Death Valley Days (1961)

In our post on the 1960 episodes, we covered the origins of perhaps the first realistic western TV program, Death Valley Days, an anthology series whose individual stories were based in some measure on real historical events. However, these stories are often modified for dramatic effect, and in some cases the factual content is minimal at best. For example, "The Red Petticoat" (March 29, 1961) revolves around the loyalty of Lt. Phillip Sheridan, later a Civil War hero as a general in the Union Army, to an Indian scout named Kahlu while stationed in Oregon in September 1854. In the TV version of events, the civilians and even some of Sheridan's own men think that Kahlu is unfaithful to their cause because several soldiers have been killed in ambushes while Sheridan and his men have been out trying to capture renegade chief Tajin. Because he is an Indian, the whites believe Kahlu is in cahoots with his own people, but Sheridan refuses to waver in his loyalty to Kahlu, who once saved his life. As a sign of civilian disgust with Sheridan, his girlfriend gives him her red petticoat to brand him a girlyman, but he instead insists on having one of his men tie it to his rifle like a flag, and at episode's end The Old Ranger says he continued that tradition during his Civil War exploits. In the world of facts, Sheridan was not assigned to the California and Oregon territories until November 1854, according to his own memoir. And there is no mention of a red petticoat or an Indian scout named Kahlu. However, he did reportedly have a Rogue River Indian mistress called Frances by her white friends during this period, though he does not mention her in his memoir either.

The story of Queen of the Outlaws Belle Starr told in "A Bullet for the D.A." (November 13, 1961) is almost as fictional, though it uses more real persons as characters. In the TV version, Belle Starr has married an Indian named Sam Starr and has given up her outlaw ways after the couple settles in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1886. However, Sam is accused of horse thieving and is tried in front of Judge Isaac Parker. Sam argues that he wandered onto the property from which the horses disappeared because he can't read and therefore did not know that the sign he passed said "No Trespassing," but District Attorney Frank Clayton tries to discredit his claim by asking him what a $10 bill is, what the building is across the street (a saloon), and so on, all of which Sam correctly identifies, after which Clayton mockingly says "but you can't read!" Belle is incensed at the way Clayton has ridiculed her husband and determines secretly to get revenge, finally finding the right time when Parker invites her to take part in a semi-centennial reenactment of a famous stage holdup using blanks instead of real bullets. But before she can carry out her plan, Sam sends her a handwritten note indicating that Clayton has secretly been teaching him to read and write to make amends for publicly humiliating him. In real life, Belle and Sam Starr were married in 1880 and in 1883 were accused of horse stealing and tried before hanging judge Isaac Parker in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The prosecutor was District Attorney W.H.H. Clayton, but the couple were both convicted and sentenced to 9 months in prison. Belle was a model prisoner; Sam was not, and in 1886 he was killed in a gunfight with Officer Frank West. While the Death Valley Days episode is a heart-warming redemption story, a favorite theme in the series as we covered in our 1960 blog post, the real-life events offer no such feel-good sentiments.

Another whitewashing of historical facts takes place in "The Treasure of Elk Creek Canyon" (October 30, 1961) in which stage coach driver Abe Williamson is robbed of his last 15 cents and has his stagecoach burned by Confederate soldiers turned outlaws John and Jim Reynolds. In the Death Valley Days version, Williamson resigns his job with the stagecoach line and tracks the outlaws to their hideout in a stagecoach waystation, where he pretends to be looking for work and not recognizing them since they wore masks during the robbery. He demonstrates his strength as a good worker by bending a coin in half and then challenges both of them to arm wrestle at the same time, using his prodigious strength to crush their hands and take away their guns as they writhe in pain. In reality the Reynolds Gang was a group of Confederate soldiers assigned to disrupt Union supply lines in Colorado, but one of their noteworthy robberies was a stagecoach driven by Abner Williamson, who was incensed that they took his last 16 cents and a watch and who publicized their crimes far and wide. Williamson did not lead to their capture, though he later showed up as a cavalry prison guard when a group of five gang members had been captured and were awaiting sentencing at Fort Lyon. However, a Colonel Chivington wanted the men executed before the commanding officer returned to issue sentence, and he ordered Sgt. Alton Shaw to carry out the executions, but Shaw became sickened after shooting one of the prisoners in the head at point blank range, and Williamson stepped in and killed the other four men. However, John Reynolds was not part of this group, having escaped to New Mexico Territory where he was killed in 1871 near Taos. It is not known what became of Jim Reynolds.

Another story woven from the faintest thread of fact is "Dead Man's Tale" (February 26, 1961) in which Little Bighorn survivor Lt. H.M. Harrington, presumed dead, returns to exact vengeance on former gun runner to the Indians Salem Putney, who has hidden his identity by changing his name to Grant Noble and running a legitimate general store. Instead of killing Putney, Harrington is persuaded by Dr. Allen Camden to expose his perfidy to his fiance Bella Robbins, which Camden argues would be worse than death. The TV version correctly portrays the Custer massacre as being driven by corrupt traders at Indian posts, who happily supplied the Indians with rifles but stole their other government provisions, such as food. This sent the Indians off the reservation to join up with Sitting Bull, and George Custer was sent to round them up only to be greatly outnumbered and outgunned. Harrington was a real lieutenant under Custer, but after the battle his body was never found. Obviously, there is no record of him resurfacing years later to exact revenge on one of many corrupt trading post managers.

