1 9 5 8 – 1 9 5 9 (USA)
34 x 30 minute episodes
Colonel Steve Canyon (Dean Fredericks) was originally a globe-hopping pilot for the US Air Force, stationed at Edwards Air Force Base and in charge of the Air Force Flight Test Center (where novice flyers were called “Jaybirds”).
Steve flew a B-52 and had the air code “Big Bear” while working on all manner of exciting and perilous assignments and investigations.
Around halfway through the series, he became a troubleshooter based at the (fictitious) Big Thunder Air Force Base in California (with the air code “Blue Bird”) – where he managed to find himself mixed up with robberies, hijackings, kidnappings, blackmail, assassination plots, murder and nazi war criminals.
Other Regulars included Major Willie Williston (Jerry Paris), Airman Abel Featherstone (Abel Fernandez), Police Chief Hagedorn (Ted DeCorsia) and Ingrid (Ingrid Goude), Steve’s secretary.
The series – based on a comic strip by Milton Caniff – was made with the full cooperation of the USAF and an unheard of (at the time) production budget of $1.6million.
Steve Canyon aired on NBC between 13 September 1958 and 8 September 1959, with Chesterfield cigarettes as the sponsor.
Lt. Col. Stevenson B (“Steve”) Canyon
Dean Fredericks
Major Willie Williston
Jerry Paris
Airman Abel Featherstone
Abel Fernandez
Police Chief Hagedorn
Ted DeCorsia
Ingrid
Ingrid Goude
Announcer
Jackson Beck
Narrator
Paul Frees
Episodes
Operation Towline | Operation Thunderbirds | Operation Zero Launch | Project Heartbeat | Operation Jettison | Operation Survival | Fear of Flying | Operation Moby Dick | Operation B-52 | Operation Mushroom | Operation Crash Landing | Pilot Error | The Gift | Operation Diplomat | Operation Big Thunder | Operation Nose Wheel | The Search | The Prisoner | Operation Souvenir | The Fight | The Robbery | Blackmail | Iron Curtain | The Bomb | The Sergeant | Operation Intercept | The Muller Story | Strike Force | The Trap | The Korean Story | Room 313 | Project UFO | Sabotage | Operation Firebee