Hop Harrigan - Radio and Film

Radio and Film

On radio, Hop Harrigan aired from August 31, 1942 to February 6, 1948. The series began on the ABC Blue network and moved October 2, 1946, to the Mutual Broadcasting System. Charles Stratton appeared in the title role with Ken Lynch as Tank. Lynch was later replaced by Jackson Beck, voice actor for Bluto (Popeye), King Leonardo and Perry White (Superman). Mitzi Gould played Hop's girlfriend, Gail Nolan. One of the writers for this series was noir novelist David Goodis.

The Hop Harrigan (serial) 15-chapter movie serial (March 28, 1946) was produced by Columbia Pictures with William Bakewell as Hop and Sumner Getchell as Tank.

Soon after the movie serial, Hop Harrigan as well as other comic series from All-American Comics were purchased by DC Comics, a publisher that had close relations to All-American Publications ever since it first debuted. DC Comics continued to publish the Hop comics in All-American Comics until the 99th issue in July, 1948, when the aviation adventure genre was abandoned in favor of a Western theme and Harrigan was replaced with Johnny Thunder. In the end, Hop Harrigan became mostly forgotten by the majority of comic book fans, though other All-American characters including The Flash, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman would remain popular for years to come.

The opening to the radio serial was as follows:

"CX4 to Control.....CX4 to Control......This is Hop Harrigan....coming in" to the roar of a prop fighter plane. From the control tower: "Control Tower to CX4: Wind southeast. Ceiling 1200. All clear."

The fictional CX4 aircraft was the inspiration for a experimental aircraft design built in 2004, the Thatcher CX4.