Outlaws - Thirty a Month -
Season 1 Episode 1 (1960)
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,
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: 12 Mar 2014
- views: 7753