A Hero By George!

I'm going to skip the Dean Hess post just one more time here to tell about something fabulous that just happened. First of all, this man is a hero:

(click images for larger view)

Actor, hero and friend George Stover

Now George may not look like Steve Canyon (i.e. "the hero type") but he really is and I'm going to tell you why: You wouldn't be reading this blog nor seeing any of these Steve Canyon episodes if it weren't for George. Back in the 1990's my pal George kindly introduced me to the Steve Canyon TV series (by way of the pilot film OPERATION TOWLINE).

For some reason the show just rolled around in the back of my subconscious until 2005. That's when I became intrigued (obsessed perhaps) with the lack of information available on the series and thus began my winding flight-path to where we are now with the recovery, restoration and release of the series on DVD.

ANYWAY, George recently found and sent to me his copy of the pilot film, which is the ONLY existing decent quality copy we know of that has (among other things) this:

Here's an actual frame from Milton Caniff's introduction to the Steve Canyon Pilot Film.

It's a minute and a half intro by the man himself, Milton Caniff, that was filmed in the summer of 1958 and attached to a few 16mm prints of the pilot that were screened at Air Force Bases around the world. It is very rare, and it replaces the low quality copy we have used to screen at Comic-Con, Reel Fest and other places! Even Milton Caniff's personal copy of the unaired version in our archive doesn't have these materials! But now we have it for inclusion in Volume 3, and it's all thanks to George!

Another frame from the "Stover" Steve Canyon pilot film

AND like I said, none of this would have likely happened and we probably wouldn't be enjoying ol' Col. Steve if George hadn't been so kind to me way back when. So let's raise a big mug of Ovaltine to George who has impacted all of us so generously today and yesterday. Thanks George! Note that George has appeared in MANY movies, including two of mine (INVADER and TWILIGHT OF THE DOGS) and several of John Waters' films. Click here to visit George's Internet Movie Database page for his full list of credits, and here to find his Facebook page.

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For a clip this time, here's one of the more popular Chesterfield Commercials from 1958:

Titled TEST PILOT, this commercial was produced by the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company (L&M) specifically for airing during the Steve Canyon series. Great planes in this one! This commercial can be found during the first commercial break of OPERATION JETTISON on THE COMPLETE STEVE CANYON ON TV Volume 1.

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Ok, to wrap things up...so we REALLY REALLY PROMISE...next time on the runup pad is Col. Dean Hess, who besides being a Korean War hero, and the subject of the 1957 feature film BATTLE HYMN (see below), was the USAF Official Liaison to the Steve Canyon TV series!

Poster for the 1957 Universal International motion picture about Col. Dean Hess. (Universal International studios is also the place where Steve Canyon was made)

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Please help us lift off with Volume 3 ... advance pre-order yours today! (scroll down)

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Please Click the button below to pre-order THE COMPLETE STEVE CANYON VOLUME 3 NOW!
ONLY $19.95 POSTAGE-PAID WORLDWIDE

THE COMPLETE STEVE CANYON ON TV VOLUME 3!

RESERVE YOUR COPY NOW! ADVANCE ORDER VOLUME 3 NOW FOR ONLY $19.95 PER DVD WITH SHIPPING AND HANDLING INCLUDED ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!

This is a limited time offer and it includes worldwide shipping and handling!

Click button below to Pre-Order this DVD.

NOTE that you DO NOT need a PayPal account to purchase this item, there is an option to pay with any major credit card!

This DVD will be released and shipped to all pre-order purchasers approximately late summer, 2010 via US Postal Service First Class mail or Global First Class Mail (for Non-US customers).

REMEMBER this DVD will ONLY be available directly from us (for the time being)...so reserve your copy TODAY!

By purchasing this and/or other items from this site you are helping us to get the COMPLETE Steve Canyon TV series out on DVD and we thank you for your support.

(NOTE that you must pre-order Volume 3 separately from any other items that we offer here...we apologise for the inconvenience but it is necessary for us to do it this way at this time)

(Pre-order button removed)

(NOTE: that if you are viewing this in an email you'll have to visit our website at http://stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com for this button to work properly)

Email us at Ye Olde Caniff/Canyon Shoppe if you have any questions, comments, or are in need of any assistance. Thanks again for remembering Milton and for making this project possible.

