LEAVING THE NAKED CITY TO FIND A PORPOISE IN LIFE

The following tele-biography is mostly conjecture on my part, all in service to the dark gods of Toobworld.....

Back in the early 1960s, Porter Ricks and his wife were raising their two sons, Sandy and "Bud", in New York City while Porter worked as a park ranger on Liberty Island. He was also studying to become more specialized with the goal of becoming a park ranger with marine skills - it had always been the dream of Mrs. Ricks that they would live in sunny Florida in a place where their sons would have a more wholesome environment in which to grow up.

And she was right to worry about such things as Luke had fallen in with a gang of boys who were proving to be a bad influence on him.

In late 1962, that gang of boys cajoled a young, nearly-blind boy on his way home to Brooklyn to climb up on a stone rail overlooking a park plaza. They had no idea that he was practically blind, but their name-calling gave young Harold Denton any choice but to take up their challenge. And it nearly killed him.....

The next year, Mrs. Ricks died. It was most likely a form of cancer which quickly ravaged her body, leaving Porter Ricks to now raise Sandy and Bud by himself.

Once he earned his qualifications to be a park ranger in a marine-based locale, Ricks packed up his family and left New York City where there were too many memories of their wife and mother. He got a position as a park ranger at Coral Key Park and Marine Preserve in southern Florida where he quickly rose to the position of Chief Ranger once his superior retired.

And that's where the Ricks men first met Flipper, the dolphin who was faster than lightning......

Luke Halpin played both the young gang member in 'Naked City' and Sandy Ricks in 'Flipper'.  And since he played the role of Luke in the second "Flipper" movie*, he is eligible to be inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame as part of the fifteenth anniversary celebration.  (And we chose to do it in December since I'm sure many of Team Toobworld are already for the summer season to return!)

SHOWS CITED:
'Naked City' - "The Horse Has A Big Head - Let Him Worry!"
'Flipper'
"Flipper's New Adventure"

BCnU!

* The first movie doesn't count as Chuck Conners played Porter Ricks, so that was the "Flipper" for the Cineverse......