Custer | |
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Starring | |
Composers |
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Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 17 |
Production | |
Producer | Frank Glicksman |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | September 6 – December 27, 1967 |
Custer, also known as The Legend of Custer, is a 17-episode military-Western television series which ran on ABC from September 6 to December 27, 1967, with Wayne Maunder in the starring role of then Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Criticizing the series as "glamorizing Custer," a concerted protest headed by the Tribal Indians Land Rights Association successfully halted broadcast of the series under the FCC fairness doctrine. [1]
Robert F. Simon played Custer's commanding officer, U.S. General Alfred H. Terry. Slim Pickens starred as California Joe Milner. Michael Dante appeared as Sioux Chief Crazy Horse. Peter Palmer played Sergeant James Bustard, a former Confederate soldier. [2] Grant Woods appeared as Captain Myles Keogh. Read Morgan appeared in the episode "Spirit Woman" in the role of a medicine man.
Guest stars included Lloyd Bochner (as James Stanhope), Rory Calhoun (as Zebediah Jackson), Philip Carey (as Benton Conant), James Daly (as John Rudford), Alexander Davion (as Capt. Marcus A. Reno), Burr DeBenning (as Uvalde), Yvonne De Carlo (as Vanessa Ravenhill), Gene Evans (as Deedricks), Arthur Franz (as Grey Fox and Bledsoe), Billy Gray (as Billy Nixon), Barbara Hale (as Melinda Terry), Stacy Harris (as John Glixton), Earl Holliman (as Dan Samuels), Robert Loggia (as Lt. Carlos Moreno), Darren McGavin (as Jeb Powell), Ralph Meeker (as Kermit Teller), Mary Ann Mobley (as Ann L'Andry), Agnes Moorehead (as Watoma), Edward Mulhare (as Col. Sean Redmond), Kathleen Nolan (as Nora Moffett), Larry Pennell (as Chief Yellow Hawk), Paul Petersen (as Lieutenant Cox), Donnelly Rhodes (as War Cloud), Chris Robinson (as Lt. Tim Rudford), Ned Romero (as Running Feet), Barbara Rush (as Brigid O'Rourke), Albert Salmi (as Capt. John Mark Charrington), William Smith (as Chief Tall Knife), Dub Taylor (as Trader), Ray Walston (as Ned Quimbo), James Whitmore (as Eldo), Terry Wilson (as Brownsmith), and William Windom (as Clark Samson). In the last episode entitled "The Raiders", Custer enlists the aid of Kiowa Indians to help him to locate the parties responsible for a series of wagon train raids. [3]
Maunder was twenty-eight when he was cast as the 28-year-old Custer. The show was canceled due to poor reviews [4] and protests by Native American tribes throughout the United States. [5] [6]
Two episodes, No. 1 and No. 6, were later combined and released as a feature length film, entitled "Crazy Horse and Custer, The Untold Story". On June 7, 2016, Custer: The Complete Series (Collector's Edition) was released on dvd by Shout! Factory.
No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Sabers in the Sun" | Sam Wanamaker | Samuel A. Peeples | September 6, 1967 |
2 | "Accused" | Lawrence Dobkin | Al C. Ward | September 13, 1967 |
3 | "Glory Rider" | Lawrence Dobkin | Jack Turley | September 20, 1967 |
4 | "To the Death" | Herschel Daugherty | Samuel A. Peeples | September 27, 1967 |
5 | "Massacre" | Herschel Daugherty | Daniel Mainwaring | October 4, 1967 |
6 | "War Lance and Saber" | Norman Foster | Shimon Wincelberg | October 11, 1967 |
7 | "Suspicion" | Alex March | John Dunkel | October 18, 1967 |
8 | "Breakout" | László Benedek | Shimon Wincelberg | November 1, 1967 |
9 | "Desperate Mission" | László Benedek | Warren Douglas | November 8, 1967 |
10 | "Under Fire" | Lawrence Dobkin | Arthur Browne Jr. | November 15, 1967 |
11 | "Death Hunt" | Leo Penn | Steve McNeil & Richard Bartlett | November 22, 1967 |
12 | "Blazing Arrows" | Christian Nyby | Bob and Wanda Duncan | November 29, 1967 |
13 | "Dangerous Prey" | Leo Penn | Richard Sale | December 6, 1967 |
14 | "Spirit Woman" | László Benedek | William Blinn | December 13, 1967 |
15 | "The Gauntlet" | Don Richardson | Shimon Wincelberg | December 20, 1967 |
16 | "The Raiders" | Norman Foster | Shimon Wincelberg | December 27, 1967 |
17 | "Pursued" | Leo Penn | John Dunkel | January 3, 1968 |
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of U.S. forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876.
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
The Battle of the Washita River occurred on November 27, 1868, when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Southern Cheyenne camp on the Washita River.
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Crazy Horse was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by White American settlers on Native American territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people. His participation in several famous battles of the Black Hills War on the northern Great Plains, among them the Fetterman Fight in 1866, in which he acted as a decoy, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, in which he led a war party to victory, earned him great respect from both his enemies and his own people.
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George Armstrong Custer (1839–1876) was a United States Army cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. He was defeated and killed by the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. More than 30 movies and countless television shows have featured him as a character. He was portrayed by future U.S. president, Ronald Reagan in Santa Fe Trail (1940), as well as by Errol Flynn in They Died With Their Boots On (1941).
Custer's Last Stand is a 1936 American film serial based on the historical Custer's Last Stand at the Little Bighorn River. It was directed by Elmer Clifton, and starred Rex Lease, William Farnum and Jack Mulhall. It was produced by the Poverty Row studio Stage & Screen Productions, which went bust shortly afterwards as a victim of the Great Depression. This serial stars many famous and popular B-Western actors as well as silent serial star Helen Gibson playing Calamity Jane, Frank McGlynn Jr. as General Custer, and Allen Greer as Wild Bill Hickok.
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 in an alliance of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The cause of the war was the desire of the US government to obtain ownership of the Black Hills. Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills, settlers began to encroach onto Native American lands, and the Sioux and the Cheyenne refused to cede ownership. Traditionally, American military and historians place the Lakota at the center of the story, especially because of their numbers, but some Native Americans believe the Cheyenne were the primary target of the American campaign.
Robert Frank Simon was an American character actor.
The Battle of Honsinger Bluff was a conflict between the United States Army and the Sioux people on August 4, 1873 along the Yellowstone River near present-day Miles City, Montana. This was a U.S. territory that was acquired from the Crow Nation in the year 1868. The main combatants were units of the U.S. 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, and Native Americans from the village of the Hunkpapa medicine man, Sitting Bull, many of whom would clash with Custer again approximately three years later at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in the Crow Indian Reservation.
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Son of the Morning Star is a 1991 American two-part Western television miniseries released by Chrysalis based on Evan S. Connell's best-selling 1984 book of the same name. It starred Gary Cole and featured Dean Stockwell, Rosanna Arquette, Rodney A. Grant, Nick Ramus, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Floyd Red Crow Westerman.
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