Black Saddle

Black Saddle
Peter Breck as Clay Culhane and Anna Lisa as Nora Travers, 1959
Genre Western
Created by Hal Hudson
John McGreevey
Written by Antony Ellis
George Fass
Gertrude Fass
John Falvo
Richard Fielder
Frederick Louis Fox
Hal Hudson
Jack Jacobs
Stuart Jerome
Paul Kelly
Paul King
Ken Kolb
Richard Levinson
Robert Libott
William Link
John McGreevey
Don Mullally
Rod Peterson
Joseph Stone
John Tucker Battle
Directed by Frank Baur
William F. Claxton
John English
William D. Faralla
Robert Florey
Roger Kay
Francis D. Lyon
Gerd Oswald
David Lowell Rich
Boris Sagal
James Sheldon
Elliott Silvertstein
Starring Peter Breck
Russell Johnson
Anna-Lisa
J. Pat O'Malley
Walter Burke
Theme music composer Jerry Goldsmith
Arthur Morton
Composer(s) Michael Hennagin
Arthur Morton
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1 1/2
No. of episodes 44
Production
Executive producer(s) Hal Hudson
Producer(s) Antony Ellis
Hal Hudson
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time 24 mins.
Release
Original network NBC (1959)
ABC (1959-1960)
Picture format Black-and-white
Audio format Monaural Stereo
Original release January 10, 1959 (1959-01-10) – May 6, 1960 (1960-05-06)

Black Saddle is an American Western television series starring Peter Breck that aired 44 episodes on NBC from January 10, 1959, to May 6, 1960. The half-hour program was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television, and the original pilot was an episode of CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, with Chris Alcaide portraying the principal character, Clay Culhane.[1]

Synopsis

Series star Peter Breck's character, Clay Culhane, is a gunfighter who becomes a lawyer after his brothers are killed in a shootout, a gunfight in which he himself was seriously injured, but survived. Realising that his life had to take a different direction, Clay hung up his gun and began to study the law. Breck starred along with Russell Johnson (several years before his role as "The Professor" on Gilligan's Island) and Anna-Lisa in the roles of US Marshal Gib Scott and Nora Travers respectively. Other recurring roles were filled by character actors J. Pat O'Malley in eight episodes as Judge Caleb Marsh and Walter Burke in five segments as Tim Potter.

In the episode "Client Neal Adams" (May 9, 1959), James Drury, more than three years before the premiere of his own series The Virginian on NBC, guest stars as Neal Adams, an old friend of Culhane's who has robbed a bank of $8,000. Shot in the back by a pursuing bounty hunter, played by Charles Aidman, Adams asks Culhane for help. Adams claims that the bounty hunter is the brother of a man whom Adams had earlier killed in self-defence. From the start Marshal Scott doubts Adams' story and questions Culhane's judgment in the matter.[2]

In "Client Peter Warren" (October 30, 1959), John Lupton, a year after the close of his Broken Arrow Western series, plays a man accused by townspeople of starting a fire that caused the death of his estranged wife's wealthy and respected aunt. The motive is inheritance of joint property from the aunt's pending estate. Culhane agrees to defend Warren but instead finds evidence that Warren had been present at the scene of the fire. Ed Nelson portrays Lee Coogan, a hot-headed man and a former suitor of Mrs. Warren, played by Aneta Corsaut. Coogan is also determined to show Warren's guilt.[3]

In "Apache Trail" (November 20, 1959), Culhane and Nora go to an Indian outpost to collect a debt owed to her. There they encounter Sam King (DeForest Kelley), accused of defrauding tribesmen. King is beaten with a whip but survives the ordeal, only to be shot and killed. [4]

Cast

Main cast

Russell Johnson

Guest cast

Other Black Saddle guest stars were Chris Alcaide, John Anderson, Parley Baer, Raymond Bailey, Paul Birch (in the role of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant in the episode "Mr. Simpson"), Lane Bradford, Paul Burke, Dennis Cross, John Dehner, Frank Dekova, Buddy Ebsen, Hampton Fancher, James Franciscus, Jack Ging, Dabbs Greer, Clu Gulager, Robert Harland, Stacy Harris, Brett King, Robert Knapp, John Marley, Ann McCrea, Patrick McVey, Vic Perrin, Stafford Repp, Bing Russell, Richard Rust, Robert F. Simon, and Quintin Sondergaard.

Production

Filming

Black Saddle was filmed at the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, California. Several years later, Peter Breck later went on to star as Nick Barkley in another, more successful Four Star series, The Big Valley , on ABC.

Scheduling

Black Saddle originally aired on NBC at 9 p.m. on Saturdays from January 10—May 30, 1959, before moving to ABC in October of that year, where it aired at 10:30 p.m. on Fridays after another Four Star Production, The Detectives starring Robert Taylor. Its competition on CBS was the interview program Person to Person created by Edward R. Murrow. NBC aired the 45-minute Gillette Cavalcade of Sports in the same time slot.

Syndication as The Westerners

For syndicated reruns Black Saddle was combined with three other Western series from the same company: Law of the Plainsman starring Michael Ansara, Johnny Ringo starring Don Durant and Mark Goddard, and The Westerner with Brian Keith, under the umbrella title, The Westerners, with new hosting sequences by Keenan Wynn.

References

  1. ↑ Aaker, Everett (2017). Television Western Players, 1960-1975: A Biographical Dictionary. McFarland. p. 54. ISBN 9781476662503. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  2. ↑ "Black Saddle: "Client Neal Adams", May 9, 1959". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Black Saddle: "Client Peter Warren", October 30, 1959". imdb.com. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Apache Trail, November 20, 1959". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
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