Larry Pennell: Ripcord

[slimjim7285]

Its Festus!!!

[schallrd1]

I remember this show! I would jump off the stairs pulling my "ripcord".

[MONGOOSE1ful]

In response,"RIPCORD", a United Artists Television release 1962,is likely out of

circulation,since this is among several UA TV series tittles owned by Metro-Goldwyn-

Mayer. this studio has yet to provide either explanation or reasons,on why such a

vintage series has not been made availible. i strongly erge the people out there,to

get MGM to release this(and other UA TV shows) by contacting their website.

unfortunately,the people at MGM are not even familiar with their own library!!

[niflap]

Is this & Radar Rescue the only 2 episodes whose airplanes in distress have the same call sign? Ripcord inspired me to write a series of skydiver short stories. One of the airplanes in the fleet is Cessna Eight Seven Four Niner X-ray, & nobody wants to fly in it.

[plazpastic]

I was a big fan back in the day. I like that last bit where they're packing the chute.

[cb3961]

give me 2 degrees to the left...CUT !!!

[dondon8978]

can u rember festes

[MONGOOSE1ful]

"RIPCORD" was among those successful syndicated TV series put out by ZIV and

United Artists Television,who around this time period,did "EVERGLADES" wth Ron

Haynes,as well as Rick Jason's first TV series,"THE CASE OF THE DANGEROUS

ROBIN",just a year before "COMBAT" aired on ABC. MGM owns all the UA Tele-

vision series,,,and has yet to release these jewels on DVD!

[niflap]

@MONGOOSE1ful Howcome it's not on any on the oldies channels, or the THIS channel, which has Sea Hunt? Ripcor's been defined as an airborne version of the show.

[spacepatrolman]

@MONGOOSE1ful ziv was a lawyer that owned an ad agency and knew protor and gamble sea hunt and home run derby were cheapo ziv productions

[Dietpepsivanilla]

Dash Riprock and Festus! And the good-lookin' blonde was Kathie Browne, who was Deela on a Star Trek episode. She was married to Darren McGavin.

[TheShotgunslade]

Oh wow! I just about recall watching this with my chums when i was ever so young, and when it ended we would roll and dive offa low roofed coalshed onto a mattress! Thankyou for sharing these wonderful little programmes from my childhood. God bless. I hope they release these on dvd someday as i really would so love to see some more.

[KathyReedTheOriginal]

Holy crap! I had forgotten all about this show until now!

[niflap]

Good generic opening score 4 a tv show.

[niflap]

4:50, pretty close, but on the Radar Rescue, those parachute openings in the clouds looked like they might have been faked.

[bigjimsteelrod]

I love these old Ziv productions-I believe Larry Pennel was a professional baseball player at one time-Dash was great character-he really brought good life to him-I've always figured guys like Larry-say, Max Baer Jr, or Clint Walker were probably bitten by the acting bug playing L'il Abner in a school production

[PotatoGunsRule]

I wonder how many people became skydivers because of this show? *I found out about it from USPA magazine Saturday.....while waiting for my 21st jump.

[sm9847]

Not too many people remember Ken Curtis in this. All of us used to watch this and I'd remember seeing Ken Curtis is several John Wayne movies. Too bad the majority of today's television watchers only remember him as Festus on Gunsmoke.

And I also remember little plastic men and parachutes on telephone lines and in tops of trees.

[odentroll]

Selected Ripcord episodes are now available now on DVD

[newall7]

loved it as a kid great show

[htrrz]

I remember this show well, I was in the 3rd grade, and every kid in town had a Ripcord toy, and toy paracutes, and men were hanging on trees all over town

[odentroll]

@htrrz : Oh yes those where the days, My Father surprised me when he pointed out the Larry was his Cousin when we where watching it on the old B&W set.

[spacepatrolman]

@odentroll Are you from the big valley like him?

[SgtRock57]

Wow! I was so young then. Sky diving now is like catching a taxi cab now. People dive with so little equipment. I guess that's progress.

[jengacrock]

" Well... we DID lose that one student. But hey! The odds of another chute packing wino packing your chute Liz is,...oh I would say about as likely as my partner here being in a western tv series. So you see how safe it will be for you? And that student today...if he were here..., would tell you the same thing. And one more thing Liz. He did not die by parachuting. The earth collided with him! The earth is to blame Liz, not sky diving.

[nurktwin1960]

Is this available on DVD ?

[Borntocoast]

There are Bootlegs circulating around. "Google" this show and you'll find a seller or two ;) The Quality isn't that great, but they are still watchable.

[niflap]

The crashing plane in Ripcord Radar Rescue was 749X too! Guess you better not fly in 749X

[orchardcottage]

Don't try this at home, children. Like we did when jumping off the shed roof and two of us ended up with twisted ankles and one with a sprained wrist. Aw, shucks, Chuckie!

[9bahai9]

I was already interested in parachuting when I was a child but I had never heard of skydiving. When I first saw an episode of this show I was hooked and I never missed it! Ken Curtis was a talented actor and a son-in-law of the great director John Ford. He deserved better roles than this and he got one when he played Festus on Gunsmoke. He was great!

[IMPLR1369007]

Gotta love the "Why weren't you wearing parachutes" line. As if no one should ever get in a plane without one. Doesn't show much confidence in the reliability of the plane. I've got over 5000 hours in the air but never used a parachute other then when I planned to jump.

1960's drama...ya gotta love it.

[odentroll]

I think the Writer never flew much but the Larry Pennell

said he never Sky Dived either except once when the crew took him up to try it. And I gather his nerves where shot.

[niflap]

Cirrus Aircraft would LOVE this show! It's so preachy about wearing parachutes.

