Cimarron Strip
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cimarron Strip (1967-68) is a lavish weekly 90-minute US western television series (75 minutes excluding commercial breaks) starring Stuart Whitman as Marshal Jim Crown. Produced by the creators of Gunsmoke and almost certainly the most violent TV western of its time, the series was intelligently written for adults and the theme music, by Oscar-winning composer Maurice Jarre, was one of the most memorable of the 1960s. While the series was fictional, the historical 1880s background of the Cimarron River region was genuine. The home of Marshal Jim Crown was set in the real community of Cimarron City; however, the program's creator took considerable poetic license and relocated the historical frontier town closer to the Indian Territory's panhandle for dramatic purposes. The colorful location landscapes appearing in the television program were not those of western Oklahoma, but rather of southern California, New Mexico, and Utah where the series was filmed.
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[edit] A single season
Although still revered today by many who saw it, only 23 episodes were filmed before the show was cancelled, largely because it was so expensive to produce; Cimarron Strip was commonly cited for its grandeur and sweep. Critics noted that Whitman was especially imposing and credible as the frontier marshal and that the guest rosters were superb, but the regular supporting cast was rather weak, unlike the vivid supporting players in Gunsmoke.
[edit] Stuart Whitman
Stuart Whitman had co-starred with John Wayne in The Comancheros in 1961 and played the top-billed lead in the blockbuster aerial adventure comedy Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines in 1965, but his career gradually wound down after Cimarron Strip, probably his professional height. Arguably the most effective screen cowboy since Wayne himself, Whitman's fortunes suffered with the disappearance of the previously ubiquitous Western from American film and television.
In 1957 he had been considered for the role of Bart Maverick in the smash hit television series Maverick because of his eerily close resemblance at that time to series lead James Garner (Bret Maverick), who had already filmed seven episodes, but the role went to Jack Kelly instead. Although he appeared in The Decks Ran Red with James Mason and Dorothy Dandridge the following year, Whitman's career really began with the leading role in Murder, Inc. opposite Peter Falk in 1960. Other memorable film leads include Rio Conchos (1964) with Richard Boone and Sands of the Kalahari (1965), a savage movie about a planeload of survivors stranded in wildest Africa. Between television and movie appearances, the Internet Movie Database lists 178 credits for Whitman from 1951 to 2000.
[edit] Regular cast
- Stuart Whitman as Marshal Jim Crown
- Jill Townsend as Dulcey Coopersmith. Townsend later portrayed Elizabeth Warleggen in the 1970s BBC television series Poldark.
- Percy Herbert as MacGregor
- Randy Boone as Francis Wilde. He is the nephew of actor Richard Boone and cousin of singer Pat Boone, and is also related to frontiersman Daniel Boone.
[edit] Episode list
1. Journey to a Hanging; September 7, 1967 (with John Saxon and Henry Silva)
2. The Legend of Jud Starr; September 14, 1967 (with Darren McGavin and Beau Bridges)
3. Broken Wing; September 21, 1967 (with Pat Hingle and Steve Forrest)
4. The Battleground; September 28, 1967 (with Telly Savalas and Warren Oates) This episode was actually the pilot and depicted Crown beginning the job as U.S. Marshal, but for some reason was broadcast fourth.
5. The Hunted; October 5, 1967 (with David Carradine and James Gregory)
6. The Battle of Bloody Stones; October 12, 1967 (with Michael J. Pollard and Elisha Cook Jr.)
7. Whitey; October 19, 1967
8. The Roarer; November 2, 1967 (with Richard Boone and Robert Duvall) In this episode, guest star Boone was actually billed above series star Whitman, with the opening credit "Richard Boone in Cimarron Strip"--a unique development in the annals of network series television.
9. The Search; November 9, 1967 (with Citizen Kane's Joseph Cotten and Jim Davis, who later played patriarch Jock Ewing on the television series Dallas)
10. Till the End of the Night; November 16, 1967 (with Suzanne Pleshette)
11. The Beast That Walks Like a Man; November 30, 1967 (with Lola Albright and Leslie Nielsen)
12. Nobody; December 7, 1967 (with Warren Oates reprising his role as lunatic "Mobeetie" from an earlier episode)
13. The Last Wolf; December 14, 1967 (with Albert Salmi and Denver Pyle)
14. The Deputy; December 21, 1967 (with J.D. Cannon)
15. The Judgment; January 4, 1968 (with James Stacy)
16. Fool's Gold; January 11, 1968 (with Robert Lansing and Slim Pickens)
17. Heller; January 18, 1968 (with Tuesday Weld)
18. Knife in the Darkness; January 25, 1968 (with Tom Skeritt)
19. The Sound of A Drum; February 1, 1968 (with Steve Forrest, the younger brother of Dana Andrews)
20. Big Jessie; February 8, 1968 (with Mariette Hartley)
21. The Blue Moon Train; February 15, 1968 (with Broderick Crawford and Don 'Red' Barry)
22. Without Honor; February 29, 1968 (with Andrew Duggan and Jon Voight)
23. The Greeners; March 7, 1968 (with Dub Taylor)
[edit] Series details
The extraordinarily striking theme song was written by Maurice Jarre, who also scored Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, among many others.
Episodes ran 72 minutes (aside from the commercials, which stretched the running time to 90 minutes) and were filmed in color on spectacular locations in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Bishop, California. The show remains the last weekly network television series to run longer than one hour per episode.
Cimarron Strip received a TV-14 rating on the Encore Westerns channel, which is very unusual for a 1960s television series (which is usually rated either TV-PG or TV-G). The program may be the only network TV series from that decade to carry this rating, which stems from the show's violence.
