Gather Round: It’s Time for Tales of Wells Fargo

September 23, 2024March 14, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are Riding the Range, exploring some of the westerns from the fifties and sixties. One of those shows that was on the air from 1957-1962 was Tales of Wells Fargo.

The show was produced by Revue Productions and set in the 1870s and 1880s. Gene Reynolds was one of the creators of the show, along with Frank Gruber and James Brooks. Reynolds would go on to great success as a director, producer and writer, and my favorite of his was M*A*S*H. Although this show was set in the same time as Daniel Boone, it was better at getting history correct. The show featured special agent Jim Hardie (Dale Robertson) with his horse Jubilee. It was loosely based on the life of real detective Fred J. Dodge. Sometimes Hardie ran into characters from history including Jesse James and Belle Starr.

Fred Dodge was born in California in 1854. He went to work as an undercover agent for Wells Fargo, working in California, Nevada, and Arizona. In 1979 he was in Tombstone and recommended hiring Wyatt Earp as guard for the stage line. He became great friends with Earp. Later Dodge became constable of Tombstone while working undercover. In 1890 he left his undercover work and became a known employee of Wells Fargo in Texas. He purchased a 2,000-acre ranch near Boerne, Texas and when he retired in 1917, he lived there with his family. Dodge was described as an intelligent and successful investigator. He wrote 27 journals during his career, noting his activities and travels in them. Some of these were used for Tales of West Fargo.

I had always assumed this show was about stagecoach travel, but it was not, although stage coaches played a part. In the mid-1800s, the Wells Fargo stage line was the primary connection between the East and West coasts. Wells Fargo did not operate a stage coach line, but they did use that form of transportation for money, gold and other valuables to be delivered. Trains are involved in many of the plots. One of the trains used in the show would eventually travel to Hooterville and be renamed the Cannonball.

The first five seasons were black and white half-hour shows, while the final season switched to a color, hour-long show. During the last season, Hardie settles on a ranch near San Francisco and several recurring characters (Jack Ging, William Demarest, Virginia Christine, Lory Patrick, and Mary Jayne Saunders) were added to the series. Earle Lyon replaced Nat Holt as producer in 1960.

The theme song was written by Stanley Wilson and Mort Greene. Wilson was a prolific composer, amassing 147 credits for composing and 278 for music department credit on television and in movies. Mort Greene was best known as a writer for The Red Skelton Show and for his musical role for Leave it to Beaver.

The number of well-known actors who appeared on the show was surprising. Here are just a few of the huge number: Claude Akins, Eddie Albert, Hugh Beaumont, Dan Blocker, Charles Bronson, Edgar Buchanan, Harry Carey Jr., Chuck Connors, Buddy Ebsen, Beverly Garland, George Kennedy, Tina Louise, Steve McQueen, Jack Nicholson, Leonard Nimoy, Denver Pyle, Jason Robards, Vito Scotti, Dawn Wells, and Adam West.

It was an NBC show. The pilot premiered on Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. Its biggest competition was Father Knows Best in seasons two and three. It was very popular with the viewers. The show was in the top ten during seasons one through four. For the sixth season, with an entire new cast, new theme song, and color, it was almost like a new show. NBC moved it to Saturday nights against Perry Mason and ratings declined drastically, costs went up significantly, and it was canceled.

Robertson thought the key to the popularity of the show was because it was not geared specifically to adults or kids. It was a family show. When Robertson first read the script, it was terrible, but he owed Nat Holt a favor, so he accepted the role, assuming that it would never make it. Robertson received a 50% ownership in the show, so he said of course it made him want the show to be better and he convinced them to replace most of the original script. He said that he enjoyed his time on the show a lot and that the crew was close and professional. They never went over schedule or over budget during the entire run.

The first two seasons were released on DVD in 2011 if you want to check them out. It sounds like this was a solid show. The network supported them, the cast was close, the production team was on top of things, and they all enjoyed their time with the show. That is a rare thing to hear in the television business. They took a gamble in the last season, and it didn’t work out, but perhaps it was for the best. It sounds like the actual show ended the season before because the last season things changed so much it was a completely new production. I would like to read more about Fred Dodge. His life sounds fascinating.

