Sky King
This popular live-action series was set on the Flying Crown Ranch in
Arizona, home of wealthy pilot/rancher Schuyler J. “Sky” King, and his
niece and nephew, Penny and Clipper. The trio used Sky's twin-engine
Cessna, ”The Songbird,” to survey the large ranch. Up in the sky, the
Kings would inadvertently stumble on a trapped neighbor or an escaped
fugitive and help the good guys while stopping the bad.
Sky King was a modernized Western, an update of a genre that
was quite popular at the time, with the hero flying an airplane instead
of riding the usual horse. Sky also had the help of his two young
sidekicks, his niece and nephew, which further added to its formula for
success on Saturday mornings.
Sky King began as a popular radio show on the ABC network
before finding success as a television program, one of the few shows to
air on NBC, ABC, and CBS. The only original network season was the
first, on NBC's Sunday evening schedule from 1951-52. These episodes
were rebroadcast on ABC's Saturday morning lineup the following year,
and new episodes were produced when the show went into syndication in
1955. CBS returned the property to Saturday morning for a successful
run from 1959-66, consisting entirely of repeats.
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