Ripcord (1962)

 

Any discussion of the 1962 episodes of parachuting adventure series Ripcord must at some point deal with its confusing chronology and, with it, syndicated series in general. Unlike network-sponsored shows, syndicated series such as this one were developed by independent companies and sold to local stations to air when and where they chose. And therein lies the rub in terms of historical chronology--since each local station could choose what to air and when, there is no defined first air date for any episode. Further muddying the waters is the confusion over the two different kinds of syndicated shows--newly developed and independently produced shows versus what were essentially reruns of canceled series, which could be network-produced programs or older independently produced shows. Even TV Guide gets it wrong in their September 15, 1962 Fall Preview issue when they say that syndicated shows are only of the canceled variety being shown in reruns but include Death Valley Days in their list of examples. Death Valley Days, one of the longest-running westerns in TV history, continued producing new episodes through the 1969-70 season. For Ripcord the confusion stems from the mismatch between the episode numbers for Season 2 both on the DVD reissue and the imdb.com listing and the copyright dates in the closing credits for each episode. For example, while the first two episodes of Season 2, "Aerial Backfire" and "Among Those Missing" have 1962 copyright dates (and I have been able to confirm from my incomplete and random collection of 1962 TV Guide magazines issued from several different regional markets) and were aired at least by October 18 and 25, 1962, respectively, the third episode, "Chute to Kill" has a 1963 copyright date in the closing credits, though it is listed as a 1962 episode on imdb.com. Continuing this hodge-podge sequencing, Episodes 4 and 5 are copyrighted 1962, while Episodes 6, 7, and 8 are copyrighted 1963 (the last of these is listed as a 1962 episode on imdb.com). Episode 9, "Flight to Terror" has a 1962 copyright (imdb.com lists it for 1963), while Episode 10, "A Free Falling Star," has a 1963 copyright. Episodes 11 and 12 are both copyrighted 1962, the last listed by imdb.com for that year. However, Episodes 13, 20, 21, 24, 25, 27, and 29 all have 1962 copyrights, though imdb.com lists them as 1963 episodes. I have been able to confirm from my TV Guide collection that episodes 20, 21, 27, and 29 all aired somewhere in 1962. It would not be unusual for an episode copyrighted in 1962 to be first aired in early 1963 (this happens regularly with network-produced shows which are filmed weeks ahead of their first airing), but I have found no evidence of a 1963 copyrighted show airing in 1962. It is unclear where the episode-numbering scheme originated, whether from production company records or elsewhere, but if it were from the production company itself, it appears that the episodes were not filmed or aired in sequence. All of which brings us to the reason for this lengthy discussion: this blog post will cover all the remaining Season 1 episodes not covered in our first post for Ripcord as well as the Season 2 episodes with a 1962 copyright date, regardless where they appear in the episode-numbering scheme.

We've already covered the show's origins in our previous post on the 1961 episodes, but a 2014 review of the Season 1 DVD set on dvdtalk.com sheds some light on the confusing world of syndicated television mentioned above. Apparently, Ripcord production company Ziv Television Programs, Inc. owner Frederick Ziv had started out as a radio program syndicator but learned in the early 1950s that he could make even more money by producing independent TV series and selling them directly to local stations. Among his other popular productions were The Cisco Kid, Highway Patrol, and Sea Hunt. However, Ziv hit its peak popularity in the mid-to-late 1950s, by which point the major networks saw the money Ziv was making and decided to muscle in on the business by offering local stations reruns of their canceled series, which were more attractive to the stations since they were proven commodities rather than new, untested product. Ziv's money pot began drying up, and by the early 1960s, the time when Ripcord went into production, he was forced to sell out to United Artists, which is why you will see their trademark and logo on Season 2 Ripcord credits. The changing landscape of syndicated television is perhaps as big a reason for Ripcord's short, 2-season run as the danger involved in filming the real parachute jumps mentioned in our previous post on this series. After all, the series was credited with a huge increase in civilian parachuting interest during its run as well as huge sales of its tie-in children's toy parachutist. The fact that Season 2 was filmed in color shows that United Artists was apparently going all-in to make the show a hit, but the odds against it proved too high to continue beyond 1963.

