It never cracked the top 30 in the ratings, and it aired in
an era when TV westerns had just reached their peak and were starting to
decline (all those not named
Bonanza
or
Gunsmoke, that is). But according
to
factsverse.com, co-star
Clu Gulager claimed that the real reason
The Tall Man was canceled after just two
seasons was because of political pressure from Congress. Gulager reportedly
said that sometime during the series' 1960-62 run Congress debated on whether
or not
Billy the Kid was a cold-blooded killer. Since Gulager played a
fictional Billy the Kid, who was portrayed as a wild but still good-hearted
hero, Congress felt that this was not an appropriate role model for children to
see on television, so pressure was applied to NBC to take the series off the
air. No details are provided on when this happened and who the principal
players were in Congress who helped drive this decision. Likewise, a scan of
1962 issues of
TV Guide magazine
provides no news item about any decision to cancel the series. In fact, the
August 18 issue of the magazine, only a few weeks before the Fall 1962 season
was about to begin, contains an article about young TV actors who have gotten
poor reviews from critics, including Gulager, who is still described as being
affiliated with
The Tall Man (as
Doug
McClure is described as being on
Checkmate,
another series that was canceled before the Fall 1962 season). Other than
missing a paycheck, however, Gulager seems to not have thought much of his own
series, as he is quoted in the
TV Guide article
saying, "If I'd been a critic, I'd have drummed the show off the air as a
prime example of what TV should not spend its money on." The
factsverse.com
piece on Gulager also mentions that he wasn't sold on the series when he was
first offered the role, saying that he and his agent had a 3-hour discussion
before deciding to accept the part rather than hold out for something better
because Gulager at the time was married with a child to support and needed the
money immediately.
Even if Congress had not taken action to get the show
canceled, by 1962 it offered little to distinguish itself from the scores of
other westerns on the air at that time. Whereas earlier episodes had winked at
the real-life relationship of
Pat Garrett and
Billy Bonney, such as it may have
been, foreshadowing that they might have to stand off against each other one
day, the 1962 episodes dispense with such teases and focus solely on standard
TV western stories that could be seen on any of a number of other programs. For
example, "The Hunt" (January 27, 1962) centers on wealthy British
shipping magnate Edward Van Doren with a passion for hunting, but with the
twist that he considers the ultimate hunting challenge to be tracking and
killing a human, in this case Billy. He rationalizes that he will be doing
society a favor, given the number of men Billy has killed and the danger he
poses. Meanwhile, the supposedly untamed Billy espouses the humane belief that
it is not sporting to kill unarmed prey. The story and even the title of this
episode exactly match one from
Have
Gun--Will Travel which aired only a week later on February 3, 1962, except
that the hunter in this later episode is a Russian nobleman rather than a
British mogul.
Then there is the popular quarantine story, titled
appropriately enough "Quarantine" (March 17, 1962), in which Garrett
has to incarcerate injured bank robber Bob Kelso at the local doctor's office
after another patient shows up at the office with symptoms indicating possible
bubonic plague. Perhaps this theme had become popular because of hit series
like
Dr. Kildare and
Ben Casey, but in any case at least
three other westerns aired quarantine stories in 1962:
Lawman ("The Doctor," May 6, 1962),
Frontier Circus ("Incident at Pawnee Gun," September 6,
1962), and
The Rifleman ("Quiet
Night, Deadly Night," October 22, 1962). This
Tall Man episode is also notable in that it shows Garrett bending
the law in a way he would have disapproved of in earlier episodes--during the
three-day quarantine, Kelso works on the doctor's daughter and former
girlfriend Amy Beckett to get her to fetch him a file so that he can saw off
his handcuffs just as his two brothers show up to spring him from Garrett's
custody. Though Garrett is able to outfox the Kelsos with the threat of plague
infection, even though he knows the danger has passed, and is able to recapture
them before they escape, Amy is still guilty of aiding in the attempted escape.