More aligned with the facts is the story of frontiersman Joseph L. Meek told in "Who's Fer Divide?" (March 1, 1961). Meek was indeed a fur trapper and teller of tall tales as well as friends with Doc Newell, as depicted in the Death Valley Days episode. He was also a key figure in having Oregon become a part of the United States, though it is unclear if it played out the way the TV series portrayed it, with a dramatic vote in which Meek recruits a pair of French Canadians who have no real stake in the matter to cast their votes for the Americans against British interests (even though they are subjects of the Crown) as repayment for Meek and Newell saving their lives years earlier from sure Indian massacre. The TV episode is set in 1842, whereas Meek helped form the first provisional government in Oregon in 1843 and personally met with President James K. Polk to persuade him to secure Oregon for the United States in 1848. The Old Ranger tells us at episode's end that Meek was so highly thought of by the Oregon citizens that he was named the first sheriff of the territory. The real Meek did indeed serve as a sheriff, but was also named a U.S. Marshal and occasionally served as unofficial territorial governor from time to time before Oregon officially became a state in 1859.

Another episode with a solid historical foundation that was heavily adapted for dramatic effect is "Deadline at Austin" (January 29, 1961), which tells the tale of how the Nevada Central Railroad was built to connect with the Southern Pacific transcontinental railroad in 1880. As depicted in the TV episode, the drive for the railroad was led by M.J. Farrell, portrayed as the railroad foreman on Death Valley Days though in real life he was the secretary of the Manhattan Silver Mining Company, which needed the railroad to export its product, and the state senator for Lander County. Also as shown on TV the Nevada legislature authorized a $200,000 subsidy to complete the railroad by a specified date, overriding a veto by the governor (named Lambert on TV, though in reality his name was Lewis R. Bradley) to get the subsidy legislation passed. Farrell didn't actually manage the work on completing the railroad; in reality it was managed by Anson Phelps Stokes who brought in former Union army General James H. Ledlie to help with the construction. As shown in the episode, the crews came about 2 miles short of completing the link between Austin and the spur from Battle Mountain with the deadline approaching, so the Austin Town Board voted to extend the city limits the necessary 2 miles to meet the requirements of the subsidy legislation. However, there is no record that the idea for extending the city limits was concocted by a shady elixir salesman who was romancing the mayor's daughter, as shown on Death Valley Days. The TV episode also adds a conflict between the governor and the mayor, with the governor hoping that the project will fail as payback to the mayor who had earlier exposed his corruption. The mayor's daughter is thus motivated to get the elixir salesman to freely offer his idea for meeting the deadline after he initially had sought to profit from it by demanding $5000.

Likewise, "White Gold" (February 15, 1961) takes a historical incident and fashions a good versus evil tale out of it. The Death Valley Days episode takes a flour shortage in the isolated mining town of Virginia City, Montana and spins a morality tale about capitalist greed. In the TV episode, set in 1864, general store proprietor "Doughy" Lucas, who has for years been the sole importer of flour from remote Salt Lake City, creates a panic and a business opportunity by claiming that due to snow in the mountain passes between his town and Salt Lake City, no flour can be brought in and he has sold out of his supply. Actually, though Lucas is still able to get his supply but divvies up small portions to other local businessmen, who then raise the price from around $25 a sack to $40 and eventually to $100 a sack. When the sheriff refuses to take action after receiving complaints, newspaper editor Ed Cullen urges citizens to take the law into their own hands, and miner Milt Baxter leads a vigilante mob to seize and redistribute flour held by one hoarder, which only forces Lucas and his cohorts to go more underground and raise prices higher. But then Cullen meets cowboy Ab Garza who just came through the supposedly snow-bound pass quite easily, and he unravels Lucas' plot by taking Garza with him to Salt Lake City and bringing back more flour and an armed group of deputies to break up Lucas' ring of dirty dealers and send them to jail. In reality, the shortage took place in the spring of 1865 and was due to the isolated community being cut off from any supplies. Those holding stores of flour did raise the prices from about $25 to $100 per sack, but it was not part of some underhanded and coordinated conspiracy, just merely ordinary price-gouging, and there was no secret supply line being snuck in under cover of night. However, the citizens did summon an army of some 480 men who marched in from Nevada and seized and redistributed hoarded flour. The role of the Montana Post newspaper in these actions is not entirely clear: a group of citizens formed a Flour Committee, and the newspaper printed a statement dictating that the price of flour would henceforth be between $27 and $30 a sack. But a few days later a different group of citizens calling themselves the Flour Committee published a statement saying that they had never mandated the price of flour. A little over a week later the paper reported that a few sacks sold for $80 and that there were no more to be had. Another three weeks would pass before any more flour would appear on the market at a price of $28 to $30, presumably because winter had passed and trading routes were open again. The televised version makes newspaper editor Cullen the hero, bringing law and order as well as the food supply back to a town strangled by business greed, but the newspaper's role in the actual events is a bit more ambivalent, and flour prices did not revert to normal levels until nature took its course.

