Pulse of Cinema
Sky King (1952-1959) series poster
Drama · Western

Sky King

1952-1959 4 seasons 72 episodes
67 Pulse
7.7 IMDb
Long haul 36 hours
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Plot

Sky King is an American radio and television adventure series. The title character is Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler "Sky" King. The series was likely based on a true-life personality of the 1930s, Jack Cones, the "Flying Constable" of Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County, California, although this claim is unverified. Although the series had strong western elements, King mostly captured criminals and spies, and found lost hikers with the use of his plane, the Songbird. Though the planes used changed during the course of the series, the later model was not given a number, but was still known as the Songbird. King and his niece, Penny, lived on the Flying Crown Ranch, near the town of Grover, Arizona. Penny and Clipper were also pilots, though still relatively inexperienced and looking to their uncle for guidance and mentoring. Penny was an accomplished air racer and rated multi-engine pilot, whom Sky trusted to fly the Songbird. In the third TV episode, Penny refers to Clipper as "my brother", so they are siblings. The musical score was largely the work of Herschel Burke Gilbert.

Credits

Cast: Kirby Grant, Gloria Winters, Mike Steen, Lomax Study, Robert Stevenson

How the Pulse Score works

For series, Pulse starts from the IMDb rating shrunk by vote count, then applies FORMAT CALIBRATION. Series score systematically higher than films on IMDb, so using the raw number would unfairly push a show like Sky King to the top of a film catalogue. Calibration maps the series distribution onto the film one; meaning 67 is COMPARABLE to a film with the same Pulse.

One more difference from films: Letterboxd does not track series, so series Pulse derives from a single source (IMDb) rather than two.

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