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Alias Smith and Jones | |
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![]() Alias Smith and Jones title card | |
Genre | Western |
Created by | Glen A. Larson |
Starring | |
Narrated by |
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Theme music composer | Billy Goldenberg |
Composers |
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Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 50 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer | Roy Huggins |
Producers |
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Cinematography |
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Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 45–48 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | January 5, 1971 – January 13, 1973 |
Related | |
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Alias Smith and Jones is an American Western television series that originally aired on ABC from January 1971 to January 1973. The show initially starred Pete Duel (and, after Duel's death, Roger Davis) as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, outlaw cousins who are trying to reform. The governor offers them a clemency deal on two conditions: that they keep the agreement a secret, and that they will remain wanted fugitives until the governor decides that they should receive a formal amnesty.
Operating primarily in Wyoming Territory (1868–1890), cousins Hannibal Heyes and Jedediah "Kid" Curry (whose boyish face spawned the nickname) are the two most successful outlaws in the history of the West. However, crime-fighting methods are evolving to foil them; safes are becoming harder to crack, trains more difficult to stop, and posses more adept at tracking them down.
Heyes, the brains of the Devil's Hole Gang, falls in disfavor with fellow members. Deciding to give up their life of crime, he and Curry learn of an amnesty program founded by the territorial governor. Through an old acquaintance, Sheriff Lom Trevors (James Drury in the pilot, alternately Mike Road and John Russell in the series), they contact the governor, who is unsure of how voters will react if he extends leniency to Heyes and Curry. He ultimately strikes a deal to grant them amnesty for their past crimes, with the stipulations that they must not discuss the agreement with anyone and that they will officially still be wanted men until such time as the governor decides that they deserve full clemency.
The cousins reluctantly accept the deal, but find life as law-abiding citizens to be more difficult than expected. Now calling themselves Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones, they find themselves tangling with lawmen, bounty hunters, operatives of the Bannerman Detective Agency (a fictional alias for the Pinkerton Detective Agency), and other nefarious figures. They are forced to rely on Heyes' silver tongue, Curry's fast draw, and occasionally a little help from friends on both sides of the law.
Heyes was deemed "cunning," with Curry "gunning." Heyes/Smith was considered the brains of the duo and an excellent poker player. Curry/Jones was the master gun hand and the brawn. Usually, Heyes figured out ways to make money and save the twosome from precarious situations. Starting with "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Red Gap" (season two, episode 16), a slightly revamped introduction partially explained why the renowned duo did not split to evade capture—they were cousins. Roger Davis' original theme voiceover referred to the characters as "latter-day Robin Hoods." The new introduction replaced that description with the phrase "Kansas cousins." It remained so after Ralph Story reworked the introduction, once Davis assumed the Heyes role. After Davis took over as Heyes, his distinctive voice could no longer be used in the theme introduction. Ralph Story was brought in to provide narration for the series (he, rather than Davis, had done so in the pilot).
When the cousins were children, all four of their parents were slaughtered during the "border wars" just before the Civil War (q.v. Kansas-Missouri Border War) ("The Men That Corrupted Hadleyburg", season two, episode 17). In "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Red Gap," Heyes remarks, "My cousin and I are not Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry." Curry also speaks of their "sage old grandfather." In the first episode with Davis, "The Biggest Game in the West" (season two, episode 19), Heyes shouts to Curry: "Yes sir! Cousin, you're all right!" In the episode "Don't Get Mad, Get Even," Curry and Heyes both make reference to their Irish grandfather Curry.
