The reason you haven’t been able to find a good, definitive answer is likely due to the fact that there doesn’t appear to be a good, definitive answer why certain stations were given call letters starting with K and others with W. Thomas H. White has written some wonderful articles for United States Early Radio History about the history of radio call letters. In “Mystique of the Three-Letter Callsigns” he notes that when the United States signed a 1912 radio regulatory act (I believe this was the Berlin International Radiotelegraph Conference) “call letter assignments became formalized under federal authority. Under international agreement unique initial letters were allotted among the various nations.”

He quotes from a 1914 government document (the full text of which is available here) describing the call letters available for stations in the United States and then writes the following:

Notice the policy was that calls for ocean-going ship stations started with a different letter than the land stations they communicated with: in the West ships received W– calls and land stations were assigned K–, while the reverse was true in the East, with K– ship calls and W– land calls. (NOTE: The assignment of W and K to the United States appears to have been completely arbitrary–the letters have no particular significance. N, however, had been commonly used by the U.S. Navy since November, 1909).

Later in the article, White explains that in 1923 the Mississippi River was chosen as the dividing line between newly licensed “W” stations and “K” stations, with existing stations allowed to keep their current call signs. Another article, “K/W Call Letters in the United States,” focuses on the various stations that don’t (or didn’t) fall into the K/W divide.

A December 1940 article in The New York Times discussing “a new system of call letters” adopted by the FCC explained that “under international agreement, the first call letters will be N for the use of the Navy and Coast Guard, K for stations west of the Mississippi and the Territories and W for stations east of the Mississippi” [1]. Another article, this one published in December of 1946, wrote that “until the FCC came into existence in the 1934, there were only two restrictions on a station’s choice of call letters: they should not number more than than three or four, and the first letter was supposed to be W (for stations east of the Mississippi) or K (for stations west)” [2].

So, to sum up, nobody seems to know why the decision was made to assign the letters W and K to the United States. And there doesn’t seem to be any rationale behind giving stations in one part of the country “W” call letters and others “K” letters. But ever since 1923, when the Mississippi River was made the boundary, people have been wondering why. If there is a good, definitive answer, please let me know.

Works Cited:

Related posts:

1. New Article: Early Networks and the East-Midwest Connection
2. Commercials for 1986 Contest for Star Trek Tickets
3. Television Stations on the Air in June 1948

The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, manufacturer of Winston cigarettes, pulled its sponsorship of The Beverly Hillbillies in May of 1967 voluntarily in order to fulfill its obligation to the tobacco industry’s advertising code [1]. The code was established in 1964 as an attempt to self-regulate and thus stave off government intervention. The code forbid cigarette advertisements from being shown during programs with a primary audiences under 21. According to Cynthia Lowry, “this means that a program is off limits to a member firm when, in two successive national Nielsen audience reports, the projected statistics of audience composition show that 45 per cent or more of the viewers are under voting age” [2].

The The Beverly Hillbillies had come close to hitting that mark in the past (with around 43% of its audience under 21); its growing popularity among viewers of all ages eventually forced the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to pull out [3]. The Chicago Tribune noted that “it was a special event in television history, a first of its kind, and an opening to an ironic situation” given that the very success of The Beverly Hillbillies was the reason the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. had to ask CBS to switch its advertising to a different show [4].

CBS broadcast “Beane’s of Boston” (also referred to as “Beanes of Boston” without the apostrophe) on Saturday, May 5th, 1979 from 8:30-9PM. It was indeed an attempt to adapt Are You Being Served? (which had premiered in September of 1972 on BBC1) for American audiences. Set at a large, conservative department store called Beane’s of Boston, the pilot starred Tom Poston as Frank Beane, the owner, and George O’Hanlon, Jr. as his nephew Franklyn Beane, the manager. The storyline saw Frank Beane grudgingly agreeing to hold a beer festival in an attempt to raise money. Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, creators of Are You Being Served? helped write “Beane’s of Boston” and Lloyd served as a producer. The pilot was directed by Jerry Paris and executive producer by Garry Marshall.

Rounding out the cast were John Hillerman as John Peacock, floor manager, Charlotte Rae as Mae Slocombe, manager of the women’s department, Lorna Patterson as Shirley Brahms, Mae’s assistant, and Alan Sues as George Humphries, the effeminate manager of the men’s department. The characters were based, and in some cases named, after the corresponding characters in the British series. According to The Los Angeles Times, the pilot included a “laughable, even pitiful gay” character [1]. In Are You Being Served? the sexuality of Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries (played by John Inman) was played for laughs and it is likely that George Humphries was the gay character mentioned by The Los Angeles Times. Whether that had anything to do with the pilot not being picked up is unknown.