Other changes for Season 2 included the dismissal of Ripcord pilot Chuck Lambert played by Paul Comi. While Shug Fister was retained in his role as Charlie Kearn, the other Ripcord pilots for Season 2 were the show's credited "technical advisors" Lyle Cameron and Leigh Hunt using their own first names as character names, a la The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. The plots, however, did not change much from Season 1 to Season 2--medical rescues that sometimes require paramedic Jim Buckley to perform surgery by dictation, kidnapping ransom drops, apprehending escaped convicts, international espionage, insurance fraud schemes, and Ted McKeever jumping out of a plane holding a dog ("Thoroughbred" in Season 1, "Aerial Backfire" in Season 2) are all used in multiple episodes. All of which begs the question, how realistic would it have been to run a parachute-for-hire business in the early 1960s? Granted, the business landscape has changed plenty since then--drones with cameras can perform a lot of the surveillance that Ted and Jim are ostensibly hired to carry out, and it would seem likely that there are fewer inaccessible parts of the country that can be reached only by air (though it is also likely there were not as many such places in 1961-63 as the Ripcord plots seemed to suggest). These days, the only non-military applications for parachutists appear to be training civilian thrill seekers (as the Ripcord boys do regularly, though their students always seem to have some kind of ulterior motive, like insurance fraud) and wildfire "smoke jumpers"--firefighters trained to parachute into dangerous wildfires to help control their spread, which is what we see Ted and Jim doing in the aforementioned "Aerial Backfire" and the Season 1 episode "Millionaire Doctor," which quickly turns into the familiar medical rescue story. It's also worth noting that today's parachute tourism trainers often barely survive financially and live in their own RVs that allow them to travel the country to drum up seasonal business, as opposed to being housed in an expansive warehouse space with front offices, secretaries, intercom systems, etc., as shown on Ripcord. Milt Platt, one of the stuntmen who performed real-life jumps filmed for Ripcord and profiled in a 2009 article in the Orlando Sentinel, ran his own parachute consulting business at the time (while he was also working as a deputy sheriff for the LAPD), Parachuting Associates, but the bulk of his business was providing film and aircraft services for the film industry, such as filming Johnny Carson's 1968 first attempt at parachuting which ended up being shown on The Tonight Show. But then, real-life accuracy isn't the main objective of Ripcord--it's high-flying adventure.

And nothing spells adventure like jumping out of a plane without a parachute, which happens both in Season 1 and Season 2 and provides the most hair-raising film sequences of the series, especially when one considers that the sky-diving sequences are real, not the faked type of Hollywood make-believe seen in Frankie Avalon surfing movies. In Season 1's "Hi-Jack," Ted and Jim are hired by an aerospace company to locate a submerged test space capsule and then fly with the company's owner, a leading space scientist named Dr. Elmo Gossett, and an attractive female meteorologist back to Florida for no real reason only to find the plane hijacked by the president's greedy assistant and a duplicitous airplane steward and flown to what is clearly meant to be Cuba. The assistant's plan is to force everyone aboard except Gossett to parachute out of the plane before it reaches Cuba but keep Gossett hostage so that he can be forced to work for the enemy. So Gossett has no parachute, and after the assistant pushes an unconscious Jim out of the plane only to have him miraculously regain consciousness in time to pull his own ripcord, Ted pushes Gossett out of the plane with no parachute and then dives after him, catches him in mid-air, and lands safely with him using Ted's parachute. As someone with an acute fear of heights, watching someone free-falling from 10,000 feet without a parachute is unsettling, even knowing that it is a filmed TV episode and that everyone survived. The same stunt is repeated in Season 2's "Panic at 10,000" only this time a pair of politicians are trying to fly to an airport dedication in a private plane only to have the landing gear stick so that they can't land and then discover that in their haste to take off they forgot to bring along any parachutes. The airport where they are destined, with Ted Knight as chief air traffic controller, does not have the necessary equipment for a crash landing, so their only option is to abandon the craft over an unpopulated area. Ted McKeever comes up with a scheme to fly over the top of them and lower parachutes down to them on a rope into the open canopy of the damaged plane, but he is only able to successfully drop them one parachute as two others miss the catch of the passenger politician, and with the private plane about to run out of gas, there is no time for Ted and company to land, pick up more parachutes, and try again. So Ted's new plan is to have one of the politicians jump with the parachute he actually caught, while the other politician continues to pilot the plane and then jumps out without a parachute with Ted diving after him from his own plane and catching him in mid-air, just as in "Hi-Jack." This time the stunt doesn't seem quite as scary, perhaps because we've already seen it executed successfully, or maybe because it's filmed in color, which doesn't seem quite as noirish.