We Never Really Left Leave It to Beaver

February 5, 2024December 5, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are learning about America’s favorite families. Today we are spending some time with the Cleaver family. In the past we have talked quite a bit about The Brady Bunch, and in some ways, Leave It to Beaver is like that show. The Brady Bunch portrayed the 1970s and although they have been on the air since that first episode debuted, the show never cracked the top twenty. The Cleavers taught us about the 1950s. That show also never got into the top thirty during its six-season run but has been on the air most of the past 65 years.

The show was originally written to feature Theodore or Beaver played by Jerry Mathers. Beaver gets into a lot of mischief, but he is a good kid and always means well. He has an older brother Wally, played by Tony Dow. His parents are Ward (Hugh Beaumont) and June (Barbara Billingsley). I thought it was interesting that all four of the stars appeared in every single episode of the show, 234 of them.

We also got to know some of the boys’ best friends as well. Beaver hangs out with Larry Mondello (Rusty Stevens) and Gilbert Bates (Stephen Talbot). He also spends time with Gus an old fireman played by Burt Mustin who seemed old even then. Wally is often with Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford (Frank Bank) whose father is friends with Ward and Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond). Eddie is overly polite to Ward and June who are never fooled by his manners; he often picks on Beaver.

Mathers said that when he went to the audition, he went in his Cub Scout uniform because he didn’t want to be late for the den meeting. He was so honest and innocent about wanting to get to his Scout meeting that the producers hired him.

Tony Dow never planned on getting a part. He had been in one commercial but no television series. He was an athlete and a diving champion and great swimmer. He had been working out at the Hollywood athletic club and a lifeguard there asked Dow’s mom if Tony could go with him to the audition. Dow ended up getting the part. Mathers later corroborated the story in his blog, saying that the actor who was in the pilot grew five inches the following year and was as tall as Beaumont, so they decided to hire another kid for the role. They wanted someone who looked like an athlete, so they chose Dow.

Beaumont took some inspiration from his studies to be a wise and caring father. He held a Master of Theology degree from USC and was an ordained minister. In addition to acting, Beaumont wrote one entire episode, contributed to several others, and directed 23 episodes.

While Beaumont contributed to the scripts, the show was primarily created by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, and many of the plots were based on their children.

CBS put Leave It to Beaver on the air Wednesday nights in 1957. I can see where the ratings might suffer because the show was on during the last half of both Wagon Train and Disneyland, so a lot of viewers were watching another show at the time.

The network decided to drop the show at the end of the year, but ABC picked it up and extended its run for five more years. The new network aired it Thursday nights up against repeats of I Love Lucy and a show I know nothing about called Jefferson Drum. The description is that a widowed father starts a newspaper in a western town. The next season the show appeared on Friday nights with another move the following year to Saturday nights. In its fifth season it stayed on Saturday nights but switched times and the sixth season found it on Thursday nights against Perry Mason and Dr. Kildare. At that point, Jerry Mathers wanted to have a normal high school life, and the show ended.

The theme of the show is probably one of the best-known television themes. It was “The Toy Parade” composed by David Kahn, Melvyn Leonard, and Mort Greene.

In 1983, “Still the Beaver” aired to catch us up on the Cleaver family. Beaumont had passed away, but the rest of the cast showed up for the reunion. It led to a reboot that ran for four years from 1985-89 called The New Leave It to Beaver. Beaver and Lumpy run Ward’s business. Beaver lives in their family home. June is still living there, taking care of Beaver’s two boys. Eddie Haskell is still in Mayfield with his son Freddie. Wally is now a lawyer living in town, married and expecting his first child.

Ward and June took a lot of heat for being stereotypical parents in the show. While there was definitely some unrealistic behavior, fans continued to flock to the show for decades and now, almost 70 years after the first airing, it is still on the air and gaining new generations of viewers. June gets made fun of for wearing pearls and high heels, but when she was asked about that, she admitted that she wore the pearls because she had an indentation on her neck that she thought did not look good on film and the pearls covered it up. She said she wore heels because she had to be taller than the boys.

