Space Patrol

Any one of three TV shows broadcast during the 1950s-70s.

Space Patrol (US)

The earliest one was SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE PATROOOOOOOOOL!, a 1950s American series that was created to deliver the same thrills to kids that Flash Gordon delivered to their parents. The stories focused on Kit Corry (and later his brother Buzz), CIC of the futuristic Space Patrol, an intergalactic police force. Each episode often featured recurring villains, such as (most famously) Prince Baccaratti. At its peak, it ran concurrently as a 15-minute weekday series, a half-hour Saturday series, and a weekly radio show, all featuring the same cast, and all transmitted live. Now that's commitment. Ran for 5 seasons and god-knows-how-many episodes.

This show contains examples of:

 * The Chick: Carol Carlisle
 * Product Placement: Like many shows of the period, the show was basically Merchandise Driven. Thus, for two Quik lids or a tracing of the label, you could get something like a miniaturized X-RC lookalike. More notably, there was also a Space Patrol watch featured in at least one episode.
 * Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: In one episode, Cadet Happy is absolutely astounded by the size of the Solar System. Buzz and Carol bring him back down by reminding him that there are a lot of stars in the Milky Way, with our sun being only one of them. To be fair, this was a 1950s show aimed at children (who might not understand the concept of big distances), but it seems unrealistic for someone who was born in the 30th century, with interstellar travel being commonplace, to be astounded by this.
 * Space Cadet: Cadet Happy, although he was more like some sort of 2IC. Some of the Chex commercials, however, followed this trope a little better, with kids dreaming about being on the Space Patrol.
 * Space Police: The Space Patrol.

Space Patrol (UK)

The second one was a 1963 British Puppet series, in the vein of the Gerry Anderson shows of the time (but nowhere near as known, although it is confused with Fireball XL 5). This one focused on a 22nd-century police force, who were headquartered on a space station called Galasphere 347. Despite all claims to the contrary, this one was the first show with an electronic theme (beating out that more famous tune by seven months). It ran for two seasons and a total of 39 episodes. It was retitled Planet Patrol in America, for obvious reasons.

Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffs Orion

The third one was a 1966 German TV show, whose title translates to Space Patrol - The Fantastic Adventures of the Spaceship Orion. See its own page for more information.