the end of several episodes list Ben Chapman and Paul Gustine, and the Wikipedia author credits Bob Fleming and Joe Mangione. In any case, according to the Streckert article the personnel changed from Season 1 to Season 2, and despite numerous technological advances made by in-air camera man Bob Sinclair, an accident in Season 2 in which two planes collided caused the production company to begin using more stock footage to avoid risk.

Streckert's article provides some interesting background on co-creator Hall, including his "hobby" of parachuting into remote locations in Mexico in search of lost gold from the Spanish conquistadors. This hobby provided the basis for several 1961 episodes, including the pilot "The Sky Diver" in which Ted McKeever and partner Jim Buckley are paid by a mining company to jump into a remote site in the Mexican Sierra Madre mountains to deliver a unique geiger counter to a team of mining engineers. In order to add suspense to an otherwise unremarkable plot, an unscrupulous prospector gets a look at the geiger counter when McKeever and Buckley are delivered to a waystation before making their jump and decides to steal it after the Ripcord boys have made their delivery, necessitating their return to get it back and rescue the mining engineers. In "Death Camp" McKeever and Buckley are scheduled to jump into a uranium mining camp in Western Canada, only to find that all the miners have been murdered by greedy prospectors who have decided to eliminate their competition. In "Darb" the boys are at the beck and call of eccentric archaeologist Dr. Gustav Merrill, who uncovers a rare ancient Aztec relic and plans to illegally bring it back to the United States rather than turning it over to the Mexican authorities. But while these episodes may have had a real-life inspiration in Hall's own prospecting adventures, others are a bit more far-fetched, perhaps none more so than "Radar Rescue" in which the boys are guided through impossibly thick clouds by a B-52 bombardier, who guides them down like bombs from an altitude of 20,000 feet in order to save a crashed private pilot and his young daughter only to find that the survivors are actually alright after all.

Other episodes tried to introduce current topics or themes that couldn't even be considered tangentially related to skydiving. Juvenile delinquents had been a popular bugaboo in film and television for at least a decade, but Ripcord decided to take them above the clouds in "Airborne," which features a spoiled young punk named Frank "Digger" Dilworth attempting to impress Ripcord student jumper Suzy Thomas by claiming that he can become an expert jumper in a fraction of the time it has taken her. Dilworth exposes his own bluster when he fails to do 10 pull-ups during training and then panics once he is about to make his first free-fall jump, resulting in his dangling precariously from the plane's guide line in mid-air and having to be rescued by McKeever, who cuts the line, grabs Dilworth, and pulls his ripcord during free fall to save his life. Afterward Dilworth is chastened and admits he was all talk, an admission that finally wins Suzy's admiration. The show enters the world of Cold War espionage in "Top Secret" when McKeever and Buckley are persuaded by clueless FBI agent Carl Sexton to prevent his scientist father from defecting to the Cubans, only to realize afterwards that the whole plot was an undercover operation that they have managed to spoil by butting in. The episode "Chuting Stars" briefly references the young NASA Mercury space program when the boys' friend and Air Force Warrant Officer Frank Pierson shows them some film footage of prototype jumping equipment and a Mercury space capsule, only months after Alan Shephard made the first U.S. manned suborbital space flight.

The series also wasn't above borrowing heavily from other TV drama genres, most notably in "The Condemned," which plays out like an episode of Perry Mason when McKeever and Buckley must solve a murder mystery to save the wrongly accused husband of the murder victim. Kidnapping is also a popular plot device, showing up in the aforementioned "Chuting Stars" when McKeever and Buckley enlist Pierson's team of Air Force stunt jumpers to find an abandoned and diabetic socialite who has been kidnapped and then left to fend for herself in remote mountain terrain. "Counter-Attack" combines kidnapping and corporate espionage when they are hired by a man who turns out to be the kidnapper eager to get his hands on electronics material intended for his kidnap victim but currently held by one of the victim's employees.