Mathers is the only remaining primary cast member; the rest of the crew has passed away. He has admitted that the family on television was also close off the air. Mathers became good friends with Ken Osmond. When Dow passed away, Matters wrote, “It is with the utmost sadness I learned this morning of my costar and lifelong friend Tony Dow’s passing. He was not only my brother on tv but in many ways in life as well. Tony leaves an empty place in my heart that won’t be filled. He was always the kindest, most generous, gentle, loving, sincere, and humble man, that it was my honor and privilege to know. Of Beaumont, he said, “we had a good chemistry and . . . I was very glad that he was picked for the role and we had a wonderful friendship for his entire life until he passed away from a heart attack. Hugh and my dad had become friends and he occasionally came to our house to play cards with my father and his friends.” He also had fond words for Billingsley, that she was “a good friend and an even better mentor. . . I was lucky enough to work with her for six years and have a life-long relationship with her. She was a very kind woman and a generous philanthropist who supported many charities.”

Like some of the Brady kids, Mathers thought once he left the show, he left show business behind him. He attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California and had a typical teenage life. He enlisted in the US Air Force Reserves, attaining the rank of sergeant. He also was in a band called Beaver and the Trappers. After graduation, he worked as a loan officer at a bank and got involved in real estate. At the end of the 1970s, he decided to star with Dow in a stage production of “Boeing, Boeing” in Kansas City and afterward, the two of them toured in “So Long, Stanley” for 18 months. In 1981, Mathers began working as a DJ and, not long after, the reunion movie and reboot of the tv show was offered to him.

I will admit that I have never been a huge fan of Leave It to Beaver. I never thought of it as a bad show, but I was just interested in other shows more. It is pretty incredible that it has been on the air for so many decades and still finds new viewers. I think I gravitate more to The Brady Bunch because it reflects the decade that I grew up in. It must be very strange for a person to live a role for six years, walk away at age 15 or so and then come back to it two decades later. From everything I read, both Mathers and Dow came away from their acting careers unscathed from so much of what you read other child actors had to endure. Along with Ron Howard, they seem to have been able to have a fairly normal life off the set. I think it’s great that Hugh Beaumont became friends with Mather’s father. They seem to have experienced the same great relationships with their tv parents that Patty Duke, Shelley Fabares, and Paul Petersen did. It’s always nice to hear that a show about a favorite American family in pop culture is also a great family away from the set.

Mannix: “The Old-Fashioned” Detective

November 15, 2021November 15, 2021 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are three-quarters through our new blog series, “One-Named Detectives,” and today we are looking at a show that began in 1967 and aired until 1975, producing 194 episodes.

See the source image — Photo: blogspot.com

Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and produced by Bruce Geller, Mannix was one of the most violent television shows during the sixties. Private investigator Joe Mannix (Mike Connors) began working at Intertect which relied on computers and a large network of operatives to help them solve crimes.

CBS was planning on cancelling the show after its debut year, but somehow Lucille Ball convinced them to renew it for another season. (Desilu produced the show.) In season two, Mannix decides to leave and open his own agency. He prefers to solve crimes the old-fashioned way, with his own brain, or as he described it, “A private eye—in the classical tradition.” Peggy Fair (Gail Fisher), a widow whose policeman husband was killed in action, became his secretary. Joe was also a father figure for her son Toby. The role of Peggy was planned for Nichelle Nichols but she had to decline due to receiving her role on Star Trek.

The cast was rounded out by Lt Art Malcolm (Ward Wood), Sergeant Charley (Ron Nyman), and Lew Wickersham (Joseph Campanella), and police contact Tobias (Robert Reed). Every episode was filled with violent fistfights, car chases, and shoot-outs. During the course of the series, Mannix was knocked unconscious 55 times, drugged about 38 times, and shot 17 times. Connors actually broke his collar bone filming the pilot. The character of Mannix survived many of these situations because he was an expert fighter. He was said to have been a POW during the Korean war. Mannix was also a race car driver and a pilot. He sailed, skied, golfed and was an accomplished pool player. He was said to have grown up in Summer Grove where he excelled in football and basketball.

Like Cannon, Joe Mannix relied on a car phone during his investigations. Many viewers felt the scripts were well written and the endings were not easy to predict. The plots relied more on crime-solving techniques but several tackled relevant social topics including compulsive gambling, racism, returning Vietnam War veterans issue, and professionals with physical disabilities such as deafness or blindness working to solve crimes.

