| Title | Last Chance Detectives |
| Studio | Focus on the Family Films |
| Date of Original Broadcasts | 1994, 1995, 1996 |
| Producer | Robert Vernon |
| Actors | Gregory Grudt, Sherry Hursey, Casey Biggs, James T. Callahan |
| B-17 Coordinator | Bruce Orriss |
| B-17 Filming Locations | Kingman, Arizona |
B-17s Identified
B-17G 44-83785 (N207EV)
The TV Series...
Three episodes of Last Chance Detectives were filmed for Focus on the Family Films and released on VHS and later DVD for distribution. The three hour-long episodes revolve around four kids, three boys and a girl, who solve mysteries in a desert town. How it all fits into this topic is that they use "Pops" old B-17, parked next to his gas station, as the meeting place for the group. The four plan their escapades and hijinks from the radio room and waist compartment of the B-17, which appears much roomier than it I remember, probably because the kids are little.
Production values are good; the stories are family friendly, and there is, expectedly, a Christian message for kids that is woven through the adventures.
Bruce Orriss, no stranger to these pages, takes credit for furnishing the interior equipment used in the mockup to film episodes. Bruce recalls his involvement with the series:
Some time after we wrapped up work on MB (Memphis Belle movie in 1989), I was contacted by the group that was doing a religious kids series called Last Chance Detectives. They needed a B-17 mock-up for the show. The producers wanted to build their own mock-up as they were not sure how long the show would run and felt in the long run they would save money having their own mock-up vs renting the Spielberg mock-up (used in Amazing Stories. I loaned them all the B-17 drawings from the MB film and they built themselves a wood mock-up of a B-17 and I again outfitted it with these same B-17 parts...which by now were all movie veterans. Following the end of the series I ended up buying the wood B-17 mock-up which I still have in my inventory. I later used this same mock-up in the Tuskegee Airmen movie for HBO.
Exteriors for the B-17 scenes were shot near the Kingman airport and utilized the Evergreen B-17G, 44-83575 (or 44-85531, your choice), that flew as N207EV. It was basically parked next to a gas station and various scenes were filmed around the airplane. As noted above, it was owed by "Pops" in the series, presumably an old war veteran who picked up a B-17 after the war. Various locations around the town of Kingman was used for much of the exterior shooting, with the first episode being filmed there beginning in May 1994.
This reviewer has seen only one of the episodes, but would presume all of the above applies to all three. There were also later radio episodes but they, presumably, didn't need an actual B-17 for the audio episodes.
The video episodes, by name, are:
- Last Chance Detectives: Mystery Lights of Navajo Mesa (1994)
- Last Chance Detectives: Legend of the Desert Bigfoot (1995)
- Last Chance Detectives: Escape From Fire Lake (1996)
Anecdotal
- The production of each video episode cost approximately one million USD. (Wikipedia)
- The airplane was named Lady Liberty for the series, with an audacious naked young lady added for nose art. Just kidding about the last part.
Buy this TV Show!
- Available through Amazon.com
Links
Acknowledgements
- Bruce Orriss
The exterior set with the Evergreen B-17G, N207EV, parked. This was filmed near the Kingman Airport. No operational scenes were shot with the airplane,
The B-17G served as the clubhouse for the Last Chance Detectives.
The film producers built a wood mockup for the series, and B-17 Hollywood guy Bruce Orriss equipped the interior sets with equipment that had also been used in the earlier 1989 Memphis Belle filming.