Stories of the Century | |
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Genre | Western |
Written by |
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Directed by |
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Starring | |
Theme music composer | Herschel Burke Gilbert (ASCAP) |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 39 |
Production | |
Producers |
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Editors | Jim Davis, narrator |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | Syndication |
Release | January 23, 1954 – March 11, 1955 |
Stories of the Century is a 39-episode Western historical fiction television series starring Jim Davis that ran in syndication through Republic Pictures between 1954 and 1955.
Jim Davis, who became famous decades later as the patriarch Jock Ewing in the Dallas television series, held a dual role as the show's narrator and Southwest Railroad detective Matt Clark. [1] Mary Castle co-starred in twenty-six episodes as Clark's assistant, Frankie Adams; she was replaced by Kristine Miller, who appeared in thirteen episodes as Margaret "Jonesy" Jones. Clark and his female associates traveled the American West weekly, seeking to capture the most notorious badmen. They placed Clark at the right place and the right time to capture great moments in the history of the American Old West. Clark's appearances often seemed contrived, as when he appears just at the time young Robert Ford was assassinating Jesse James. Though Clark himself was fictional, the events he encountered were generally real, with their historicity enforced with newspaper accounts and some historical records.[ citation needed ]
The series was the first television production of Republic Pictures, later CBS Paramount Television, which then used the name Hollywood Television Service, and subsequently Studio City Television Service. The episodes were filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth in Los Angeles County, California. The series also filmed some scenes at nearby Vasquez Rocks.
In various episodes, Stories of the Century cast Marie Windsor as Belle Starr, Lee Van Cleef as Jesse James, Slim Pickens as a variation of the Sundance Kid rechristened the "Smiling Kid" in an episode about Butch Cassidy, Rick Jason as Joaquin Murrieta, Steve Brodie as Harry Tracy, John Dehner as Henry Plummer, Richard Jaeckel as Billy the Kid, and Bruce Bennett as William Quantrill of "Quantrill's Raiders".
In 1955, Stories of the Century became the first western to win an Emmy Award in the category of "Western or Adventure Series". One of its competitors was The Roy Rogers Show . [2]
In later rebroadcasts, as was common practice of the time (episodes that aired in reruns were usually given a separate title from new episodes), the program was entitled The Fast Guns.[ citation needed ]
The series has since lapsed into the public domain in the United States.[ citation needed ]
Denver Dell Pyle was an American film and television actor and director. He was well known for a number of TV roles from the 1960s through the 1980s, including his portrayal of Briscoe Darling in several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, as Jesse Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard from 1979 to 1985, as Mad Jack in the NBC television series The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, and as the titular character's father, Buck Webb, in CBS's The Doris Day Show. In many of his roles, he portrayed either authority figures, or gruff, demanding father figures, often as comic relief. Perhaps his most memorable film role was that of Texas Ranger Frank Hamer in the movie Bonnie and Clyde (1967), as the lawman who relentlessly chased down and finally killed the notorious duo in an ambush.
Jim Davis was an American actor, best known for his roles in television Westerns. In his later career, he became famous as Jock Ewing in the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas, a role he continued until he was too ill from multiple myeloma to perform.
Ann Lee Doran was an American character actress, possibly best known as Carol Stark, the mother of James "Jim" Stark in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). She was an early member of the Screen Actors Guild and served on the board of the Motion Picture & Television Fund for 30 years.
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Frontier Doctor is an American Western television series starring Rex Allen that aired in syndication from September 26, 1958, until June 20, 1959. The series was also known as Unarmed and Man of the West.
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Pony Express is an American Western television series about the adventures of an agent in the 1860s of the Central Overland Express Company, better known as the Pony Express. The half-hour program starring Grant Sullivan and Don Dorrell was created by California National Productions. Pony Express ran for thirty-five episodes in syndication from the fall of October 1959 until May 1960. In its final days, the series just managed to coincide with the centennial of the Pony Express.
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Kristine Miller was an American film actress, best-remembered for her appearances in film noir and Westerns. A discovery of Paramount producer Hal Wallis, she appeared in I Walk Alone (1948), Jungle Patrol (1948), Too Late for Tears (1949), Shadow on the Wall (1950), and the TV series Stories of the Century (1954–55).
Mary Ann Castle, néeMary Ann Noblett, was an American actress. She appeared in the films When the Redskins Rode in 1951, Three Steps to the Gallows in 1953 and Gunsmoke in 1953. In 1954 she appeared opposite Jim Davis as 'Frankie Adams' in the television series Stories of the Century.
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