The scripts were written by some of the best writers in the business. There were more than 85 writers credited with stories, one of them being Mel Tormé, yep that Mel Tormé. Other writers were John Meredyth Lucas who wrote for fifty shows including Harry O, Kojak, Ben Casey, and Star Trek; Stephen Kandel who wrote for many shows including Hart to Hart, MacGyver, Hawaii Five-0, and Cannon; and Donn Mullally who also wrote for fifty shows including Ironside, The Virginian, Bonanza, and The Wild Wild West.

There were a lot of creative shows using visual effects in the sixties and Mannix was one of them. It employed many cutting-edge gimmicks to appeal to fans. Technical filming skills included zooms (moving in for a close-up or out to show something the viewer did not realize was in the scene), rack focuses (a rack focus is the filmmaking technique of changing the focus of the lens during a continuous shot. When a shot “racks,” it moves the focal plane from one object in the frame to another), lens flares (a lens flares adds a sense of drama and a touch of realism to a shot), Dutch angles (which produce a viewpoint of tilting one’s head to the side), both low and high angles, and cameras that could move 360 degrees during filming.

For you car afficiandos, Mannix had a lot of cool automobiles during the series. For season one, he primarily drove a 1967 Oldsmobile Toronado customized by George Barris who built the Batmobile. For season two, Barris worked on a 1968 Dodge Dart for him.

Season three found him driving another Barris car, a 1969 Dodge Dart. Seasons four through six he drove Plymouth Cudas (a 1970 for four, a 1971 for five, and a 1973 for six). For season seven, he was given a 1974 Dodge Challenger and for the final season, he drove a Chevrolet Camaro LT.

An interesting story about his season two car is that it was sold to a secretary at Paramount Studios and then disappeared for a few decades when it was located near a ranger station in California. It was restored to the Barris condition it had on the show. It was featured in Muscle Machines in December of 2009 and on the show Drive on Discovery HD Theater in 2010. The car is currently owned by C. Van Tune, former editor of Motor Trend magazine.

In addition to special cars in the shows, a lot of celebrities guest starred including Hugh Beaumont, Robert Conrad, Yvonne Craig, Sally Kellerman, Burgess Meredith, Lee Merriwether, Vera Miles, and Diana Muldaur. Some of the more unusual guest spots were filled by musicians Neil Diamond, Buffalo Springfield, and Lou Rawls; comedians Rich Little and Milton Berle; and journalists Art Buchwald, and Rona Barrett.

The theme song was composed by Lalo Schifrin. Titled, “Mannix,” it was released as a single in 1969 with “End Game” on the B side.

Connors was nominated for an Emmy four times, Fisher was nominated for four as well, and the series was nominated twice. In 1970, Connors was beat by Robert Young in Marcus Welby, in 1971 Hal Holbrook won for The Bold Ones, Peter Falk won for Columbo in 1972, and in 1973 Richard Thomas won for The Waltons. Fisher lost to Margaret Leighton for Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1971, Ellen Corby for The Waltons in 1973, and Jenny Agutter in The Snow Goose Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1972. The show lost out as best drama to Elizabeth R Masterpiece Theater in 1972 and The Waltons in 1973.

I do remember watching and enjoying the show when I was in grade school. I’m guessing I watched it because it was something my parents watched. I think the show has held up well and, considering it was in the midst of the sixties, is not too dated. It would definitely be fun to check out a season or two of the show to see if you can figure out just “who done it.”

The Lone Ranger Rides Again . . . And Again . . . And Again

June 14, 2021 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

Like most of the westerns we are studying this month, The Lone Ranger first aired as a radio series. In 1933, the masked hero and his best friend Tonto, traveled throughout the Old West, capturing outlaws and putting them behind bars.

Fran Striker began reworking some old scripts about westerns in 1932. Those stories became The Lone Ranger. George Trendle brought Striker in to work on the radio scripts in 1933 when the show debuted. Striker continued to pen books about the hero with his first being The Lone Ranger in 1936 and his last The Lone Ranger on Red Butte Trail in 1961, 25 in all.

