Sky King

1952

Seasons & Episodes

  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
7.7| NA| en| More Info
Released: 05 April 1952 Ended
Producted By: Jack Chertok Television Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.skyking.com/
Info

Sky King is an American radio and television adventure series. The title character is Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler "Sky" King. The series was likely based on a true-life personality of the 1930s, Jack Cones, the "Flying Constable" of Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County, California, although this claim is unverified. Although the series had strong western elements, King mostly captured criminals and spies, and found lost hikers with the use of his plane, the Songbird. Though the planes used changed during the course of the series, the later model was not given a number, but was still known as the Songbird. King and his niece, Penny, lived on the Flying Crown Ranch, near the town of Grover, Arizona. Penny and Clipper were also pilots, though still relatively inexperienced and looking to their uncle for guidance and mentoring. Penny was an accomplished air racer and rated multi-engine pilot, whom Sky trusted to fly the Songbird. In the third TV episode, Penny refers to Clipper as "my brother", so they are siblings. The musical score was largely the work of Herschel Burke Gilbert.

Genre

Drama, Western

Watch Online

Sky King (1952) is currently not available on any services.

Director

Production Companies

Jack Chertok Television Productions

Sky King Videos and Images

Sky King Audience Reviews

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
bkoganbing Though it was a nice play on words the character Sky King did not get his moniker from his reliance on air travel, it was simply short for Schuyler. Nevertheless it's a great handle and suggestive of all kinds of romantic fantasies about air travel.The last name King was also an interesting choice. One of the largest, if not the largest cattle ranches ever was the King Ranch of Texas. If people thought Sky was one of those Kings, so much the better. And I don't think the King Ranch minded the free publicity.The title role in this modern western was played by Kirby Grant who also had played him on radio. He was the owner of a considerable spread, but the main thing with Grant was that he was up to date with the times. He had a private plane that he named the Songbird which he used to both oversee his ranch and help deal with bad guys who couldn't ride horses fast enough to get away from Sky King and the Songbird. As you can imagine, the law had need of Sky and his plane and Sky was only too willing to help out a sheriff in need.Sky lived on the ranch with niece Penny {Gloria Winters} and nephew Clipper {Ron Haggerty}. These two headstrong youths got themselves in jams and half the plots of the shows were Uncle Sky using the Songbird to get them out of a jackpot.Kirby Grant who broke into film as a singer and not a bad one found his niche on radio playing heroic Sky King. The show transitioned smoothly to television and was a big hit with the kids including this kid.Ironically enough Kirby Grant's death was a postscript to the Challenger disaster. Long retired and living in Florida he saw the Challenger blow up and then died in a car accident on the way home. Probably the horror of what he saw unnerved as it did everyone else who witnessed it live or on television. So a man whose fame was as a fictional air hero died after witnessing one of the great air disasters of the last century.Sky King was a nice family show and I'm surprised no one has thought to revive it.
krorie Sky King came roaring into American living rooms every Saturday with action and adventure. The stories were well written for juvenile television fare. The cast usually consisted of minor character actors. Sky was played with gusto by Kirby Grant who was an ace pilot in real life. His niece, Penny, was portrayed by Gloria Winters who tended to overact but exuded a winning personality that everyone loved.This was my wife's favorite TV show when she was a child. We recently watched several episodes on DVD and were surprised at how well the shows have held up over the past fifty years. They are still entertaining, action-packed with good aerial photography for the time period. One with an ecological angle was "The Wild Man" featuring Jethro Beaudine's (Max Baer, Jr.) uncle, Buddy Baer, a mountain of a man, standing 6'5" tall. In this episode, he is falsely accused of trying to kill a driver for a logging company and stealing the payroll. It's up to Sky and Penny to prove his innocence. The loggers are out to shoot him because he has been trying to sabotage their work in order to save the homes of the woodland creatures. Penny, as usual, plays an active role in helping her Uncle Sky.
jonesy74-1 it's... SKY KING! Neeeeeeooooooowww (plane diving behind announcer's voice) I saw this show when I was a kid - around 5 yrs. old. The shows were syndicated releases shown on my local station. It was around 1959 or 1960 and the series had debuted in 1951. I don't remember much about the shows, other than Sky King wore Western Wear, Penny had blonde hair and they flew around in a plane looking for lost people and stopping baddies from doing dastardly deeds.I liked the plane, a Cessna T-50 named Songbird, but I was a little more impressed with jets at the time.Sky was friendly and Penny was "Golly-gee-whiz." It was a good show as I remember it.
whodo13 Thank you so much for finding "Sky King" I have asked many people from my generation, Do you remember the show Sky King? No one remembers but oh I do. Watching on Saturday mornings was the treat of the week for me. Penny and Uncle Sky were great and I can still see that plane in my minds eye flying in over the hill tops. How I loved that show. If only the kids of today had great shows like we did maybe we'd have less hate and violence in the world today. Whatever became of the shows stars? Did they go on to bigger and better things? I truly hope so. They deserved a lot for all the joy and happiness they brought to countless numbers of youngsters across the nation. Well those of us fortunate enough to have television. Thanks for all the great memories.