main character of leave no trace, Michael Walker is a former park ranger and current special agent with the National Park Service Bureau of Investigation (ISB), the Park Service’s version of the FBI. So, in honor of the upcoming publication of Michael’s first adventure (His February 27th from Minotaur Books), we’d like to provide some background on the role park rangers have played in pop culture, particularly in film and television. I thought.
Hello, I’m Yogi Bear (1964)
Of course, we had to start with an animated film based on the syndicated television show “The Yogi Bear Show.” Ranger Smith has been Yogi’s eternal nemesis in Jellystone National Park for decades, and it’s very likely that the person from a generation ago was the one who introduced us to the very existence of park rangers. . Yogi and Boo Boo is just as great here as it is in the short form of the story, and while purists will definitely appreciate it, others will appreciate Tom Kavanaugh as Ranger Smith and Dan Aykroyd as Yogi. You might prefer the 2010 live-action version where he voices Boo Boo (more or less). Justin Timberlake provides the voice of Boo Boo.
flipper (1964-1967)
Ranger Porter Ricks is responsible for keeping animals and humans safe at Coral Key Park, Florida, while raising two sons. In addition to thwarting poachers and protecting marine life and mammals, Ricks played one of the first ever single fathers on television. One of his sons, Sandy, was played by Luke Halpin, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed man who became one of the original teen TV pin-ups. But the real star of the show was, of course, the tame dolphin who played the role of water-dwelling Lassie, who goes on adventures in beautiful surroundings.
gentle ben (1967-1969)
After Gunsmoke and before MacLeod, Dennis Weaver played a park ranger assigned to Everglades National Park, raising a family that included the tame bear of the title. Clint Howard famously played a boy who is rescued and rescued from trouble by his pet bear. “Gentle Ben” was pretty much the same show as “Flipper” except for Luke Halpin’s blonde hair. It’s no coincidence, since both shows were produced by Ivan Toles and filmed in Florida.
grizzly bear (1976)
Bears are not-so-tame 18-foot monsters, like “Jaws” with only front paws, and can easily melt if they carelessly roll around and invade a camp. Tom Wedlow steps into the role of Roy Scheider from Spielberg’s classic, playing another park ranger in Everglades National Park, where a giant bear stakes its claim. In honor of his ancestors, the protagonist’s wife is similarly named “Ellen.” Look no further than bear hunters like Quint, unless you consider helicopter pilots assisting rangers in their efforts to restore natural order.
The River Wild (1994)
Benjamin Bratt, a burly Montana park ranger, is played with strong masculinity, but he nevertheless murders a whitewater rafting guide, played by Merrill Street, whose family is taken hostage in the rapids. I can’t save them from the criminals. Streep did some of the stunts himself, but when Hanson asked Streep to shoot one more scene at the end of the day’s shoot, he was terrified. Street eventually succumbed and was swept away from the raft into the river, where he had to be rescued by river rescuers.
broken arrow (1996)
Pilot Christian Slater teams up with park ranger Samantha Mathis to battle nuclear terrorists who have stolen two atomic bombs from a disabled stealth bomber. The thriller helped define an era that spawned other action-driven films like The Rock and Con Air, but it failed to turn Slater into an action star on the level of Nicolas Cage. Ta. Slater may know about nuclear weapons in the film, but it’s Mattis’s knowledge of the rugged terrain of Utah’s Glen Canyon National Recreation Area that ultimately saves the day.
cocaine bear (2023)
I saved the best and newest for last. The always great Margo Martindale plays a park ranger named Liz. On that worst day, she is confronted by another bear who is not a monster but a cocaine addict. At least he’s a user in that he’s on enough drugs to take over a small country. expensive. It hardly mattered that she looked frightened during filming, even though she had never actually handled a live bear. “It was easy,” the Emmy-winning actress told Entertainment Weekly. “I get scared easily, and I’ve had several encounters with big bears on our property, right in front of our house.”
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