TV Westerns of 1964 – 1968

by Candace RichComment — Updated August 3, 2023
Westerns 1950-1954 Westerns 1955-1956 Westerns 1957
Westerns 1958 Westerns 1959 Westerns 1960-1964
Westerns 1964-1968

A Man Called Shenandoah

9/13/1965 – 9/5/1966 ABC
Black and White – 30 minutes

A Man Called Shenandoah Cast

Robert Horton as Shenandoah

Two buffalo hunters find a stranger who has been shot. Thinking he may have a price on his head, they take him to town. Although he is not wanted, when he comes around, he cannot remember who he his. He has amnesia. Calling himself Shenandoah, he wanders the West trying to find his real identity in this single season show.

The show was cancelled before we ever learned his true story.Man Called Shenandoah - Robert Horton
Robert Horton
From the Doug Abbott Collection

Robert Horton Fans!!
There are scads of pictures, screensavers, media files etc of Robert Horton at the WAGON TRAIN section of the site

External Links
TV Guide’s Man Called Shenandoah Page, with TV Listings, Photos, Videos, Exclusive News and More.

Laredo

9/16/1965 – 9/1/1967
Color – 60 minutes – 56 episodes

Laredo Cast

Neville Brand as Reese Bennett
Peter Brown as Chad Cooper
William Smith as Joe Riley
Philip Carey as Captain Parmalee
Robert Wolders as Erik Hunter
Claude Akins as Cotton Buckmeister

Horse: Cactus (Reese’s Horse)
Horse: Amigo (Chad’s Horse)

Humor was a big factor in this telling of the Texas Rangers. Neville Brand played a former Union Army officer who came to the Rangers with something of a checkered past, which amused his younger partners. Riley, a gentle soul by nature, had been raised by Indians and so was the best tracker. Cooper was from New Orleans and had the reputation of a fast gun, although not as a gunfighter. Their boss, Capt. Parmalee didn’t always find their antics so funny.

Passings

Neville Brand died in 1992 of emphysema. Claude Akins in 1994 of cancer. Peter Brown passed in 2016 he was 80.Laredo - Peter Brown
Peter Brown, Neville Brand and William Smith
From the Doug AbbottCollection

For More Peter Brown See:
Lawman

External Links
TV Guide’s Laredo Page, with TV Listings, Photos, Videos, Exclusive News and More.

Loner

9/18/1965 – 4/30/1966 CBS
Black and White – 30 minutes – 26 episodes

Loner Cast

Lloyd Bridges as William Colton

After the Civil War a former Union Cavalry officer travels West to try to find some meaning in life, something to value.

This show had some heavy duty talent involved. Rod Serling wrote some of the scripts. Alexander Courage and Jerry Goldsmith did the music – before they boldly went on to Star Trek.

Passings

Lloyd Bridges died in 1998.Loner - Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Bridges
From the Doug AbbottCollection

Iron Horse

9/12/1966 – 1/6/1968 ABC
Color – 60 minutes – 47 episodes

Iron Horse Cast

Dale Robertson as Ben Calhoun
Gary Collins as Dave Tarrant
Robert Random as Barnabas Rogers
Roger Torrey as Nils Torvald
Ellen Burstyn as Julie Parsons

Ben Calhoun won a railroad in a poker game. An unfinished railroad! So Ben had to complete the Buffalo Pass, Scalplock and Defiance line. Helping him were Dave, the construction engineer, Nils the giant crewman, and Barnabas the orphan who adored him. Julie ran the Scalplock General Store. Lots of action in this one as they tamed the way for the railroad!

Passings

Dale Robertson died in 2013 at 89 years old of lung cancerDlae Robertson
Gary Collins and Dale Robertson
From the Doug Abbott Collection

For More Dale RobertsonSee:
Tales of Wells Fargo

External Links
TV Guide’s Iron Horse Page, with TV Listings, Photos, Videos, Exclusive News and More.

The Road West

9/12/1966 – 8/28/1967 NBC
Color – 60 minutes – 29 episodes

The Road West Cast

Andrew Prine as Timothy Pride
Glenn Corbett as Chance Reynolds
Kelly Corcoran as Kip Pride
Kathryn Hays as Elizabeth Reynolds
Brenda Scott as Midge Pride
Charles Seel as Grandpa Pride
Barry Sullivan as Ben Pride

Benjamin Pride moved his entire family from their home in Springfield, Ohio to the Kansas Territory after the Civil War. The stories were about the struggles of a pioneering family.

Kathyrn Hays has been playing Kim Hughes on As The World Turns since 1972!

