“A 20th Century pilot named Buck Rogers and his young friend Buddy Wade awake from 500 years in suspended animation to find that the world has been taken over by the outlaw army of Killer Kane.”

TCM on Saturday mornings likes to do some ‘kid’ programming. Lately they have been showing a 20 minutes episode each week of the Buck Rogers serials from 1939 and 1940 that Universal made. One of the most fascinating aspects for me is the ‘Buddy’ Wade character played by Jackie Moran. He was only 16 when they started. He only lived to be 67 like so many of that era.

Buster Crabbe has a great story. He was the only actor to have played Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and Tarzan. He was a two time Olympic swimmer, in ’28 & ’32. He won a gold and a bronze. He, by the way, is what a natural body builder looks like. Not like the steroid junkies of today.

But what I noticed this morning as Buck and Buddy dashed around saving the world, was how often heroes had their partners. Lone Ranger and Tonto, Roy Rogers and Pat Brady, Batman and Robin, and probably many others if I took time to think about it. The partners are usually very competent, but danged if the bad guys don’t usually get the drop on them somehow, and our hero has to come rescue them! More unusual I would suppose, would be the perfectly equal partners like in Starsky & Hutch, or the Dukes of Hazzard.

“I was never one to think that because you are in the picture business, because you’re an actor, you’re a special person. Not at all, and I have little regard for any people who act that way. If you’re lucky, you bring a little excitement to the world. If you’re really lucky, you lend your fame to worthwhile causes — as I was recently privileged to do raising money for the 1984 Olympics, or promoting healthy activities. Apart from that, you’re just another human being, trying to make a living, doing it the best way you possibly can. That’s the way I’ve always operated, and I will continue to do so, just doing the best I can.” – from Buster’s IMDB page