The story told in "The Stolen City" (April 9, 1961) is principally accurate in depicting French-born former merchant Jose Yves Limantour claiming to have land grants from the Mexican government that would give him ownership of a majority of the city of San Francisco and surrounding areas. U.S. Attorney Edwin M. Stanton (who would later be fired as Secretary of War leading to the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson) is assigned to investigate Limantour's claims and discovered with the help of Auguste Jouan that the documents were forgeries that used counterfeited government stamps, prompting the arrest of Limantour. In the TV version Stanton is helped by apothecary Zacharias Gurney and the counterfeited stamps are actually made of wax, which does not use the secret mixture from former Mexican wax and candle maker Juan Tarabal, whose daughter is in cahoots with Limantour and had thought she knew how to make his special wax used for the seals.

 

While it sometimes makes for entertaining television, Death Valley Days maintains an ambivalent relationship with the history it purports to portray--on the one hand, it exposes the viewer to actual events and people that had a hand in this country's history, but because it so frequently alters the truth, sometimes turning it on its head, such as the aforementioned portrayals of Abner Williamson and Sam and Belle Starr, it does a disservice in misrepresenting what actually happened for the sake of entertainment. It is said that those who fail to learn the mistakes of history are bound to repeat them, but as William Faulkner so ably demonstrated, establishing what exactly constitutes "history" is no easy task.

The Actors

For the biography of Stanley Andrews, see the 1960 post on Death Valley Days.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 9, Episode 15, "The Lady Was an M.D.": Yvonne De Carlo (shown on the left, starred in Salome, Where  She Danced, Criss Cross, The Ten Commandments, and Munster, Go Home! and played Lily Munster on The Munsters) plays San Francisco physician Dr. Clare Reed. John Vivyan (see the biography section for the 1960 post on Mr. Lucky) plays her sea-faring boyfriend Ed Taylor. Charles Watts (Judge Harvey Blandon on Bachelor Father) plays fellow physician Dr. Thurston. Guy Lee (Charlie Wong on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) plays Taylor's cabin boy Hing Chang.

Season 9, Episode 16, "The Salt War": Harry Lauter (Ranger Clay Morgan on Tales of the Texas Rangers, Atlasande on Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, and Jim Herrick on Waterfront) plays El Paso ranch foreman Jess Hixon. Jeffrey Stone (D'Artagnan on The Three Musketeers) plays surveyor Dave Reid. Norman Leavitt (Ralph on Trackdown) plays ranch hand Joe. Tom Greenway (Sheriff Jack Bronson on State Trooper) plays homesteader Pete Dodd. Jonathan Bolt (wrote 19 episodes of Ryan's Hope) plays his son Bob. 

Season 9, Episode 17, "The Madstone": George Macready (shown on the right, played Martin Peyton on Peyton Place) plays wealthy rancher Caleb Rees. Eloise Hardt (Karen Hadley on The Dennis O'Keefe Show) plays his daughter Ellen Denby. Myron Healey (Doc Holliday on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays her husband Big Matt Denby. Roger Mobley (Homer "Packy" Lambert on Fury) plays their son Matt, Jr. Allen Emerson (Doug on The New Loretta Young Show) plays their neighbor Fred Westgate. Jeanne Bates (appeared in The Phantom, The Strangler, Eraserhead, Gus, and Mulholland Drive and played Nurse Wills on Ben Casey) plays his wife Sarah.

Season 9, Episode 18, "Deadline at Austin": David Janssen (shown on the left, starred in To Hell and Back, Hell to Eternity, King of the Roaring '20's, The Green Berets, and The Shoes of the Fisherman and played Richard Diamond on Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Dr. Richard Kimble on The Fugitive, Jim O'Hara on O'Hara, U.S. Treasury, and Harry Orwell on Harry O) plays elixir salesman Dr. Bill Breckenridge. William Boyett (Sgt. Ken Williams on Highway Patrol and Sgt. MacDonald on Adam-12) plays railroad foreman M.J. Farrell. 

Season 9, Episode 19, "South of Horror Flats": John Lupton (Tom Jeffords on Broken Arrow and Frank on Never Too Young) plays Pinkerton agent Allen Hodges. Tom Fadden (Duffield on Broken Arrow, Silas Perry on Cimarron City, and Ben Miller on Green Acres and Petticoat Junction) plays gold miner Tom Briton. Jocelyn Somers (Jessie Bartok on The Doctors) plays his daughter Abigale. Hank Patterson (Fred Ziffel on Green Acres and Petticoat Junction and Hank on Gunsmoke) plays general store owner George Jackson. 

Season 9, Episode 20, "Gamble With Death": Ken Murray (Academy Award-winning home movie cinematographer, host of The Ken Murray Show, appeared in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Son of Flubber, and Follow Me, Boys) plays jinxed prospector Dave Eldridge. Dick Sargent (shown on the right, starred in Bernardine, Operation Petticoat, and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and played Dick Cooper on One Happy Family, Lt. Maxwell Trotter on Broadside, Terrance Ward on The Tammy Grimes Show, the second Darrin Stephens on Bewitched, and Richard Preston on Down to Earth) plays gambler Cliff Streeter. Eddie Quillan (starred in The Grapes of Wrath, Mandarin Mystery, Mutiny on the Bounty, and Hi, Good Lookin'! and played Eddie Edson on Julia and Poco Loco on Hell Town) plays Eldridge's friend Job Darius. Tom Greenway (see "The Salt War" above) plays the Goldfield sheriff.

