Outlaws is an NBC Western television series, starring Barton MacLane as U.S. marshal Frank Caine, who operated in a lawless section of Oklahoma Territory about Stillwater. The program aired 50 one-hour episodes from September 29, 1960, to May 10, 1962. The first season was shot in black-and-white, the second in color. Co-starring with MacLane in the 1960--1961 season was Don Collier as deputy marshal Will Foreman. In the second season, MacLane left the program, and Collier was promoted to full marshal, with Bruce Yarnell joining the cast as deputy marshal Chalk Breeson. Jock Gaynor appeared in the first season as deputy Heck Martin, the on-screen nephew of Will Foreman. Slim Pickens appeared as "Slim" in the second season.[1] Judy Lewis also appeared the second season as Connie Masters, an employee of the Wells Fargo office in Stillwater.[2] The dog who appeared in Walt Disney's Old Yeller was also cast in The Outlaws.[3] Others who appeared on the program on at least three occasions were Vic Morrow, Cliff Robertson, Pippa Scott, and Harry Townes. In addition, John Anderson, Edgar Buchanan, Jackie Coogan, Bruce Gordon, Robert Harland, Robert Lansing Cloris Leachman, Robert Karnes, Brian Keith, Wright King, Larry Pennell, Chris Robinson, William Shatner, Ray Walston, Jack Warden, and David Wayne each appeared twice in the series.[2] In the first season, Outlaws episodes were told from the view of the outlaws. James Coburn starred on February 16, 1961, as "Culley", a confused young outlaw who wants to repent. He stops on a chase from the law to help a blind elderly man played by Henry Hull. Judson Pratt appeared in the episode too in the role of Daggott. For the second season, telecast in color, the stories were told from the standpoint of the lawmen.[2] On October 27, 1960, in the segment "The Rape of Red Sky", veteran western film star Roscoe Ates appeared as a bartender; others in the episode were Patricia Barry as Aimee, Jackie Coogan as Corbett, and Skip Homeier as Gabe Cutter. Homeier also appeared that season in his own NBC detective series Dan Raven.[4] A two-part segment entitled "Starfall" aired on November 24 and December 1, 1960, with guest stars John Anderson, Edgar Buchanan, Pippa Scott, Cloris Leachman, James Millhollin, William Shatner, and Jack Warden.[5]Johnny Washbrook, the child actor from My Friend Flicka appeared as Vince Nickels, along with character actor J. Pat O'Malley in the 1960 episode "The Quiet Killer". In another two-parter on January 26 and February 2, 1961, entitled "The Daltons Must Die", Charles Carlson, Robert Lansing, and Larry Pennell played the Dalton brothers, Grat, Frank, and Robert Dalton, respectively.[6] In another 1961 episode "The Brathwaite Brothers", Conlan Carter, later on ABC's Combat!, appeared as the outlaw Perry Brathwaite. Barbara Stuart appeared as Juno in the 1961 episode "Roly".[7]John M. Pickard, formerly of Boots and Saddles, appeared as Wick Boley in the 1961 episode, "Return to New March."[8] On May 4, 1961, the series aired the episode "Sam Bass" about the outlaw Sam Bass, with Jack Chaplain in the guest starring title role; Gregg Palmer appeared in the episode as Heff. Bass was shot on July 19, 1878, and died two days later on his twenty-seventh birthday in Round Rock, Texas, north of Austin, after having been betrayed by an associate.[9] Cliff Robertson starred in the title role and wrote the episode "The Dark Sunrise of Griff Kincaid", which aired on January 4, 1962. The costars were Ed Asner, Nancy Kulp, and Reta Shaw.[10] Outlaws was filmed in both Bronson Canyon and Griffith Park in Los Angeles.[2] The series aired at 7:30 Eastern on Thursday. Its principal competition in the first season were two situation comedies, Guestward, Ho!, starring Mark Miller, Joanne Dru, and J. Carrol Naish, and The Donna Reed Show on ABC. In the second season, the long-running The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet replaced Guestward, Ho!. Chill Wills's Frontier Circus western series aired during the same hour from 1961--1962 on CBS.[11] "Outlaws was a good western for television, but it never got the respect it deserved, and like many other westerns during the early 1960s, it got ran over by the cop and sitcom shows", wrote Ronald Jackson and Doug Abbott in the book Fifty Years of the Television Western.[1] Don Collier thereafter appeared for four seasons from 1967--1971 as the ranch foreman in another NBC western, The High Chaparral with co-stars Leif Erickson, Linda Cristal, Cameron Mitchell, Mark Slade, and Henry Darrow.

• published: 29 Jan 2014
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