STEVE CANYON'S CHRISTMAS SPECIAL by Ray Bradbury

Have you ever spent years trying to get the opportunity to see a film, only to discover the film itself was a dud? Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I recently watched what was the Christmas episode of television’s Steve Canyon, scripted by the great Ray Bradbury, only to discover this adage rang true.  

Steve Canyon was Milton Caniff’s major success, following Terry and the Pirates, an adventure comic strip in serial format, which ran from 1947 to 1988. Steve Canyon was an easygoing adventurer with a soft heart. Originally a veteran running his own air-transport business, the character returned to the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and stayed in the military for the remainder of the strip’s run. In later years, Canyon was involved in Air Force intelligence and operations.

 

The comic strip was so successful that at one time producer David O. Selznick considered producing a series of Steve Canyon films, starring Guy Madison, but Madison’s agent talked Selznick out of it. (Madison would later go on to play the title role of Wild Bill Hickok for television.)

 

The strip would hit the silver screen through a half-hour television series on NBC from 1958 to 1959, and reruns on ABC in 1960. A total number of 34 episodes were produced, slightly on the cheap, but with the talent of actor Dean Fredericks, formerly known as the Hindu manservant of Johnny Weissmuller’s Jungle Jim series, the character of Steve Canyon was cemented as a no-nonsense troubleshooter for the U.S. Air Force. For the first half of the series, Steve Canyon traveled from base to base before becoming the commanding officer stationed at the strip's fictitious Big Thunder Air Force Base in California (a move solely to assist with the weekly budget for production). 

 

Many years ago, the entire series underwent a restoration project, ultimately released to DVD in three separate volumes. Of particular interest was the Christmas episode titled “The Gift,” which was written by Ray Bradbury. I bought the first volume, only to discover the episode I really wanted to see would be on the forthcoming second volume. A year later, the second volume was released, and then my schedule got busy. Eventually I was able to purchase all three volumes, the complete series – but it took me more than a decade to find time to watch the series.

 

Over the past two months, I would occasionally pop a DVD into the player and watch a couple episodes. The series is “average” at best, but typical of the 1950s television production. Just this week I treated myself to the episode I so longed to see… “The Gift.”

 

Regrettably, the Bradbury holiday offering was what science-fiction scribes refer to as a concept episode – the concept was the main fare. The rest was padding to get to the point. All of which is a long-winded way of saying the series is worth watching if you love the newspaper strip. But the one episode I longed to see for more than a decade turned out to be the worst Christmas film I have ever seen. It has been said by many that Bradbury could not write for television and based on what I saw of this episode, he was better suited to the printed page.

 

Oh well, at least my viewing pleasure (or displeasure) comes with a story.