Season 9, Episode 21, "White Gold": Charles H. Gray (shown on the left, played Officer Edwards on Highway Patrol, Pico McGuire on Gunslinger, Clay Forrester on Rawhide, and Bill Foster on The Young and the Restless) plays Virginia City, Montana newspaper editor Ed Cullen. Paul Bryar (Sheriff Harve Anders on The Long, Hot Summer) plays general store owner Doughy Lucas. Larry J. Blake (played the unnamed jailer on Yancy Derringer and Tom Parnell on Saints and Sinners) plays disgruntled customer Milt Baxter. Sam Reese (Dr. Dan Shanks on Dr. Kildare) plays cowboy Ab Garza.

Season 9, Episode 22, "Dead Man's Tale": Russell Johnson (shown on the right, starred in It Came From Outer Space, This Island Earth, and Johnny Dark and played Marshal Gib Scott on Black Saddle, Professor Roy Hinkley on Gilligan's Island, and Assistant D.A. Brenton Grant on Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law) plays general store owner Grant Noble. Richard Franchot (directed 312 episodes of Bright Promise) plays his assistant Ed Robbins. Valerie Starrett (Diana Maynard Taylor on General Hospital) plays Ed's sister Bella. Peter Hansen (Lt. Col. Van Pelt on Gomer Pyle: USMC, Major Drake on How the West Was Won, and Lee Baldwin on Port Charles and General Hospital) plays physician Dr. Allen Camden. John Milford (see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays former Custer officer Lt. H.M. Harrington. Dennis Moore (Deputy Lee on Tombstone Territory) plays the town sheriff.

Season 9, Episode 23, "Who's Fer Divide?": Peter Whitney (shown on the left, played Sergeant Buck Sinclair on The Rough Riders and Lafe Crick on The Beverly Hillbillies) plays mountain man Joe Meek. Dabbs Greer (see the biography section for the 1960 post on Gunsmoke) plays his friend Doc Newell. Dick Wilson (Dino Barone on McHale's Navy and George Whipple in Charmin toilet paper commercials) plays French Canadian settler Matthew. Frank Wilcox (see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Untouchables) plays British territorial governor John Benjamin Kittredge. George Wallace (see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays his local representative Jack Ivey. Patric Knowles (starred in The Adventures of Robin Hood, How Green Was My Valley, and The Wolf Man) plays the British election chairman.

Season 9, Episode 24, "Dangerous Crossing": William Lundigan (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Men Into Space) plays former sailor Nathaniel Norgate. Milton Frome (starred in Pardners, The Delicate Delinquent, and The Swinger and played Lawrence Chapman on The Beverly Hillbillies) plays religious sect leader Simon Meeker. Norman Leavitt (see "The Salt War" above) plays sect member Brother Walter. Ric Marlow (wrote the lyrics to "A Taste of Honey") plays extortionist Link Frets.

Season 9, Episode 25, "Death Ride": Marion Ross (shown on the left, played Nora on Life With Father, Susan Green on The Gertrude Berg Show, Miss Bromfield on Mr. Novak, Mary Morgan on Paradise Bay, Marion Cunningham on Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi, Emily Heywod/Hayward on The Love Boat, Sophie Berger on Brooklyn Bridge, Beulah Carey on The Drew Carey Show, and the voice of Mrs. Lopart on Handy Manny) plays barber's wife Martha Sayles. Robert Rockwell (Phillip Boynton on Our Miss Brooks, Sam Logan on The Man From Blackhawk, Tom Bishop on Diff'rent Strokes, and Wally Overmier on Growing Pains) plays traveling lawyer William Thorne. Eddie Quillan (see "Gamble With Death" above) plays hotel owner Clem Rees. Thayer Roberts (Thomas on The Living Bible) plays Solita Flats physician Dr. Saul Mitchell. Victor Rodman (Dr. Sam Rinehart on Noah's Ark) plays undertaker/coroner Wendell Hewitt. 

Season 9, Episode 26, "Loophole": Arthur Shields (appeared in Drums Along the Mohawk, How Green Was My Valley, National Velvet, and The Quiet Man and played Boles on The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure) plays old prospector Jebal McSween. Alexander Davion (appeared in Paranoiac, The Plague of the Zombies, and Valley of the Dolls and played Phoebus de Chateaupers on The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Det. Chief Insp. David Keen on Gideon C.I.D.) plays his future son-in-law and lawyer Mitchell Hobart. Bruce Gordon (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Untouchables) plays developer Henry Claypool. 

Season 9, Episode 27, "The Red Petticoat": H.M. Wynant (Lt. Bauer on The Young Marrieds, Frosty on Batman, and Ed Chapman on Dallas) plays U.S. Army Lt. Phillip Sheridan. Barry Cahill (Capt. Curt Douglas on 12 O'Clock High) plays his underling Sgt. Judd Barton. Hal Needham (Hollywood's highest-paid stuntman who invented numerous stunt devices, was a double for Richard Boone and Burt Reynolds, and directed Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, and Cannonball Run) plays insubordinate Pvt. Snavely. 

