"Casey Jones (TV series) Casey Jones is an American Western series that ran during the 1957-1958 television season, based around the pioneering western railroads. The series aired in syndication in the United States. ""Casey Jones"" aired on the BBC in the United Kingdom and on the Seven Network in Australia. The series is set in the late 19th century, featuring the adventures of railroad engineer Casey Jones and the crew of the Cannonball Express steam locomotive, fireman Wallie Sims and conductor Redrock Smith, working for the Midwest and Central Railroad. Casey lived in Midvale, a fictional town within commuting distance"
"Gerry Anderson Gerry Anderson (born Gerald Alexander Abrahams; 14 April 1929 – 26 December 2012) was an English television and film producer, director, writer and occasional voice artist. He remains famous for his futuristic television programmes, especially his 1960s productions filmed with ""Supermarionation"" (marionette puppets containing electric moving parts). Anderson's first television production was the 1957 Roberta Leigh children's series ""The Adventures of Twizzle"". ""Supercar"" (1961–62) and ""Fireball XL5"" (1962) followed later, both series breaking into the US television market in the early 1960s. In the mid-1960s Anderson produced his most successful series, ""Thunderbirds"". Other television productions of the 1960s"
"porch chair, frequently comes up with half-baked get-rich-quick schemes and ill-conceived hotel promotions. Early on, much of the show also focuses on the ""Hooterville Cannonball"", an 1890s vintage steam-driven train run more like a taxi service by engineer Charley Pratt (Smiley Burnette) and fireman/railway conductor Floyd Smoot (Rufe Davis). It was not uncommon for the ""Cannonball"" to make an unscheduled stop for the crew to go fishing, or to pick fruit for Kate's apple butter and pies. The single-tracked Hooterville spur line was cut off from the rest of the railroad 20 years before the start of the show by"
"driver, in nineteen episodes of the NBC western series, ""Laramie"", with John Smith and Robert Fuller. Waller had a supporting role in the 1957-1958 syndicated series, ""Casey Jones"" starring Alan Hale, Jr.. Waller played ""Red Rock"", the train conductor of Casey's ""Cannonball Express"". He also played John Finney in the 1960-1961 miniseries ""Daniel Boone"", which ran as part of ""Walt Disney Presents"". Waller died of a stroke in Los Angeles, California, at the age of eighty-eight. Eddy Waller Edward C. Waller (June 14, 1889 – August 20, 1977) was an American film and television actor. Waller was originally from Chippewa"
"The Gumball Rally The Gumball Rally is a 1976 American comedy film directed and co-written by Charles Bail, a former stunt coordinator also known as Chuck Bail, about an illicit coast-to-coast road race. It was inspired by the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash run by Brock Yates, which inspired several other films, including ""Cannonball"" (1976), ""Cannonball Run"" (1981), ""Speed Zone"" (1989); as well as an actual event, the American Gumball Rally and Gumball 3000 international race. Michael Bannon (Michael Sarrazin), a wealthy but bored businessman and candymaker, issues the code word ""Gumball"" to his fellow automobile enthusiasts, who gather"
"Pony Express (TV series) Pony Express is an American western television series about the adventures of an agent in the 1860s of the Central Overland Express Company, better known as the Pony Express. The half-hour program starring Grant Sullivan was created by California National Productions. ""Pony Express"" ran for thirty-five episodes in syndication from the fall of 1959 until May 1960. The series featured two recurring roles: Grant Sullivan as Brett Clark, a roving investigator for the company, and Don Dorrell as Donovan, a young Pony Express rider. The majority of the weekly episodes involved Clark and Donovan solving various"
"Hooterville Cannonball The Hooterville Cannonball is a fictional railroad train featured in ""Petticoat Junction"", an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from 1963 to 1970, and was produced by Filmways, Inc., who also produced ""Green Acres"" and ""The Beverly Hillbillies"". ""Petticoat Junction"" shares some characters and its locale, the fictional town of Hooterville, with ""Green Acres"". The shows feature rural characters in humorous and sometimes absurd situations. The most unusual ""character"" in the ""Petticoat Junction"" cast is the ""Hooterville Cannonball"", an abbreviated 1890s vintage train consisting of a steam locomotive and a single combination car (with a baggage"
"of St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife, Alice, their young son, Casey, Jr., and their dog Cinders. Although there really was a famous locomotive engineer named Casey Jones of the Illinois Central Railroad, the television series is loosely based on him. However, it uses the real names of his train, the ""Cannonball Express"". The name of the character Wallie Sims is a conflation of Illinois Central employee Wallace Saunders, who wrote the earliest version of ""The Ballad of Casey Jones,"" and the real Jones' fireman, Simeon ""Sim"" Webb. Unlike Wallie Sims, both Saunders and Webb were African-American. Kenneth Gamet, the"
