12 O'CLOCK HIGH "Golden Boy had Nine Black Sheep" 1964
12 O'CLOCK HIGH was a television series about the fictitious 918th Bomber Group of the U.S. Air Force. The Group flew Boeing B-17 bombers and was based out of Archbury Field in England. The series ran for a total of 78 episodes between 1964 and 1967. Regular cast members included, Robert Lansing, Frank Overton, Paul Burke, Chris Robinson and Barney Philips. The series is loosely based on the superb 1949 film of the same name. This episode is the first of the series.
The Group has just returned from a raid over occupied Europe. The commanding officer is furious with a particular pilot, Paul Burke. Burke is always finding excuses to abort missions, rough running engines etc. Lansing is not sure if Burke, (who is from a family with a long military tradition) is just unlucky, or a coward.
Lansing assigns Burke a new aircraft named, THE LEPER COLONY. Lansing combs through the Bomber Group for the worst 9 crewmen and gives them to Burke. He tells Burke he has 2 weeks to whip them into a combat ready crew. Burke rides the men hard and they are soon ready to go on a mission.
THE LEPER COLONY soon becomes one of the better ships in the group. After several missions Lansing tells Burke and his crew they can change the name of the bomber. The men however want to keep THE LEPER COLONY as they now consider the handle, good luck. The plane is badly shot up on the next mission and just barely makes it back with Burke and most of the crew wounded.
Lansing now decides to promote Burke and give him a squadron of his own.
Also in the cast is a young Bruce Dern.
This one is a decent stab for a first episode.
The series was produced by Quinn-Martin who had a string of successful series during the 1960's and 70's. These include, THE FUGITIVE, THE INVADERS, CANNON, THE FBI, THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO, BARNABY JONES and MANHUNTER.
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