Season 9, Episode 28, "The Stolen City": Gregory Morton (Mr. Wainwright on Peyton Place and Walter Williams on Ben Casey) plays former gun-runner Jose Yves Limontour. Darren McGavin (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Riverboat) plays apothecary Zacharias Gurney. Emory Parnell (Hawkins on The Life of Riley and Hank the bartender on Lawman) plays land commissioner F.X. Cleland. Harlan Warde (John Hamilton on The Rifleman and Sheriff John Brannan on The Virginian) plays U.S. attorney Edwin M. Stanton. 

Season 9, Episode 29, "General Without a Cause": Jack Elam (shown on the right, played Deputy J.D. Smith on The Dakotas, George Taggart on Temple Houston, Zack Wheeler on The Texas Wheelers, and Uncle Alvin Stevenson on Easy Street) plays bandit king "General" Juan Cortino. Roberto Contreras (Pedro on The High Chapparal) plays his henchman Indio. Robert Darnell (Doug Russell on The Bold and the Beautiful) plays henchman Linker. William Boyett (see "Deadline at Austin" above) plays Union Army agent Miles Owen. Lisa Gaye (Gwen Kirby on How to Marry a Millionaire) plays Mexican soldier Dolores. 

Season 10, Episode 1, "Queen of Spades": Gloria Talbott (shown on the left, starred in The Cyclops, Daughter of Dr. Jekyll,  and I Married a Monster From Outer Space and played Moneta on Zorro) plays thrill-seeking wife Mary Kileen. John McLiam (appeared in Cool Hand Luke, In Cold Blood, Sleeper, The Missouri Breaks, and First Blood) plays her husband Frank. L.Q. Jones (Beldon on The Virginian, Sheriff Lew Wallace on The Yellow Rose, and Nathan Wayne on Renegade) plays her old flame Billy Madsen. Tom Drake (starred in Meet Me in St. Louis, Words and Music, Mr. Belvedere Goes to College, and The Sandpiper) plays blackjack dealer Billy Leslie. Doodles Weaver (narrated Spike Jones' horse-racing songs and hosted A Day With Doodles) plays a card player. 

Season 10, Episode 2, "The Hold-Up Proof Safe": Regis Toomey (starred in Alibi, Other Men's Women, The Finger Points, His Girl Friday, and The Big Sleep and played Joe Mulligan on The Mickey Rooney Show, Lt. Manny Waldo on Four Star Playhouse, Lt. McGough on Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Det. Les Hart on Burke's Law, and Dr. Barton Stuart on Petticoat Junction and Green Acres) plays store owner Gus Lammerson. John Ashley (shown on the right, appeared in Dragstrip Girl, Frankenstein's Daughter, and Beach Blanket Bingo, played Clipper Hamilton on Straightaway, was the narrator on The A-Team, and produced multiple episodes of The A-Team, Werewolf, and Walker, Texas Ranger) plays former wild-west show performer Sandy MacDonald. Judson Pratt (Billy Kinkaid on Union Pacific) plays Sedalia, CO sheriff Griswold.

Season 10, Episode 3, "Lieutenant Bungle": Edward Mallory (shown on the left, played Bill Riley on Morning Star and Bill Horton on Days of Our Lives) plays recent West Point graduate Lt. Edward Ross. Philip Ober (appeared in From Here to Eternity, North by Northwest, and Elmer Gantry) plays seasoned army commander Maj. Ernest Galloway. Rance Howard (father of Ron Howard and Clint Howard, played Henry Boomhauer on Gentle Ben and Dr. McIvers on The Waltons) plays one of his men Mace. Jody Fair (appeared in High School Confidential, Hot Rod Gang, The Brain Eaters, and Sex Kittens Go to College) plays Galloway's daughter Janice.

Season 10, Episode 4, "The Third Passenger": Tyler McVey (Maj. Norgrath on Men Into Space) plays teamster Lew Sayres. Mark Allen (Matt Kissel on The Travels of Jamie McPheeters and Sam Evans on Dark Shadows) plays stable owner Otto Roop. 

Season 10, Episode 5, "Trial by Fear": Eddie Quillan (shown on the right, see "Gamble With Death" above) plays hotel owner Hill Beachy. Phil Chambers (Jason the hotel clerk on The Andy Griffith Show) plays drummer Lloyd Magruder. Ed Peck (Officer Clark on The Super, Coach Cooper on Semi-Tough, Police Capt. Dennis McDermott on Benson, and Police Officer Kirk on Happy Days) plays cut-throat Chris Lowry. David Tyrell (Charlie Burr on Mister Peepers) plays Magruder's friend Tom Farrell.

Season 10, Episode 6, "Alias James Stuart": Robert Culp (shown on the left, starred in Sunday in New York, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, and Breaking Point and played Hoby Gilman on Trackdown, Kelly Robinson on I Spy, Bill Maxwell on The Greatest American Hero, and Warren on Everybody Loves Raymond) plays outlaw James Stuart and Australian visitor Thomas Burdue. John Zaremba (Special Agent Jerry Dressler on I Led 3 Lives, Dr. Harold Jensen on Ben Casey, Admiral Hardesy on McHale's Navy, Dr. Raymond Swain on The Time Tunnel, and Dr. Harlem Danvers on Dallas) plays trial Judge Parsons. Booth Colman (Prof. Hector Jerrold on General Hospital and Dr. Felix Burke on The Young and the Restless) plays Burdue's defense attorney. Charles Seel (Otis the Bartender on Tombstone Territory, Mr. Krinkie on Dennis the Menace, and Tom Pride on The Road West) plays store owner Jansen. William Woodson (the narrator on Dick Tracy, The Invaders, and Centurions, voiced J. Jonah Jameson on Spider-Man and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends,  and played Sgt. Ed Blankey on This Man Dawson) plays a trial witness.

