Riverboat | |
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Starring | |
Composers | |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 44 |
Production | |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | September 13, 1959 – January 2, 1961 |
Riverboat is an American Western television series starring Darren McGavin and Burt Reynolds, produced by Revue Studios, and broadcast on the NBC television network from 1959 to 1961. Reynolds was replaced by Noah Beery Jr. halfway through the series in the wake of conflicts with McGavin.[ citation needed ]
In the series, Captain Grey Holden and his crew navigate the vessel called the Enterprise principally along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers. Some episodes are set in the eastern end of the American West or in the Midwest. Holden and his men encounter interesting characters along the way, including U.S. President Zachary Taylor, General Winfield Scott and a prepresidential Abraham Lincoln. One episode focuses indirectly on the Texan Revolution of 1836. Unlike most Westerns, which are set after the American Civil War, the story's time frame precedes the conflict, and includes the 1830s and the 1840s. The series ended on the NBC midseason schedule in January 1961, replaced by a drama about the sectional conflict, The Americans .
Darren McGavin played Captain Grey Holden for 40 episodes. Dan Duryea played Captain Brad Turner for two episodes while McGavin was embroiled in contract disputes. [1] Burt Reynolds, in his television debut, played McGavin's partner and chief pilot Ben Frazer in 20 episodes, and was replaced by Noah Beery, Jr., who played Bill Blake, for Season Two.
Dick Wessel, as chief stoker Carney Kohler, was cast in 41 episodes; Jack Lambert was cast in 23 episodes as first mate Joshua MacGregor (having played a different character, Tony Walchek, earlier in the series); John Mitchum co-starred in 10 episodes as Pickalong, the ship's cook; Michael McGreevey was cast in 17 episodes as cabin boy Chip Kessler; and William D. Gordon played first mate Joe Travis in 13 episodes before his character's death.
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Payment in Full" | Douglas Heyes | Douglas Heyes | September 13, 1959 |
2 | 2 | "The Barrier" | Richard Bartlett | Tom Seller | September 20, 1959 |
3 | 3 | "About Roger Mowbray" | Felix E. Feist | Story by : Gene L. Coon Teleplay by : Hagar Wilde | September 27, 1959 |
4 | 4 | "Race to Cincinnati" | Jules Bricken | Story by : Richard Morgan Teleplay by : William Raynor | October 4, 1959 |
5 | 5 | "The Unwilling" | Richard Bartlett | Norman Jolley | October 11, 1959 |
6 | 6 | "The Fight Back" | Jules Bricken | Story by : Robert E. Thompson Teleplay by : Mel Goldberg & Robert E. Thompson | October 18, 1959 |
7 | 7 | "Escape to Memphis" | John Rich | Story by : Richard B. Larkin Teleplay by : Bob and Wanda Duncan | October 25, 1959 |
8 | 8 | "Witness No Evil" | Richard Bartlett | Norman Jolley | November 1, 1959 |
9 | 9 | "A Night at Trapper's Landing" | Felix E. Feist | Halsey Melone | November 8, 1959 |
10 | 10 | "The Faithless" | Richard Bartlett | Story by : Kay Linaker & Richard Morgan & Howard Phillips Teleplay by : Richard Morgan | November 22, 1959 |
11 | 11 | "The Boy from Pittsburgh" | Frank Arrigo | Story by : John Francis Larkin Teleplay by : George Tibbles | November 29, 1959 |
12 | 12 | "Jessie Quinn" | Jules Bricken | Tom Seller | December 6, 1959 |
13 | 13 | "Strange Request" | John Rich | Clair Huffaker | December 13, 1959 |
14 | 14 | "Guns for Empire" | Herman Hoffman | Samuel A. Peeples | December 20, 1959 |
15 | 15 | "The Face of Courage" | William Witney | Bob and Wanda Duncan | December 27, 1959 |
16 | 16 | "Tampico Raid" | Richard Bartlett | Richard Morgan | January 3, 1960 |
17 | 17 | "Landlubbers" | William Witney | Tom Seller | January 10, 1960 |
18 | 18 | "The Blowup" | Darren McGavin | Al C. Ward | January 18, 1960 |
19 | 19 | "Forbidden Island" | Stanley Lanfield | Bob and Wanda Duncan | January 24, 1960 |
20 | 20 | "Salvage Pirates" | Richard Bartlett | Richard Morgan | January 31, 1960 |
21 | 21 | "Path of the Eagle" | Jules Bricken | Halsey Melone | February 1, 1960 |
22 | 22 | "The Treasure of Hawk Hill" | William Witney | Bob and Wanda Duncan | February 8, 1960 |
23 | 23 | "Fight at New Canal" | R.G. Springsteen | Tom Seller | February 22, 1960 |