But much like Sea Hunt, though the heroes found themselves in precarious situations each week, they emphasized the paramount importance of safety. Delinquent Digger Dilworth in "Airborne" gets an earful about the necessity of proper training and practice. "Air Carnival" is a denunciation of a stunt pilot who plays too fast and loose with the boys' safety in order to give an air show audience a few thrills. And the previously mentioned bombardier Bill Kirk, also a student jumper at Ripcord Academy, is banished from the facilities when he deliberately fails to open his chute during a test jump just to see their emergency maneuvers in action. The emphasis on safety and the "Don't try this at home" message was key in Ripcord's marketing strategy to drum up interest in the still-young sport of skydiving. According to Streckert, the Parachute Club of America nearly doubled its membership during the program's run from 1961-63. Like many adventure and western programs of the era, the show also had a number of marketing tie-ins for the youth market in the form of comic books, board games, and an especially popular plastic parachutist figure with attached chute that could be thrown in the air and then glide slowly back to earth. If Hall's initial intention in developing the series was to increase interest in his sport, he certainly succeeded, even if the program never made the top 30 in the ratings (a tall order considering that it was a syndicated show). However, the authenticity of the actual jumps, particularly the crash in Season 2 in which fortunately no one was injured, may have contributed to the show's cancellation, as Streckert notes. The series producers may have eventually had to heed their own advice about not taking unnecessary risks in the sport of skydiving.

Though no specific credit is ever listed for the Ripcord theme, the score for each of the first 7 episodes is attributed to Stanley Wilson, then head of creative activities for NBC's Revue Studios. Wilson was born in New York City, the son of Russian and Austrian immigrants, and gave his first recital on trumpet at age 5. After briefly attending City College of New York to study medicine, he dropped out to pursue a music career and by age 16 was playing with notables such as Bobby Hackett. He studied orchestration with Nathan Van Cleave and played in the bands of Eddie Brandt and Herbie Holmes before moving to California with two of his uncles, one of whom, Joseph Ruttenberg, went on to become an Academy Award-winning cinematographer. After playing for a few years with the Freddie Martin orchestra at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, Wilson joined the MGM music department after World War II before moving to Republic Pictures the following year. There he scored dozens of low-budget B films such as Daughter of the Jungle, Ghost of Zorro, King of the Rocket Men, The Invisible Monster, Flying Disc Man From Mars, Insurance Investigator, Radar Men From the Moon, Zombies of the Stratosphere, and Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders. In the mid 1950s he began working on drama anthology TV programs such as Studio 57 and The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse before moving over to series like Crusader, The Restless Gun, and Broken Arrow. He was nominated for a Grammy for his work on the soundtrack album to the crime drama series M Squad and is credited with helping integrate TV soundtracks by hiring composers such as Count Basie, Benny Carter, and Juan Antonio Esquivel to work on Revue productions. He is also credited with adapting Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" for use as the theme to Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He stayed busy composing and/or serving as music supervisor for dozens of TV series through the remainder of the 1960s but died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 52 on July 12, 1970 shortly after giving a presentation on composing for television and film at the Aspen Music Festival. A scholarship was endowed at UCLA in his honor for a student in brass and composition, and in 2013 John Williams (who worked for Wilson on M Squad) and Steven Spielberg successfully lobbied to have one of the streets on the Universal Pictures lot named after him.

Both seasons have been released on DVD by TGG Direct.