Season 10, Episode 7, "Storm Over Truckee": Jena Engstrom (daughter of actress Jean Engstrom) plays prospector's daughter Maggie Woolf. Corey Allen (went on to direct multiple episodes of Dr. Kildare, Police Woman, Dallas, Hunter, and Star Trek: The Next Generation) plays bank robber Hal Parsons. House Peters, Jr. (Dave Bennett on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and Sheriff Jim Billings on Lassie) plays posse leader Deputy Walters. 

Season 10, Episode 8, "The Treasure of Elk Creek Canyon": Alan Hale, Jr. (shown on the right, played Biff Baker on Biff Baker U.S.A., Casey Jones on Casey Jones, and The Skipper on Gilligan's Island) plays stage driver Abe Williamson. Dennis Cross (see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Blue Angels) plays outlaw Jim Reynolds. John Considine (brother of Tim Considine, played Grant Capwell on Santa Barbara) plays his brother John. Warren J. Kemmerling (Judge Rense on How the West Was Won) plays a Colorado sheriff. Jon Cedar (appeared in The Quick and the Dead, Foxy Brown, and The Manitou and played Cpl. Langenscheidt on Hogan's Heroes) plays rancher's son Billy Burton. King Calder (Lt. Gray on Martin Kane) plays waystation owner Frank Somers.

Season 10, Episode 9, "A Bullet for the D.A.": Carole Mathews (shown on the left, starred in The Monster and the Ape, The Man With My Face, Port of Hell, and Swamp Women and played Wilma Fansler on The Californians) plays former outlaw Belle Starr. Don Haggerty (Jeffrey Jones on The Files of Jeffrey Jones, Eddie Drake on The Cases of Eddie Drake, Sheriff Dan Elder on State Trooper, and Marsh Murdock on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays Fort Smith, AR D.A. Frank Clayton. Bobby Buntrock (see the biography section for the 1961 post on Hazel) plays his son Frankie. Miriam Nelson (Emmy-nominated choreographer on The Lucy Show and The Red Skelton Hour) plays his wife. Jimmy Cross (Jessie Flouge on How to Marry a Millionaire) plays a carnival barker.

Season 10, Episode 10, "The Watch": Dorothy Malone (shown on the right, starred in Scared Stiff, Pushover, Young at Heart, Artists and Models, Written on the Wind, Man of a Thousand Faces, Too Much, Too Soon, and Basic Instinct and played Constance Mackenzie Carson on Peyton Place) plays school teacher Mary Parker. Bing Russell (father of Kurt Russell, played Deputy Clem Foster on Bonanza) plays mine foreman Jack Short. Michael Hinn (Luke Cummings on Boots and Saddles and George Haig on Johnny Ringo) plays miner Bicker. Mary Gregory (appeared in Sleeper and Coming Home and played Dr. Stanwhich on Knots Landing and Judge Pendleton on L.A. Law) plays his wife Martha. Jeannie Russell (see the biography section for the 1960 post on Dennis the Menace) plays frightened school girl Peggy.

Season 10, Episode 11, "Miracle at Boot Hill": John Carradine (shown on the left, starred in Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, The Ten Commandments, and Sex Kittens Go to College and played Gen. Joshua McCord on Branded) plays an unnamed Stranger claiming he can raise the dead. Chris Warfield (Rev. Dr. Frank Thornton on Going My Way) plays store owner Herb Driscoll. Penny Edwards (starred in That Hagen Girl, Tucson, Missing Women, and Million Dollar Pursuit, filled in for a pregnant Dale Evans in several early 1950s Roy Rogers features, and modeled in ads for Lux, Palmolive, and Tiparillos) plays mine owner's widow Ella Woods. Byron Morrow (Capt. Keith Gregory on The New Breed and Pearce Newberry on Executive Suite) plays mine owner John B. Woods. Peter Hansen (see "Dead Man's Tale" above) plays his foreman Bill Groat. Howard Caine (Schaab on The Californians and Maj. Wolfgang Hochstetter on Hogan's Heroes) plays hotel owner Mel Bowan. Eddie Quillan (see "Gamble With Death" above) plays remarried widower Mayberry. Joe Higgins (see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Rifleman) plays stableman Chris Hanson.

Brenner (1961)

The father-and-son police drama Brenner has one of the more unusual broadcast histories in television. The series originated as a summer replacement series based on a January 15, 1959 Playhouse 90 episode titled "The Blue Men," which was written by Alvin Boretz, produced by Herbert Brodkin, directed by John Frankenheimer, and starred Edmond O'Brien as Roy Brenner and Richie LePore as Ernie Brenner. In this Playhouse 90 episode, the elder Brenner is an idealistic crusader who jeopardizes his career when he refuses to arrest a youth for stealing a hi-fi speaker from a department store because he believes the youth who maintains his innocence. In the CBS TV series Roy Brenner is the voice of experience and his son Ernie, a rookie detective, is the one whose idealism is tested with the complexities of being a police officer. Originally Brenner ran for 14 episodes between June 6, 1959 and September 19, 1959, at which point it was not continued when the new fall season began. Two years later two more episodes were aired during the summer replacement season--"The Thin Line" on June 19, 1961 and "Good Friend" on September 11, 1961. During the summer of 1962 some of these original episodes were rerun. Two years after that 9 more unseen episodes, filmed at the same time as the earlier episodes, were aired, as well as a rerun of "The Thin Line," between May 17, 1964 and July 19, 1964. In all 25 episodes of Brenner were produced and aired over a 5-year period. Executive producer Brodkin would revisit the father-son generational dynamic very soon thereafter and much more successfully when he created The Defenders, which began airing in the fall of 1961.