Speaking of dangerous mid-air stunts, we mentioned in our previous post that a mid-air accident during the filming of Season 2 caused the production company to begin using more stock footage. That accident occurred when two planes were trying to allow a stuntman to lower himself from a rope tied around the wheel well of the Ripcord plane onto the tail fin of a second plane while being filmed from a third plane. Due to unexpected turbulence, the two planes touched and crashed, though both pilots and the stuntman were able to parachute safely. The footage from that accident, available for viewing on youtube.com, was reportedly incorporated into two Season 2 episodes, one of which was "The Lost Ones" in which Jim Buckley almost dies doing the stunt from the real-life accident and suffers from PTSD so that he does not want to jump again. However, after refusing to accompany Ted on a jump into the Baja desert as part of a U.S. Coast Guard test of their search and rescue capabilities (who knew the Coast Guard rescued people in mountainous deserts?), Jim is forced to power through his nerves when Ted is lost after slipping over the edge of a cliff while spreading out his parachute as a signal for the Coast Guard to find him, and Jim has to jump down to his location to pull him back to safety (for some reason, the Coast Guard can't do this). The use of stock footage, however, appears to have been confined to other story elements besides Ted and Jim parachuting, at least in the episodes copyrighted in 1962. In any case, the series should be commended for handling a topic like PTSD (though it isn't called that here) and depicting the very real dangers of the sport of sky-diving, even when carried out by experienced professionals. A little more of that vulnerability from the main characters and a little less uber macho bravado would have made for a more interesting and less formulaic series.

One more trivia tidbit: in the final episode for Season 1, "Para-Nurse," Allison Hayes plays a wise-cracking parachuting nurse who Ted and Jim compete for (and lose). Kudos to whoever came up with the idea of filming her from the ground up to make her look taller when she makes her first appearance, since her most famous movie role was the title character in The Attack of the 50-Foot Woman.

The Actors

For the biographies of Larry Pennell, Ken Curtis, Shug Fisher, and Paul Comi, see the 1961 post on Ripcord.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 1, Episode 15, "The Silver Cord": Robert F. Simon  (shown on the left, played Dave Tabak on Saints and Sinners, Gen. Alfred Terry on Custer, Frank Stephens on Bewitched, Uncle Everett McPherson on Nancy, Capt. Rudy Olsen on The Streets of San Francisco, and J. Jonah Jameson on The Amazing Spiderman) plays former military paratrooper Speed Domaine. George Dunn (Jessie Williams on Cimarron City and the Sheriff on Camp Runamuck) plays Ripcord pilot John Chapman.

Season 1, Episode 16, "Thoroughbred": Doris Dowling (starred in The Lost Weekend, The Blue Dahlia, Bitter Rice, and Othello and played Irene Adams on My Living Doll) plays thoroughbred race horse owner Margo Kane. Lee Van Cleef (shown on the right, starred in High Noon, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and played John Peter McAllister on The Master) plays her husband Henry. Grant Woods (Capt. Myles Keogh on Custer) plays a local sheriff.

Season 1, Episode 17, "Ransom Drop": Ric Marlow (shown on the left, wrote the lyrics to "A Taste of Honey" for which he won a Grammy) plays a kidnapper. Jack Raine (appeared in Mine Own Executioner, Dangerous When Wet, and Julius Caesar) plays inventor Brandon Oliver.

Season 1, Episode 19, "Double Drop": James Coburn (shown on the right, starred in The Magnificent Seven, Charade, Our Man Flint, and In Like Flint and played Jeff Durain on Klondike and Gregg Miles on Acapulco) plays fugitive payroll robber Bert Tucker. Kenneth MacDonald (played the judge 32 times on Perry Mason, played Col. Parker on Colt .45, and appeared in several Three Stooges shorts) plays kidnapped Dr. Page.

Season 1, Episode 20, "The Financier": Russ Conway (Fenton Hardy on The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure, Gen. Devon on Men Into Space, and Lt. Pete Kile on Richard Diamond, Private Detective) plays presumed dead financier E.J. Bowen. Myron Healey (shown on the left, played Doc Holliday on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays his business partner Joe Manson.

Season 1, Episode 22, "Desperate Choice": Dan White (appeared in Arizona Whirlwind, Taza, Son of Cochise, Attack of the Giant Leeches, and The Sergeant Was a Lady and played Dan Fraser on From These Roots) plays prospector Simmons. Leslie Barrett (Judge Hanley on Dark Shadows) plays college professor David Croft. Wayne Heffley (Officer Dennis on Highway Patrol and Vern Scofield on Days of Our Lives) plays a park ranger.

