wrxsti54 I stumbled on the Flipper TV series on Hulu and it has been a wonderful journey back to a golden age of American television. In a modern world obsessed with violence, sex and with Hollywood now so determined to portray families riddled with problems and with pampered children, Flipper represents a dose of old fashioned values from an era now sadly largely gone. There is no cussing, sexual content or anxiety ridden acting out by children. Porter Ricks comes across as an earnest and conscientious father raising two rambunctious and inquisitive boys all the while keeping various crooks at bay at the Coral Keys Park and protecting and rescuing all manner of visitors to the southern Florida paradise.The quality of the footage is superb - from the rich color (done in an era when color filming was not yet the norm), excellent clarity and of course the underwater footage which is as good as any you'll see in modern TV or films today. The plot lines are somewhat predictable, even a little corny but a number of episodes feature some excellent even gripping story lines. Yes - Flipper is invested with almost human powers and the dolphin footage gets spliced with lots of re-runs of similar Flipper scenes, but the result is one that carries on the endearing fondness between animal and human that was so richly on display between Luke Halpin and the various dolphins who starred as Flipper in the original two movies. It is interesting to note the insertion of an older pilot of the TV show as episode 3 of Series 1 that was clearly filmed right after the second movie in 1963 when Halpin was only 16 and Norden (playing Bud) was only 10 as both boys seem older when all the other episodes of Season 1 were filmed a year later in 1964 and screened that fall. It provides a neat transition from the 2nd Flipper movie (Flipper's New Adventure) that first featured Brian Kelly as Porter Ricks and enabled the studio to experiment with the mix of Tommy Norden as Bud with Kelly and Halpin.The family chemistry is most endearing and enjoyable. The boys seem to live an idyllic carefree life mostly in the water where a vast playground of sand, sea, boats and diving is a stone's throw away. The ease in which Sandy and Bud jump into and pilot any available boat and throw on scuba tanks and roam the sea floor is one of the many attractions of the series - indeed Halpin became such an accomplished diver that once his post-Flipper career floundered after the advantage of his late maturation (giving NBC the ability to play an older teen in a mid-teen role) was negated by his eventual adulthood and thus growing out of the Sandy Ricks role, Halpin became a sought after diving consultant to the Florida movie industry for many decades. It's hard to find an actor after all these years who combined a depth of excellent acting talent with down home telegenic good looks AND superb athleticism. It's no wonder Halpin became a popular teen idol to the young teenage girl readers of teen magazines with his mop of blond hair, boyish innocence and lots of scenes featuring his tanned shirtless swimmer's physique.The Flipper TV shows make for excellent television even 50 years later with new generations of children able to enjoy the fruits of Ricou Browning's excellent direction work. He features a number of famous older actors and some who went on to became household names (Martin Sheen, Burt Reynolds, and Barbara Feldman) in small cameo roles. By filming exclusively in Florida away from the glitz and glamor of Hollywood, it gives the show a sense of believable reality. In our jaded cynical world where children have to grow up too fast (and TV shows are hastening that process), it's great to watch a TV program that shows boys just being simple boys and a father requiring discipline, hard work, responsibility and consequences all against the backdrop of one of nature's most compelling animals playing a pivotal role in all episodes and all filmed in one of America's prettiest locations. There is so much to like about the Flipper TV series in addition to the trip down memory lane.

The_Light_Triton Flipper is the reason that Free Willy, the black stallion, and gentle Ben all exist on film. no question about it. I remember growing up on the original flipper movies from the 60s, in the 90s. i still love those films. but for the first time i was able to watch the TV show of flipper on youtube. and i liked it. it's certainly kid's fare, but family fare as well, as long as you don't take all the ridiculous stuff seriously.First off, We need more dads in TV today like Porter ricks. Mainly because he was a stalwart dad, not like the cretins of today like homer Simpson and peter griffin. he laid down the line between right and wrong in front of his sons, and did everything right.Sadly, the image of the shirtless, Ab-bared teenager has become more of a gay image, rather than a cool guy that you just wanna sit down and chill with a beer. sandy fills that role perfectly, and i think he's awesome. remember, it was just him and flipper from the start of the story. His little brother was where the camera was really pointed all the time. speaking of..Bud was annoying. i found him to be more of a camera hog. but there are several little brothers all over the states, and they needed someone to relate to. i'm a little brother myself, but i just didn't like bud.flipper her/himself was tough to work with. several scenes are reused, and i recall watching several scenes where they were supposedly in open water, but then you'd spot the pool's edge, or the chicken wire fence and you knew they were not filming where they were. but hey, if they brought flipper to open ocean, he'd/she'd swim off and die quickly.But hey, i love this show. it's certainly a kids show, but thats what makes it so fun to watch. i say buy and enjoy.8/10

juliafwilliams It is with sadness that, while surfing through this database, I read that Brian Kelly, the handsome actor who played patriarch Porter Ricks on the television version of Flipper, passed away in February 2005, just short of his 74th birthday. I believe that the news of Mr. Kelly's passing was quite under-reported.Brian Kelly played a father who was intelligent, understanding, and when warranted, firm. His character of Porter Ricks raised his two sons, Bud and Sandy, with keen senses of the difference between right and wrong, values that are quite under-portrayed in an age of extreme dynamics surrounding sex, drugs, and violence.After Flipper went off the air and into syndication, Mr. Kelly appeared in a handful of films and episodic television programs. Around 1970 or 1971, his acting career came to a tragic end following a freak motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed and with speech and health problems. Nevertheless, he continued in the entertainment industry as a motion picture producer. One such production effort is the 1980's action film 'Blade Runner'.Brian Kelly will be missed, and may he rest in peace.

Scott-163 Escapist fantasy about an "ideal" childhood- dad's absent much of the time, mom's gone permanently, there's just you, your brother and a super-intelligent seabeast (whose repertoire was actually very limited.) Gee, who'd have thought being a latchkey kid was such fun? Okay for young children, much too juvenile for anyone else.MAD Magazine's© parody "Flapper" neatly dismembered the show and paraded its failings, including its use of recurrent themes and touting of "Flipper's" (few) talents.