Despite the popular characterization of the series as a generation-gap drama between the "hardened" 20-year veteran Roy Brenner and his "idealistic" rookie detective son Ernie, Brenner is more a study of the messy ethical challenges police officers face in their line of duty. Producer Arthur Lewis is quoted as saying in a June 6, 1959 article in the Fort Lauderdale News:

We're concerned with such questions as what is a man's problem as a person in being a cop? ...How does an honest man stay honest?...What about cops who abuse their authority?...Is there a difference between the pursuit of police work and the pursuit of justice?...

In the Season 1 episodes included in the Timeless Media Group DVD set, the show focuses more on the younger Ernie Brenner and the dilemmas and lessons he encounters in navigating his first year on the job as a detective. In the debut episode "False Witness" (June 6, 1959), Ernie is badgered by assistant district attorney William Thompson to give false testimony to get a conviction against a man accused of throwing lye into his girlfriend's eyes just so Thompson can uphold his reputation as a tough guy. In "Record of Arrest" (June 13, 1959) Ernie's partner Frank ignores the law by breaking into a suspect's apartment without a search warrant and trying to get him convicted of selling guns to kids based on evidence found outside the apartment. Like Thompson, Frank is pushing for the conviction to boost his own career, which has never seemed to gain traction, and Ernie has to push back when he finally uncovers testimony that exonerates Frank's suspect. "I, Executioner" (July 18, 1959) deals with Ernie's emotional response to having to shoot a mentally disturbed young man to save a fellow policeman from being stabbed to death. In "Small Take" (August 1, 1959) and "Thin Ice" (August 22, 1959) Ernie has to face the fact that some of his police brethren are on the take or are willing to look the other way. 

And in the one episode from the DVD set that aired in 1961, "Good Friend" (September 11, 1961), Ernie has trouble accepting that his longtime school friend Robby Matthews has resorted to theft to pay off loan sharks. As in several of the 1959 episodes, the role of his father Roy Brenner is not one of cynicism but the voice of experience offering his son advice that the younger policeman at first disregards, continuing to go to dinner at Matthews' apartment but unable to resist questioning him, thereby tipping off Matthews that he is under suspicion and prompting him to hide out to avoid arrest. The lesson is a painful one for Ernie because Matthews draws a sharp line between being a friend and being a cop, indicating that he believes the two are incompatible. This is another take on the problem faced by patrol officer Dave Robbins in "Thin Ice" in that Robbins is assigned to walk a beat in the neighborhood where he grew up and has a hard time believing the old married couple running a candy shop he frequented as a youth are running a small-time gambling operation. The goal of Brenner is to humanize and create sympathy for those who serve as policemen in an attempt to overcome the prejudice of citizens like Matthews who can only see the police as an adversary. 

The other lesson Roy repeatedly tries to teach Ernie is the slippery slope when it comes to applying the law. The topic comes up in "Thin Ice" when Officer Robbins figures that looking the other way as the candy store proprietors make a few coins here and there on their gambling operation is not a big deal, but when Pop Davis gets beat up by a man named Logan, known as a medium-level operator, Roy Brenner hammers home the point that while the individual gambling profits at the ground floor might not add up to much, the take of the bigger fish can add up to a much larger sum. Likewise, Ernie's partner Frank in "Record of Arrest" cuts corners on what seem trivial matters, but his lax attitude leads him to arrest the wrong man. In short, the messaging in Brenner is somewhat straight-laced in upholding the sanctity of the law and the good intentions of the men in blue, though the series avoids the black-and-white dichotomy of many cop shows and takes care to show the many shades of gray present in trying to apply the law, a nuance that Brodkin and his team would work to greater effect in his next series, The Defenders. In many ways Brenner covers the same ground as Naked City, which was shot in New York like Brenner and pitted a more seasoned detective (Lt. Muldoon in the first season and Lt. Mike Parker later) against a younger, more progressive-thinking detective (Det. Halloran in the first season and Det. Adam Flint thereafter). The difference between the two series is that in Naked City the two main characters are not related and the younger detective is usually right, whereas in Brenner the father Roy Brenner has plenty of opportunities to say "I told you so" but is understanding enough not to.

Timeless Media Group has released a 3-DVD set containing 15 of the 25 episodes that aired in Seasons 1 and 2.