[niflap]

I heard about an episode, re a pilot of a Navion w/ a malfunctioning undercarriege. Ted & Jim lowered a parachute to him & he jumped. W/in a tear or so, a Navion belly landed at Renton Airport. Propeller & step were damaged, but pilot walked away unharmed. Like an incidental Mythbusters w/out the camera.

[jandbprod]

What a great show ---this and SEA HUNT------

[niflap]

@jandbprod As partial as I am to skydiving over scuba giving, this show's IT counterpart Sea Hunt seems to take itself a bit more seriously. Plenty of characters drowned in SH, but I don't know if any characters fell to their deaths from the sky in RC, whick also happens in real life.

[odentroll]

I love making things with my hands but it's hard to even get close to making a living from it.

But good on you if you can!

[fatkinson1954]

Don't they change their minds once you grow up?

[jhallcarp]

I made 106 jumps during the late 60s & early 70s. Back then, everybody used a sleeve. I never saw one that wasn't attached to the pilot chute line. It would not be good for sleeves to be coming down on higways or airports, etc. The sleeve just got pushed up under the pilot chute. They were not a throwaway item.

[fatkinson1954]

My siblings and I used to be so infatuated with this show that my father stopped us from watching it for a while. It was silly, but he did.

I thought this was awesome.

[markape1]

I used to luv this show! Check out my tvc I filmed with some kids playing a prank on a lady: PRANKSTERS IN THE PARK

[odentroll]

I will Try and Get a little more uploaded soon : )

[GOOSEYGOOSE9]

Me And My dad used to watch this series on sunday evenings at 6:30 PM on ABC Affilliate KOMO-TV Channel 4 in seattle. it aired before 12 O'Clock high at 7:00 PM And The FBI In Color when i was three weeks old.

[SolarTiger]

...had a few of the 'Ripcord' plastic men w/ parachutes that you'd throw up into air and watch 'em glide down...

[niflap]

Musical underscore suggests it's a "B" Western with airplanes. Hard to tell from a breif clip of a single episode. Most of what I know about this was childhood memories. None of the "oldies" channels seem to carry this show. Pity

[DampeTheCurator]

Dash Riprock and Festus Hagen on the same show...I love it!

[spacepatrolman]

the rip chord sky diving school

[darkrosehoney]

you left his name out of the credits.

[darkrosehoney]

my grandpa was in this show.

[kawasakih1]

Thanks for posting ! This brings back memories! I used to watch this every Saturday along with Sky King when I was in 3rd grade.

[GhostOfSirCraig]

I used to love this show. I never missed an episode. I think I must have been about 8 years old. These guys were just SO COOL. How funny. I love the opener on this one. "She almost accidentally falls out the open door of an airplane". Yeah, its possible......

[niflap]

It's happened too. Readers' Digest "One Handhold FROM DEATH" mentioned a flight crewman who tried to troubleshoot an ajar door of a twin engined turbo prop. Next thing he knew, he was deathgripping the outside of the plane, 9000' up. He managed to hang on until the plane was landed & stopped, only to discover he couldn't let go.

[niflap]

Don't they mean afraid they'll FORGET to pull the ripcord?

[teenonator]

Everytime I watch "Mr Basball" I think this guy looks familiar, & I just realized it was Larry Pennell. The opening makes me think this was a Quinn Martin Production...and want to go to my local tramopline center

[niflap]

Was the other Cessna a 150? The man was taller than the height of its wing.

[rockyPants4000]

No, that's a bigger Cessna, a 172 or 182, l can't tell. I don't think it's as big as a 200 Series though.

Count the side windows, the 150/132 only has one door window on each side, and then a curved rear window.

[niflap]

This must have been b/4 they put big id #'s on airplanes. That must have started w/ Bay of Pigs, & Cuban Missile Crisis. I heard it was a Cold War thing, but I thought there was a Cold War since Stalin.

[randallcaster]

This was my favorite show when I was 5 or 6.

[niflap]

Why is it stopping at 0.55?

[niflap]

Guess it was the computer. Worked fine at another terminal.

[SoloPilot6]

Niflap, the way I hear it, your passengers are nervous anyhow, and feel BETTER when they have parachutes . . . heheheheh

[niflap]

Your passengers may feel safer in freefall. Heheheh

[SoloPilot6]

Aw, gee, someone spilled the beans!

[niflap]

The closeup of the 210 must have been of a mockup. Sleeping jumpers' overalls should have fluttered in the wind. At least it had wind blowing on the girl as she hung out. They had to "fake" some things 4 the actors' safety. That surface to air "snatch & grab" was no doubt real, though it's usually done w/ a balloon & "V" pole on the plane's nose.

[niflap]

She's awfully calm for a woman who almost fell to her death. Ripcord's really preachy about wearing parachutes when you fly.

[odentroll]

I think the Script was a bit weak...

Yes and don't try jumping out of a plane with no parachute without professional advice!

[niflap]

They seem to be saying don't even FLY in a plane w/out a parachute. I grew up around airplanes & got my pilots licence. I never wore a parachute until I tried skydiving. Wearing parachutes for a normal flight may make passengers even MORE nervous.

[GhostOfSirCraig]

And her hair looks......well....awesome.

[niflap]

Only problem is it wants you to believe it's suicidal to fly without a parachute. Otherwise, it's about time someone found Ripcord!

[niflap]

The husband's lucky the lost door didn't take out the Cessna's tail on the way out. His Cessna almost looked like a Piper from below.

[odentroll]

Yeah, I didn't know Cessna fitted suicide doors like on old cars.

[goerd25]

It was a fantastic series ... thanks!!!

[odentroll]

And Larry is still working, well at least when I had lunch with him in 2005.