Just grasping the basic scenario of The Adventures of Champion required a substantial suspension of belief in what its juvenile listeners knew to be gospel.
"[2] Episodes focus on 12-year-old Ricky West, who is raised in the wilderness by his adoptive Uncle Smoky and his German Shepherd named Rebel.
While the series covered gold mines, rustlers, and Indian problems, the primary focus was on the faith and loyalty between a boy, a dog, and a horse.
French and Siegel wrote, "One of the most curious mysteries about this series was who played the leads of Ricky and Uncle Smoky; contemporary accounts of the program have been unsuccessful in unearthing their identities, and the vast Autry Library and Research Services in Los Angeles, CA, has no record of who the performers were.
[2] A television series called The Adventures of Champion aired for 26 episodes on CBS during the 1955–1956 season and starred Barry Curtis and Jim Bannon.