Remember Ripcord..? Not many people do. Ripcord starred Larry Pennell as Ted McKeever, and Ken Curtis as Jim Buckley - two sky diving crimefighters / rescue workers / free fall instructors. They run Ripcord, Inc, along with their pilot Charlie Kern (who replaced the original pilot Chuck Lambert). Together they find adventure behind every cloud. The youthful heroes of this series literally jumped into a new adventure every week. Ted and Jim ran Ripcord Inc., which taught skydiving and also hired out for rescues, recovery work, and other situations where parachutists were needed. Often they landed right in the middle of a crime in progress, and solved that too-- who would expect the good guys to come floating down out of the sky? Chuck was their original pilot, replaced midway through the first season by Charlie Kern.
The series featured a lot of spectacular skydiving scenes, including one involving a fistfight in midair (shot by a cameraman in free-fall with the stuntmen.) At one point, two planes accidentally crashed while filming scenes for the program. With a little script adjustment, the footage of the crash was later used in the series. We are now working on several episodes of this very rare 1950s classic tv show. Check The Nostalgia Merchant soon to purchase these episodes on DVD.
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ReplyDeleteRipcord (first-run syndicated: 1961-1963), starred the late Larry Pennell (1928-2013) as the handsome, headstrong, youthful and colorful parachute fellow Ted McKeever, with the also late Ken Curtis (1916-1991) as his inseparable level-headed older mentor and partner Jim Buckley, was an awesome skydiving adventure series, the most danger-packed show on television ever made by far. Great chemistry, lots of action, heart-pounding stories, not like the crap that's on the small screen today.
ReplyDeleteDo you know that, at the end of every exciting Ripcord episode, Larry Pennell as Ted McKeever, along with Ken Curtis as Jim Buckley, delivered a brief comment, addressing to viewers the importance of safety in skydiving?
ReplyDeleteNow a days they don't make exciting paradiving adventure series like Ripcord anymore, but they need to, and there'll never be another Larry Pennell who plays the handsome, headstrong youthful, colorful, audacious and brave skydiver Ted McKeever nor another Ken Curtis who plays his inseparable level-headed older mentor and best buddy Jim Buckley who teach us the importance of sport parachuting safety, which is something vital for every real life amateur and professional diver or jumper alike and that's all that really matters.
ReplyDeleteRipcord is still the best paradiving adventure series to be on the small screen.
ReplyDeleteFrankly and honestly, there'll never be another Larry Pennell (1928-2013) nor another Ken Curtis (1916-1991) on this planet who play the audacious and brave paradiving heroes, the Ripcord men, Theodore (Ted) McKeever and James (Jim) Buckley respectively, who teach us the importance of sport parachuting safety in the real life.
ReplyDelete