The pilot does not appear to be held at any of the largest television archives (the Library of Congress, UCLA’s Film & Television Archive, the Museum of Broadcast Communications and the Paley Center for Media) but that does not mean it is missing or lost. The production company, or whoever owns its library today, probably has the original elements somewhere. I believe it was produced by Paramount Television

Works Cited:

Related posts:

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2. The Karen Valentine Program Opening Credits
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Run, Joe, Run (not to be confused with Run, Buddy, Run) was a live-action Saturday-morning kid’s show that aired on NBC from 1974 to 1976. Thirteen episodes were produced over the course of two seasons and, as was common with such shows, rerun constantly. Joe was German shepherd with the K-9 Corps who was accused of attacking his trainer. He escaped before he could be euthanized and thus the military placed a $200 bounty on his head.

Each week Joe helped someone in trouble even as his trainer and friend Sergeant Will Corey (played by Arch Whiting) chased after him, knowing that Joe had been falsely accused. Over the course of the first season the two came close to meeting but never did. When the second season premiered, Sgt. Corey had been recalled to his unit and Joe settled down with a new partner in the form of hiker Josh McCoy (played by Chad States).

Here’s how Bill D’Angelo explained the show’s conception to The Los Angeles Times in July of 1974:

Richard Landau brought this idea to me about four years ago when I was producing Love: American Style. Ok, it’s The Fugitive, it’s Run for your Life. But they were “Les Miserables.” The part Whiting plays, the trainer, I think of as Ahab in “Moby Dick.” Joe is his white whale. Not that he wants to kill him or lock him up. The dog just doesn’t understand…

We tried for years to sell this as a prime-time show but no network was interested. Last winter, Joe Teritoro, head of children’s programs at NBC, asked if I’d do it as a kid show. I’d never done a kid show, but this was a chance to open my own shop: D’Angelo Productions. So here we are. [1]

Joe was played by D’Angelo’s own dog, Heinrich (whose mother was owned by William Self of 20th Century-Fox); Heinrich’s stunt double was another German shepherd named Gus [2]. Run, Joe, Run premiered on Saturday, September 7th, 1974. In May of 1975, Cecil Smith praised the series, noting that “in writing, acting and production, it is the equal of almost any of the nighttime adventure shows” [3]. It was last seen on September 4th, 1976.

Works Cited:

Related posts:

1. Hooper Rating for June 1948 Joe Louis-Jersey Joe Walcott Fight
2. Status Guide – “Joe and Mabel”
3. New Article: “Joe and Mabel”

I can confirm that a program titled Outdoor Adventure Club aired on WNHC in Connecticut during the mid-1950s and that Brace Gilson worked for the station but otherwise I know nothing about the show. Does anyone out there remember watching it?

I’ve seen The Veil referred to as an “unsold series” given that it reportedly never saw the light of day on television (at least not in the United States). Hal Roach Studios announced on August 18th, 1958 that 39 episodes of the series would be produced; National Telefilm Associates would syndicate the series [1]. As the story goes financing fell through and only ten episodes were filmed, not nearly enough to distribute.

An outfit called Sinister Cinema released eight of the episodes on VHS in February of 1990 (four episodes were tape at $19 a tape) and in September of 2001 all ten episodes came out on DVD courtesy of Image Entertainment.

Works Cited:

Related posts:

1. Status Guide – “Teen-Age Book Club”
2. WNHC-TV Schedule, Week of July 11th, 1948
3. WNHC-TV New Haven – July 1948 Highlights

Stump the Stars was an updated version of Pantomime Quiz, a game show styled after charades, that began life as a local Los Angeles program in November of 1947 over station KTLA. It was picked up by CBS in 1950 and would air on all four networks (DuMont included) over the next decade before going off the air on September 28th, 1959. Created by Mike Stokey, the program was revived in 1962 as Stump the Stars and given the the 10:30-11PM time slot on Wednesdays.

