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Colorized promo image of Tom Corbett. |
The concept
for the series came from a blending of sources. Joseph Greene,
a writer for various genres across various media, had conceived of a
space-faring hero named Tom Ranger in 1946. He had written the character into a
radio script along with his colleagues, Kit Koo and Bob Bradley, and their
ship, the Space Arrow. The script was submitted to Orbit Feature Services Inc.
under the working title The Space Cadets, and later Space Academy, but
it went unproduced. Greene tried again by adapting his characters into a
syndicated newspaper strip in 1949, but again it never saw production.
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Heinlein's Space Cadet. |
In 1950, CBS was looking to compete with DuMont’s
popular series, Captain Video and his Video Rangers. Green saw an
opportunity to give his Tom Ranger concept another go, but there was a slight
hitch. In the interim, Robert A. Heinlein
published a juvenile novel called Space Cadet
in 1948 which featured concepts very close to that of Tom Ranger. Rockhill
Productions, who Greene submitted one of his scripts to, was interested in
developing the concept for their expansion into television. They purchased the
rights for the term “Space Cadet” from Heinlein and used the connection to
bolster publicity for the project. At the insistence of Rockhill’s Stanley
Wolf, the title was expanded to Tom Ranger, Space Cadet. From there, Tom
Ranger would go on to become Tom Corbett at the last minute.
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Space Academy. |
Tom
Corbett, Space Cadet was set in the 24th Century. Earth had
become a commonwealth with cities combined into several megalopolises and had
established colonies and outpost throughout most of the inner solar system
called the Solar Alliance. The peacekeeping force charged with protecting the
Alliance was The Solar Guard, who were also tasked with exploring the unknown
and conducting scientific research. Cadets enlisted into the Space Academy with
the hopes of joining the Solar Guard—provided they could cut the mustard both in
skill and meeting the stringent discipline requirements of the Academy.
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The original crew: Roger, Tom and Astro. |
Cadets were
grouped into units of threes with an emphasis on teamwork. Tom Corbett (Frankie
Thomas, Jr., in his 30s at the time he was cast to play a teen) was the command
cadet for his, which also featured Roger Manning (Jan Merlin) and Astro (Al
Markim), and were directly overseen by Captain Steve Strong (Michael Harvey for
the first 6 episodes, replaced by Edward Bryce when he had difficulty
remembering his lines). Astro was an orphan born on the Venus colony with an
extensive knowledge on rockets and their engines, making him the power cadet in
charge of fueling the ship’s engines with radioactive material. Manning, while
being a brilliant astrogator, was a brash and arrogant ladies’ man (an
improvised line cemented his smartass personality) who initially harbored
racist feelings towards Astro until they eventually worked through their
differences. He served as the unit’s radar cadet. A 4th
classification, Advanced Science Cadet, would sometimes accompany the unit on
missions but typically stayed behind at the Academy doing research. Together,
the cadets manned the spaceship Polaris.
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Ad featuring Dr. Joan Dale. |
Other
characters included Commander Arkwright (Carter Blake), the head of the
Academy; Dr. Joan Dale (Margaret Garland, Pat Ferris for 2 episodes), an
instructor who developed the Hyper-Drive (a small bit of progressivism at the
time); Major “Blastoff” Connell (Ben Stone),
an incredibly strict member of the Academy who would had loved to expel the Polaris
crew; Cadet Alfie “the Brain” Higgins (John Fielder, in his first role),
science cadet; and Cadet Eric Rattison (Frank Sutton), Tom’s rival at
the Academy.
Tom
Corbett, Space Cadet made its debut on CBS on October 2, 1950. The series
was written by Art Wallace, Albert Aley, Jack Weinstock, Willie Gilbert,
Richard Jessup, Palmer Thompson, Ray Morse, Alfred Bester, George Lowther, Stu Byrnes and Thomas. Unlike Space
Patrol, which had debuted months prior, Tom Corbett was more
character-driven than action-oriented. Although it would take some liberties--such
as creating the Hyper-Drive to allow for faster than lightspeed travel to
distant locations--the series held closely to scientific accuracy (as
established at the time) overseen by technical advisor Willy Ley; a German
scientist and writer who became an expert on rocketry. As a result, the Polaris
crew didn’t employ things like laser guns and didn’t encounter many aliens.
Instead, the series was kept “grounded” with common, everyday situations
familiar to the audience but set in space, and themes borrowed extensively from
old westerns. The small budget and limited technology were a boon, forcing the
scripts to be extremely focused and brisk in their pacing.
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A cutaway diagram of the Polaris. |
Tom
Corbett became a smash hit, running 5 seasons. It received praise for its
mature storytelling and innovative special effects. Tom Corbett had the
rare distinction of being the first program to be broadcast across all four
major networks during its run. The first season ran on CBS before moving to ABC for the next two seasons. The show was aired
3 days a week and was broadcast live for 15 minutes an episode. During the ABC
run, three episodes would be repackaged and condensed into a 30-minute show
with narration by Thomas to serve as a summer replacement for The Victor
Borge Show on NBC Saturday nights. After
an 11-month hiatus, Tom Corbett returned on the DuMont Network, airing
alternate Saturdays. 7 months later, the final batch of episodes would return
to NBC on Saturday mornings. Despite the hiatuses, the show’s popularity
remained strong.
