
Ripcord
1961–1963 · Syndication · 30 min · 2 seasons
S02E37 · Where Do Elephants Go To Die ?
Thu, 4 July, 9:30 am
After a recent health scare, Nobel-Prize-winning author and former Korean War correspondent Aaron Sparks asks his friends and comrades-in-arms Ted and Jim to teach him how to skydive, for research for a new novel. But is that the real reason for his interest in this dangerous sport?
About
Jim Buckley and Ted McKeever are skydivers who run a jump school and parachuting-service company called Ripcord. They spring into action for crime fighting, rescues of one type or another, customized skydiving lessons and various other adventures that could be resolved only by parachuting into the thick of things.
Episodes
- E01
Aerial Backfire
Thu, 25 Oct· 30 minMcKeever and Buckley are asked to help fight a massive forest fire by parachuting in behind the fire, and creating a fire break -- and find a young boy and his dog. Ted and Jim are fighting a forest fire and they're too busy to rescue Billy Jacobi's lost dog.
- E02
Race Morgan: Bounty Hunter
Thu, 1 Nov· 30 minTed and Jim meet Race Morgan, a likeable rascal, who makes a business of bringing in criminals to the police for the reward they carry.
- E03
Panic At 10,000
Thu, 8 Nov· 30 minTed and Jim get involved in a political feud at the opening ceremonies of an airport. Two men have to bale out, but there is only one parachute. Ted and Jim solve this problem in their own way.
- E04
Hostage Below
Thu, 15 Nov· 30 minA man kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy man and demands the pay off to be dropped by sky divers. Ted and Jim plan to trap the kidnaper.
- E05
Infiltration
Thu, 22 Nov· 30 minDope runner Hervey Stanton has a unique method of smuggling heroin into the U. S. by a parachutist. McKeever signs on to jump for the smugglers in order to find out who receives the heroin.
- E06
Among Those Missing
Thu, 29 Nov· 30 minTed and Jim drop into the mountain to blast out a landing strip for a search team. A lawman and an escaped convict disappear when their plane crashes in the mountains.
- E07
Flight To Terror
Thu, 6 Dec· 30 minTed McKeever and Jim Buckley answer the "Mayday" of a gangster when the fugitive's plane makes a forced landing near the Mexican border. Gangster Louis Santee and his wife are fleeing toward the Mexican border one jump ahead of Senate investigators.
- E08
Day Of The Hunter
Thu, 13 Dec· 30 minA munitions magnate is shot by his chief chemist and left for dead.
- E09
The Losers
Thu, 20 Dec· 30 minMcKeever end Buckley make a strange venture into the the desert. Even geiger-counters can sometimes be misleading. Ted and Jim do their best to convince two uranium prospectors that they have not struck lucky.
- E10
A Present For Felipe
Thu, 27 Dec· 30 minTed and Jim are to be the entertainment for a birthday party with a skydive and are mystified when they land and find neither the guest of honor nor his friends. Domi Dias, a Latin American woman, had planned a fiesta for an old friend.
- E11
Devil's Canyon
Thu, 3 Jan· 30 minTed and Jim sky dive into a canyon to warn a businessman of an escaped convict who intends to kill him.
- E12
The Money Mine
Thu, 10 Jan· 30 minA mining company engages McKeever and Buckley to drop heavy equipment at the site of an old mine in an inaccessible mountain region and the two discover they are transporting counterfeit money.
- E13
The Lost Ones
Thu, 17 Jan· 30 minJim nearly dies in an aerial trick, and doesn't want to jump again. Ted's on a job, and ends up hanging on the edge of a cliff, and Jim needs to come to his rescue.
- E14
The Last Chapter
Thu, 24 Jan· 30 minColonel Jans Rovag, a refugee from a country bordering the Iron Curtain, starts writing an expose of Communist tactics in his homeland and seeks the help of Ripcord
- E15
Run, Joby, Run
Thu, 31 Jan· 30 minTed is injured during a jump into the Tennessee hills and meets more trouble when he discovers a young boy who has just stolen money and is attempting to leave the hills.
- E16
Wrong Way Down
Thu, 7 Feb· 30 minA parachutist, dropped from a plane bearing the Ripcord insignia, lands in a restricted research area and steals top secret defense information. He is a murderous saboteur trying to pin his crimes on Ted and Jim.
- E17