The Actors

Larry Pennell

Lawrence Kenneth Pennell was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, but his family moved several times during his early childhood, including to Niagara Falls, NY before eventually settling in Hollywood. Though he was the newspaper delivery boy for the Paramount Pictures studio near his home, he was more interested in sports as a star baseball player for Hollywood High School, from which he was recruited to play for USC by legendary Trojans coach Rod Dedeaux. At age 19 he was drafted by the Boston Braves major league team and sent to Bluefield in the D-level Appalachian League, where he set a league record for RBI with 147 in 1948. He was moved up to C-level Modesto the next season and then advanced to B-level Evansville, Illinois, though the higher-level competition dropped his batting average to .196. After spending the 1950 season at Jackson in the B-level Southeastern League, Pennell served in military counter intelligence in the Korean War during 1951-52 before returning to play another season at Evansville in 1953. In between baseball seasons Pennell had become more involved in acting in his hometown of Hollywood, so when his contract was acquired by the Brooklyn Dodgers following the 1953 season, he decided to make the move to acting full time and signed a contract with Paramount. Though choosing not to move to Brooklyn for baseball, he ended up going to New York anyway to study acting  under Sanford Meisner and Stella Adler. His film debut came in the 1955 biopic of abolitionist John Brown Twelve Angry Men. He went on to secure supporting roles in such major films as The Far Horizons with Charlton Heston and Fred MacMurray and The FBI Story with Jimmy Stewart and was given lead roles in B-grade films like Hell's Horizon and The Devil's Hairpin. His television career began in 1956 on drama anthology series such as General Electric Theater and Studio 57 before moving on to guest spots on series such as West Point, Tombstone Territory, and The Millionaire. His big break came when he was cast as parachutist Ted McKeever on Ripcord in 1961.

Following Ripcord's two-year run, Pennell landed a series of one-off guest spots on shows like The Outer Limits, The Virginian, and Wagon Train as well as an occasional film role (Our Man in Jamaica), but in 1965 he made the first of 10 appearances on The Beverly Hillbillies as Elly Mae Clampett's movie actor boyfriend Dash Riprock, the role for which he is best remembered today. After another spate of TV guest spots and occasional film roles, he landed another semi-recurring role as Keith Holden in the penultimate season of the long-running Lassie series in 1972-73. The rest of the 1970s continued his pattern of occasional TV and film work before appearing 4 times as Street in the 1979 series Salvage 1. The following year he made the first of three appearances playing Clark Gable in the TV movie Marilyn: The Untold Story. He played Gable again in the feature film Another Chance in 1989 and a third time in a 1993 episode of Quantum Leap. TV and film roles decreased during the 1980s, but in 1991 he appeared as Hank Pulaski on the long-running soap opera General Hospital. He appeared in the Elvis-is-still-alive spoof feature film Bubba Ho-Tep in 2002 and after a few more credits over the next several years had his final role as Charles the butler in the 2011 feature The Passing. He passed away at the age of 85 on August 28, 2013.

 

Ken Curtis

Born Curtis Wain Gates in Lamar, Colorado, Curtis grew up on a ranch in Muddy Creek until age 10 when his father moved the family to the county seat Las Animas so that he could run for sheriff. Typical for the time, the family lived in the jailhouse and Curtis' mother cooked for the prisoners. One regular customer was a man named Cedar Jack who would cut cedar trees for local farmers, then come to town, get drunk, and wind up in jail. Curtis later said that he based his Gunsmoke character Festus Haggens on Cedar Jack. But before he took up acting, Curtis began in show business as a singer. After high school, Curtis studied medicine at Colorado College before leaving to pursue a music career. When Frank Sinatra was the featured singer in Tommy Dorsey's big band, Curtis was hired as a possible for replacement should Sinatra decide to pursue a solo career, which he did in 1941. Dorsey convinced Curtis to adopt the stage name Ken Curtis, but when Dick Haymes was hired as the band's featured singer in 1942, Curtis left and joined the band of Shep Fields. After serving in the Army during World War II, Curtis resumed his singing career and was invited by Johnny Mercer to sing on his radio show, where he performed the song "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" in honor of that week's star Jo Stafford's latest single. The performance was impressive enough to land him a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1945, for whom he appeared as a singing cowboy in several feature films over the next 5 years, often as a character whose first name was Curt. In 1948 he was the host and featured singer on the radio program WWVA Jamboree, and the following year he joined the western group The Sons of the Pioneers, singing lead on their hit "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky." His marriage to director John Ford's daughter Barbara led to roles in many of Ford's productions in the 1950s including Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, Mister Roberts, The Searchers, and The Horse Soldiers. In 1959 he also tried his hand at movie producing, resulting in two extremely low-budget monster films The Killer Shrews (in which he also appeared) and The Giant Gila Monster. Other than a 1957 appearance on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and a 1959 TV movie, Curtis' TV career didn't really kick off until 1959 when he appeared twice on Have Gun -- Will Travel and Gunsmoke followed by guest spots on Perry Mason, Wagon Train, and again Have Gun -- Will Travel and Gunsmoke the following year. Besides appearing in another Ford western in 1961, Two Rode Together, Curtis landed his first starring TV role as senior parachutist Jim Buckley on Ripcord.

