Law of the Plainsman | |
---|---|
Starring | |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 30 |
Production | |
Running time | 25 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | October 1, 1959 – September 22, 1960 |
Law of the Plainsman is a Western television series starring Michael Ansara that aired on NBC from October 1, 1959, until September 22, 1960. [1]
The character of Native American U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart was introduced in two episodes ("The Indian" and "The Raid") of the popular ABC Western television series The Rifleman starring Chuck Connors. As with The Rifleman, this series was produced by Four Star Productions in association with Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions . [2]
Law of the Plainsman is distinctive in that it was one of the few television programs that featured a Native American as the lead character, a bold move for U.S. network television at that time. Ansara had earlier appeared in the series Broken Arrow , having portrayed the Apache chief, Cochise. Ansara, however, was not Native American but of Lebanese descent.
Ansara played Sam Buckhart, an Apache Indian who saved the life of a U.S. Cavalry officer after an Indian ambush. When the officer later died, he left Sam money that was used for an education at private schools and Harvard University. After school, he returned to New Mexico where he became a deputy marshal working for Marshal Andy Morrison. He lived in a boarding house run by Martha Commager. Other continuing characters include 8-year old Tess Logan, an orphan who had been rescued by Buckhart, and a second Deputy Marshal, Billy Lordan. [3]
No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Prairie Incident" | Douglas Heyes | Harry Kronman | October 1, 1959 |
2 | "Full Circle" | Jerry Hopper | David Lang | October 8, 1959 |
3 | "A Matter of Life and Death" | Richard Whorf | Cyril Hume | October 15, 1959 |
4 | "The Hostiles" | Don Medford | Calvin Clements Sr. | October 22, 1959 |
5 | "Passenger to Mescalero" | William F. Claxton | Palmer Thompson | October 29, 1959 |
6 | "Blood Trails" | Richard Whorf | Arthur Browne, Jr. | November 5, 1959 |
7 | "Desperate Decision" | Robert Gordon | David Lang | November 12, 1959 |
8 | "Appointment in Santa Fe" | William F. Claxton | Arthur Browne, Jr. | November 19, 1959 |
9 | "The Gibbet" | William F. Claxton | Pat Fielder | November 26, 1959 |
10 | "The Dude" | Ted Post | Cyril Hume | December 3, 1959 |
11 | "The Innocent" | Ted Post | Bob Barbash | December 10, 1959 |
12 | "Clear Title" | John Peyser | David P. Harmon | December 17, 1959 |
13 | "Toll Road" | James Sheldon | Calvin Clements Sr. | December 24, 1959 |
14 | "Calculated Risk" | James Neilson | Arthur Dales | December 31, 1959 |
15 | "Fear" | Paul Wendkos | Arthur Browne, Jr. | January 7, 1960 |
16 | "Endurance" | John Peyser | Milton S. Gelman | January 14, 1960 |
17 | "The Comet" | John Peyser | Cyril Hume | January 21, 1960 |
18 | "The Rawhiders" | Paul Landres | Jay Simms | January 28, 1960 |
19 | "The Imposter" | David Lowell Rich | David Lang | February 4, 1960 |
20 | "Common Ground" | John Peyser | Calvin Clements Sr. | February 11, 1960 |
21 | "The Matriarch" | Arthur Hilton | Teddi Sherman | February 18, 1960 |
22 | "A Question of Courage" | John Rich | Donn Mullally | February 25, 1960 |
23 | "Dangerous Barriers" | Paul Landres | Harry Kronman | March 10, 1960 |
24 | "The Show-Off" | John Peyser | John Dunkel | March 17, 1960 |
25 | "Rabbit's Fang" | Paul Landres | Jay Simms | March 24, 1960 |
26 | "Stella" | Paul Landres | James Edwards | March 31, 1960 |
27 | "Amnesty" | Robert Gordon | Lee Berg | April 7, 1960 |
28 | "Jeb's Daughter" | Paul Landres | Arthur Browne, Jr. | April 14, 1960 |
29 | "Cavern of the Wind" | Paul Landres | Richard Fielder | April 21, 1960 |
30 | "Trojan Horse" | Paul Wendkos | Bob Barbash | May 5, 1960 |
The series was produced by Four Star Television and was filmed at CBS Studio Center. [5]
The show only lasted one season. For syndicated reruns it was grouped with three other short-lived Western series from the same company, Black Saddle starring Peter Breck, Johnny Ringo starring Don Durant and Sam Peckinpah's critically acclaimed creation, The Westerner [6] starring Brian Keith, under the umbrella title The Westerners, with new introductions and wrap-ups by Keenan Wynn. [5]
George Glenn Strange was an American actor who appeared in hundreds of Western films. He played Sam Noonan, the bartender on CBS's Gunsmoke television series, and Frankenstein's monster in three Universal films during the 1940s.
John Robert Anderson was an American character actor who performed in hundreds of stage, film, and television productions during a career that spanned over four decades.
Michael George Ansara was an American actor. He portrayed Cochise in the television series Broken Arrow 1956-1958, Kane in the 1979–1981 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Commander Kang in Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Deputy U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart in the NBC series Law of the Plainsman, and provided the voice for Mr. Freeze in the DC Animated Universe. Ansara received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in the television industry, located at 6666 Hollywood Boulevard.
The Rifleman is an American Western television series starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the fictional town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show was filmed in black and white, in half-hour episodes. The Rifleman aired on ABC from September 30, 1958, to April 8, 1963, as a production of Four Star Television. It was one of the first primetime series on US television to show a single parent raising a child.
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Four Star Television, also called Four Star International, was an American television production company. Founded in 1952 as Four Star Productions by prominent Hollywood actors Dick Powell, David Niven, Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino and Joel McCrea, it was inspired by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz founding Desilu Productions a year earlier. McCrea left soon after its founding to continue in films, television and radio, and was replaced by Ida Lupino as the fourth star—although Lupino did not own stock in the company.
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Black Saddle is an American Western television series starring Peter Breck that aired 44 episodes on NBC from January 10, 1959, to May 6, 1960. The half-hour program was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television, and the original backdoor pilot was an episode of CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, with Chris Alcaide originally portraying the principal character, Clay Culhane.
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Arnold Laven was an American film and television director and producer. He was one of the founders and principals of the American film and television production company Levy-Gardner-Laven. Laven was a producer of, among other things, the western television series The Rifleman and The Big Valley. He also directed motion pictures, including Without Warning!, The Rack, The Monster That Challenged the World, Geronimo, Rough Night in Jericho, and Sam Whiskey. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Laven directed dozens of episodes of television series, including episodes of Mannix, The A-Team, Hill Street Blues, The Six Million Dollar Man, Fantasy Island, The Rockford Files and CHiPs.
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