The United States military is not just a fighting force. They also often
serve as an army of relief workers. Eastern Europe (and considerable stretches
of Western Europe too) were in need of relief, during the immediate aftermath of
WWII. Col. Steve Canyon has volunteered for a mission of mercy, but like any
military operation, it will be imperiled by circumstances beyond his control in
“The Gift,” the Christmas episode of Steve Canyon, co-written by Ray
Bradbury (adapting his own short story), which airs next Saturday morning on
Decades.
Bradbury’s
original story does not feature Milton Caniff’s beloved hero or even the USAF,
but if you read it, you can probably start visualizing how he and series story
editor Sidney Carroll re-purposed it for the Canyonverse. As the episode opens,
Canyon is flying to a displaced persons camp, to shuttle refugee children from Iron
Curtain countries to West Germany, where families in the Allied Sectors have
volunteered to host them for the holidays.
Initially,
journalist Bert Quillan is flabbergasted by the operation. Indeed, “The Gift”
nicely contrasts the cynicism of the press with the idealism of dedicated
service personnel like Canyon. However, Quillan starts to melt when Canyon
strong-arms him into playing Santa Claus. Much to their concern, little
traumatized Lisa Serenko is not interested in any of the presents under the
tree at the base. To make matters worse, her host family is delayed by a
traffic accident, but Canyon is determined to save Christmas for her somehow.
“The
Gift” is a simple story, but it is refreshingly heartfelt. It gave Dean
Fredericks an opportunity to show his Steve Canyon could be sensitive and
understated as well as tall and commanding. This is some of his best work in
the series, especially opposite the jaded Quillan, nicely played by Sean
McClory.
Aerospace technology moved so fast in the late 1950s and 1960s, sometimes even Lt.
Col. Steve Canyon had trouble keeping up. Early in the Cold War, Zero-length launch
experiments were a high priority, but the concept was rendered largely obsolete
by the advance of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Nevertheless, Canyon
will happily risk his life test-flying a plane literally strapped to a booster
rocket in “Operation Zero Launch,” which airs with “Project Heartbeat” as the two
episodes of Steve Canyon airing this Saturday morning on Decades.
Once
again, Canyon has been dispatched by top brass to be the bearer of bad news.
Instead of calling off “Operation Zero Launch,” a project to launch planes
directly into the air without prior runway taxiing, he has come to speed it up
(or, yes, cancel it outright). Brad Bradshaw, the civilian contractor (and ex-USAF
officer) in charge of the development had decent results from the last dummy he
hurled into the air, but a manned test will be a big leap. Of course, he is
willing to take the risk himself. His sister Rita is not too thrilled about her
brother going back into harm’s way. Yet, there is still romantic tension
brewing between her and Canyon. Regardless, Canyon will inevitably end up in
the cockpit when it really matters.
“Zero
Launch” is one of the better early episodes, because the chemistry between star
Dean Fredrickson and guest-star Marion Ross (who would eventually become the Happy
Days mom) goes a long way humanizing square-jawed Steve Canyon. There is
also plenty of cool aviation stuff, involving booster rockets and ejector
seats.
“Project
Heartbeat” is less successful from both a dramatic and plane-geek standpoint. For
his latest mission, Canyon will be flying around the world hooked up to a heart
monitor, so the Air Force medical department can analyze the physical effects
of long-distance flight. As we would expect, Canyon maintains a heart-rate lower
than Brad Pitt’s in Ad Astra, but Major “Pitch” Hammer? Not so much.
It was like Dragnet for the U.S. Air Force, but there were no guilty
parties whose names needed to be changed in its episodes supposed based on “declassified”
files. The stories really came from the funny pages. Milton Caniff created,
wrote, and drew his beloved action comic-strip for over forty years and
received story credits on the short-lived 1958 TV series adaption. Produced
with unprecedented support from the USAF, Steve Canyon still impresses
for its aviation scenes when it reruns again on Decades, either for early birds
or serious night-owls tomorrow morning on Decades, starting with the
pilot episode, “Operation Towline.”
Lt.
Col. Steve Canyon’s leadership and presence is respected by the men up and down
his chain of command. That is why Gen. “Shanty” Towne requested him for a
special mission and also why Washington dispatched him to put the kibosh on it.
Yet, Canyon will do his due diligence before issuing the shut-down report DC is
hoping for.
Concerned
about the response time to launch interceptors to respond to a missile attack,
Towne hatched a scheme to keep fighters permanently in the air, hitched to a
tanker plane, ready to separate and engage at a moment’s notice. Of course, the
Soviet or their proxies could shoot down the tanker, but the same is true of
aircraft carriers. In this case, towed planes could potentially fare better
than fighters stranded on a sinking carrier. However, there are still a lot of
bugs to be worked out and not a lot of patience among the top brass.
It
is interesting to watch “Towline” in retrospect, years after the controversy of
Reagan’s SDI initiative and the celebrated use of Patriot missiles against Saddam’s
Scuds. You would think even doves would see merit in missile defense technology,
but instead they have usually preferred greater vulnerability, at least for the
West. Towne would not get that. Neither would Canyon.