The Actors

Edward Binns

The youngest of six sons in a family of Quakers, Binns was born September 12, 1916 in Philadelphia. Even though his Quaker school staged theatrical productions, Binns didn't get serious about acting until his freshman year at Penn State. After graduation, he apprenticed at the Cleveland Playhouse before traveling to Mexico to act and direct there. After serving as an armament officer in the Army Air Force during World War II, Binns returned to the Cleveland Playhouse in the late 1940s, which proved to be his ticket to Broadway when their production of Command Decision was optioned for New York. There an assistant stage manager got him an audition for the then-forming Actors Studio, and Binns' role as a founding member opened doors to many more stage productions as well as live TV roles beginning in 1948. By 1951 he was also getting feature film roles with his first credited performance in Teresa. But during the 1950s his career was temporarily damaged when he was mistakenly blacklisted by the McCarthy-led anti-Communist machine simply because he had the same last name as a Brooklyn alderwoman to whom he was not related who ran as a member of the Communist Party. It took a $250 payment to a "slimy" agent with FBI connections to unravel the mystery and finally get his career back on track. When the era of live TV production evaporated, Binns relocated to California, though he was now considered a character actor rather than a leading man. He had dozens of guest spots on drama anthology series and amongst his biggest feature film appearances in the latter 1950s were Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, 12 Angry Men, and North by Northwest. His casting as Roy Brenner was his first recurring role in a TV series, but given the show's haphazard scheduling described above, he also found plenty of work as a guest star on other series such as The Twilight Zone, Perry Mason, Wagon Train, and Route 66.

In the 1960s his notable feature film appearances included Judgment at Nuremberg and Fail-Safe, while he also continued to rack up TV guest appearances on a number of shows including three times as Dr. Anson Kiley on The Doctors and the Nurses, three times as District Attorney Wolf on The Defenders, and four times as Peter DeGravio on Dr. Kildare. In 1969 he was chosen to replace Malachi Throne as Robert Wagner's new boss Wally Powers in the third and final season of It Takes a Thief, but also during this time he was suffering from alcoholism and eventually joined Alcoholics Anonymous to find a path to sobriety.  Later notable roles included appearances in Patton and The Verdict as well as the covetous General Korshak in an episode of M*A*S*H, but late in his career he also had to do more voicework for commercials as the acting roles diminished. He died from a heart attack at age 74 on December 4, 1990 while being driven from New York to his home in Connecticut.

James Broderick

James Joseph Broderick III was born March 7, 1927 in Charlestown, New Hampshire, the son of a highly decorated World War I veteran. After graduating from high school in Manchester, New Jersey, he attended the University of New Hampshire as a pre-med student but interrupted his studies to join the Navy as a pharmacist's mate in 1945. After being discharged in 1947, he resumed his pre-med studies until he auditioned for a theatrical part at the university and came to the attention of faculty advisor J. Donald Batchellor, who was so impressed by Broderick's talents that he introduced him to his friend, the actor Arthur Kennedy, who in turn recommended that Broderick enroll in the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York, which included legendary acting coach Sanford Meisner on its faculty. After graduating from theater school in 1949, Broderick began landing TV roles the following year, beginning with Nash Airflyte Theatre. Though Broderick's TV credits were not extensive through the early 1950s, he augmented his small-screen work with occasional theatrical productions such as Maggie on Broadway in 1953 and the title role in an off-Broadway production of Johnny Johnson in 1956. His first recurring TV role was playing Ernie Brenner on Brenner beginning in 1959.

When Brenner went on hiatus in 1960, Broderick landed his first feature film role in Girl of the Night and for the next several years balanced recurring roles on soap operas and appearing in off-Broadway productions. On television he played Joe Sullivan on The Secret Storm in 1960, Jim Norman on As the World Turns in 1962, and D.A. Nick Bryce on The Edge of Night in 1964. On the stage he appeared in Two by Saroyan in 1961, The Firebugs in 1963, and Rooms in 1966. In the late 1960s he continued to get regular if infrequent TV guest spots, as well as an occasional feature film role but found more success in Broadway productions of Johnny No-Trump in 1967 and The Time of Your Life in 1969. Also in 1969 he began a series of higher-profile feature film roles in Alice's Restaurant and in the 1970s The Taking of the Pelham One Two Three and Dog Day Afternoon. But the biggest role of his career would come in 1976 as family patriarch Doug Lawrence on Family, a part that garnered him an Emmy nomination in 1978. However, Broderick contracted cancer in the early 1980s, and he died from it on November 1, 1982 at the age of 55. His son Matthew Broderick also became an actor of some renown.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 1, Episode 16, "Good Friend": George Grizzard (shown on the left, starred in Advise & Consent, Comes a Horseman, and Bachelor Party and played Arthur Gold on Law & Order) plays Ernie's close friend Robby Matthews. Diana Van der Vlis (Susan Ames Dunbar Carver on Secret Storm, Kate Prescott on Where the Heart Is, and Dr. Nell Beaulac on Ryan's Hope) plays his wife Edith. Cynthia O'Neal (wife of Patrick O'Neal) plays Edith's cousin Nancy Fallon. Clifton James (appeared in Experiment in Terror, Cool Hand Luke, Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun, and Eight Men Out and played Silas Jones on Lewis & Clark and Duke Carlisle on Dallas) plays Robby's supervisor Mack. Sydney Pollack (directed They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, The Way We Were, Absence of Malice, Tootsie, and Out of Africa) plays police Det. Al Dunn. Dan Morgan (Riggs on Dark Shadows) plays informant Mulcahey. Albert Henderson (Officer Dennis O'Hara on Car54, Where Are You?) police Patrol Officer Franklin.