Harris Against the World – Jack Klugman and Patricia Barry – October 4th, 1964
Copyright © TV Week/The Houston Chronicle, 1964 [2]

Pat Harrington, Jr. served as host and regular panelists included Diana Dors, Sebastian Cabot, Jan Clayton, Beverly Garland, Ross Martin and Mickey Manners. Guests for the September 17th premiere were Jerry Lewis and Jayne Mansfield. Critic Larry Wolters, writing in The Chicago Daily Tribune, had this to say about the new show:

Stump the Stars is nothing but Mike Stokey’s old Pantomime Quiz in new dress–or lack of dress. Jayne Mansfield and Diana Dors, her British counterpart, as guests on this charade show, didn’t contribute much, but they may revive that old argument of a decade ago about the perils of the plunging neckline. Under Pat Harrington Jr., the panelists had a lot of fun, with too much intrusion, however, by Jerry Lewis. [1]

The episode with the cast of The Dick Van Dyke Show was broadcast on November 26th. Mike Stokey would replace Pat Harrington, Jr. as host the following month and was with the show until it went off the air following the September 16th, 1963 episode. A syndicated version aired in 1964 and again in 1969. An episode guide for the 1962-1963 series can be found at Jim Davidson’s Classic TV Info.

Interestingly, although this unsold pilot was broadcast for the first and only time on September 9th, 1967, the story of “Campo 44″ begins in 1964. So I’m not sure it can be called a rip-off of Hogan’s Heroes. The earliest reference I have found is a June 7th, 1964 article in The Chicago Tribune reporting that David Westheimer, author of Von Ryan’s Express, would be developing a comedy titled “Campo 44″ for NBC’s 1965-1966 season [2]. It would follow American and British soldiers at a prisoner of war camp in Italy during World War II. Westheimer served during the war and was shot down in 1942. He spent several years as a prisoner of war and kept copious notes. The article explained that these notes would “be the basis for many stories” [3].

Hedda Hopper reported on July 31st that Buzz Kulik would direct the pilot and producer the series [4]. And on October 25th, an article in The New York Times about Hollywood’s fascination with war noted that MGM was working on a pilot titled “Campo 44″ [5]. Then, for some reason, the project stalled. Perhaps Westheimer was unavailable to work on the pilot because Von Ryan’s Express was being turned into a movie starring Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard (it was released in June of 1965). Or maybe the pilot was completed in late 1964 or early 1965 and was shelved by NBC for some reason.

Either way, on Saturday, September 9th, 1967 NBC broadcast “Campo 44,” one of more than a dozen pilots it aired during the opening weeks of the 1967-1968 season. It ran from 8-8:30PM; the third season of Hogan’s Heroes began just an hour later on CBS. Vito Scotti, Dino Fazio, Jim Dawson and Phillip Abbott starred. According to Broadcasting magazine, the pilot ranked third in its time slot with a 20.1 Trendex share; The Jackie Gleason Show on CBS was first with a 44.1 share and ABC’s The Newlywed Game was second with a 29.0 [6].

Works Cited:

Image Credits:

Related posts:

1. Status Guide – “Cavalcade of Stars”
2. WBKB Schedule, Week of December 28th, 1946
3. Status Guide – “Stars Over Hollywood”

Interestingly, one of the few references to “Happily Ever After” I found was in The Magic of Bewitched Trivia and More by Gina Meyers. Published in 2004, the book mentions the pilot in a section called “Copycat Shows,” but only briefly. Meyers writes that “as a result of Bewitched’s popularity, CBS and NBC networks tried to replicate the magic. CBS in September of 1965, came out with Happily Ever After, shot at the Metro Goldwyn-Mayer studio. It was a musical comedy starring Shirley Jones as a mind reading housewife” [1]. This seems to suggest that the pilot was broadcast by CBS in September of 1965 but I can find no mention of it in television listings during the month.

I don’t know much about the pilot itself. Hedda Hopper reported on December 11th, 1964 that “Shirley Jones got herself a TV series so she’ll stay put for awhile. It’s ‘Happily Ever After’ for MGM–the creation of Stanley Chase (2-time Tony Award winner) and Bob Kaufman (Emmy-winning writer). Shirley plays a housewife gifted with a 7th sense, and she’ll start filming in January” [2]. Her character’s “seventh sense” was mentioned again in a brief article published in The Los Angeles Times on December 15th; the article noted that the comedy series was “planned for the next season on CBS” [3].

