| Runtime: | 30 minutes |
| Starring: | Eric Fleming Ed Peck Fran Lee Luis Van Rooten David Anderson Joe Graham Harry Kingston Ben Hoffman |
| Country: | United States |
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.
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.[1] 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.[2]
Episode titles included "Murder in Paris", "Hostage in Havana", "Port Said", "The Sacred Jewel of Calcutta" and "Mission to Korea".[3]
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".[2]
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.
UCLA Film & Television Archive holds 20 episodes of this series.[4]
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".[5] It said that use of film clips in the episode reviewed added to the segment's realixm.