Atom Squad

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Atom Squad
GenreScience fiction
Written byPaul Monash
Theme music composerMiklós Rózsa
Opening theme"Tumult and Commotion"
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
Production
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time15 mins.
Release
Original networkNBC
Picture formatBlack-and-white 142 episodes
Audio formatMonaural
Original releaseJuly 6, 1953 (1953-07-06) –
January 22, 1954 (1954-01-22)

Atom Squad was an American science-fiction TV series that was broadcast live 5 times a week by the NBC network (out of their Philadelphia studios), Monday July 6, 1953, to January 22, 1954, running Monday through Friday, 5:00 to 5:15 PM EST.[1] Each episode was only 15 minutes long. There were a total of 142 black and white episodes in all.

Synopsis[]

The Atom Squad is a secret government agency which dealt with Cold War threats to US security involving radiation and nuclear weapons.[2] The Atom Squad scientists, Steve Elliot and Dave Fielding, were played by Robert Courtleigh and Bob Hastings, their chief by .

The Atom Squad's secret New York City headquarters lab looked very much like Captain Video's secret mountain headquarters control room.[citation needed] The program's opening sequence showed a man in a "radiation suit" lumbering very slowly toward the camera.

Production notes[]

Storylines were usually completed in five, or sometimes ten broadcasts. Paul Monash was the chief writer for the series and possibly its creator. The foes of the Atom Squad were usually mad scientists and evil Communist spies and saboteurs. However, the Squad ran into aliens from outer space in at least three different storylines.

Atom Squad originated from the studios of WPTZ in Philadelphia. The director was , and producers were Larry White and later .

The theme music for the series was "Tumult and Commotion", an excerpt from Miklos Rozsa's orchestral work "Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 13".[3] The opening theme music (man in "radiation suit") was taken from original music by Serge Prokofiev for the Sergei Eisenstein film Alexander Nevsky.

Episode status[]

While Atom Squad kinescopes were probably made for West Coast rebroadcast, none are known to survive today. The series did not appear to have a sponsor and no tie-in toys or premiums are known to exist.

Notes[]

  1. ^ Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. p. 47. ISBN 978-0823083152. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  2. ^ Woolery, George W. (1985). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part II: Live, Film, and Tape Series. The Scarecrow Press. pp. 51–52. ISBN 0-8108-1651-2.
  3. ^ classic themes.com, 50s TV Themes

External links[]

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