Flaps Up! Pre-Order Volume 3!

Today is yet another anniversary! Exactly 51 years ago today, on Saturday November 29th, 1958, the Steve Canyon episode OPERATION MUSHROOM premiered on NBC. Told in documentary fashion, the curious public got a detailed and early look into just what went into an atomic test. Never mind that Steve Canyon didn't REALLY drop that bomb...but this episode was so popular it aired twice on NBC and once again on ABC (in 1960)!

Preliminary rough front cover design for Volume 3 by Johann Mitchell

Moving on, the episode that everyone is anxious to see again is OPERATION INTERCEPT, which Time Magazine called "a neat exercise in airborne shock"...

Above is a frame from the 28th Steve Canyon episode "Operation Intercept"...now here's an extended clip from the episode:

So now that we have your attention, and we know that you really really really want to see "Operation Intercept" in its entirety...

On this auspicious occasion we are announcing that THE COMPLETE STEVE CANYON ON TV Volume 3 DVD is slated for a end of Fall 2013 release and that we are now making available advance Pre-Order sales of this 2 disc DVD through the PayPal "Add to Cart" button below. Continuing from the first 24 episodes presented in Volumes 1 and 2, this final DVD set will include the following final episodes of the series:

Episode 25) Iron Curtain

Episode 26) Blackmail

Episode 27) Room 313

Episode 28) Operation Intercept

Episode 29) The Bomb

Episode 30) The Muller Story

Episode 31) The Trap

Episode 32) The Sergeant

Episode 33) The Korean Story

Episode 34) Sabotage

There will also be extras on the discs (similar to what was included on Volume One and Two) such as episode commentary tracks...we are still finalizing the artwork and contents at this time. Further details are TO BE ANNOUNCED here in the pages of our blog and we recommend subscribing to Steve Canyon On DVD by using the form on the right hand sidebar on this page (it's free!). We have been getting a lot of mail about Volume Three and we don't want to delay any longer to make advance orders available even though the DVDs won't be available until approximately June. (Note that the official release date WAS November 14, 2011, then was moved to Christmas, 2012, and is now planned to be finally able to released by the end of December 2014).

One key extra will be the ORIGINAL PILOT VERSION of the very first episode OPERATION TOWLINE, which has additional scenes, footage and different head and tail title sequences than what was in the broadcast version that was in Volume 1.

I will say that there will definitely be audio commentary tracks for every episode (like we did in Volume 2). Commentators this time will include Abel Fernandez, James H. Farmer, Brad Ulvila and more. We will also be including some DVD-Rom content, including the screenplay for the unproduced episode PROJECT B-58!

There's cool aircraft again (as you would expect in Steve Canyon) such as F-86 Sabre, F-100 Super Sabre, F-102 and TF-102A Delta Dagger, B-47 Stratojet, KB-50 Supertanker, B-52 Stratofortress, F-104 Starfighter and others (including the Soviet MiG-15)! Some of these later episodes were trying to focus more on drama than hardware but having said that, there's still some great aircraft footage in this volume!

There are bunches of well known performers in these shows, such as Abel Fernandez, Jerry Paris, Ted De Corsia, Ingrid Goude, Robert Sampson, James Drury, Werner Klemperer, Celia Lovsky, Barbara Beaird, Ross Martin, Dara Massey, Amanda Blake, Roy Thinnes, Jack Grinnage, Nelson Leigh, John Anderson, Dabbs Greer, Virginia Christine, George MacReady, James Griffith, Bert Freed, Claude Akins, Ron Ely, Hal Smith, Robert Sampson, Frank Maxwell, James Hong, Weaver Levy...and more!

Directors are Walter Grauman, Lamont Johnson, Arthur Marks and Ted Post. Writers are John Hawkins, William Spier, David Haft, Tony Barrett, Joseph Landon, Shelly Colbert and Milton Caniff.

We don't have an EXACT release date yet, so we are just going to say the our TARGET release date is ROUGHLY spring 2010. (Note that the official release date is by end of Fall 2013!) There is still a LOT of work to do on additional extras for this volume...more details will be announced here soon. The advance pre-sales will help provide much needed funds to actually complete the work on this volume...and we thank each and every one of you for your unflagging support.