But when she shows up at the jailhouse the next day to turn herself in, Garrett
claims that Kelso never really escaped, since he never made it out of her
father's office before being retaken, and says that she is only guilty of
falling in love with the wrong person, which everyone has done at one time or
another. This contrasts with the 1961 episode "A Tombstone for Billy"
in which Billy steals a tombstone for a poor widower who feels his late wife
has been forgotten by the town she served for so many years. Despite Billy's
good-hearted intentions, Garrett forces him to serve a few days in jail to show
that no one is above the law, except for lovestruck young women, apparently.
Speaking of misplaced affections, "The Runaway
Groom" (April 28, 1962) uses the old fake wedding gag for laughs and
suspense when a family of mountain folk come to town claiming that Billy
married and fathered a child with their sister Sally a little over a year ago
before cowardly disappearing. Billy, naturally, claims to have never even met
Sally, much less married her, but her brothers figure he is only trying to
escape his familial duty, so they threaten to kill him if he doesn't come back
with them and settle down as a proper husband to her. As should be obvious,
this is a case of mistaken identity, though it's quite a stretch to believe
that Sally would mistake Billy for his colleague Charlie Fox (the two do not
even remotely resemble each other), even if it has been over a year since she
last saw him. The episode hammers home the TV western trope that marriage is
just about the worst thing that could happen to a free spirit like Billy. We
see the same theme, with a few different details, presented on
Rawhide about 6 months later in the
episode "Incident of the Reluctant Bridegroom" in which Rowdy Yates
thinks that he has been married during a drunken stupor to the girlfriend of a
vindictive saloon owner, only to later learn that the wedding officiant was a
wanted outlaw disguised as a minister.
And yet the wild, untamable Billy is willing to consider
marriage at least twice during 1962 in "The Girl From Paradise"
(January 13, 1962) and the series-ending "Phoebe" (May 26, 1962). But
wouldn't you know that both times the girl he professes his undying love for
winds up dying. This, too, is an overused plot for just about every TV western
that features single male heroes. Case in point: the January 28, 1962 episode
of
Bonanza titled "The
Storm" has Little Joe falling in love with and deciding to marry childhood
playmate Laura White. She does not wind up sacrificing herself to save his life,
as do Billy's girlfriends in the aforementioned episodes, but instead suffers
from a terminal illness that kills her before Little Joe can marry her. Of
course, the entire
Bonanza family
structure is built on Ben Cartwright's three tragically dead wives, each of
whom bore him one of his three sons. Though in this case Ben did actually get
to wed his three loves and consummate each of these marriages, the wives have
conveniently died off before the series begins, though we are treated to a
reminder of their tragic ends in flashbacks such as the 1962 episode
"Inger, My Love."
Being the more mature of
The
Tall Man's dynamic duo, Pat Garrett doesn't get quite as close to the altar
as Billy does, but he does at least give it some consideration in "St.
Louis Woman" (January 20, 1962). When Garrett's friend Tom Davis has to leave
town on a cattle deal just before his correspondence fiance Janet Harper is due
to arrive in town with her son, Davis asks Garrett to look after her until he
can return. But not long after meeting, both Garrett and Janet find that they
are attracted to each other, so much so that Janet suggests they run away
together to avoid having to hurt Davis. Garrett says that he could never do
that to a friend and that he has found his calling as a lawman in Lincoln
County. Despite warnings from Billy that he is wading into dangerous waters,
Garrett neither plunges headlong into the affair nor nips it in the bud,
letting things progress far enough to share a kiss with Janet while they are
looking over Davis' ranch. However, Garrett avoids having to make a decision by
letting things play out enough such that Janet makes the decision for him. When
she witnesses Garrett having to face off against an ornery and armed drunk, she
calls the whole thing off, even though Garrett has come around to her
suggestion of taking up another line of work in another town. The thought of
having another husband die on her is too much for her to stomach, so she says
that cattle rancher Davis will make a fine partner for her after all. Garrett
also has an opportunity to tie the knot in "The Impatient Brides"
(February 3, 1962) when four mail-order brides bound for the next town of
Springdale are forced to wait awhile in Lincoln County while the government
puts down an Indian rebellion that has the road shut down. Since there is no
room in the local hotel, the four young women have to spend the delay in
Garrett's jailhouse, and in close proximity to the dashing Garrett, each of
them thinks he would make a better catch than what awaits them in Springdale. So
during one sleepless night, each woman sneaks downstairs to propose to Garrett,
and he tells each one of them "no," never even really considering
what they have to offer. Marrying off Garrett or Billy would have been a
suitable way to end the series, given that its whole premise was the special
relationship they had with each other, which would have been radically altered
had one or both of them settled down. In 1962 the fact that the series ended
without any sort of resolution was typical, but one can't help wondering if Clu
Gulager's claim of Congressional pressure was applied somewhere between the end
of production on Season 2 and the beginning of the Fall 1962 season. In any
case, the loss was not a great one for the American TV landscape, as
The Tall Man had descended into a
derivative formula western, stripped of its original character that made it at
least mildly interesting.
