Twelve O'Clock High (TV series)

"Twelve O'Clock High" or "12 O'Clock High" was an ABC television series that ran for three seasons from September 18, 1964 to January 13, 1967. It was based on the 1949 motion picture of the same name.

Overview

The series follows the missions of the 918th Bomb Group stationed at Archbury, England during World War II. For the first season many of the characters from the movie were retained, including Brigadier General Frank Savage, Major Harvey Stovall, Major Cobb, Doc Kaiser and General Pritchard, albeit played by different actors than in the movie. In addition to these characters several other infrequently reappearing characters were introduced, including Captain (later Major) Joe Gallagher who appeared twice.

At the end of the first season studio executives decided a younger looking lead actor was needed. In the first episode of the second season General Savage was killed in action and replaced by Joe Gallagher, now a full Colonel. Ironically, the younger looking Burke was two years older than Lansing. According to Executive Producer Quinn Martin(obtained from his Wikipedia entry) he had decided to fire Lansing because he had become difficult to work with.

For the second season most of the supporting cast from the first season was replaced with the exception of Major Stovall, Doc Kaiser and an occasional appearance by General Pritchard. Other actors who did reappear after the first season played other characters. This trend continued throughout the other seasons. Edward Mulhare appeared twice, as two different German officers. Bruce Dern appeared four times in three different roles. Tom Skerritt appeared five times, each time in a different role.

The first two seasons were filmed in black and white. This was done mostly to allow the inclusion of actual WWII combat footage, negating the need for special effects. The inclusion of combat footage in the series was often obvious as it was often quite degraded. Limited usable combat footage often resulted in the same shot being reused in multiple episodes. For the third season the series was filmed in color but only ran 17 episodes, being cancelled in mid-season. Some of the combat footage used for the third season seemed to be black and white footage tinted blue.

In later episodes, Gallagher flew as a "pathfinder" in a P-51 Mustang. This plot element was added to cut production costs. The single-engine, Mustang cost less to fly than the four-engine B-17, and required only a single pilot rather than two pilots and several extras needed for bomber scenes.

As with most television programs Twelve O'Clock High was created in episodic form. There is no particular order in which the episodes have to be watched. A trio of episodes produced about a shuttle raid to North Africa were in fact never aired in story order. The stories themselves were often based more on character drama than action, usually involving individuals who felt the need to redeem themselves in the eyes of others. Other story lines focussed on actual war events such as the development of bombing through cloud cover using radar and the complexities of operating a large fleet of (often malfunctioning) B-17 Flying Fortress bombers.

Dell Comics produced a comic book based on the series that ran 2 issues in 1965. Both had photocovers and artwork by Joe Sinnott.

Cast

Robert Lansing .... Brigadier General Frank Savage (season 1, Savage was also in episode 1 of season 2 but Lansing was not)
Frank Overton .... Major Harvey Stovall
Paul Burke .... Colonel Joe Gallagher (seasons 2 & 3, recurring season 1)
Chris Robinson .... TSgt. Alexander "Sandy" Komansky (seasons 2 & 3)
John Larkin .... General Wiley Crowe (season 1)
Barney Phillips .... Major "Doc" Kaiser
Andrew Duggan .... General Ed Britt (seasons 2 & 3)
Paul Newlan .... General Pritchard
Lew Gallo .... Major Joe Cobb (season 1)
Robert Dornan .... Lt./Capt. Fowler (seasons 2 & 3)

External links

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