Season 1, Episode 23, "Diplomatic Mission": Dick Simmons (shown on the right, appeared in Lady in the Lake, Love Laughs at Andy Hardy, Look for the Silver Lining, and Battle Circus and played Sgt. Preston on Sergeant Preston of the Yukon) plays Army commander Col. Jock Sutherland. Walter Brooke (appeared in The Graduate, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and The Nude Bomb and played Henry Forsythe on The Young Marrieds, D.A. Frank Scanlon on The Green Hornet, Mr. Gibson on Bright Promise, and Clarence Johnson on The Waltons) plays imposter U.N. agent Frank Taylor.

Season 1, Episode 24, "Hagen Charm": Arthur Franz (shown on the left, starred in Flight to Mars, The Member of the Wedding, and The Caine Mutiny and played Bill Winters on World of Giants and Hugh McLeod on The Nurses) plays sports and war hero Dr. Joe Hagen.

Season 1, Episode 25, "The Helicopter Race": Tom Brown (see the biography section for the 1960 post on Mr. Lucky) plays business owner Frederick Stanton. Norman Alden (Lucius Grundy on Not for Hire, Johnny Ringo on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Captain Horton on Rango, Tom Williams on My Three Sons, Coach Leroy Fedders on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Al Cassidy on Fay, and Frank Heflin on Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and voiced Aquaman on Super Friends and The All-New Super Friends Hour and Hank McSummers on Devlin) plays his pilot Owen Driskill. John Bryant (Dr. Carl Spaulding on The Virginian) plays Driskill's boss and co-conspirator. Dyan Cannon (shown on the right, starred in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Shamus, Heaven Can Wait, Revenge of the Pink Panther, and Deathtrap and played Lisa Crowder on Full Circle, Judge Jennifer Cone on Ally McBeal and Ally and Honey Bernstein-Flynn on Three Sisters) plays secretary Marion Hines.

Season 1, Episode 27, "Hi-Jack": Whit Bissell (shown on the left, starred in He Walked by Night, Creature From the Black Lagoon, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, and Hud and played Bert Loomis on Bachelor Father, Calvin Hanley on Peyton Place, and Lt. Gen. Heywood Kirk on The Time Tunnel) plays space scientist Dr. Elmo Gossett. Vinton Hayworth (see the biography section for the 1961 post on Lawman) plays space capsule company owner Mr. Burton. Betty Lou Gerson (appeared in The Red Menace, The Fly, and The Miracle of the Hills and voiced Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmations) plays his wife Emily. Liam Sullivan (Major Mapoy on The Monroes, Dr. Joseph Lerner on The Young and the Restless, Dr. Wallace on General Hospital, and Mr. Willis on Knots Landing) plays Burton's assistant Jeffrey Hamlin. Elaine Devry (daughter of a Disney animator and Mickey Rooney's fourth wife) plays meteorologist Dr. Eve Malloy. Bing Russell (father of Kurt Russell, played Deputy Clem Foster on Bonanza) plays Burton's private pilot Capt. Larkin. Don Edmonds (appeared in Gidget Goes Hawaiian, Beach Ball, and Wild Wild Winter and played Nicky D'Angelo on Broadside) plays his co-pilot Capt. Finchon.

Season 1, Episode 28, "The Human Kind": Kenneth Tobey (shown on the right, starred in The Thing From Another World, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, and It Came From Beneath the Sea and played Chuck Martin on Whirlybirds, Dick Robinson on Our Private World, and Russ Conway on I Spy) plays itinerant rural preacher Rev. Dr. Darrell. Paul Lambert (appeared in Spartacus, House of Women, The Big Mouth, and Mama's Dirty Girls and played Tom Dalessio on Executive Suite) plays rogue ranch hand Colin Garth.

Season 1, Episode 31, "Elegy for a Hero": Lang Jeffries (shown on the left, one-time husband of Rhonda Fleming, played Skip Johnson on Rescue 8) plays former Army hero Lt. Wally Griffin.

Season 1, Episode 32, "Cougar Mesa": Michael Pate (starred in Face to Face, Julius Caesar, Hondo, and Tower of London and played Chief Vittoro on Hondo and Det. Sgt. Vic Maddern on Matlock) plays insurance fraudster John Durlin. Della Sharman (shown on the right, wife of Skip Homeier, played Nurse Johnson on Dr. Kildare) plays his girlfriend Jackie Campbell. William "Billy" Benedict (played Trouble in 4 Little Tough Guys features, Skinny in 5 East Side Kids features, and Whitey in 23 Bowery Boys features) plays dude ranch owner Mr. Wheelwright. Joey Faye (Myer in Mack and Myer for Hire) plays insurance adjuster Harry J. Babbitt.