The television show began in 1949 and ran for eight years. Clayton Moore portrayed the ranger and Jay Silverheels portrayed Tonto. Silverheels was a full-blooded Mohawk Indian from the Six Nations Indian Reservation in Ontario, Canada. In season three, Moore was temporarily replaced by John Hart, but he returned for the final two years. The other recurring character we see during the series is the ranger’s nephew Dan Reid played by Chuck Courtney. This was ABC’s first big television hit.

The show began and ended the same way. As the show opened, the Lone Ranger’s horse would rear up on his back and the ranger shouted “Hi-Yo Silver.” At the end of the show, someone would as “Who was that masked man?” Another repeated phrase from the series was “Kemo sabe.” Tonto called the Ranger this which translates to “faithful friend.”

The backstory of the ranger is that a patrol of six Texas Rangers was massacred and only the Lone Ranger survived. He now wears a mask to protect his real identity and he and Tonto, who nursed him back to health, travel around bringing justice to the territories. The ranger owns a silver mine which is why he named his horse Silver and why he carries silver bullets.

MGM film veteran producer Jack Chertok was brought in to produce the show. He would later produce Ann Sothern’s show Private Secretary and My Favorite Martian.

This show was produced and filmed differently than most shows in the classic age. Seventy-eight episodes were broadcast for consecutive weeks. Then they were all shown for a second time. After 156 weeks, they decided to film another 52 shows but there was a controversy and Moore left the show and was replaced by John Hart. Again the 52 filmed shows were consecutively shown and then rerun. For the next season, the original creator George Trendle sold the rights to Jack Wrather in 1954. Wrather hired Moore again and produced another 52 shows which were shown and then rerun. For the final year, only 39 episodes were produced with Sherman Harris taking over as producer. The final season was the only one shot in color. Because there were only new episodes in five of the eight years, only 221 shows were produced.

At this point, film stars were still avoiding television, seeing it as a temporary competition with films. Therefore, most of the guest stars we see on the show were actors who went on to have successful television careers. Some of those include Michael Ansara, James Arness, Frances Bavier, Hugh Beaumont, Dwayne Hickman, Stacy Keach Jr., Marjorie Lord, Martin Milner, Denver Pyle, and Marion Ross.

The Lone Ranger" Texas Draw (TV Episode 1954) - IMDb — Photo: imdb Marion Ross guest starred

This was one of the first series to be nominated for an Emmy; unfortunately, it lost to the first version of The Life of Riley starring Jackie Gleason. The nomination came in 1950 at the second Emmy ceremony. The early years had very limited categories for awards.

General Mills was the original sponsor for the show. They also sponsored the radio show from 1941-1961.

The Lone Ranger, first created and broadcast in Detroit, turns 86 this week | Michigan Radio — Photo: michiganradio.com

The theme music was the classical piece, the William Tell overture. Rossini composed the piece in 1829.

Like Adam West and Batman, Clayton Moore really embodied the character of the Lone Ranger. After the show ended, he would make up to 200 appearances a year as the crime fighter. In 1979, Jack Wrather, who owned the rights to the character, sued him, but Moore won a countersuit allowing him to continue appearing as the masked hero.

The Lone Ranger was never permanently retired. Two animated series were released in 1966 and 1980. Also, both Silverheels and Moore starred in two big-screen features: The Lone Ranger (1956) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958).

In addition, Moore slipped into his costume again for a film in 1958 to promote the Lone Ranger Peace Patrol to convince kids to buy US Savings Bonds. A 2013 movie reboot came out with Armie Hammer in the starring role.

The Lone Ranger has had an iconic place in history for 87 years now. Almost every generation recognizes the hero, and his black mask is at the Smithsonian Museum. It’s pretty incredible for a show that really had five years’ worth of episodes made and has been off the air for 64 of those years. Although this era did not often portray African Americans or Native Americans very well, this show was about friendship, and I read very little about negative portrayals of anyone on the television series. You can easily find the episodes on DVD, Youtube, or a variety of network channels.

When my son who is now 29 was about 9, he was enthralled by westerns and watched The Lone Ranger and Daniel Boone. Internet and email were newer forms of technology, but he was able to reach out to Fess Parker and Clayton Moore. Both were very kind. Moore sent him his autographed book with a written note. He still enjoyed discussing his time as the crime fighter. A classic man from a classic show.