Recurring characters include:
In the early morning hours of December 31, 1971, series star Pete Duel died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 31. He was reportedly suffering from depression and had been drinking heavily when he shot himself. Upon learning of Duel's death, executive producer Jo Swerling Jr. initially wanted to end the series, but ABC refused. [1] : 27–28 Swerling later stated:
ABC said, "No way!" They said, "You have a contract to deliver this show to us, and you will continue to deliver the show as best you can on schedule or we will sue you." Hearing those words, Universal didn't hesitate for a second to instruct us to stay in production. We were already a little bit behind the eight ball on airdates. So, we contacted everybody, including Ben (Murphy), and told them to come back in. The entire company was reassembled and back in production by one o'clock that day shooting scenes that did not involve Peter — only 12 hours after his death. [1] : 28
Series writer, director, and producer Roy Huggins contacted actor Roger Davis (who provided narration for the series, and who had also appeared in episode 19 "Smiler with a Gun") the day of Duel's death to fill the role of Hannibal Heyes, and actor/voice man Paul Frees came in to loop Duel's unfinished ADR on "The Men That Corrupted Hadleyburg". [2] Davis was fitted for costumes the following day, and began reshooting scenes Duel had previously completed for an unfinished episode the following Monday. According to Swerling, the decision to continue production so soon after Duel's death was heavily criticized in the press at the time. [1] : 29–30
Alias Smith and Jones began with a made-for-TV movie of the previous year called The Young Country about con artists in the Old West. It was produced, written, and directed by Roy Huggins, who served as executive producer of the show. Under the pseudonym John Thomas James, Huggins shared the writing credit on most episodes of the series that followed. It was broadcast on 17 March 1970 in the ABC Movie of the Week strand.
Roger Davis starred as Stephen Foster Moody, and Pete Duel had the secondary but significant role of Honest John Smith. Joan Hackett played a character called Clementine Hale; a character with the same name appeared in two Alias Smith and Jones episodes, played by Sally Field. [3] This pilot was rejected, but Huggins was given a second chance and, with Glen A. Larson, developed Alias Smith and Jones. As with the previously rejected pilot The Young Country , this series pilot proper also aired as an ABC Movie of the Week .
It was made in the same spirit as many other American TV series of the time, from Huggins' own The Fugitive to Renegade , about fugitives on the run across America who get involved in the personal lives of the people they meet. The major difference was that Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry were guilty of the crimes for which they were accused, but were trying to begin a noncriminal life.
The series was modeled on the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. (Universal contract player Ben Murphy was offered to the producers because he was considered a Paul Newman lookalike.) [4] A number of similarities are seen between the film and the TV series: one of the lead characters in the film was called Harvey Logan (played by Ted Cassidy). In real life, Harvey Logan, also known by the nickname of Kid Curry, was an associate of the real Butch Cassidy, and unlike the TV version, was a cold-blooded killer.
The TV series also featured a group of robbers called the Devil's Hole Gang, loosely based on the Hole in the Wall Gang from which Cassidy recruited most of his outlaws. To lend them an element of audience sympathy, Heyes and Curry were presented as men who avoided bloodshed (though Curry did once kill in self-defense) and always were attempting to reform and seek redemption for their "prior ways".
The names "Smith" and "Jones" originated from a line in the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , when before one of their final hold-ups, the characters are outside a bank in Bolivia and Sundance turns to Butch and says: "I'm Smith and you're Jones."
Parts of the television series were filmed at Castle Valley and Professor Valley in Utah. [5]
The series continued for another 17 episodes after the recasting of Hannibal Heyes, but never regained its popularity after the loss of Duel. This, as well as the fact that the long-prominent Western genre was giving way to police dramas, brought the show to an end on January 13, 1973. On January 16, 1973, Bonanza aired its final episode, leaving the 18-year-old Gunsmoke , the syndicated comedy western Dusty's Trail , and Kung Fu as the only Westerns scheduled for Fall 1973.
The entire series has been released on DVD. [6]
DVD set | Episodes | Release date | Company |
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Alias Smith and Jones: Season 1 | 15 | February 20, 2007 [7] | Universal Home Video |
Alias Smith and Jones: Seasons 2 & 3 | 35 | April 13, 2010 [8] | Timeless Media Group |
Alias Smith and Jones: The Complete Series | 50 | October 19, 2010 [9] | Timeless Media Group |
Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the complete first season of Alias Smith and Jones in Region 2 on June 11, 2007. [10]
American Western author Todhunter Ballard, better known as W.T. Ballard, wrote six original novels based on the series, under his tie-in pseudonym "Brian Fox." Only the first two were published in the United States, by Award Books, between 1971 and 1972. The television series, however, was so popular in the UK that after first run episodes were exhausted, the first two novels were reprinted and distributed by London-based publisher Tandem Books, who also released the four additional titles, all in 1976. Since Award and Tandem were affiliated publishers, it's unclear if Award commissioned all six books and dropped the book series as the show's American popularity waned, unwittingly leaving the then-unpublished manuscripts to be rejuvenated later. or if Tandem returned to Ballard for the additional titles.