Season 1, Episode 33, "Last Chance": Hank Patterson (shown on the left, played Pete Duggan on The New Adventures of Spin and Marty, Fred Ziffel on Green Acres and Petticoat Junction, and Hank Miller on Gunsmoke) plays flamboyant prospector Harry Travis. Tom London (starred in Six-Shootin' Sheriff, Song of the Buckaroo, and Riders in the Sky) plays claim jumper Garret.

Season 1, Episode 34, "Log Jam": Michael Harvey (appeared in Tycoon, Berlin Express, and Return of the Bad Men and played Capt. Steve Strong on Tom Corbett, Space Cadet) plays lumber company owner George St. Martin. Paul Langton (shown on the right, played Leslie Harrington on Peyton Place) plays his foreman Sam Haney.

Season 1, Episode 35, "Mile High Triangle": Robert Sampson (Sgt. Walsh on Steve Canyon, Father Mike Fitzgerald on Bridget Love Bernie, and Sheriff Turk Tobias on Falcon Crest) plays desperate gambler Eric Ashley. Kathie Browne (shown on the left, played Angie Dow on Hondo and was Darren McGavin's second wife) plays his wealthy wife Liz. Walter Mathews (Clyde Bingham on General Hospital) plays debt collector Charley Carroll.

Season 1, Episode 36, "Millionaire Doctor": George Macready (starred in Gilda, Detective Story, A Kiss Before Dying, Paths of Glory, and Dead Ringer and played Martin Peyton on Peyton Place) plays pushy millionaire Hal Glinders. Lee Philips (shown on the right, starred in Peyton Place and The Hunters, and played Ellery Queen on The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen; also directed 60 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show and multiple episodes of Peyton Place, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Doris Day Show, and The Waltons) plays his son-in-law Dr. Ian Kendrick. Meade Martin (Joe Demarest on Michael Shayne) plays Glinders' son Mark. Norman Leavitt (Ralph on Trackdown) plays air traffic controller Ed.

Season 1, Episode 37, "One for the Money": Johnny Seven (shown on the left, played Lt. Carl Reese on Ironside) plays fugitive murderer Johnny Monday. George E. Carey (Lamont Corbin on General Hospital) plays his associate Al Crown. Marie Worsham (Stacey Lee Balla on Kitty Foyle) plays weather balloon reporter Joan. William Sargent (Jerry Carter on Peyton Place) plays police Sgt. Kenyon. Grant Woods (see "Thoroughbred" above) plays Ripcord pilot Bob Archer.

Season 1, Episode 38, "Para-Nurse": Allison Hayes (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Bat Masterson) plays nurse Laura Coakley. Harry Carey, Jr. (starred in Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Mister Roberts, and The Searchers and played Bill Burnett on The Adventures of Spin and Marty) plays forest ranger Carl Devlin. Grant Woods (see "Thoroughbred" above) returns as Ripcord pilot Bob Archer.

Season 2, Episode 2, "Among Those Missing": Gordon Jones (shown on the left, appeared in The Green Hornet, Flying Tigers, My Sister Eileen, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and McLintock! and played Mike Kelley on The Abbott and Costello Show, Pete Thompson on The Ray Milland Show, Hubie Dodd on So This Is Hollywood, and Butch Barton on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays police Capt. Tom Blacker. Paul Lambert (see "The Human Kind" above) plays fugitive Joe Sandoe. Lyle Cameron (technical advisor on Ripcord) plays the Ripcord pilot.

Season 2, Episode 4, "Day of the Hunter": King Calder (Lt. Gray on Martin Kane) plays munitions company CEO John Harland. Karl Swenson (shown on the right, played Lars Hanson on Little House on the Prairie) plays his employee Will Gorman. Richard Evans (Paul Hanley on Peyton Place) plays Gorman's son Billy.

Season 2, Episode 5, "Devil's Canyon": Pat Conway (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Tombstone Territory) plays escaped convict Johnny Bicker. Paul Birch (Erle Stanley Gardner on The Court of Last Resort, Mike Malone on Cannonball, and Capt. Carpenter on The Fugitive) plays his former boss Bill Dean. Audrey Dalton (appeared in Titanic (1953), Separate Tables, and Kitten With a Whip) plays Dean's wife Janice. William Boyett (Sgt. Ken Williams on Highway Patrol and Sgt. MacDonald on Adam-12) plays State Police officer Capt. Paris.