While Ripcord was still in production, Curtis made his first appearance as Festus Haggens in a 1962 episode of Gunsmoke entitled "Us Haggens." After Ripcord was canceled, Curtis appeared one more time on Gunsmoke as a character other than Festus in October 1963 before assuming his career-defining role in 1964, staying with the series for almost another 300 episodes until its cancelation in 1975. During this 11-year period Curtis did little else on screen besides Festus, but when the show was not in production he toured the country headlining a Western-flavored variety show. After Gunsmoke Curtis' credits were somewhat sparse until he was cast in a supporting role as Hoyt Coryell on the 1983-84 western series The Yellow Rose, which starred David Soul and Cybil Shepherd. After that series' demise, he compiled only 5 more credits over the next 7 years, the last being the TV movie Conagher in 1991 before passing away in his sleep at age 74 on April 28, 1991. A statue of Curtis as Festus stands today in Clovis, California where Curtis spent his later years.

Shug Fisher

George Clinton Fisher was born in Tabler, Oklahoma and from an early age learned a variety of instruments, including mandolin, fiddle, and guitar, on which he would accompany his father at local square dances. After his father and he drove to the San Joaquin Valley in California to work as fruit pickers, he found work playing on Fresno radio before being invited by Tom Murray to join his new group, the Hollywood Hillbillies, after the latter had left his previous group, the Beverly Hill Billies. He spent much of the 1930s as a member of various hillbilly country music bands and appeared on radio programs in California, West Virginia, and Ohio before being invited during World War II to join the Sons of the Pioneers when some of their members were drafted into the service. During this period the group appeared in a series of Roy Rogers movies. When the drafted members returned from the war in 1946, Fisher left the group but rejoined in 1949, the same time that Ken Curtis did. From that point forward, the two were the best of friends, and Fisher, like Curtis, appeared in many John Ford productions, including Rio Grande, Mister Roberts, and The Searchers, as well as other non-Ford films that starred Curtis, such as Riders of the Pony Express and Stallion Canyon. He even appeared in Curtis' monster film The Giant Gila Monster in 1959. When Curtis was signed to star in Ripcord, Fisher came along to play pilot Charlie Kern in 31 episodes during the series' two-year run.

After Ripcord's cancelation, Fisher continued to find occasional work on TV shows such as Bonanza, Petticoat Junction, The Virginian, and Daniel Boone. He made the first of his 27 appearances on Gunsmoke 2 years before Curtis became a regular on the series, and he was cast in a semi-regular role as Shorty Kellems on the Beverly Hillbillies during 1969-70 shortly after Larry Pennell made his last appearance on the series as Dash Riprock. In the 1970s he landed an occasional non-western TV guest spot on show such as Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Petrocelli, and Starsky and Hutch, but he wound up his acting career with roles on The Dukes of Hazzard and Harper Valley P.T.A. in 1982. He retired to Studio City, California and died two years later at the age of 76 on March 16, 1984 with his lifelong friend Ken Curtis at his side.

Paul Comi

Paul Domingo Comi was born in Boston, Massachusetts and joined the Army after graduating from high school in 1949. He won three Purple Hearts during the Korean War in 1950-51 and after his discharge from the military in 1952, he moved to California, enrolling at El Camino Junior College, where he served as class president. He was awarded a scholarship to the USC School of Dramatic Arts and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1958. After apprenticing at the La Jolla Playhouse, he was signed to a contract by 20th Century Fox and made his feature film debut in The Young Lions in an uncredited part. That year also saw him break into television with supporting parts on M Squad, The Silent Service, and Steve Canyon. In 1960 he was cast as Deputy Johnny Evans in the TV western Two Faces West, which lasted only a single season. That role was followed by his semi-regular role as pilot Chuck Lambert on Ripcord, on which he appeared 14 times over two seasons.