For more detailed information about what EXACTLY is going to be included in The Complete Steve Canyon On TV Volume 3, keep tuning in here in the weeks to come.

Note that even though domestic and overseas shipping rates have gone up this year, we are going to keep the $19.95 (postage-paid) price for the time being.

ALSO NOTE that only those that Pre-Order Volume 3 will get the special three volume slipcase (mailed in the same package) for free (as our gift to those who have supported us by pre-ordering)...once we release Volume 3 the ONLY way to get this attractive printed slipcase (which will hold all 3 volumes of Steve Canyon) will be by purchasing the full series box set.

So now the wait is over... you can advance pre-order yours today! (scroll down)

###

Please Click the button below to pre-order THE COMPLETE STEVE CANYON VOLUME 3 NOW!

ONLY $19.95 POSTAGE-PAID WORLDWIDE

THE COMPLETE STEVE CANYON ON TV VOLUME 3!

RESERVE YOUR COPY NOW! ADVANCE ORDER VOLUME 3 NOW FOR ONLY $19.95 PER DVD WITH SHIPPING AND HANDLING INCLUDED ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!

This is a limited time offer and it includes worldwide shipping and handling!

Click button below to Pre-Order this DVD.NOTE that you DO NOT need a PayPal account to purchase this item, there is an option to pay with any major credit card!

This DVD will be shipped to all pre-order purchasers

when it is released (currently by end of 2014) via US Postal Service First Class mail or Global First Class Mail (for Non-US customers).

REMEMBER this DVD will ONLY be available directly from us (for the time being)...so reserve your copy TODAY!

By purchasing this and/or other items from this site you are helping us to get the COMPLETE Steve Canyon TV series out on DVD and we thank you for your support.
ALSO NOTE that only those that Pre-Order Volume 3 will get the special three volume slipcase (mailed in the same package) for free (as our gift to those who have supported us by pre-ordering)...once we release Volume 3 the ONLY way to get this attractive printed slipcase (which will hold all 3 volumes of Steve Canyon) will be by purchasing the full series box set.

(NOTE that you must pre-order Volume 3 separately from any other items that we offer here...we apologise for the inconvenience but it is necessary for us to do it this way at this time)

Sorry, All Volume #3 Pre-Orders 

NOW CLOSED until the official release at the end of 2014.

(Order button will return at that time)

(NOTE: that if you are viewing this in an email you'll have to visit our website at http://stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com for this button to work properly)

Email us at Ye Olde Caniff/Canyon Shoppe if you have any questions, comments, or are in need of any assistance. Thanks again for remembering Milton and for making this project possible.

Donate 'N Download

Didja ever wonder just WHAT an actual Steve Canyon TV script was like? Or exactly WHAT NBC was telling their affiliate stations about the series BEFORE it went on the air? Or what an actual Dean Fredericks autographed picture of Steve Canyon was like?
Well...a few of you have been asking about pictures and scripts and autographs and other cool things...SO...

In an effort to provide something nice as an incentive for helping a little to fund our project...

AND as a grand experiment into uncharted territories...

We have decided to provide downloads of a few things that are (hopefully) of interest to our loyal fans...IN EXCHANGE for a few bucks donated to The Cause. Initially these three items are (as shown above): a reproduction 8X10 autographed photo of star Dean Fredericks (minus the"sample" watermark); a reproduction of the FASCINATING summer 1958 NBC sales brochure (14 pages touting STEVE CANYON facts and fallacies to the network affiliates); and finally a reproduction of the 36 page FULL SCRIPT for OPERATION TOWLINE (the series pilot film) which was written by Joseph Landon, Shelley Colbert and...Milton Caniff! The downloadable versions are all FULL-SIZE reproductions/scans of the original ACTUAL documents. EACH requires a DONATION of $5.00. You can add as few as one or two of these items, or all three to our online shopping cart by using the pulldown menu below, and pay as usual using our Paypal checkout (though you don't need a PayPal account to check out, a major credit card or ATM card will suffice).

After you make your donation we will send you an email (within a short period of time) with a link and password to download these files. Note that the picture is a standard jpeg (3.2 Megabytes in size), and the two documents are standard Adobe PDF format files, the script being 5.7 megabytes and the brochure is 2.4 megs in size.