The Actors
For the biographies for Barry Sullivan and Clu Gulager, see
the 1960 post for The Tall Man. For
the biography for Mark Tapscott, see the 1961 post for The Tall Man.
Notable Guest Stars
Season 2, Episode 18, "Substitute Sheriff":
Andy
Clyde (see the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Real McCoys) plays property owner Pa McBean.
Cynthia Chenault (appeared
in
I Was a Teenage Werewolf,
Dino, and
This Earth Is Mine and played Carol Potter on
The Tom Ewell Show) plays his daughter May.
Judy Nugent (Jet Maypen
on
Walt Disney Presents: Annette)
plays his daughter June.
Bob Hastings (shown on the left, played Lt. Elroy Carpenter on
McHale's Navy,
Tommy Kelsey on
All in the
Family, and Capt. Burt Ramsey on
General
Hospital) plays railroad company agent J. Simpson Chase.
Season 2, Episode 19, "The Girl From Paradise":
Pippa
Scott (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on
Mr. Lucky) plays convicted murderer Anne Drake.
Kelly Thordsen (Colorado
Charlie on
Yancy Derringer) plays sadistic
lawman Sheriff Rafe Tollinger.
Andy Albin (Andy Godsen on
Julia) plays a farmer.
Season 2, Episode 20, "St. Louis Woman":
Russ
Conway (Fenton Hardy on
The Hardy Boys:
The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure, Gen. Devon on
Men Into Space, and Lt. Pete Kile on
Richard Diamond, Private Detective) plays cattle owner Tom Davis.
Jan
Clayton (shown on the left, starred in
Sunset Trail,
The Wolf Hunters, and
This Man's Navy and played Ellen Miller
on
Lassie) plays his fiance Janet
Harper.
Roger Mobley (Homer "Packy" Lambert on
Fury) plays her son David.
Season 2, Episode 21, "The Hunt":
Richard Ney (shown on the right, appeared in
Mrs. Miniver,
Joan of Arc,
Ivy,
Midnight Lace, and
The Premature Burial) plays British
shipping magnate Edward Van Doren.
Madge Kennedy (starred in
Baby Mine,
A Perfect Lady,
Leave It to Susan,
Bad Company (1925), and
Houseboat and played Aunt Martha Branson
on
Leave It to Beaver) plays his mother
Elizabeth.
Hank Patterson (Pete Duggan on
The
New Adventures of Spin and Marty, Fred Ziffel on
Green Acres and
Petticoat Junction,
and Hank Miller on
Gunsmoke) plays stagecoach
driver Amos.
Season 2, Episode 22, "The Impatient Brides":
Joan
O'Brien (shown on the left, starred in
Operation Petticoat,
The Alamo,
It Happened at the World's Fair, and
It'$ Only Money) plays mail-order bride Merilee.
Beverly Wills (appeared
in
Some Like It Hot,
The Ladies Man, and
Son of Flubber and played Beverly Grossman on
I Married Joan) plays mail-order bride Caroline.
Jane Dulo (Liz
Murray on
Hey, Jeannie!, WAC Pvt.
Mildred Lukens on
The Phil Silvers Show,
Molly Turner on
McHale's Navy, Agent
99's mother on
Get Smart, Nurse
Murphy on
Medical Center, and Grandma
Mildred Kanisky on
Gimme a Break!)
plays mail-order bride Emma.