"are several alternative explanations for that phrase's origin. In 1952 British light music composer Edward White wrote a melody named after the locomotive. The piece became ubiquitous in British media, being used on BBC Light Programme's ""Children's Favourites"", a radio request programme, from 1952 to 1966, and also appearing in numerous commercials and radio shows. The piece also became extremely popular in the United States, where it served as the theme for ""Captain Kangaroo"" from 1955-1974. Puffing Billy (locomotive) Puffing Billy is the world's oldest surviving steam locomotive, constructed in 1813–1814 by coal viewer William Hedley, enginewright Jonathan Forster and"
"Pony Express (film) Pony Express is a 1953 American western film directed by Jerry Hopper and starring Charlton Heston as Buffalo Bill, Forrest Tucker as Wild Bill Hickok, Jan Sterling as a Calamity Jane type character and Rhonda Fleming that was filmed in Kanab, Utah. The story is largely based on the 1925 silent film ""The Pony Express"" and tells a highly fictionalized account (e.g. Buffalo Bill was born in 1846 and would have been 14 at the time) of the formation of the Pony Express rapid transcontinental mail delivery pioneers in 1860’s United States. In 1860 Buffalo Bill and"
"Oliver Postgate Richard Oliver Postgate (12 April 1925 – 8 December 2008), generally known as Oliver Postgate, was an English animator, puppeteer and writer. He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most popular children's television programmes. ""Pingwings"", ""Pogles' Wood"", ""Noggin the Nog"", ""Ivor the Engine"", ""Clangers"" and ""Bagpuss"", were all made by Smallfilms, the company he set up with Peter Firmin, and were shown on the BBC between the 1950s and the 1980s, and on ITV from 1959 to the present day. In a 1999 BBC poll ""Bagpuss"" was voted the most popular children's television programme of"
"and passenger section). The train is operated more like a taxi service by engineer Charley Pratt (Smiley Burnette) and fireman/conductor Floyd Smoot (Rufe Davis). It operates on a long forgotten spur between Hooterville and Pixley that was disconnected from the railway's main line after the demolition of a trestle twenty years before the start of the series. It is not uncommon for the ""Cannonball"" to make an unscheduled stop in order to go fishing or to pick fruit for Kate Bradley's menu at the Shady Rest Hotel. Occasionally, Betty Jo Bradley can be found with her hand on the ""Cannonball's"""
"working on a screenplay to be entitled ""Coast to Coast"" but was scooped by two ""unofficial"" films in 1976, ""Cannonball"" and ""The Gumball Rally"". Eventually, an ""official"" Cannonball Run movie was made, ""The Cannonball Run"" starring Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise with Yates in a cameo appearance. Two sequels, ""Cannonball Run II"" and ""Speed Zone"", also known as ""Cannonball Fever,"" followed. A later USA Network television program, ""Cannonball Run 2001"", was given official approval to use the name. After the last Cannonball, Rick Doherty, a veteran of the 1975 and 1979 races, organized a successor, the U.S. Express (1980-1983). The"
"station management declined to renew the brothers' contract. Another children's show with a similar local cultural impact was ""Foreman Scotty's Circle 4 Ranch"". Airing from 1957 to 1971, it was hosted by Steve Powell (who, with Williams, created and hosted WKY-TV's ""The Giant Kids Matinee"") in the role of the titular cowboy. Scotty was accompanied by a cast of supporting characters that included ranch-hand sidekick Cannonball McCoy (played by station announcer Wilson Hurst), and several played by Danny Williams including fellow sidekick Xavier T. Willard. The show also featured prize giveaways including the Golden Horseshoe, whose winner was selected through"
"Fun Time (TV series) Fun Time was a Canadian children's television series which aired on CBC Television from 1956 to 1957. The series featured Captain Frank (Frank Heron), his Fun Time Showboat and his parrot Matey. Episodes began with magic tricks by Magic Tom (Tom Auburn) or with juggling. Alan Jack and June Mack demonstrated how to play games and were featured with Captain Frank in various adventure segments filmed at various location. Traffic and water safety lessons were given by Elmer the Safety Elephant. The show's orchestra was led by Otto Muller. ""Fun Time"" was produced in Montreal. This"
"in its Saturday morning children's block from 1963 through September 1965. A similar programme often confused with ""Fireball XL5"" due to a number of similarities and settings is ""Space Patrol"" (known as ""Planet Patrol"" in the US), produced by Gerry Anderson's former business partner and co-founder of AP Films, Arthur Provis. The complete series is available on DVD in the UK, Australia, Canada and the US. Set between the years 2062 and 2063, the series featured the missions of spaceship ""Fireball XL5"", commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac of the World Space Patrol. The crew included glamorous Doctor Venus, a doctor"
"U.K. comics based on the series were drawn by H. Watts and Bill Mevin. In 1998 Fanderson issued a limited edition album of Barry Gray's music from the series, paired with Gray's work on ""Fireball XL5"". It was the first soundtrack album produced by the society. In 2013 the society released a second limited edition disc, this one completely devoted to the series. Supercar (TV series) Supercar was a children's TV show produced by Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis' AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment. Thirty-nine episodes were produced between 1961 and 1962, and it was Anderson's first half-hour"
