Cannonball (TV Series)

Cannonball (TV Series)

Cannonball was a 1958 Normandie Productions and ITC Entertainment co-production half-hour family drama series. Filmed in Canada but starring two American actors, the series followed the adventures of Mike Malone and Jerry Austin as they drove trucks across the US and Canada for the fictitious C&A Transport Company Ltd. The truck depicted in the series is believed to be that of a GMC Model 950 COE (cab-over engine) diesel tractor built and sold in the same decade by General Motors.

The series would appear to be unusual, as sources say it is one of the few ITC productions to air on ABC Weekend TV in the UK. Because Associated TeleVision (ATV) owners of ITC, also ran the London weekend and Midlands weekdays ITV companies, they tended to hold the rights for ITC series in order to show each one in the Midlands (where ABC was the weekend operator) during the week.

The series ran for 39 episodes in monochrome. In the last episode, Austin who was Malone's co-driver on the truck has a chance to go back and finish college. Malone knows this and knows he won't because Austin doesn't want to split their partnership. In his yearly medical, Malone pretends to have tunnel vision (lack of peripheral vision) which means he can't drive trucks any more. This means Austin is now free to go to college.