Each book is a standalone novel and they can be read in any order. Following, however, is the order of publication.
The Partridge Family is an American musical sitcom created by Bernard Slade, which was broadcast in the United States from September 25, 1970, to March 23, 1974, on ABC.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western buddy film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman. Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy, and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the "Sundance Kid", who are on the run from a crack US posse after a string of train robberies. The pair and Sundance's lover, Etta Place, flee to Bolivia to escape the posse.
Robert LeRoy Parker, better known as Butch Cassidy, was an American train and bank robber and the leader of a gang of criminal outlaws known as the "Wild Bunch" in the Old West.
Maverick is an American Western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins and originally starring James Garner as an adroitly articulate poker player plying his trade on riverboats and in saloons while traveling incessantly through the 19th-century American frontier. The show ran for five seasons from September 22, 1957, to July 8, 1962 on ABC.
Glen Albert Larson was an American television producer, writer, musician, and director who was one of the most profilic and successful figures of 1970s and 1980s television.
Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, better known as the Sundance Kid, was an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch in the American Old West. He likely met Butch Cassidy during a hunting trip in 1883 or earlier. The gang performed the longest string of successful train and bank robberies in American history.
Peter Ellstrom Deuel, known professionally as Pete Duel, was an American stage, television, and film actor, best known for his starring role as outlaw Hannibal Heyes in the television series Alias Smith and Jones.
Jon Roger Davis is an American actor and entrepreneur. He is best known for acting in the television series Dark Shadows and Alias Smith and Jones. He has also appeared in an episode of The Twilight Zone.
The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang was a gang in the American Wild West, which took its name from the Hole-in-the-Wall Pass in Johnson County, Wyoming, where several outlaw gangs had their hideouts.
Benjamin Edward Murphy is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Kid Curry in the ABC television series Alias Smith and Jones.
Jeff Corey was an American stage and screen actor. He was blacklisted in the 1950s and became an acting coach for a period, before returning to film and television work in the 1960s.
Charles Richard Dierkop was an American character actor. He is most recognized for his supporting roles in the films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973) and the television series Police Woman (1974-1978).
Cheyenne is an American Western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1962. The show was the first hour-long Western, and was the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season. It was also the first series to be made by a major Hollywood film studio which did not derive from its established film properties, and the first of a long chain of Warner Bros. original series produced by William T. Orr.
Harvey Alexander Logan, also known as Kid Curry, was an American outlaw and gunman who rode with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's infamous Wild Bunch gang during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite being less well-known than his fellow gang members, he has since been referred to as "the wildest of the Wild Bunch", having reputedly killed at least nine law enforcement officers in five shootings and another two men in other instances. He was involved in numerous shootouts with police and civilians and participated in several bank and train robberies with various gangs during his outlaw days.
William Ellsworth "Elzy" Lay was an outlaw of the Old West in the United States. He was a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, gang, operating out of the Hole-in-the-Wall Pass in Johnson County, Wyoming. Lay was Cassidy's best friend and assisted him in leading the Wild Bunch gang.
Ann Bassett, also known as Queen Ann Bassett, was a prominent female rancher of the Old West, and with her sister Josie Bassett, was an associate of outlaws, particularly Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch.
William "News" Carver was an American outlaw and a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch during the closing years of the American Old West. His nickname "News" was given to him because he enjoyed seeing his name in newspaper stories of his gang's exploits. He was ambushed and killed by Sheriff E. S. Briant and his deputies in 1901.
Della Moore (1880–1926?), also known as Annie Rogers or Maude Williams, was a woman working as a prostitute during the closing years of the Old West, best known for being the girlfriend of outlaw Harvey Logan, who rode with Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang.
The Young Country is a 1970 American Western television film written and directed by Roy Huggins. It starred Walter Brennan, Joan Hackett, Wally Cox, Pete Duel and Roger Davis. It was aired on 17 March 1970 in the ABC Movie of the Week strand. It was televised in the UK on 1 May 1970 and was shown in Japan, Spain, South Korea and the Philippines.