Major Dell Conway of the Flying Tigers

{{Infobox television

| image =

| caption =

| runtime = 30 minutes

| creator =

| starring = Eric Fleming
Ed Peck
Fran Lee
Luis Van Rooten
David Anderson
Joe Graham
Harry Kingston
Ben Hoffman

| country = United States

| network = DuMont

| first_aired = {{start date|1951|4|7}}

| last_aired = {{end date|1952|3|2}}

| num_episodes =

}}

Major Dell Conway of the Flying Tigers was an early American television program broadcast on the now defunct DuMont Television Network. The series ran from April 7, 1951, to March 2, 1952.

Broadcast history

The show was an action-adventure series originally starring B-movie actor Eric Fleming as Major Dell Conway. Fleming was replaced in July 1951 by Ed Peck.McNeil, Alex (1980). Total Television (4th ed.). New York: Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-14-024916-8}}. Other actors included Fran Lee (as Ma Wong), Luis Van Rooten, David Anderson, Joe Graham, Harry Kingston, and Bern Hoffman as Caribou Jones. According to Brooks and Marsh (2007), the roles some of these actors portrayed has been lost to time.Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows (9th ed.). New York: Ballantine. {{ISBN|978-0-345-49773-4}}.

Episode titles included "Murder in Paris", "Hostage in Havana", "Port Said", "The Sacred Jewel of Calcutta" and "Mission to Korea".{{cite book |last1=Woolery |first1=George W. |title=Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part II: Live, Film, and Tape Series |date=1985 |publisher=The Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-1651-2 |pages=324–325}}

Major Dell Conway was loosely based on a true story about a pilot who flew with the Flying Tigers in World War II China. The series has been called "an extremely low-budget production".

Production

The program was produced by J. Gen Genovese, who had served as a pilot during the war. The program aired on Saturday at 6:30 pm EST on most DuMont affiliates. In May 1951, the series went on hiatus, returning to the air on Sunday afternoons from July 1951 to March 1952. The final episode aired on March 2, 1952. The director was Steve Previn, and the writer was M. C. Brock. The sponsor was Powerhouse Candy.

Episode status

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[https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/ UCLA Film & Television Archive] holds 20 episodes of this series.[https://cinema.library.ucla.edu/ UCLA Film & Television Archive online catalog]

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Critical response

A review in the trade publication Billboard said that the program "should manage to get many young televiewers to go along for the ride" despite "some of its shoddy production".{{cite magazine |last=Morse |first=Leon |date=September 15, 1951 |page=12 |title=Flying Tigers |magazine=Billboard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=90QEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Aldrich+Family%22+NBC&pg=PA12 |accessdate=May 31, 2024 }} It said that use of film clips in the episode reviewed added to the segment's realixm.

References

Bibliography

David Weinstein, The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004) {{ISBN|1-59213-245-6}}
Alex McNeil, Total Television, Fourth edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1980) {{ISBN|0-14-024916-8}}
Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, Third edition (New York: Ballantine Books, 1964) {{ISBN|0-345-31864-1}}