Classic Science Fiction Theater: Space Patrol

1950 saw the launch of Captain Video’s competition – the fairly fammiliar Tom Corbett:  Space Cadet (essentially inspired by Heinlein’s eponymous novel) and Commander Buzz Cory of (and you have to write it up this way) Spaaaaaace Patrol!  (Watch the intro and you’ll see what we mean.)

Spacesuits, bubble helmets, spaceships, rayguns and moon bases, this show had them all!

It was also the opportunity for a fan to win an actual rocketship (The Ralston Rocket, created as an advertising premium for Ralston Purina’s Wheat Chex cereal.  All Kip could win was a spacesuit…!)

It was also not the only show to be named “Space Patrol”.  There’s a British marionette show of the same name (1960), as well as a German production – Raumpatrouille (1966, Space Patrol) – which garnered a fair amount of attention and featured futuristic music and dancing in one of its episodes).

But this one, premiering on March, 1950, was the original.

Bonus Feature:  A clip from The Honeymooners, starring Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, where Carney’s character – Public Works employee Ed Norton, watches Captain Video and his Video Rangers while cosplaying!

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