Although the term “planned” suggests that CBS had already decided to order the series, on December 23rd “Happily Ever After” was included in an article by Val Adams as one of 76 pilots in contention for the 1965-1966 season [4]. On January 7th, 1965 Hedda Hopper revealed that filming had already been completed [5]. And on February 19th she reported that the series (now called Dream Wife was “already sold” [6]. It obviously wasn’t or, if it was, never made it to the air.

As for whether or not CBS and NBC took a look at the success of ABC’s Bewitched and decided to try to imitate it, of course they did. The networks have never shied away from copying popular shows or formats. When westerns were hot, all the networks had westerns. When spies were hot, all the networks had spy shows. And when supernatural sitcoms like Bewitched were hot, all the networks wanted supernatural sitcoms.

Critic Lawrence Laurent, in a February 8th, 1965 article in The Los Angeles Times, wrote that “the plans leaking out of headquarters of the three television networks indicate that the programs being most copied (but differently) are The Fugitive, Bewitched and Peyton Place” [7]. Two days later, Cecil Smith agreed, noting that “any talk of trends for next season is idiotic. All the networks want another Bewitched, another Peyton Place, another Fugitive. Imitation is still the sincerest form of television” [8].

Of course, it wasn’t just Bewitched driving the interest in supernatural sitcoms. My Favorite Martian had premiered the previous season and its success helped pave the way for Bewitched. Indeed, in his review of Bewitched, Jack Gould wrote that the sitcom was “in the supernatural tradition of ‘Topper’ and ‘My Favorite Martian’” [9]. Thus, in a way, My Favorite Martian led to Bewitched and Bewitched led to I Dream of Jeannie.

Works Cited:

Related posts:

1. Q & A: Stump the Stars, “Campo 44″
2. Status Guide – “Vacation Playhouse”
3. Status Guide – “My Living Doll”

That would be CBS’s It’s About Time, a one season wonder that aired from 1966 to 1967. I’ve written an article about It’s About Time where you can read all about the show, watch video clips and listen to the theme song.

The short answer is, yes, Gene Edwards played Grizzly Adams in a movie called Grizzly Adams: The Legend Continues (also known as The Legend of Grizzly Adams). The long answer is decidedly more complex. According to the Internet Movie Database the very first person to portray Grizzly Adams was John Huston, who appeared as Grizzly in 1972’s The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (he also directed the film). Dan Haggerty would play Grizzly on the big screen in 1974 and on television from 1977 to 1978; he would reprise the role in a made-for-TV movie released in 1982.

So how does Gene Edwards fit into the picture? For starters, he was Haggerty’s stunt double during the production of The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams. On May 12th, 1987 United Press International reported that actor Gene Edwards and Don Shanks were at the Cannes Film Festival in France promoting their new movie, The Legend of Grizzly Adams, which would hit theaters in the United States in August [1].

According to the UPI article, the film was produced by Shapiro Entertainment and had been filmed in Utah and Washington. Edwards stated that “I love the character and love to play it. It comes naturally because I was raised with animals on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, north of Green Bay” [2]. Shanks, who played Nakoma in the 1977-1978 series, explained the appeal of Grizzly Adams: “Kids don’t have heroes anymore unless it’s somebody who shoots somebody or wrecks a car. Adams is a good, wholesome hero and I think that’s what the public wants” [3].

The two wore their costumes and posed with a hired bear on the beach. Unfortunately, the bear was rather tame but apparently was willing to wear a Grizzly Adams t-shirt for the cameras. As if that wasn’t strange enough, The Advertiser (an Australian publication, I believe) reported two years later on May 18th, 1989 that because Dan Haggerty was on probation for drug related problems, a new television movie currently being filmed would instead start Gene Edwards, his stunt double. Titled Grizzly Adams, The Legend Lives On, the movie was said to be in production in Florida and would go on the air later that year [4].

Thus, it appears the earlier UPI article was wrong about why Gene Edwards and Don Shanks were at Cannes. They were promoting the idea for a new Grizzly Adams film rather than one that had already been completed. Supporting this is a June 29th article in The Orlando Sentinel reporting that Grizzly Adams – The Legend Lives On had been filmed in Arizona during May and was currently undergoing post-production in Florida [5]. It was the first movie for independent Bulls on the Run Productions Inc. and would be ready for review by distributors at the start of August. A sequel was already being planned, however, and there was talk of a television series.

