The first comic book adaptation of “Star Trek” hit shelves less than a year after the iconic sci-fi series premiered on NBC in 1966, but this wasn’t Leonard Nimoy’s first credit on a TV series with a comic connection. Nimoy, who had already appeared in TV Westerns and military action shows, featured in “Steve Canyon,” a series based on a daily newspaper strip — and one of television’s earliest comic adaptations.
The creation of cartoonist Milton Caniff, “Steve Canyon” first appeared in newspapers in 1947 and ran until Caniff’s death in 1988. The strip followed the titular character, a veteran pilot who goes around the world on adventures and later signs back up with the U.S. Air Force. The TV adaptation, which premiered on NBC 11 years into the comic strip’s run, starred Dean Fredericks as Steve Canyon, here depicted as a command pilot and troubleshooter who solves problems for the Air Force. The series was made with the cooperation of the Air Force, which figured it might help get viewers to enlist, and featured footage of actual bases as a result.
Nimoy appears in Episode 17, “The Search,” as an Air Force sergeant who doesn’t get a proper name but has a fairly notable role nonetheless. The episode revolves around a wealthy defense contractor who has been reported missing; Nimoy assists Canyon from the control tower as he conducts his search. As Nimoy stands behind a clear gridded map and communicates with a pilot, his scenes don’t feel too unlike something you’d see in “Star Trek.”
Steve Canyon was part of the first wave of TV comic adaptations
“Steve Canyon” only ran for one season, ending after 34 episodes on June 2, 1959. Though it originally aired on NBC, ABC reran the whole show the following year. And while the series is notable for being an early comic adaptation, it wasn’t quite the first. Superhero comic adaptations played on movie screens as serials in the ’40s, and the earliest TV shows based on comics began to take off in the ’50s.
“Adventures of Superman” aired in syndication from 1952 until 1958, for example. Meanwhile, the 1954 “Flash Gordon” show was, like the film serials, inspired by a sci-fi comic from the ’30s. “Blondie,” “Dick Tracy,” and “Jungle Jim” also originated on the page before making the jump to the small screen during the decade. In fact, Milton Caniff, the cartoonist behind “Steve Canyon,” had already had a comic strip get the TV treatment. “Terry and the Pirates,” the adventure series Caniff created before “Steve Canyon,” aired in syndication for 18 episodes between 1952 and 1953.
But while it may not have been the first, “Steve Canyon” was certainly part of the vanguard when it came to these adaptations. More than half a century later, there have been close to 50 TV shows based on DC Comics alone! Leonard Nimoy was just doing it before it was cool.
