"The Adventures of Champion" became a perennial favorite, frequently revived and shown on television in the UK, but remained undeservedly obscure in its country of origin. Beautifully produced, the program was based on a short-lived radio series, which in turn inspired a series of comic books, starring beloved singing cowboy Gene Autry's fine horse, Champion. Because only 26 episodes were filmed, the series had limited domestic distribution in syndication, following its truncated network run. It was, however, dubbed into Spanish and French, and was televised overseas over the years.
The great popularity enjoyed by television series featuring famous dogs Lassie and Rin Tin Tin prompted producers to develop more shows featuring an animal loved and cared for by a youngster. "My Friend Flicka" and "Fury" shared the concept of the bond between a boy and a horse. At the very same time, Gene Autry's Flying A Productions opted to revive the concept of the old radio series and create "The Adventures of Champion" for television in 1955.
CBS scheduled "My Friend Flicka" for its Friday night "family slot" (7:30 PM, EDT) in the autumn of 1955. At the last moment - with no publicity of any sort - "The Adventures of Champion" turned up on the network on Friday nights instead - and, as fate would have it, directly opposite ABC's blockbuster "Rin Tin Tin" series. CBS did not run the entire set of 26 Champion films. The excellent series was unceremoniously dropped and replaced by "My Friend Flicka" early in 1956.
A western similar in style and content to previous Flying A shows, "The Adventures pf Champion" starred several beautiful horses billed as Champion, a handsome shepherd dog named Blaze as "Rebel," and two fine human actors. Jim Bannon, neither cowboy nor horseman, was an excellent radio announcer with a sonorous voice whose acting career had cast him as detectives, cowboys, and believable knaves over the years. As "Ricky North," Flying A cast the extremely likeable Barry Curtis, who projected a gentle and profoundly amiable quality as the youngster to whom the wild stallion becomes attached.
Well-directed by such long-time pros as George Archainbaud, John English, and Ford Beebe, with scripts by such writers as Oliver Drake, the series featured outstanding supporting performances by the likes of Raphael Bennett, Roy Barcroft, Sally Fraser, Francis McDonald, Harry Lauter, Jack Mulhall, Glenn Strange, Harry Harvey, Myron Healy, Stanley Andrews, Tom Irish, Rick Vallin, Ann Doran, and Lee Van Cleef. It is a highly entertaining group of films which retains its entertainment value and remains a credit to those involved in its production.
