Interplanetary Cop

Steel-muscled Commander Buzz Corry of Space Patrol (Sat. 11 a.m., ABC-TV) has spent the past 2 1/2 years policing outer space for the United Planets of the Universe, a sort of 30th century U.N. Last week, on a routine space cruise, Corry was only mildly surprised to encounter a ship flying the Jolly Roger. He promptly boarded the pirate craft and disarmed the villainous crew. Villains are usually packed off to the U.P. Medical Science Center where, after a brainwashing, they become as true-blue and noble-souled as Corry himself.

The idea for Space Patrol belongs to a 37-year-old Navy Air Force veteran, Mike Moser. During World War II, Moser was in charge of weather training for three hurricane-hunter squadrons based at San

Diego. Later, he worked for the Fleet Air Electronics Unit. "It started me wondering and thinking about the universe," he says. Since he had also been a writer of movie and radio scripts, Moser put his writing and wonderment together to make up Space Patrol.

Though the show has its own pseudo-scientific lingo and its own slang ("Shootin' rockets!" "What in the universe!"), Moser borrows from older art forms. "Like any cowboy hero, Buzz Corry is above sex," he explains. "He never kisses anything but the cold nose of his space ship." Moser has also put a taboo on cliff-hanging ("If we cause a single nightmare we have failed in our purpose")-Should a program end with Commander Corry facing a ray gun and certain death, the TV camera moves in to show a faint smile on the hero's face. The smile is a tip-off to his moppet viewers, says Moser: "They know that Corry can get out of this spot --that he's got a plan."

Because Space Patrol is telecast from a former Hollywood movie lot where there is plenty of room for its spacemen to move around, it does not suffer from the "TV claustrophobia" of Eastern studios. A minor drawback of the show is the overabundance of interplanetary sound effects. The screams of jet planes drown out much of the dialogue. But it is no great loss, because the kids usually get the sense of what is going on.

This week, Sponsor Ralston Purina Co. signed a new five-year contract for both the TV show and its radio counterpart (Saturday, 10:30 a.m., ABC). Ralston also has built a 35-ft., $30,000 Space Patrol rocket ship that is now touring the U.S., on a truck trailer, for the edification of the show's young fans.

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