Upcoming: San Diego Comic-Con 2008

COMIC-CON ATTENDEES PLEASE NOTE that at the present time it is unlikely that Bob Hoy, Mrs. Frank Ball or even Harry Guyton will be be attending Comic-Con or appearing on our panel this year (due to a myriad of issues), so read the following post with that in mind and with our apologies...

There WILL still be a panel (I will be there) and we WILL still be screening OPERATION BIG THUNDER. 

Sincerely,

John Ellis

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Sorry for the last minute-itis here, but things are hoppin' and we're going at it hammer and tong...

Indeed, yes, we will be at The San Diego Comic-Con next week, and will be hosting another panel and special screening, this time celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Steve Canyon TV series on NBC.

The panel will feature:

Harry Guyton, Executive Producer of the Steve Canyon Restoration (and Milton Caniff's favorite nephew);

Sketch of Harry Guyton (from 1974) by Harry's favorite uncle Milton Caniff.

Mrs. Frank Ball, daughter of the late Dean Fredericks (who played Steve Canyon in our series) AND widow of the USAF technical advisor for the series. Note that Mrs. Ball will appear schedule permitting;

Photo taken in December 1962 of Dean Fredericks and his daughter sitting in the custom racing car he designed and built. Photo courtesy Mrs. Frank Ball.

Bob Hoy, who was series regular Sgt. Pete Berger on the show, and also a famed Hollywood actor and stuntman. Note that Mr. Hoy will appear schedule permitting;

Image from the Steve Canyon episode THE FIGHT featuring Bob Hoy as Sgt. Pete Berger and Joyce Taylor as his wife Betty.

And finally yours truly John Ellis, Producer and "chief cook and bottle-washer" on the restoration will moderate the panel.

We will be screening the Steve Canyon episode "Operation Big Thunder" not seen in the US since it's last airing April 14, 1960 on ABC (summer reruns). This episode was directly based on a story arc that Milton Caniff wrote and drew in the Steve Canyon newspaper strip in 1956. This episode introduced both a new format to the series and also a handful of regular supporting players which included Bob Hoy and Jerry Paris.

Panel from the 1956 Steve Canyon newspaper comic strip "The Girl From Little Dogie" upon which the TV series episode "Operation Big Thunder" was based.

Bob Hoy in the STEVE CANYON episode "Operation Big Thunder" which we will be screening next Sunday afternoon!

So if you will be attending the San Diego Comic-Con next Sunday (July 27th), stop on by, get some questions answered and learn about our current plans for the DVD release. I will also be found from time to time during the weekend ONLY at The National Cartoonist's Society (Booth #1307). We may also be in the autograph area at the con Sunday morning but this is unconfirmed at this time.

Star Dean Fredericks, USAF Technical Advisor Lt. Col. Frank P. Ball, and series regular Jerry Paris on location for the episode "Operation Nose Wheel".

From the official Comic-Con International program schedule:

Sunday July 27th 2008 from 3:00pm-4:30pm Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon TV Series 50th Anniversary — Harry Guyton (Milton Caniff Estate), Bob Hoy (Sgt. Pete Berger on Steve Canyon), Mrs. Frank Ball (star Dean Frederick's daughter), and John Ellis (Steve Canyon DVD producer) present a discussion of what is quite possibly the most legendary long-lost (and now found) television series in history! Come delve into the mysteries surrounding the most expensive show on TV in 1958. Includes the first public screening of the restored 1959 NBC Steve Canyon episode “Operation Big Thunder” in 48 years. Room 3

See Ya there!

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.

Roll Call!!!

I think it's time we pony up some pictures where credit is due! I know you'd be hard pressed to locate a pic of the regular performers from STEVE CANYON (who were added to the cast mid-season) ANYWHERE ...and not just on the web! So here we go with those that were in 3 episodes or more:

From left to right, Abel Fernandez (Sgt. Featherstone), Jerry Paris (Major "Willie" Williston), and Bob Hoy (Sgt Charlie Berger)...HEY, what ARE those guys lookin' at???

Of course! They're ogling lovely Ingrid Goude ("Ingrid", after she became Steve's Gal Friday)...both shots from the episode THE SEARCH. Abel and Jerry moved over to THE UNTOUCHABLES when Steve Canyon ended...without even skipping a beat!

Speaking of Bob Hoy, we recently made contact with him and we look forward to a full-fledged interview this summer. Here he is (just before whupping serious butt!) in the episode OPERATION BIG THUNDER. Bob has a great website (with lotsa pics and stuff), so drop by and check BobHoy.com out.

This tough hombre is Ted de Corsia as Big Thunder Police Chief Hagedorn...he also wears police blues in the series. From the episode OPERATION BIG THUNDER.

Here's Robert Sampson portraying Big Thunder AFB Tower Operator "Sgt. Walsh"...this guy is in 5 episodes, including this one (where they give his character his name) titled SABOTAGE.

Sid Clute played Crew Chief Sgt. Gerke in the pilot...then they brought him back late in the season (appearing in 4 episodes total). Here he is with hallucinating F-104 pilot Captain Dennis Parker (portrayed by actor Wynn Pearce) in the episode THE KOREAN STORY.

Major Karl Richmond, Big Thunder AFB Flight Surgeon was portrayed by everyone's favorite TV dad William Schallert. Here he is with star Dean Fredericks from the episode THE TRAP. I worked on a project recently with Mr. Schallert..what a GREAT guy!

Coming up in ROLL CALL! Part II...

He was only in two episodes, but they were very memorable. Here's James Drury (later star of The Virginian TV series) as Lt. Richard Muller flanked on left by George Macready (as "Gottfried Muller") and Dean Fredericks on right (while an unknown actor portraying a policeman in the BG looks on). From the episode THE MULLER STORY.

More shots of repeating characters from two episodes or more coming up in part two...ahem...*real soon now*.

I want to add that there'll be another post with some news for those that have asked about ...well, stay tuned and you'll see. So see you in a day or so right here!

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!

or


BUY The Special Edition DVD!
In stock - ready to ship!

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!

or


BUY The Special Edition DVD!
In stock - ready to ship!

Steve Canyon On Board

Here's a couple of storyboard illustrations for the beginning and end title sequences for STEVE CANYON:


These were designed by an unknown artist working for the McCann-Erickson Agency in 1958. McCann-Erickson was the advertising agency involved in the show. These sketches were used as a guide by the production and post production crews to create the distinctive identical opening and closing sequences for the Steve Canyon series.


Comparing the second board to the actual shot in the titles...


Well, although they changed the screen direction of Steve's F-102 Delta Dagger from right-to-left in the designs to left-to-right for the entire filmed sequence they still followed the basic overall design closely.

We have more storyboards and a large array of never-before-seen materials from the series that we will be showing from time to time here and on the full-series DVD later this year for your edification...so stay tuned!

Please help Support our Restoration Effort by clicking on the DONATE button below (PayPal account not required)

(button removed-campaign ended)

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!

or


BUY The Special Edition DVD!
In stock - ready to ship!