Passings

Charles Seal died in 1980. Glen Corbett died in 1993 of lung cancer. Barry Sullivan died in 1994.Road West
Barry Sullivan, Andrew Prine and Glenn Corbett
From the Doug Abbott Collection

For More Barry Sullivan
See:
Tall Man

Guns of Will Sonnett

9/8/1967 – 9/15/1969 ABC
Color – 30 minutes

Produced by Aaron Spelling

Guns of Will Sonnett Cast

Walter Brennan as Will Sonnett
Dack Rambo as Jeff Sonnett

The estimable Walter Brennan played the elder (he was 73 at the time) Will Sonnett, whose own son James had left Will’s infant grandson, Jeff in his care. 19 years pass and still no James, so both Will and Jeff set out to find him. They run into many people who claim to know the elusive James, who has become a gunslinger. Some folks speak well of him and others ill. They never found him. However, in the last original episode they meet a man who claims to have killed James. Live by the gun… ABC had a surprise though, since they were considering a third season reboot they released another final episode titled “Three Stand Together” where all three Sonnett’s get together and become lawmen in Samson. (thanks to Elinor Kuhns for this correction)

Trivia – Dack Rambo was the twin brother of Dirk Rambo, who died in 1967 in a fire.

Passings

Walter Brennan died in 1974 of emphysema. Dack Rambo in 1994 of AIDS.Walter Brennan and Dack Rambo
Walter Brennan and Dack Rambo
From the Doug Abbott Collectio

NOW ON DVD!
Guns of Will Sonnett

Complete 1st Season

Complete 2nd Season
Complete Series

External Links
TV Guide’s Guns of Will Sonnett Page, with TV Listings, Photos, Videos, Exclusive News and More.

Cowboy in Africa

9/11/1967 – 9/16/1968 ABC
Color – 60 minutes – 26 episodes

Cowboy in Africa Cast

Chuck Connors as Jim Sinclair
Tom Nardini as John Henry
Ronald Howard as Wing Commander
Gerald Edwards as Samson

Okay, so maybe this stretches the point inasmuch as it’s an African Western. But Chuck Connors played champion rodeo cowboy Jim Sinclair, who had been hired by a Brit named Commander Hayes to bring American expertise to his game ranch in Kenya. Sinclair got help from his Navajo blood brother John Henry and sort of adopted an orphaned Kikuya boy named Samson. I know. A Navajo named John Henry and a Kikuya named Samson.

This was based on Ivan Tors’ movie Africa-Texas Style! (1967). Some of the backgrounds were shot in Africa while others came from the Africa USA theme park in southern California.

Passings

Chuck Connors died in 1992 of lung cancer. Ronald Howard (Leslie Howard’s son) died in 1996.Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors
From the Doug Abbott Collection

For More Chuck Connors
See:
Rifleman
Branded

External Links
TV Guide’s Cowboy in Africa Page, with TV Listings, Photos, Videos, Exclusive News and More.

Hondo

9/8/1967 – 12/29/1967 ABC
Color – 60 minutes

Hondo Cast

Ralph Taeger as Hondo Lane
Noah Beery Jr. as Buffalo Baker
Gary Clarke as Capt. Richards
Kathie Browne as Angie Dow
Buddy Foster as Johnny Dow
Michael Pate as Chief Vittoro
William Bryant as Col. Crook

Taken from the Louis L’Amour story and the 1953 John Wayne movie, this story was about a cavalry scout in the Arizona Territory around 1870. Hondo had been a Confederate officer who came to live wth the Apaches under Chief Vittoro. But his Indian bride, the Chief’s daughter, had been slain in an army massacre. So now he worked for the Army trying to avoid further bloodshed.

FYI – Buddy Foster is Jodie Foster’s brother.

Passings

Noah Berry Jr. died in 1991 – but not before we came to love him as Jim Rockford’s father!Hondo
From the Doug AbbottCollection

BUY Hondo
John Wayne (also includes Ward Bond)
(1953 Movie)

Dundee and the Culhane

9/6/1967 – 12/13/1967 CBS
Color – 60 minutes – 12 episodes

Dundee and the Culhane Cast

John Mills as Dundee
Sean Garrison as The Culhane

Although British attorney Dundee’s offices were in Sausalito, across the Bay from San Francisco, he and apprentice Culhane wandered the West for their clients, always trying to impose rule of law in an often lawless land.Dundee and the Culhane
Sean Garrison and John Mills
From the Doug AbbottCollection

 

(Legend of) Custer

9/6/1967 – 12/27/1967 ABC
Color – 60 minutes

(Legend of) Custer Cast

Wayne Maunder as Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
Slim Pickens as California Joe Milner
Peter Palmér as Sergeant James Bustard
Michael Dante as Crazy Horse
Robert F. Simon as Brigadier General Alfred Terry
Grant Woods as Captain Miles Keogh

This deals with the period of his life after the Civil War but before that error in judgement at the Little Bighorn. He has lost rank as the result of a court martial and been posted to Fort Hays, Kansas to take charge of a 7th Army Cavalry Regiment.

