Troubleshooters

I remember the show... it was shown on a local independent (WGN) here in Chicago as an after-market show...

I saw the notice of Bob Matthias' death today on cnn.com and remembered that he and Keenan Wynn starred in the show.

They were always tearing around on bulldozers and such, and blowing stuff up.

I vaguely remember Slats... just the name... what did he do? The opener to the show started off with an explosion... I can remember one episode where Bob Matthias had to get over a ditch... so he made a pole out of bamboo and pole-vaulted over the ditch...

Seriously, I caught this show in second run on WGN in Chicago,(like at least one other poster), in the early 1960s. As I remember the opening, Keenan Wynn comes uphill towards the camera on a motorcycle, (make, unknown), and Bob Mathias comes down towards the camera riding a hook on a construction crane. They are, the troubleshooters ! Interesting look at the life of 'globe trotting' construction workers. Aside from their work, these two, naturally, get involved in the lives of the people who work for, with, or, around them. One episode had them, and their crew, build an iron lung for a young local/native lad who had apparently contracted polio, or a similar type of respiration paralysis. Another had them hold a carnival, subsidized by the construction company they work for, to raise funds for something or other. The highlight of this episode was a booth where each kid got a free ice cream cone, which they could either eat, or, throw at Keenan Wynn's face sticking through a canvas backdrop. Now, the telling part. As I remember, the name of the construction company was Corbett. At the same time, early 1960s, my uncle worked for a Corbett Construction Company, on the project to build what is now the Michigan Ave., Oak St. Lake Shore Drive interchange. Yet, I can't find it on Google.

This is a very obscure, essentially forgotten construction-based show from NBC from 1959-1960. My father, Chet Allen, played the role of "Slats" on the show. He has for many years tried to obtain VHS/DVD copies of the show but with no success. There is rumor that the archives were destroyed due to neglect over the years. I've never seen the show and would be delighted to be able to do so. Anyone out there with any concrete information about how to obtain copies of this show or who is in contact with former cast members or who have any memorabilia from the show, please feel free to contact me. My Dad would be really grateful if you have any information. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.

Back in 1959, me & the boys would play construction, digging up the dirt, moving it around in dump trucks, etc. So, here comes a TV show about guys that do just that. Of course, they used dynamite to move more dirt! Hey, we could use firecrackers! You get the idea, eh? A really cool show for 9-year-old boys...

Keenan Wynn as the grizzly old troubleshooter, a real take-no-crap kind of guy.

And, by the way, wasn't Bob Mathias an Olympic decathlete? Is that the same guy who was on the Wheaties box? I think so.

This really was an interesting and unusual show, quite a change from so much of the routine programming of that era. I suppose that the success of "Sea Hunt" made the idea of a series based on somewhat unusual occupations look like a good idea for a series. I remember one episode where some men were trapped by a cave-in in a tunnel, which was filling with water. The men on the outside used a bulldozer to push a large pipe with a cap on the end, not screwed tight with a wrench so that the men on the inside could remove it with their hands, through the soft cave-in to the inside.They knew that they would have to add another length of pipe, so they put another cap on the end the bulldozer pushed so as not to mess up the threads. Shows you how careful and realistic they tried to be down to the last detail. Great series, too bad it only lasted one season. Hope the episodes have not been lost.