With so many people involved with other dimensions where space travel is normal and eventually ACE being a major contractor in the university’s science department, a program titled “Space Patrol” was a natural for inclusion in the Saturday morning lineup for WNGT. 

The original program had a loyal following from the first day it was broadcast on Saturday January 7, 1905 until its last day on Saturday January 7, 1995; 90 years to the day after the first program was broadcast.  But it was revived in 2005 and began life again on January 8, 2005; ten years and a day after it was broadcast for the last time after a 90-year run. 

The premise of the program was simple.  It was about a galactic organization called Galactic Control that controlled the galaxy and tried to maintain peace among the stars.  But from day one, viewers knew that would be impossible.  With billions of star systems to patrol and never enough starships, cruisers, and planet ships to keep order, wars and misunderstandings that led to conflicts cropped up nearly every week. 

Unlike cartoons that kids on the outside watched starting around half a century later, the program was live-action and computerized and featured intelligent writing and fascinating stories that appealed to adults as well as children.  Many who work for ACE that come from Newgate credit watching “Space Patrol” with interesting them in working in space and for ACE. 

The program was a two-hour movie at a time when 15 minutes to half an hour were the normal lengths for dramas that radio stations would eventually broadcast.   England may have “Doctor Who.”  But “Space Patrol” was a better program in many ways and seemed more real that any other science fiction programs on the air for quite a number of years.

It is always hard to narrow down a long series to the 100 best programs; let alone the top dozen since over 4500 programs were broadcast since there were no reruns like what TV programs on the outside run during the summer.  So that the actors wouldn’t be overworked, the series was recorded in upwards to a dozen studios in seven different dimensions.  It sometimes took a month or two to record a single episode.  But with a dozen studios working on the series, it was easy to keep the series going even if a studio closed down for a few months to give the actors and writers and crews a vacation.