Hollis Irving (Mrs. Woodley on
Blondie and Aunt Phoebe on
Margie) plays mail-order bride Jane.
Tom
Fadden (Duffield on
Broken Arrow,
Silas Perry on
Cimarron City, and Ben
Miller on
Green Acres and
Petticoat Junction) plays stagecoach
driver Judd Bates.
Season 2, Episode 23, "Rio Doloroso":
Dennis
Patrick (shown on the right, played Paul Stoddard on
Dark Shadows,
Capt. Jack Breen on
Bert D'Angelo/Superstar,
Fred Foley on
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,
Patrick Chapin on
Rituals, and Vaughn
Leland on
Dallas) plays captured
murderer Curtis.
Alex Montoya (Miguel Morales on
The High Chaparral) plays small village strongman Domingo.
Linda
Dangcil (Sister Ana on
The Flying Nun and
voiced Carmen Alonso and Raya on
Jem)
plays village resident Inez.
Season 2, Episode 24, "A Day to Kill":
Pamela
Duncan (appeared in
Lawless Cowboys,
Dragonfly Squadron,
Attack of the Crab Monsters, and
The Undead)
plays cantina
pianist Angela.
Harry Antrim (shown on the left, appeared in
Miracle
on 34th Street,
Words and Music,
Ma and Pa Kettle, and
Teacher's Pet and played Judge Hooker on
The Great Gildersleeve) plays Lincoln
County physician Dr. John Hogan.
Edward Mallory (Bill Riley on
Morning Star and Bill Horton on
Days of Our Lives) plays cowboy Johnny
Pride.
Harry Swoger (Harry the bartender on
The
Big Valley) plays trigger-happy citizen Larker.
Season 2, Episode 25, "Property of the Crown":
Miriam
Colon (shown on the right, played Dr. Santos on
The Edge of Night,
Maria Delgado on
One Life to Live,
Lydia Flores on
All My Children, and
Cam's Grandma on
How to Make It in
America) plays property claimant Angelita Sanchez.
Mark Miller (Bill Hooten
on
Guestward Ho!, Jim Nash on
Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Howard
Jones on
Bright Promise, and Ross
Craig on
The Name of the Game) plays Lincoln
County lawyer Sam Kirby.
Katherine Warren (appeared in
The Lady Pays Off,
The Glenn
Miller Story, and
The Caine Mutiny)
plays wealthy landowner Emma Wainwright.
Season 2, Episode 26, "The Night Hawk":
John
Anderson (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays U.S. Army Major Jud
Randolph.
Season 2, Episode 27, "Three for All":
Irene
Tedrow (see the biography section for the 1961 post on
Dennis the Menace) plays lawless matriarch Maw Kilgore.
George
Kennedy (shown on the right, starred in
Charade,
The Sons of Katie Elder,
The Dirty Dozen,
Cool Hand Luke, and
The Naked
Gun and played MP Sgt. Kennedy on
The
Phil Silvers Show, Father Samuel Cavanaugh on
Sarge, Bumper Morgan on
The
Blue Knight, and Carter McKay on
Dallas)
plays her son Hyram.
Season 2, Episode 28, "Quarantine":
Gary Clarke (shown on the left, see
the biography section for the 1962 post on
The Virginian) plays bank robber Bob Kelso.
Hal Baylor (Jenkins on
Rawhide and Mercury on
Batman) plays his brother Clint.
Susan
Silo (Rusty on
Harry's Girls and a
prolific voice actor on shows such as
The
Fonz and the Happy Days Gang,
James
Bond, Jr., and
Where's Waldo?)
plays doctor's daughter Amy Beckett.
Season 2, Episode 29, "The Four Queens":
Gaylord
Cavallaro (Det. Sgt. Steve Wall on
The
Pursuers) plays French impresario Jacques Montreaux.
Monica Lewis (shown on the right, popular
singer who starred in
Excuse My Dust,
Affair With a Stranger, and
The D.I.) plays showgirl Babette Antoine.
Mary Moor (Betty Jean Lane/Battle on
The
Edge of Night) plays showgirl Denise Lawrence.