24 | 24 | "The Wichita Arrows" | William Witney | Bob and Wanda Duncan | February 29, 1960 |
25 | 25 | "Fort Epitaph" | John Brahm | Richard Morgan | March 7, 1960 |
26 | 26 | "Three Graves" | William Witney | Al C. Ward | March 14, 1960 |
27 | 27 | "Hang the Men High" | Hollingsworth Morse | Jerry Adelman | March 21, 1960 |
28 | 28 | "The Night of the Faceless Man" | William Witney | Bob and Wanda Duncan | March 28, 1960 |
29 | 29 | "The Long Trail" | Hollingsworth Morse | Oscar Saul | April 4, 1960 |
30 | 30 | "The Quick Noose" | Hollingsworth Morse | Tom Seller | April 11, 1960 |
31 | 31 | "The Sellout" | Richard Bartlett | Story by : R. Hamer Norris Teleplay by : Ann Wesley | April 18, 1960 |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
32 | 1 | "End of a Dream" | David Lowell Rich | Milton S. Gelman | September 19, 1960 |
33 | 2 | "That Taylor Affair" | Allen H. Miner | Allen H. Miner | September 26, 1960 |
34 | 3 | "The Two Faces of Grey Holden" | R.G. Springsteen | Kathleen Hite | October 3, 1960 |
35 | 4 | "River Champion" | William Witney | William Jerome Fay & Hendrik Vollaerts | October 10, 1960 |
36 | 5 | "No Bridge on the River" | Lamont Johnson | Raphael Hayes | October 24, 1960 |
37 | 6 | "Trunk Full of Dreams" | Hollingsworth Morse | Gwen Bagni & Irwin Gielgud | October 31, 1960 |
38 | 7 | "The Water of Gorgeous Springs" | Richard Bartlett | Raphael Hayes & Montgomery Pittman | November 7, 1960 |
39 | 8 | "Devil in Skirts" | David Lowell Rich | Gwen Bagni & Bob Duncan & Irwin Gielgud | November 21, 1960 |
40 | 9 | "The Quota" | Hollingsworth Morse | Bob Duncan & Wanda Duncan & Raphael Hayes | November 28, 1960 |
41 | 10 | "Chicota Landing" | David Lowell Rich | Herman Groves & Raphael Hayes | December 5, 1960 |
42 | 11 | "Duel on the River" | Tay Garnett | Milton S. Gelman | December 12, 1960 |
43 | 12 | "Zigzag" | Sidney Lanfield | David Lang | December 26, 1960 |
44 | 13 | "Listen to the Nightingale" | Sidney Lanfield | Fred Freiberger & Philip MacDonald | January 2, 1961 |
The series featured an array of leading ladies of that era as guest stars, including Mary Tyler Moore, cast as the "Brunette Girl in Coach", with Jeanne Carmen as Janine, the "Blonde Girl in Coach", in the 1959 episode, "A Night at Trapper's Landing". Moore played Lily Belle de Lesseps the next year in "Trunk Full of Dreams" (1960).
Other female guest stars include:
Many male guest stars also appeared on Riverboat. Ricardo Montalbán portrayed United States Army Lt. Andre B. Devereaux in "A Night at Trapper's Landing" (November 8, 1959). In the story line, the Enterprise is commandeered by the military for a punitive expedition against the Indians after an attack on Devereaux and his men. Ben Frazer, however, tries to convince the Army that the uprising is really the result of a local Indian agent. The episode features Judson Pratt, as Sergeant Ned Bolger, Stacy Harris as Colonel Nicholson, and Raymond Bailey as General Jacoby, with other roles for character actors Morris Ankrum, R.G. Armstrong, and Peter Whitney.
Other male guest stars include:
NBC hoped the series would defeat Maverick , a Western series which star James Garner would leave for a major theatrical film career a season later and be replaced by Roger Moore. Riverboat was described as " Wagon Train on water". Darren McGavin was known from playing Mike Hammer and Burt Reynolds was cast for romantic interest. [2]
"We've spent a lot of money and put a lot of time into making it a quality show," said McGavin. [3]
On October 30, 2007, Timeless Media Group released a three-disc best-of set featuring 15 episodes from the series. [4]
On May 15, 2012, Timeless Media Group released Riverboat- The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1. [5]
The New York Times called the pilot "labored and dull". [6]
The Los Angeles Times said it was "produced with the slick vacuity of a B movie with pleasantly inconsequential stories and an utter disregard for the color and background that the Riverboat called for." [7]
The premiere episode rated 11.9 against Maverick 's 22.9 and a rerun of That's My Boy with 7.5. [8]
In January 1960, the series was shifted from Sunday nights to Monday.
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Riverboat: The Evolution of a Television Series, by S. L. Kotar and J. E. Gessler. 2010. Albany, BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-505-4.