Cannonball (TV series)

"Cannonball" was a 1958 Normandie Productions and ITC Entertainment co-production half-hour family drama series. Filmed in Canada, the series followed the adventures of Mike Malone and Jerry Austin as they drove trucks across the US and Canada.

The series would appear to be unusual, as sources say it is one of the few ITC productions to air on ABC Weekend TV in the UK. Because Associated TeleVision(ATV) owners of ITC, also ran the London weekend and Midlands weekdays ITV companies, they tended to hold the rights for ITC series in order to show each one in the Midlands (where ABC was the weekend operator) during the week.

The series ran for 39 episodes in monochrome. In the last episode, Austin who was Malone's co-driver on the truck has a chance to go back and finish college. Malone knows this and knows he won't because Austin doesn't want to split their partnership. In his yearly medical, Malone pretends to have tunnel vision (lack of peripheral vision) which means he can't drive trucks any more. This means Austin is now free to go to college.

Main cast

*Paul Birch as Cannonball Mike Malone
*William Campbell as Jerry Austin
*Beth Lockerbie as Mary Malone
*Beth Morris as Ginny Malone
*Steve Barringer as Butch Malone
*Howard Milsom as Harry Butler

Episode list

The original production order appears to be lost and all that remains is a partial list based upon Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and ITV air dates. As titles were not shown on-screen, these titles may be speculative.

* "The Runaway Truck"
* "Pills"
* "Nitro Haul"
* "Small Cargo"
* "The Big Ambulance"
* "Mark Time"
* "The Necklace"
* "Shock"
* "The Attack"
* "The Girl Reporter"
* "Butch"
* "Little Old Man"
* "Sauce for the Goose"
* "The Girl at Joe's Place"
* "Nanette"
* "Lil's Cafe"
* "The Hostage"
* "Fallout"
* "Marooned"
* "Undercover"
* "Vendetta"
* "The Has-been"
* "The Flying Dutchman"
* "Rodeo"
* "Trip to Buffalo"
* "Wild Party"
* "Driving School"
* "Eyewitness"
* "Ginny"
* "Racket"
* "Green-eyed Monster"
* "Sights on Safety"
* "Moose Hunt"
* "Big Buck"
* "Willy"
* "The Dog"
* "Snake Eyes"
* "The Iron Lung"
* "Tunnel Eyes"

External links

* [http://www.tv.com/cannonball/show/13860/episode_guide.html TV.com entry]
* [http://www.angelfire.com/retro/cta/Can/Cannonball.htm CTA information]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umvbqPUMoKg Cannonball Intro]
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* [http://www.film.queensu.ca/Lasso/Lasso.acgi?%5bdatabase%5d=cbcdirectory&%5blayout%5d=layout%20%231&%5bresponse%5d=cbc%2fdetailformat.html&%5brecid%5d=33591&%5bsearch%5d Queen's University Directory of CBC Television Series: "Cannonball"]