Ripcord TV Series: Complete Season 1 Gift Set

While the old 1961-63 television series "Ripcord" was not something I've thought very much about in recent years, my interest in it re-surfaced when it became available on DVD. It's been so long ago that I've forgotten the details, but I do know that, as a teenager, I avidly watched the shows when they aired. And I suspect the weekly episodes strongly influenced me to take up the then-new sport of skydiving several years later, a sport I pursued with great enthusiasm until its costs exceeded my starving-college-student budget. Be that as it may, I was really anxious to get my hands on the DVD set so I could once again enjoy the thrilling aerial adventures of skydivers Ted McKeever and Jim Buckley.I was not disappointed. The "Ripcord Complete Season 1" DVD set contains 38 episodes on five disks, each one about 23 minutes or so of glorious full-screen black-and-white classic television. The disks come in two traditional DVD cases, labeled "Vol. 1" and "Vol. 2," with three disks in the first case (all mounted on a single spindle from which two had come loose during shipping in my package) and two on separate spindles in the second. A nice-but-superfluous cardboard box holds the cases. It features the same front-cover artwork as the individual cases and a full episode list on the back.As for the episodes themselves--well, based on the few I've sampled so far, they're great fun to see again after so many years. Yes, they can be corny compared to modern (but not necessarily better) standards. The actors' performances tend to be low-key but competent, given that the real stars of the show are the skydiving stunts, which were filmed as they happened without tricks or special effects. The stories can be a little strained as they try to make the plot point of skydiving fit into unlikely situations. But the episodes are pretty sharp and have excellent contrast, with just a little digital banding in the skies of some scenes. And, thankfully (hurrah!), the dialog is clear, crisp and comprehensible, a relative rarity these days.If you're a fan of the good old days of television, you can't go wrong with "Ripcord."

At last Ripcord has made it to DVD! I have thought about this show for almost 50 years, my only connection was a coloring book that somehow got packed away with some of my childhood books. Ripcord did for skydiving what Sea Hunt did for scuba diving, this is pure Golden age of television action entertainment. Ripcord like Sea Hunt was produced by ZIV productions who marketed many great television series for syndication, sold to local television stations and not to the 3 major networks. Don't expect what you may find in a modern show, but the writers always seemed to pack a good story into about a 25 minute show. Good always triumphs over evil, you know from the start the bad guys will get caught, the medicine for the sick child will arrive in time, or the elderly man trapped in a snow storm will be rescued, and in the end Ted and Jim argue over who will get the girl. Ripcord centers around two business partners, Ted McKeever (Larry Pennell, alias Dash Riprock from the Beverly Hillbillies) and Jim Buckley (Ken Curtis, alias Festus Hagen from Gun Smoke), two former Army paratroopers who run Ripcord Inc. and make their living from the then little know sport of sky diving, don't ask yourself how two men can own a jump plane, employ a pilot, drive a radio dispatch van and drive magnificent 60's era convertibles and still make a living out of jumping out of airplanes. There is no computer animation, Ripcord was shot using real sky divers and crude aerial cameras of the time fastened to the cameraman's helmet, in fact during the filming of one episode, two planes used in a camera shot collided and crashed (everyone parachuted to safety) and the footage of the crash was incorporated into several episodes. Whether they are helping the police track bank robbers, delivering serum to a remote town or jumping into rugged mountains searching for a missing person Ripcord is plain out fun television. While the stories may seem hokey by todays standards they are a lot better than a lot of what you find on t.v. today. And season one at least shot in glorious black and white. Highly recommended.

RIPCORD was a syndicated TV series in the early 1960s. It was the first ( and so far only?) program to incorporate sport parachuting into the weekly plot. The ripcord being the cable one pulls to open their parachute. Our heroes (Larry..or was that Ken?..Pennell and Ken Curtiss) were instructors at their own school teaching parachuting and the new sport ( then) of sky diving. Every week they sound up on a jam or equipment problem, aircraft problem, etc. Or they would be hired to do movie work, of just be out parachuting and get into an emergency situation where their skills were needed. It looks now like a lot of the parachute jumps were all shot in a few days and then the seasons stories were built around thus filming! The series was a popular enough entry to be renewed for a second year, now in color, when most TV networks were still shooting black and white. Plots were simplistic...but they had to be presented, enacted, and resolved all in 22 minutes, as it was a half hour commercial program....and those were the days when the stars were also expected to do commercials explaining how Chesterfield cigarettes made a more exciting day or what oil to use in the family car, etc. I got both years just for the nostalgia...expect no historical gems or great award winning acting! Both stars went on in Hollywood to movie and TV appearances. Ken Curtis had long been a feature film western movie actor , sharing the screen with John Wayne on many occasions( "THE SEARCHERS", "THE HORSE SOLDIERS") He was a singer in the "Sons of the Pioneers" in many movies, and later shared the small screen with Jim Arness as " Festus Hagen" on "GUNSMOKE"! You'll see Pennell in the movie "MIDWAY" and scores of other TV programs of the 70s through 90s! I offer similar comments regarding Volume Two of this series.

same as for ripcord one

Die Serie ist auf Englisch, funktioniert aber problemlos auf deutschen Geräten. Wir haben ewig nach dieser Serie gesucht und das hier ist genau das, was es verspricht: Jede Menge Ripcord Folgen in guter Qualität.

This was a series I remember seeing in re-runs as a child.Engaging stars , Larry Pennell and Ken (Festus) Curtis and exciting plots. Well done for its time. If you're a fan of early 60's TV, this is a great little series.

I was too young to watch this when it aired on TV, but as a fan of older TV took a chance and ordered it.I was very pleased with the quality and content. I quickly ordered season 2 as well.

Retour dans mon enfance : la première série regardée durant mon enfance en 1962 ... quand la télé n'était pas encore cette "poubelle" de vulgarité et de violence gratuites, le temps des séries bon enfant en noir et blanc. Cà m'a fait du bien de revoir ces histoires de parachutistes évoluant dans le Grand Canyon ou par là, époque où nous avions encore le droit de rêver des STATES. Wow, naïveté, reviens s'il te plaît.