He continued to find regular work after Ripcord on series such as The Twilight Zone, Ben Casey, and Dr. Kildare. He played the character Yo Yo in 6 episodes of Rawhide during the final 1964-65 season. He stayed active throughout the remainder of the decade with multiple guest appearances on show such as 12 O'Clock High, The Virginian, The Big Valley, The Wild Wild West, and The Fugitive. In the 1970s he made multiple appearances on The Bold Ones: The Lawyers, Cannon, and Barnaby Jones as well as having minor roles in feature films such as Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and The Towering Inferno. In 1982 he began a two-season stint as George Durnely on General Hospital and followed that with a season and a half as Victor Markham on another daytime soap opera, Capitol, in 1985-86. The roles lessened but continued to be steady throughout the remainder of the 1980s and into the early 1990s on programs such as Highway to Heaven, Knots Landing, and L.A. Law. He retired from acting after a 1995 appearance on Baywatch. Today he serves as President of Caffe D'Amore, Inc., a company founded by his wife Eva, the creator of the first instant flavored cappucino.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 1, Episode 1, "The Sky Diver": Russell Johnson  (shown on the left, starred in It Came From Outer Space, This Island Earth, and Johnny Dark and played Marshal Gib Scott on Black Saddle, Professor Roy Hinkley on Gilligan's Island, and Assistant D.A. Brenton Grant on Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law) plays mining engineer Stan Warner. Don Kennedy (the voice of Tansut on Space Ghost Coast to Coast) plays prospector Henry Kruger. Roberto Contreras (Pedro on The High Chapparal) plays a Mexican bandito. Marlyn Mason (Sally Weldon on Ben Casey and Nikki Bell on Longstreet) plays a pool-side ogler.

Season 1, Episode 2, "Air Carnival": Stuart Erwin (starred in Men Without Women, Make Me a Star, Women Are Trouble, and The Bride Came C.O.D. and played Stu Erwin on The Stu Erwin Show and Otto King on The Greatest Show on Earth) plays air show owner Justin Rock. Med Flory (played clarinet in the Ray Anthony orchestra and founded and plays alto sax in the group Super Sax, appeared in Gun Street, The Nutty Professor (1963), and The Gumball Rally, and played Sheriff Mike McBride on High Mountain Rangers) plays Ripcord pilot Billy Gibson. Willis Bouchey (Mayor Terwilliger on The Great Gildersleeve, Springer on Pete and Gladys, and the judge 23 times on Perry Mason) plays Rock's roustabout Hank. 

Season 1, Episode 3, "Airborne": Susan Silo (shown on the right, played Rusty on Harry's Girls and a prolific voice actor on shows such as The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, James Bond, Jr., and Where's Waldo?) plays parachute student Suzy Thomas. 

Season 1, Episode 4, "Chuting Stars": John Agar (starred in Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Sands of Iwo Jima, Woman of the North Country, Revenge of the Creature, The Mole People, and Attack of the Puppet People) plays Warrant Officer Frank Pierson. William Sargent (Jerry Carter on Peyton Place) plays police Det. Will Kenyon. Stephen Pearlman (Murray Zuckerman on Husbands, Wives & Lovers) plays a kidnapper. Paul Sorensen (Andy Bradley on Dallas) plays a poacher. 

Season 1, Episode 5, "Colorado Jump": Jean Carson (shown on the left, played Rosemary on The Betty Hutton Show) plays publicist Blanche Telford. Grant Woods (Lt. Kelowitz on Star Trek and Capt. Myles Keogh on Custer) plays plane pilot Bob Archer. 

