High Flight, 1960s TV sign-off shown on Mad Men

Mark Frauenfelder 2:15 pm Thu Sep 4, 2008

The most recent episode of Mad Men showed a bit of an old television sign-off, called "High Flight." I have dim memories of watching it as a kid, and I wanted to see the whole thing, so I started looking for it. It turns out there are a bunch of versions using different aircraft and different narrators reciting John Gillespie Magee, Jr.'s poem "High Flight." The one above is in color. I'm not sure if it's the original, which appeared in black and white. Maybe it was in color — our family had a black and white set.

Here's another version, recorded from a 1982 sign-off on KABC 7 in Los Angeles:

And here's another from KCRA 3 Sacramento, with Moog music:

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