Before there was Jean-Luc Picard, Han Solo or James T. Kirk, There were Buzz Corry, Tom Corbett and Rocky Jones. Before there was Starfleet, there were Space Patrol, the Solar Guard and the Space Rangers. Before there were the Millenium Falcon, the many Enterprises and Voyager, there were the Terra 5, Polaris and Orbit Jet. Before the Phasers and Blasters were the Parallo-ray and Cosmic Smoke Gun. Before Photon and Proton Torpedoes were Cosmic Missiles.

Between Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, and the hotshots of space who now zoom across the screens of various sizes and types (movie, TV, computer and video) came the TV spacemen. What Buck and Flash did for the Comics and movie serials These persons did for television. So....