Season 1, Episode 6, "The Condemned": Denver Pyle (shown on the right, played Ben Thompson on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Grandpa Tarleton on Tammy, Briscoe Darling on The Andy Griffith Show, Buck Webb on The Doris Day Show, Mad Jack on The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, and Uncle Jesse on The Dukes of Hazzard) plays hunting lodge owner Charles Guest. Sara Selby (Aunt Gertrude on The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure, Lucille Vanderlip on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, Miss Thomas on Father Knows Best, and Ma Smalley on Gunsmoke) plays his wife Sarah. John Mitchum (see the biography section for the 1960 post on Riverboat) plays Guest's employee Sam. Michael Pataki (Roberto on The Flying Nun, Charlie Dreyfus on Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers, Capt. Barbera on The Amazing Spider-Man, and Vladimir Gimenko on Phyl & Mikhy) plays condemned husband Joe Bartram. John Zaremba (Special Agent Jerry Dressler on I Led 3 Lives, Dr. Harold Jensen on Ben Casey, Admiral Hardesy on McHale's Navy, Dr. Raymond Swain on The Time Tunnel, and Dr, Harlem Danvers on Dallas) plays Bartram's lawyer. Med Flory (see "Air Carnival" above) plays an unnamed Ripcord pilot.

Season 1, Episode 7, "Counter-Attack": Ken Drake (Bragan on Not for Hire) plays an FBI agent.

Season 1, Episode 8, "Crime Jump": Burt Reynolds (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Riverboat) plays a parachutist assassin. Richard Arlen (starred in The Virginian, Dangerous Paradise, Gun Smoke, Island of Lost Souls, and Alice in Wonderland) plays Homicide Capt. Phillip Hanna. Leo Penn (father of Sean, Chris, and Michael Penn, played Dr. David McMillan on Ben Casey, and had at least 87 directing credits including 19 episodes of Ben Casey, 11 episodes of Bonanza, 18 episodes of Marcus Welby, M.D., and 27 episodes of Matlock) plays former Ripcord student Johnny.

Season 1, Episode 9, "Darb": Harry Townes (starred in The Brothers Karamazov, Screaming Mimi, and Sanctuary) plays eccentric archaeologist Dr. Gustav Merrill. 

Season 1, Episode 10, "Death Camp": Kelton Garwood (shown on the right, played Beauregard O'Hanlon on Bourbon Street Beat and Percy Crump on Gunsmoke) plays a murderous prospector. 

Season 1, Episode 11, "Derelict": Alan Baxter (appeared in Saboteur, Close-Up, and Paint Your Wagon) plays a tug boat captain. Marshall Reed (Inspector Fred Asher on The Lineup) plays his first mate Harvey. Ray Teal (Jim Teal on Lassie and Sheriff Roy Coffee on Bonanza) plays a shipping line owner. 

Season 1, Episode 12, "Top Secret": Robert Clarke (shown on the left, appeared in The Man From Planet X and The Astounding She-Monster, starred in and directed The Hideous Sun Demon, and was married to Alyce King of the King Singers) plays FBI agent Carl Sexton. Paul Birch (Erle Stanley Gardner on The Court of Last Resort, Mike Malone on Cannonball, and Capt. Carpenter on The Fugitive) plays his father Dr. Rupert Sexton. John A. Alonzo (cinematographer on Vanishing Point, Harold and Maude, Lady Sings the Blues, Chinatown, Scarface, Steel Magnolias, and Star Trek: Generations) plays Cuban agent Amendarez. 

Season 1, Episode 13, "Radar Rescue": John Considine (brother of Tim Considine, played Grant Capwell on Santa Barbara) plays U.S. Air Force radar engineer Bill Kirk. Jack Hogan (starred in The Bonnie Parker Story, Paratroop Command, and The Cat Burglar and played Kirby on Combat!, Sgt. Jerry Miller on Adam-12, Chief Ranger Jack Moore on Sierra, and Judge Smithwood on Jake and the Fatman) plays Air Force B-52 pilot Major Jackson. Edward Norris (starred in Bad Guy, Boys Town, Back in the Saddle, Career Girl, and End of the Road) plays private pilot George Anderson. 

Season 1, Episode 14, "Sierra Jump": Byron Morrow (shown on the right, played Capt. Keith Gregory on The New Breed and Pearce Newberry on Executive Suite) plays aeronautics board investigator Henry Harris.