Joyce Bulifant (Mary Gentry
on
Tom, Dick and Mary, Mrs. Marsha
Patterson on
The Bill Cosby Show,
Peggy Wilson on
Love Thy Neighbor,
Marjorie Martin on
Big John, Little John,
Marie Slaughter on
The Mary Tyler Moore
Show, Miriam Willoughby on
Flo,
and Emily Wallace on
Weird Science)
plays showgirl Fifi Dubois.
Season 2, Episode 30, "The
Long Way Home":
Doris Dowling (shown on the left, starred in
The Lost Weekend,
The Blue
Dahlia,
Bitter Rice, and
Othello and played Irene Adams on
My Living Doll) plays saloon hostess
Maisie Turner.
Harp McGuire (appeared in
Captain
Thunderbolt,
On the Beach,
Inherit the Wind, and
Cage of Evil) plays train conductor Joe
Tuohy.
Clancy Cooper (see the biography section for the 1960 post on
Lawman) plays the Wells Junction sheriff.
Season 2, Episode 31, "A Time to Run":
John
Fiedler (shown on the right, appeared in
12 Angry Men,
That Touch of Mink,
The World of Henry Orient,
Kiss
Me, Stupid,
Girl Happy,
The Odd Couple, True Grit and played
Emil Peterson on
The Bob Newhart Show
and Woody on
Buffalo Bill) plays
bookkeeper Abner Moody.
Charles Watts (Judge Harvey Blandon on
Bachelor Father) plays drummer Hiram
Sunday.
Sandra Knight (ex-wife of Jack Nicholson, appeared in
Thunder Road,
Frankenstein's Daughter, and
Blood
Bath) plays mail-order bride Lucy Potter.
Thomas E. Jackson (starred in
Broadway,
Little Caesar, and
The Woman
in the Window) plays local physician Doc Hogan.
Season 2, Episode 32, "Trial by Fury":
Robert
Emhardt (Sgt. Vinton on
The Kids From
C.A.P.E.R. and Willard Masefield on
The
Edge of Night) plays rogue Judge Oliver Cromwell.
Barbara Lawrence (shown on the left, appeared
in
Margie,
The Street With No Name,
A
Letter to Three Wives,
Here Come the
Nelsons, and
Oklahoma!) plays acquitted
saloon girl Sadie Wren.
James Griffith (Aaron Adams on
Trackdown and Deputy Tom Ferguson on
U.S. Marshal) plays ex-convict James Cutter.
Fuzzy Knight (appeared
in
She Done Him Wrong,
Moulin Rouge (1934),
My Little Chickadee, and
Deep in the Heart of Texas and played
Sagebrush on
The Gene Autry Show and
Pvt. Fuzzy Knight on
Captain Gallant of
the Foreign Legion) plays prospector Johnny Red.
Season 2, Episode 33, "The Frame":
Harry Townes (starred
in
The Brothers Karamazov,
Screaming Mimi, and
Sanctuary) plays terminally ill patient Henry Stewart.
Lori March (shown on the right, played Jennifer
Alden on
Three Steps to Heaven,
Lenore Bradley on
The Brighter Day,
Amy Stanton on
The Doctors, Valerie
Ames on
The Secret Storm, Lillian
Hayes on
Search for Tomorrow, Mrs.
Henson on
The Edge of Night, Mildred
Canfield on
Texas, and Barbara
Gilbert on
Another Life) plays his
wife Isobel.
Stewart Bradley (Lt. Danton on
Days
of Our Lies) plays a rabble-rousing wrangler.
Season 2, Episode 34, "The Runaway Groom":
Roberta
Shore (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1961 post on
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays jilted wife and mother
Sally Tugwell.
Gary Vinson (Chris Higbee on
The
Roaring '20's, George Christopher on
McHale's
Navy, and Sheriff Harold Skiles on
Pistols
'n' Petticoats) plays ranch-hand Charlie Fox.
Bernard Fein (Pvt Gomez on
The Phil Silvers Show) plays ranch cook
Sam.