On December 5th, the paper reported that Bulls on the Run was planning to team up with a Soviet production company, Paritet Films, to make a sequel, in a way, to Grizzly Adams – The Legend Lives On called Misha – The Lost Son of Grizzly Adams [6]. The plot of the movie would follow Misha, the son of Grizzly Adams and the daughter of a Russian sea captain, as he searches for his father in the United States. The sea captain, who didn’t approve of his daughter’s marriage, took her and Misha back to Russia.

To promote the new movie, Soviet Children’s Fund would gather 2,000 orphaned or handicapped children in two Soviet cities in front of a hundred journalists (half of which would fly in from the United States); a portion of profits from the movie would be donated to the charity [7]. But even as plans for Misha – The Lost Son of Grizzly Adams went forward, Grizzly Adams – The Legend Lives On had yet to be released. Quest Entertainment Co. bought the worldwide rights to that film in mid-December [8].

In May of 1990, Paritet Films and Washington Films Associates (its agent in the United State) sued producer Thomas Tedrow, a partner in Bulls on the Run, for lying about having created the character of Misha, which meant the money spent promoting the film was a wash [9]. Tedrow insisted he was responsible for creating Misha and had the documents to prove it. But Paritet cut him out of the proposed movie deal and hoped to proceed without him (Tedrow threatened to sue if they did) [10].

Misha – The Lost Son of Grizzly Adams was never made. And as far as I can tell, Grizzly Adams – The Legend Lives On was never released in theaters, instead going direct to video in 1990. If anyone can say otherwise, please let me know. I’ve written an article about The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams that you can read here.

Works Cited:
1 Herman, Arthur. “Bear flogs film.” United Press International. 12 May 1987: PM Cycle.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Cullen, Jenny. [No Title]. Advertiser. 18 May 1989: [Page Unknown].
5 Hinman, Catherine. “Grizzly Film Has Winter Park Ties.” Orlando Sentinel. 29 Jun. 1989: E.2.
6 Hinman, Catherine. “Grizzly Goes Hunting on Soviet Bear’s Turf.” Orlando Sentinel. 5 Dec. 1989: E.1.
7 Ibid.
8 Strother, Susan G. “Show Business.” Orlando Sentinel. 18 Dec. 1989: 22.
9 Quinn, Christopher. “Russians Sue Writer in Spat Over Movie.” Orlando Sentinel. 10 May 1990: B.1.
10 Quinn, Christopher. “Misha Is Alive, Ready for Filming, Producers Say.” Orlando Sentinel. 22 May 1990: B.1.

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Otis Young was indeed one of the stars of ABC’s The Outcasts, along with Don Murray. The series was set after the Civil War and followed the adventures of a Virginia plantation owner, and former slaveholder, Earl Corey (played by Murray) and freed slave turned bounty hunter slave, Jemal David (played by Young). Following the end of the Civil War, Earl became something of a drifter. When Jemal asked him for help in tracking down a fugitive, an unlikely partnership was born.

The show competed with Mayberry R.F.D. and Family Affair on CBS as well as the first half of The NBC Monday Night Movie. Understandably, it didn’t do very well. Still, it managed to hang on for a full season, premiering on September 23rd, 1968 and airing its finale on May 5th, 1969.

NBC’s anthology series, What Really Happened to the Class of ‘65?, premiered on Thursday, December 8th, 1977. Tony Bill played teacher Sam Ashley, who graduated from Bret Harte High School in 1965 only to return 12 years later as a teacher. Each episode focused on the current status of one or two students who graduated alongside Ashley. There was the class clown, the class misfit, the class poet, the class dreamers and so on and so forth.

The series was based, loosely, on a 1976 non-fiction book written by written by Michael Medved and David Wallechinsky in which the two interviewed 30 members of Medved’s 1965 high school class (many had earlier been featured in a TIME cover story in 1965). According to Cecil Smith, Universal Television wanted to produce a miniseries based on the book, one that would actually adapt the real stories to the small screen [1]. John J. O’Connor explained that NBC paid the authors $200,000 before realizing that reality of the book was “too downbeat” and deciding instead to dramatize fictional stories [2].

Here’s what O’Connor had to say about the first episode (which starred Annette O’Toole as the most promiscuous girl in class): “All of this drivel is fleshed out with passing references to Vietnam and popular songs of the period. The music track may be the most irritating ever devised for a series, sounding as if some stereo freak had happened to wander onto the sets with a blaring portable radio” [3].