A Free Falling Star
Thu, 14 Feb· 30 minCheyenne Bronson, a singing cowboy, attempts to learn skydiving and McKeever and Buckley are unaware of the star's poor health.
- E18
Reprisal
Thu, 21 Feb· 30 minTwo youngsters plot to blow up the town's hydroelectric dam and, for consultation on "special work," they call in McKeever and Buckley.
- E19
The Lost Tribe
Thu, 28 Feb· 30 minMcKeever and Buckley teach a young geologist and her assitant to dive so they can reach inaccesilble terraln, but the sceintists fall into unmapped terrain and become the prisoners of a long-lost tribe descended from the Aztecs.
- E20
Chute to Kill
Thu, 7 Mar· 30 minJill Kelly, a lovely daredevil is determined to test an experimental parachute. She is a skydiving newspaperwoman who will do anything to get her story.
- E21
Willie
Thu, 14 Mar· 30 minA couple makes a bet about skydiving. Nick bets that she can't train any normal guy to be a skydiver. Evvie picks Willie, a construction worker. Ted and Jim teach the local boy to parachute, without much hope of success-but he finally surprises them.
- E22
The Well
Thu, 21 Mar· 30 minTed McKeever joins an insurance investigator in search of a stolen payroll.
- E23
The Trouble With Denny Collins
Thu, 28 Mar· 30 minThe district attorney slaps an injunction on Ripcord, grounding all jumpers, pilots, and students. The plaintiff is a lawyer whose son has signed with Ripcord to learn parachuting instead of going to law school.
- E24
The Final Jump
Thu, 4 Apr· 30 minJim and Ted volunteer for a search for David Thurston, a young boy believed lost in the woods.
- E25
Picture Of Terror
Thu, 11 Apr· 30 minThe boys are suspicious of Frank Webb, a photographer who keeps in the chips by his unerring ability to forecast disasters.
- E26
The Inventor
Thu, 18 Apr· 30 minA teen-ager takes a near fatal skydive in order to save her inventor father from ruin.
- E27
Jump To A Blind Alley
Thu, 25 Apr· 30 minJim puts his flares to good use when confronted by a tricky situation. An old man breaks out of jail to go to his dying friend, and he cons Ripcord Inc. into flying beyond their reach.
- E28
Jump Or Die
Thu, 2 May· 30 minCharlie begins to give flying lessons but picks the wrong pupil: a woman who shanghais pilot Charlie Kern to help her sons with their first job---a bank robbery.
- E29
Jump To Freedom
Thu, 9 May· 30 minWorld sky-diving trials are being held in Mexico where Ted and Jim take a long overdue vacation. Ted and Jim meet a Russian who wants to defect while they're attending the World Skydiving Trials in Mexico.
- E30
Man On A Mountain
Thu, 16 May· 30 minTed McKeever is sent out to undo the damage caused by a landslide, but he finds that it is due to more than natural reasons. Ted finds a wanted man who's sick with Small Pox.
- E31
The Suicide Club
Thu, 23 May· 30 minTed and Jim become fall guys in a clairvoyant's version of Russian roulette.
- E32
Million Dollar Drop
Thu, 30 May· 30 minA million dollars lying on the open desert, but it is death for the first man who finds it. Ted and Jim find themselves in an air race with two outlaws. The prize: $1000000 in cash.
- E33
Flight For Life
Thu, 6 June· 30 minTwo men are seriousy injured in a mountain-climbing accident. One, crawling to get help, is picked up by a motorist who delivers him to a hospital. Police hear his story and call Ripcord to help find the second man.
- E34
The Proud Little Man
Thu, 13 June· 30 minJim concocts an elaborate scheme to rehabilitate a pilot who goes half blind, but the scheme backfires.
- E35
Semper Paratus Anytime
Thu, 20 June· 30 minThe Coast Guard calls on Ripcord to help find a boy and his sick father lost at sea.
- E36
Exposé
Thu, 27 June· 30 minAllison Hartford, a hackwriter, attacks Ripcord, Inc. as unsafe and is tricked by Ted and Jim into-- of all things-- skydiving.
- E37
Where Do Elephants Go To Die ?
Thu, 4 July· 30 minAfter a recent health scare, Nobel-Prize-winning author and former Korean War correspondent Aaron Sparks asks his friends and comrades-in-arms Ted and Jim to teach him how to skydive, for research for a new novel. But is that the real reason for his interest in this dangerous sport?
Cast

Larry Pennell
Ted McKeever

Ken Curtis
Jim Buckley

Shug Fisher
Charlie Kern

Paul Comi
Chuck Lambert