Season 2, Episode 35, "The Blackrobe":
Martin
Landau (shown on the right, starred in
North by Northwest,
Cleopatra,
The Greatest Story Ever Told,
The
Fall of the House of Usher, and
Ed
Wood and played Rollin Hand on
Mission:
Impossible!, Commander John Koenig on
Space:
1999, Dr. Sol Gold on
The Evidence,
Bob Ryan on
Entourage, and Frank
Malone on
Without a Trace) plays Jesuit
priest Father Guesclin.
Slim Pickens (starred in
The Story of Will Rogers,
Dr.
Strangelove,
Blazing Saddles,
The Apple Dumpling Gang,
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, and
The Howling and played Slim on
Outlaws, Slim Walker on
The Wide Country, California Joe Milner
on
Custer, and Sgt. Beauregard Wiley
on
B.J. & the Bear) plays language
interpreter Starr.
Russell Thorson (Lt. Otto Lindstrom on
The Detectives and William Kennerly on
Peyton Place) plays Garrett's former Army commander Major Graves.
Season 2, Episode 36, "The Woman in Black":
Gregory
Morton (Mr. Wainwright on
Peyton Place and
Walter Williams on
Ben Casey) plays landowner
Don Diego de Cardenas.
Ricky Vera (Benny Romero on
Our Miss Brooks) plays his son Juan.
Adele Mara (shown on the left, wife of
Maverick,
77 Sunset Strip,
The Fugitive,
and
The Rockford Files creator Roy
Huggins who appeared in
Wake of the Red
Witch,
Sands of Iwo Jima, and
The Big Circus) plays Don Diego's
intended bride Rosa Leodagarious.
Season 2, Episode 37, "Doctor on Horseback":
Ed
Nelson (Michael Rossi on
Peyton Place,
Ward Fuller on
The Silent Force, and
Sen. Mark Denning on
Capitol) plays new
Steadman physician Dr. Wade Parsons.
Mabel Albertson (shown on the right, played Mrs. Whiting on
Those Whiting Girls, Irene Brady on
The Tom Ewell Show, Mrs. Sprague on
The Andy Griffith Show, Mildred
Hollinger on
That Girl, and Phyllis
Stephens on
Bewitched) plays widow
Kate Baines.
June Kenney (starred in
Teenage
Doll,
Attack of the Puppet People,
and
The Spider) plays abandoned
pregnant wife Mary Curtis.
Paul Hartman (Albie Morrison on
The Pride of the Family, Charlie on
Our Man Higgins, Emmett Clark on
The Andy Griffith Show and
Mayberry
R.F.D., and Bert Smedley on
Petticoat
Junction) plays her father Judd Marlowe.
Richard Reeves (Mr. Murphy on
Date With the Angels) plays busybody
Santee.
C. Lindsay Workman (see the biography section for the 1961 post on
The Donna Reed Show) plays the Steadman
barber.
Season 2, Episode 38, "Phoebe":
Floy Dean (shown on the left, played Liz Forsythe Stevens on
The Young
Marrieds and Laura Spencer on
Days of
Our Lives) plays runaway daughter Phoebe Canfield.
George Macready (Martin
Peyton on
Peyton Place) plays her
repressive father Cyrus Canfield.
Rusty Lane (Harry Moseby on
The Clear Horizon) plays livery owner
Trager.
Jon Lormer (Harry Tate on
Lawman,
Sam Watkins on
The Real McCoys, the
autopsy surgeon on
Perry Mason, Simon
Benjamin on
The Young Marrieds, and
Judge Irwin A. Chester on
Peyton Place)
plays irascible jurist Judge Medford.
Eve McVeagh (starred in
High Noon,
The Glass Web, and
Tight Spot
and played Frances Moseby on
The Clear
Horizon and Miss Hammond on
Petticoat
Junction) plays crooked faro dealer Lily Varnell.
Lorna Thayer (starred in
The Beast With a Million Eyes and played
the waitress in
Five Easy Pieces) plays
a saloon girl and former colleague of Lily's.
Clegg Hoyt (Mac on
Dr. Kildare) plays bartender Charlie.
Cyril Delevanti (Lucious Coin on
Jefferson
Drum) plays general store owner J.T. Summers.