Although his commander, General Terry disapproved of Custer’s methods, manner and even his hair, he realized that Custer was doing an excellent job of pulling together the rag-tag 7th Cav. Custer was devoted to curtailing the activities of Crazy Horse and his Sioux brothers, a pursuit Custer could have literally, lived without. And the show, like Custer, was short-lived.

Of historical note – 272 members of the 7th Cavalry died with him, June 25, 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Passings

Slim Pickins died in 1983 of a brain tumor. Robert Simon in 1992 of a heart attackCuster
Wayne Maunder
From the Doug AbbottCollection

Lancer

9/24/1968 – 6/23/1970 CBS
Color – 60 minutes – 51 episodes

Lancer Cast

James Stacy as Johnny Madrid Lancer
Wayne Maunder as Scott Lancer
Andrew Duggan as Murdoch Lancer
Paul Brinegar as Jelly Hoskins
Elizabeth Baur as Teresa O’Brien

Two sons with widely different backgrounds (and different mothers) arrive to help their father keep his land and manage his holdings. They had never even met each other until their father asked them to come to his aid. Johnny had been a drifter/gunfighter who had wandered the West. Scott was a Boston bred college boy. But together they form an alliance to help the father and his young ward, Teresa.

They showed reruns of this thru the summer of 1971.

Wayne Maunder had just been in the bomb, Custer (see above) and Paul Brinegar had played Wishbone on Rawhide.

Passings

Andrew Duggan died in 1988 of throat cancer. Paul Brinegar died in 1995.James Stacy died of a heart attack in 2016 at 79Lancer
From the Doug Abbott Collection

James Stacy Trivia
Regarding James Stacy (Johnny). In 1973 James Stacy was riding a motorcycle with his girlfriend when they were struck by a drunk driver. The girlfriend was killed and Stacy lost his left arm and left leg. Both his ex-wives, Connie Stevens and Kim Darby, plus friends pitched in to help him with his medical bills. He continues to act but only in roles he feels appropriately represent the handicapped.

External Links
TV Guide’s Lancer Page, with TV Listings, Photos, Videos, Exclusive News and More.

Here Come the Brides

9/25/1968 – 9/18/1970 ABC
Color – 60 minutes – 52 episodes

Here Come the Brides Cast

Robert Brown as Jason Bolt
Bobby Sherman as Jeremy Bolt
David Soul as Joshua Bolt
Joan Blondell as Lottie Hatfield
Bridget Hanley as Candy Pruitt
Mark Lenard as Aaron Stempel
Bo Svenson as Big Swede
Susan Tolsky as Biddie Cloom
Henry Beckman as Capt. Roland Francis Clancey
Mitzi Hoag as Miss Essie Gillis
Hoke Howell as Ben Jenkins

This show was as much comedy as adventure. Here’s the story. Jason Bolt and his brothers are at risk of losing ther timberland at Bridal Veil Mountain because the loggers are in revolt over the lack of women in nearby Seattle. So Jason sails on Capt. Clancey’s ship back to New Bedford Massachusetts. He retnrns with 100 women who must stay for one year.

Brides was a springboard for two careers. Bobby Sherman’s singing career would take off in 1969 with the releases of “Little Woman,” “La La La (If I Had You),” “Easy Come, Easy Go,” and “Julie, Do Ya Love Me,”

David Soul would go on to be Det. Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson of Starsky and Hutch. While Mark Lenard is best known as Sarek, Spock’s father, on Star Trek.

Passings

Joan Blondell died in 1979 of leukemia. Lenard died in 1996 of mulitple myeloma.David Soul and Bobby Sherman
David Soul, Robert Brown and Bobby Sherman
From the Doug Abbott Collection

NOW ON DVD!
The Complete First Season
The Complete Second Season

External Links
TV Guide’s Here Come the Brides Page, with TV Listings, Photos, Videos, Exclusive News and More.Go to:

Westerns 1950-1954 Westerns 1955-1956 Westerns 1957
Westerns 1958 Westerns 1959 Westerns 1960-1964
Westerns 1964-1968

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