"mouth movements were synchronised with recorded dialogue (a process that Anderson dubbed ""Supermarionation""), the company then filmed its best-known productions – a succession of futuristic science-fiction action-adventure series, all made for Associated Television. ""Supercar"" was made between 1960 and 1961, ""Fireball XL5"" in 1962, ""Stingray"" in 1964 – the first British children's TV series to be filmed exclusively in colour – and ""Thunderbirds"" between 1964 and 1966. Following the completion of ""Fireball XL5"", ATV owner Lew Grade had purchased the company, becoming managing director, with the Andersons, Hill and Read remaining as directors. Immediately following completion and the first TV"
"DeLugg conducted the show's orchestra. Dennis James was primary sponsor Old Gold cigarettes' spokesman; Bob Shepperd was the pitchman for other sponsors. The show was also remade in the United Kingdom for the then-new ITV network in 1956, lasting only one series. The UK version was hosted by Bernard Braden. Seventeen-year-old Tom Brokaw, governor of South Dakota Boys' State, appeared with the real governor of South Dakota, Joe Foss, in 1957. Together they won $1,225, answering questions mainly about politics (one of the categories was ""state governors,"" and one of Brokaw's answers, as he recounts in his autobiography, was ""The"
"May 30. Over the next half-century, Sierra No. 3 pulled tourist excursion trains and appeared in dozens of films, TV shows, and commercials. Among them were ""High Noon"" in 1952, for which Gary Cooper won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and ""Unforgiven"", starring and directed by Clint Eastwood, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1992. The locomotive was often redecorated for various movie and television appearances, one of its most famous roles being the ""Hooterville Cannonball"" from the mid-sixties series ""Petticoat Junction"". False smokestacks were also often installed to alter the appearance of the locomotive. In"
"an American locomotive engineer (train driver). John Wright made the puppets and equipment, the series was written by Lisa Lincoln, and the puppetry was by Jane Tyson and Elizabeth Donaldson. The show was produced by Vere Lorrimer. Billy Bean and His Funny Machine Billy Bean and His Funny Machine was a UK children’s TV series which was broadcast by the BBC in 1954. It featured a puppet called Billy Bean who operated a large fantastic machine that could produce anything he drew on the ""cartoonorator"". Many mistakes were made with humorous results. Peter Hawkins who went on to make a"
"the demolition of a trestle. Charlie and Floyd are alternately depicted as retired employees of the railroad receiving pensions and salaried railroad workers. Many plots involve railroad executive Homer Bedloe's futile attempts to shut down and scrap the ""Hooterville Cannonball"". Occasionally, youngest daughter Betty Jo can be found with her hand on the ""Cannonball's"" throttle, as running the train is one of her favorite pastimes. Trips on the ""Cannonball"" usually include a stop in Hooterville at Drucker's Store, run by Sam Drucker (Frank Cady). Drucker's is the local hub, where menfolk come to play checkers and chat. Sam Drucker is"
"Cannonball (UK game show) Cannonball is a British game show, hosted by Andrew ""Freddie"" Flintoff with Frankie Bridge, Radzi Chinyanganya, Ryan Hand and Maya Jama as poolside reporters, which first aired on 2 September 2017 on ITV. The show features 24 contestants of all ages taking on four games in a bid to win gold, silver and bronze medals. The top three contestants with the most medals go through to the final to play for the ""Cannonball Cup"". Flintoff is the main presenter and narrator, whilst Bridge, Chinyanganya, Hand and Jama are down by the games speaking to the contestants."
"the last surviving eyewitness to Abraham Lincoln's assassination (he was five years old at the time). In 1958, an episode devoted to the theme of ""teenage appreciation"" was the show's answer to media reports of teenage delinquency, and featured nine teenagers of unusual accomplishment including the then 15-year-old chess champion Bobby Fischer, 16-year-old pop star Paul Anka, and 19-year-old college basketball star Oscar Robertson. Sgt. Ira Jones who served as Elvis Presley's First Sargent in Germany made an appearance. Scientist Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of electronic television, made his only televised appearance as a contestant on the show. On"
"1952. He worked regularly for the BBC, and was a presenter of the children's television programme ""Play School"" from 1964 to 1967. He was best known as the narrator of ""The Magic Roundabout"", for which he also wrote the English language scripts, using the visuals from the original French ""Le Manège Enchanté"". These were transmitted from October 1965 to January 1977. His daughter Emma Thompson has noted his influence on her career, saying ""his humour and his rigour, a self-taught man, who loved words and loved the use of words and how they worked. Everything about that was hugely influential."""