You can download and print out a copy for your personal use but please don't share these files or links...it kinda defeats the purpose, and despite the urging of others to charge more, we have opted to keep each at an affordable five bucks apiece. If this is successful we may add more scripts and other goodies, but as I said before, this is experimental.

Choose Your Download

NBC Sales Booklet (7/9/1958)Operation Towline (Pilot) Script (1/7/58)Dean Fredericks Photo (with autograph)

We're still working the kinks out of this system, so bear with us...and let us know if there are any questions or difficulties. Now let's give this thing a whirl and see what happens! NOTE that the email with the link(s) are sent out ONE at a time, by hand, by ME...so we will make every endeavor to get 'em out asap...if not sooner!

And understand that if funds weren't desperately needed, we wouldn't be selling off artwork and asking for donations and trying to sell a few more sampler DVDs...and spending so much time to bring in a few bucks...so this isn't frivolous and is in fact very important.

Again we thank all of you for your generous support and loyalty, and can't wait to release all of the shows to DVD later this year.

We Got 'Em All!!

Since we started this project in 2006 there were two things that were conspicuously missing...the first was a decent-quality copy of the original unaired version of the pilot film, and the second was the 26th filmed episode BLACKMAIL. Well, we are now pleased to announce that these are no longer "missing in action" as we have located them and they are now in-hand and being cleaned up and readied to join all of the other episodes in our archive for release later this year on DVD.

Here is an NBC publicity photo from BLACKMAIL (click photos to enlarge):

#9230-57 Tamara Cooper (Narda Onyx) displays her terror over blackmailer to her husband Lt. Cooper (Bill DuFrene), Police Chief Hagedorn (Ted de Corsia) and Lt. Col. Steve Canyon (Dean Fredericks) in the Steve Canyon episode, "BLACKMAIL". (From official NBC press release)

This unaired version of the pilot is the only episode to feature the distinctive logo from the sunday editions of the Steve Canyon newspaper comic strip. (see frame blowup above). This version also features different beginning and end titles and a full 2 minutes of footage never before seen on television!

This NBC publicity photo is from a shot that is only seen in the unaired pilot! Seen below is the official press release that accompanied this photo:



Here's a frame blowup from the same sequence, featuring (from left to right), Lt. Col. Steve Canyon (Dean Fredericks), Capt. "Bullets" McVay (Dan Barton), RAF Maj. Durkel (Paul Frees) and Maj. "Tex" Berry (Morgan Woodward). What makes this sequence interesting is that this wasn't shot on an airfield, but was in fact shot on the rear-projection "Process-Photography" Stage indoors at the Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California (where the pilot was shot and produced). The actors are standing in front of a translucent screen and the planes and ground-crew are on motion picture film being projected from behind. After the pilot was completed (and the series "sold" to NBC and Chesterfield cigarettes, the sponsor) they moved the production to the more modern Universal International Studios.

The full story of locating the shows and our restoration effort will be told on the full-series STEVE CANYON DVD set coming later this year, so STAY TUNED!

WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Please help Support our Restoration Effort by clicking on the DONATE button below (PayPal account not required)

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ANY amount, no matter how small is EXTREMELY HELPFUL and MUCH APPRECIATED and makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE! We thank everyone for all of the kindness and support, and it's true that we couldn't continue this unique project without your wonderful support!

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Back in action

We've been working furiously restoring all of the episodes of the STEVE CANYON tv series from the original 35mm network broadcast masters, and I've gotta tell ya that they look and sound terrific! I can safely say that they have never been seen like this before...network broadcast standards of 1958-1960 notwithstanding. The level of craftmanship that went into these 34 episodes is a revelation, and we will be sharing movie, stills and sounds from the restorations here in the days to come leading up to the release of these episodes on DVD later this year.

In the meantime, here is one of the many publicity photos we've uncovered in our archives that hasn't seen the light of day in many years. Thanks to Laura Lozano for the all the hard work scanning and organizing this and other materials to come!

Col. Steve Canyon (played by Fredericks) meets an old friend, Susan Alexander, who plays the part of "Jeets" in the STEVE CANYON episode, "OPERATION TOWLINE."

This shot is from the pilot episode, shot in late January/early February 1958 at the Hal Roach Studios. That's Nancy Valentine as the blonde nurse on the left.