Season 2, Episode 9, "Flight to Terror": Joe De Santis (appeared in Deadline - U.S.A., I Want to Live!, Al Capone, and Madame X) plays fleeing racketeer Louis Santee. Al Ruscio (shown on the right, played Paul Locatelli on Shannon, Sal Giordano on Life Goes On, Frank Ruscio on Joe's Life, and Kosta Kanelos on Port Charles) plays his bodyguard Carlo Minelli. Jay Douglas (Officer Len Dorsey on Highway Patrol) plays FBI agent Bill Cramden. Leigh Hunt (technical advisor on Ripcord) plays Ripcord pilot Leigh.

Season 2, Episode 11, "Hostage Below": Richard Eastham (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Tombstone Territory) plays wealthy businessman Don Hart. Mikki Jamison (first wife of musician Jimmy Griffin later of the group Bread, appeared in Ski Party, Beach Ball, and played Veronica Lodge in two Archie-comics-based TV movies that were unsold pilots) plays his daughter Laurie. Paul Lambert (see "The Human Kind" above) plays kidnapper Dick Kupper.

Season 2, Episode 12, "The Hunter": Gerald Mohr (shown on the right, narrator on 19 episodes of The Lone Ranger, Christopher Storm on Foreign Intrigue, voice of Mr. Fantastic and Reed Richards on Fantastic 4) plays professional assassin Cliff Street. Russ Conway (see "The Financier" above) plays Secret Service agent Mr. Scott.

Season 2, Episode 13, "Infiltration": John Zaremba (shown on the left, played Special Agent Jerry Dressler on I Led 3 Lives, Dr. Harold Jensen on Ben Casey, Admiral Hardesy on McHale's Navy, Dr. Raymond Swain on The Time Tunnel, and Dr, Harlem Danvers on Dallas) plays drug-smuggling boss Harvey Stanton. Ric Marlow (see "Ransom Drop" above) plays his employee Steve Neven. William Sargent (see "One for the Money" above) plays police Lt. Carney. Leigh Hunt (see "Flight to Terror" above) returns as Ripcord pilot Leigh.

Season 2, Episode 20, "The Losers": Leo Gordon (shown on the right, appeared in Gun Fury, Hondo, Quantrill's Raiders, and Big Top Pee-wee and played Big Mike McComb on Maverick) plays uranium prospector Harry. Fred Beir (Larry Atwood on Days of Our Lives) plays his partner Ed Sutton.

Season 2, Episode 21, "The Lost Ones": Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez (shown on the left, appeared in Wings of the Hawk, The High and the Mighty, and Rio Bravo and played Pedro Vasquez on The Texan) plays goat herder Pedro Perez.

Season 2, Episode 24, "The Money Mine": Lee Van Cleef (see "Thoroughbred" above) plays counterfeiting kingpin Jack Martin. John Bryant (shown on the right, see "The Helicopter Race" above) plays government agent Stuart Langton.

Season 2, Episode 25, "Panic at 10,000": Myron Healey (see "The Financier" above) plays Senator Henry Gilbert. Ken Drake (Bragan on Not for Hire) plays his political adversary Rep. Julian Fant. Ted Knight (shown on the left, appeared in The Candidate, Countdown, and Caddyshack and played Phil Buckley on The Young Marrieds, Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Ben Turner on Lassie's Rescue Rangers, Roger Dennis on The Ted Knight Show, and Henry Rush on Too Close for Comfort) plays an air traffic controller. Frank Warren (Officer Simpson on Highway Patrol and grocer Art Crowley on The Andy Griffith Show) plays Gilbert's plane attendant Harry. Lyle Cameron (see "Among Those Missing" above) plays the Ripcord pilot.

Season 2, Episode 27, "A Present for Felipe": BarBara Luna (shown on the right, played Theresa Modesto on Zorro, Maria Roberts on One Life to Live, Anna Ryder on Search for Tomorrow, and Sydney Jacobs on Sunset Beach) plays fiesta sky-diver Domi Dias.

Season 2, Episode 29, "Race Morgan: Bounty Hunter": Johnny Seven (see "One for the Money" above) plays bounty hunter Race Morgan. Lyle Cameron (see "Among Those Missing" above) plays the Ripcord pilot.