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The diminutive T.J. joins the crew. |
After the
DuMont run, Merlin decided he wanted to leave the show to avoid being typecast
as a space cadet for the rest of his career. For the final NBC run he was
replaced by Jack Grimes as T.J. Thistle; a cowardly cadet who tended to have a
chip on his shoulder because of his short stature. The NBC run, sponsored by Kraft, featured a significant reduction to the
already miniscule budget, further limiting the amount of sets used and
resulting in the removal of Jackson Beck as the long-serving narrator. When its
popularity did finally begin to wane, the show was ultimately cancelled; however,
it was strongly considered as late as 1957 to bring the show back to the
airwaves.
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One of the newspaper strips. |
The show’s
popularity led to a wealth of merchandising and spin-off opportunities. A comic
strip ran from September 9, 1951 to September 6, 1953 drawn by Ray Bailey and primarily
written by Paul S.
Newman. Grosset
& Dunlap, for whom Greene worked as an editor, published a series of 8
juvenile novels written by the pseudonym Carey Rockwell
(believed to have been Greene himself). The books generally featured a lot of
inconsistencies when compared to the television show, however Ley also served
as scientific advisor for them. Saalfield Publishing
Co. released a coloring
book in 1952, and Wonder Books published a children’s book in 1953 called Tom
Corbett’s Wonder Book of Space. From January 1 to June 26, 1952,
a radio program aired adapting television episodes into a half-hour show twice
a week with the cast reprising their roles. An album featuring
several songs from the series was released by Golden Sound Records in 1951, as
well as a recorded
adventure in 1952 from Little
Nipper Junior Records.
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The cover to Dell's Tom Corbett #9. |
Dell Comics began
publishing comics based on the show in 1952. The first three adventures were
featured in Dell’s tryout book for potential new series, 4-Color, in
#’s 378,
400 & 421. Satisfied with audience reaction, Dell spun-off the series into its own title
beginning with #4 and in an issue of March of Comics
with issue #102.
As the show tapered off, Dell cancelled the title with #11 in 1954. Prize Comics
took up the license in 1955 and published three more issues. In
1990, Eternity Comics
reprinted the Dell/Prize comics as The Original Tom
Corbett, Space Cadet, along with two of their own 4-issue limited series
in a manga style. The Dell/Prize books were reprinted again in
2017 by PS Artbooks as
part of their Pre-Code Classics series. Bluewater Productions (now Tidalwave Productions) went on to
publish a new 4-issue
series in 2009. Bluewater also partnered with The Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air
to produce a dramatic
radio version of their series.
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One of the View-Master slide images. |
Space Cadet Identification
Badges and miniature spacemen, and a Strato-Treasure Hunt Game were made
available with purchase of Red Goose Emery Oxford Shoes; one of the show’s
sponsors. The spacemen were also available with John C. Roberts Shoes. During Kellogg’s sponsorship, a membership kit was
offered through their Corn
Flakes brand. They also rebranded their cereal Pep into Pep: The Solar
Cereal, which featured cardboard cutouts of space cadet gear and a premium
giveaway of goggles.
When Kraft took over sponsorship, a Space
Cadet Membership Kit was offered for .25 cents and a Kraft tab or wrapper. Among
other merchandise was various tin and plastic toys were made by Marx, including
a pistol
and playsets;
metal
lunchboxes made by Aladdin; a
plastic space
helmet from Plasti-Cole Products, Inc.; a costume
from Yankiboy Play Clothes; a three-reel
View-Master set; and
more.
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The album. |
Tom
Corbett had a lasting impression on science-fiction, as well as introduced
the terms “space cadet” and “blastoff” into the lexicon that would become
closely associated with the genre. Following the conclusion of the series,
Rockhill came under possession of the IRS for
failure to pay taxes. Direct Recordings, Inc., ended up purchasing Rockhill’s
property from the IRS, including the rights to Tom Corbett. The
remaining artifacts from the show retained by Wolfe were donated to the
University of Southern California. In 1984, Greene gave his personal kinescopes
of the show to nostalgia merchant Wade Williams, who also
possessed a number of the half-hour, 15-minute and radio shows. In 1993,
Thomas, Markim and Merlin were reunited to perform one of the old episodes as a
radio broadcast for Friends of
Old Time Radio. Thomas, who viewed the Corbett role as the role of a
lifetime, requested to be buried in his space cadet uniform upon his death in
2006.
Excellent summary of the show's history, but two little nitpicks about the pictures. First, the photo you have labeled as "Tom, Astro and Roger" actually shows Tom, Astro and T.J. Thistle who replaced Roger when Jan Merlin left the show. Second, the photo labeled "Tom in his space suit" is actually an edited version where someone pasted Tom's face onto a photo of Astro in his space helmet, see the post from the Tom Corbett facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/320062871526365/posts/1017469338452378/ for details.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you're interested in a more complete episode guide, the book "The Golden Age of Telefantasy" by Alan Morton has a very detailed one that covers all the 15-minute serialized episodes as well as the self-contained 30-minute ones.
Thanks for the corrections! Always appreciate when fans point out any goofs that I can fix. And thanks for the book recommendation. I'll grab a copy as soon as finances allow.
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