A total of fourteen episodes (two of which were two hours in length) were broadcast, the last of which aired on May 25th, 1978 (more than two months after the previous episode). The January 12th episode, “The Class Crusadar,” starred Laura Prange as the idealistic class valedictorian who travels to Appalachia to help the poor, falls in love (with Don Johnson) and learns that not everyone appreciates people like her.

Other episodes starred Jane Curtin, Vincent Van Patten, Richard Hatch, Michael Lembeck, Linda Purl, Kim Cattrall and Kristoffer Tabori. This is one series I’d love to see a few episodes of.

Works Cited:

Related posts:

1. TV & Violence in 1968: The Outcasts
2. Q & A: Lucan, Hot L Baltimore, Winky-Dink And You, Dr. Shrinker
3. Q & A: The Americans, Dead at 21

I’ll admit to being stumped at first by Jeanie’s question. The only show I could think of from the time period in question in which one actor played two characters on a regular basis was The Second Hundred Years. But that show, a CBS sitcom, was about a man (played by Monte Markham) who is frozen in 1899 and wakes up in 1967 to learn that his son is now an old man and that he has a grandson (also played by Monte Markham). So it wasn’t exactly what Jeanie remembered.

However, Monte Markham was the man with the crooked smile and The Second Hundred Years was the show in question. I included it in my article 10 Of The Most Outlandish TV Concepts Ever where you can watch a scene from an episode.

I do wonder, however, if Jeannie was remembering another show, or perhaps a made-for-TV movie, in which a man met with his future self.

Lee Horsley starred in Paradise, a CBS drama that premiered on October 27th, 1988, as Ethan Allen Cord. It was his sister who died and left four children for him to raise. So he gave up gunfighting — for the most part — to become a rancher in a town called Paradise in California. Sigrid Thornton played banker Amelia Lawson, his love interest, and although I cannot say if her character was supposed to be Irish (can a fan of the show shed some light on this?), Thornton was Australian and certainly could have had an accent.

Paradise ran for two seasons before being pulled, retooled and relaunched in January of 1991 as Guns of Paradise. Ethan Allen Cord was now marshal of Paradise, engaged to Amelia, and a new character named Dakota was introduced (played by John Terlesky). The renamed series was cancelled after just thirteen episodes in June of 1991. A total of 57 were produced; none of have been commercially released.

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Cannonball was created by Robert Maxwell, one of the producers of The Adventures of Superman and the man responsible for Lassie. The New York Times reported on July 8th, 1958 that the series would be produced by Normandie Productions, Ltd. (the Canadian arm of Television Programs of America) with production set to begin in Toronto on July 14th [1]. Television Programs of America was responsible for filmed programs like Private Secretary, Fury, Halls of Ivy and Last of the Mohicans, among others.

In September of 1958, Television Programs of America and Normandie Productions were sold to the Independent Television Corporation [2].

On December 3rd, a full-page advertisement in The New York Times for Independent Television Corporation called Cannonball a “stirring human-interest series about truckers on the highway to high adventure” [3]. It was one of four shows the company had in production for “national sale” (the others were The Four Just Men, The Adventures of Tom Swift and Interpol Calling).

Paul Birch and William Campbell starred in Cannonball as Mike Malone, nicknamed Cannonball, and Jerry Austin, truckers working for C & A Transport who spent their days driving a big rig across Canada and the United States. Howard Milsom played Harry Butler, their dispatcher. Rounding out the cast were Beth Lockerbie, Beth Morris and Steve Barringer as Mike’s wife Mary and his children Ginny and Butch.

The series premiered in Canada on Monday, October 6th, 1958, broadcast by CBC. Because it was syndicated locally in the United States there was no nation-wide premiere date. But it appears the show wasn’t seen until 1959. Cannonball premiered in Los Angeles, for example, on Monday, May 18th, 1959 airing on KHJ from 8:30-9PM. In New York City, the series was seen on Fridays from 7:30-8PM beginning October 16th, 1959. And it aired on WGN-TV in Chicago from 8:30-9PM (7:30-8PM local time) starting on October 30th, 1959.

A total of 39 episodes of Cannonball were produced. In addition to Canada and the United States, the series was also seen in the United Kingdom. I’m afraid I don’t know who sang the theme song.

Works Cited:

Related posts:

1. Aliens Have Our Early Television Broadcasts
2. Status Guide – “Colgate Theater”
3. USPS to Release “Early TV Memories” Stamps in 2009