"children's show hosted by Frank Thring, alongside Newton and disc jockey, Stan Rofe. The clown duo first worked on their own show on 3XY's ""Tye's Radio Revue"" on Sundays and ""Peters Town Hall Show"" on Thursdays. In March 1956 they drove a toy car at their first Moomba parade and were crowd favourites at the annual festival. On 10 November 1956 local TV station HSV7 broadcast the first episode of ""Peters Fun Fair"", with the duo as its stars in the first children's session televised in Australia. They dressed in costumes advertising Peters Ice Cream, with the slogan, ""the health"
"tacked together, and its improbabilities and illogic soon overshadow its wit."" Margaret Ford of ""The Monthly Film Bulletin"" wrote that ""Dean Jones and a strong supporting cast do their best with the rather flat characters, and the total result is that old American favourite, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich."" Snowball Express Snowball Express is a 1972 American screwball comedy film made by Walt Disney Productions and directed by Norman Tokar. The screenplay concerns a man who leaves his middle class job to run a hotel left to him by his uncle. Johnny Baxter (Dean Jones) is at his corporate"
"Snowball Express Snowball Express is a 1972 American screwball comedy film made by Walt Disney Productions and directed by Norman Tokar. The screenplay concerns a man who leaves his middle class job to run a hotel left to him by his uncle. Johnny Baxter (Dean Jones) is at his corporate middle class job when a probate attorney (David White) tells him that his recently deceased uncle, Jacob Barnesworth, has left him sole ownership of the lucrative Grand Imperial Hotel in the fictional town of Silver Hill, Colorado. A letter written by Barnesworth claims that the hotel brings in more than"
"The Cannonball Run The Cannonball Run is a 1981 American-Hong Kong comedy film starring Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Dom DeLuise, Farrah Fawcett, and an all-star supporting cast. Filmed in Panavision, it was directed by Hal Needham, produced by Hong Kong's Golden Harvest films, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film is based on the 1979 running of an actual cross-country outlaw road race beginning in Connecticut and ending in California. It was one of 1981's most successful films at the box office. It was followed by ""Cannonball Run II"" (1984), and ""Speed Zone"" (1989). This and the 1984 sequel"
"drove across country in 1927 and made it in 60 hours. Yates wrote a book about it called ""The Sunday Driver"". In 1973 it was reported John G. Avildsen and writer Eugene Price was to make a film based on the book called ""The Cannonball-Baker-Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash"". The film was not made but the race did inspire the (unrelated) 1976 films ""Cannonball"" and ""The Gumball Rally"". In the March 1979 race Yates formed one of 46 teams with director Hal Needham to compete with a 150-MPH van converted into an ambulance, with LA doctor Lyell Royer, and Brock's second"
"Wild Bill Shrewsberry Billy Lewis ""Wild Bill"" Shrewsberry (born June 26, 1938) is an American exhibition drag racing driver primarily active throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Originally from Mansfield, Ohio, Shrewsberry moved to Southern California in October 1962. Shrewsberry is best known as the driver of the drag racing replica of the Barris-built Batmobile from the 1966 television series and of the ""L.A. Dart,"" a series of wheelstanding funny cars each with a rear-mounted, supercharged Chrysler Hemi engine and each sponsored by the Dodge and Plymouth dealers of Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The result of the rearward weight transfer"
"512. In the 1970s, to celebrate the Interstate Highway System and to protest speed limits, reporter Brock Yates and editor Steve Smith conceived the idea of an unsanctioned, informal race across the country, replicating the 53.5 hour transcontinental drive made by car and bike pilot Erwin George ""Cannonball"" Baker in 1933. The New York to Los Angeles Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, later shortened to the ""Cannonball Run"", was staged in 1971, 1972, 1975 and 1979 with the race entries including both amateur drivers and professional racers, such as Dan Gurney (who with Brock Yates ""won"" the 1972 event"
"end of the show, whoever's number Dec drew out of a spinning drum won the whole jackpot. In F6½, the contestants were in pedal go karts and were all around six-and-a-half years old. Dec played Grim Rosenthal and Ant played a different variation on Murray Walker every week: Murray Babywalker, Murray Sleepwalker, Murray Skywalker (complete with lightsabre), Murray Tightropewalker, Murray Speedwalker (""And look at me go!"") etc. The four 'drivers' were called Michael Pre-school-macher, Teddy Irvine, Johnny Sherbet and Jenson Chocolate Button. They all got to go to the British Grand Prix and meet their real-life counterparts, while Ant &"