US Adventure series 1957-60 111 episodes x 30 min. bw
starring Kenneth Tobey as Chuck Martin
(right) Craig Hill as Pete ("P.T.") Moore
(left)
with Sandra Spence as Janet Culver (1957) Nancy Hale as Helen Carter (1958-1960)
Premise:
The show centered around Chuck Martin (Kenneth Tobey) and
Pete (P.T.) Moore (Craig Hill), owners of 'Whirlybirds, Inc', who flew
their helicopter (N975B) between Longwood Field and anywhere where they
could be of help to someone in trouble.
Often the boys would be called in to help the police locate an escaped
prisoner, or save some stranded fool out in the middle of nowhere.
This would inevitably lead to one of the guys dangling at the end of a
rope at some point in the episode. When they didn't just jump right out
of the helicopter.
"Whirlybirds" was filmed in the Van Nuys area of California.
"Bell Helicopter Corp." supplied the helicopters for all but the first
4 episodes through an operator in Van Nuys
called "National Helicopters and Engineering" (Richard Hart Sr.)
The "Bell 47J Ranger" helicopter was first introduced in the episode,
" Seven were trapped". It was pretty much used in conjunction with the
"Bell 47G" for the rest of the run. It's registration# was N2838B.
Hart had to purchase a new J model from Bell for the series.
Bob Gilbreath was the real pilot for the entire run. The airport shots were
filmed at the old San Fernando airport (now defunct), and Whitman Field.
"The two airports used in the filming
of Whirlybirds were the Santa Susana Airport
and the San Fernando Airport. Santa Susana Airport, which is no longer in
existence,
was in close proximity to the Iverson Ranch and was the airport for filming the
first season.
The San Fernando Airport, which is also closed, was used for the rest of
Whirlybird's
production run." (Vince Marzo, Glendale, CA, Inspector, Los Angeles Fire
Department)
The
interior shots along with the cockpit interior shots of Ken Tobey and Craig
Hill flying were filmed at Desilu Studios.
The idea for the series came
from the "I Love Lucy" episode "Bon Voyage" (16Jan56, CBS/Desilu). Jo
and
Art Napoleon conceived the idea to write in a script based on two helicopter
pilots operating a charter business who got into all kinds of adventures.
The pilot episode for the series was the "Big U" (Uranium Hunt) filmed in
1956 at the Iverson Ranch, a dude ranch used to film westerns. The first
4 episodes were filmed there, and were sold to CBS films Inc. for syndication
Kenneth Tobey was chosen for his background in aviation, and Craig Hill
was the pretty face.
Their secretary Janet Culver (Sandra Spence) left before the
end of the first series and was replaced by Helen Carter (Nancy Hale)
