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Ripcord

BONKERS CRIME serial featuring Quick Yankee Ted McKeever (LARRY PENNELL) and Slow Southerner Jim Buckley (KEN CURTIS) as best buddy crook-catchers employing parachutes instead of guns and car-chases to catch quarry. With staggering results. Noting that bad guys invariably, and perhaps understandably, covered flanks, sides, but never immediate space above their heads, the pair cleaned up their respective neighbourhood and cashed in mountains of booty to form Ripcord, Inc. Henceforth, whenever Buckley was cornered by another escaped convict, McKeever would sneak 5,000 feet up, fall out of a plane and land precisely on top of the firearm-wielding marauder. McKeever tended to get kidnapped a lot, but this was OK as he was always imprisoned in a huge open ravine or a house with no roof. Only a handful of episodes were ever made, but got repeated forever through 60s and 70s. Earns extra points for throwaway running gag concerning division of household chores: McKeever: “Think of a number between 1 and 10.” Buckley: “Um…5”. McKeever: “No, 17. I cheat.” And then: Buckley: “Think of a number between 1 and 10.” McKeever: “23”. Buckley: “Hey, how did you guess…?”

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  1. Lina B. Umpierre

    April 22, 2013 at 10:20 pm

    I just love to hear Ted McKeever’s advices at the end of each first season episode of “Ripcord” on parachuting and skydiving safety: “Follow the basic safety regulations on parachuting and skydiving, use only the best equipment, get qualified instructions and keep them safe!”

  2. Lina B. Umpierre

    April 23, 2013 at 9:28 pm

    I remember when my daddy and I watched “Ripcord” on WAPA TV Channel 4 in San Juan, Puerto Rico when I was a baby girl! Ted McKeever and Jim Buckley were the skydiving adventure buddies of my infancy!

  3. Lina B. Umpierre

    May 17, 2013 at 12:33 am

    I’m so glad TGG’s bringing the two seasons of “Ripcord” on DVD sets for sale that I’ll jump for joy! Geronimo!

  4. Lina B. Umpierre

    December 17, 2013 at 8:11 pm

    Larry Pennell (February 21, 1928 – August 28, 2013), already gone, but never forgotten as the colorful and youthful “Ripcord” guy Ted McKeever, may rest in peace! He was 85 years-old.

  5. Lina B. Umpierre

    January 15, 2014 at 8:20 pm

    By the memory of the late “Ripcord” stars, Larry Pennell (1928-2013) as the colorful and youthful guy Ted McKeever and Ken Curtis (1916-1991) as his older mentor and partner Jim Buckley, let’s make justice to parachuting and skydiving safety!

  6. Lina B. Umpierre

    June 19, 2014 at 3:25 pm

    Brigadier General James Carl (“Jim”) Hall, USAF (United States Air Force) (April 14, 1926 – June 1, 2014), a pioneer in parachuting and skydiving who co-created “Ripcord”, the most danger-packed parachute adventure show on television of the early 1960s ever made, may rest in peace! He was 88 years-old.

  7. Lina B. Umpierre

    July 28, 2014 at 1:49 pm

    This is the most danger-packed adventure show on television of the early 1960s ever made. Every jump and aerial maneuver are real, photographed exactly as it happened… no tricks nor illusions. All that stands between a jumper and death is his/her RIPCORD.

  8. Lina B. Umpierre

    July 28, 2014 at 1:54 pm

    Mental note: If you really want to parachute and/or skydive, just remember always the audacious and brave “Ripcord” men, Ted McKeever (the late Larry Pennell) and Jim Buckley (the also late Ken Curtis), and their wise safety advices on both mentioned daring and thrilling air sports at the end of each exciting episode of the most danger-packed parachute adventure show on television of the early 1960s ever made, “Ripcord”.

  9. Lina B. Umpierre

    July 28, 2014 at 2:17 pm

    As the late Larry Pennell (* Uniontown, Pennsylvania, United States of America/February 21, 1928 – + ?/August 28, 2013) as the colorful and youthful parachute lad Ted McKeever said at the end of the “Ripcord” episode called “Mile High Triangle”: “Hi! Parachuting is an exciting, fast-growing sport, but don’t try without qualified instructions, be sure you use good equipment, even so it’ll take tens of jumps before you can tackle the hazardous job as Jim (Buckley) and I do as professionals.” Also, as he said at the end of another “Ripcord” episode, “Radar Rescue”: “Parachuting is a fast-growing, exciting sport. To join the fun, follow the basic safety regulations, in the United States of America are the Basic Safety Requirements or BSRs, that govern parachuting, use only the best equipment and, above all, get qualified instructions and remember: Keep it safe!”

  10. Lina B. Umpierre

    August 10, 2014 at 11:19 pm

    Highway Patrolman Dan Matthews and Sea Hunter Mike Nelson may come and go, but the audacious and brave “Ripcord” men Ted McKeever and Jim Buckley remain immortal.

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