The Texan (TV series)

The Texan is a Western television series starring popular B movie star Rory Calhoun. It aired on the CBS television network from 1958-1960.

Production notes

In The Texan, Calhoun played Bill Longley, an American Civil War Confederate veteran from Texas who had been a captain roaming the American West to help people in need. Often the plot would center around Longley helping an old friend or a relative of an old friend. He was known by reputation as a fearsome gunfighter, which saved him time but caused him trouble.

The Bill Longley of The Texan was in no way the real Bill Longley, an outlaw hanged in 1878 in Giddings, Texas.

Calhoun had formed a production company with Victor Orsatti they named Rorvic that co-produced The Texan in partnership with Desilu Productions, the production company founded by Lucille Ball and her first husband, Desi Arnaz, Sr..

The Texan ran for only two seasons. In the last part of the second season, it was preceded on the CBS schedule by Kate Smith's return to network television, her unsuccessful The Kate Smith Show. The first season, sponsored by Viceroy, was the better because in the second season, the network reused some of the material and footage from the first season. After the 79-episode run, Calhoun returned to starring and co-starring in "B" Westerns, and making occasional television appearances. Louis L'Amour wrote teleplays for several episodes.

In the 1960-1961 television season, rebroadcasts of The Texan ran on ABC opposite CBS's As the World Turns and NBC's Make Room for Daddy.

On November 18, 2008, The Texan was released on DVD (70 of its original 78 episodes).^[1]

Guest stars

• Chris Alcaide appeared four times, including his last role as Deputy Luke Smith in "Presentation Gun" (1960).
• Pat Conway appeared as Mike Kaler in the episode "The Troubled Town". Conway also portrayed Sheriff Clay Hollister on the ABC and later syndicated western, Tombstone Territory.
• Russ Conway portrayed Bob Jason in the 1960 episode "Borrowed Time".
• Walter Coy portrayed Doc Nelson in the 1960 episode "Town Divided."
• Dennis Cross guest starred in the 1958 episode "Law of the Gun".
• Tod Griffin appeared twice as Kurt Branden in "Trouble on the Trail" (1959) and "Badman" (1960).
• Ron Hagerthy guest starred as Neil Pierce in the 1958 episode "The First Notch" and in title role of "Johnny Tuvo" in 1960.
• Ron Hayes appeared twice on the series in the episodes "The Ringer" and "Showdown".
• Duncan Lamont
• George Macready portrayed Big Jim Sammett in "A Time of the Year" (1958).
• Patrick McVey guest starred as Marshal Dodson in "Outpost" (1959).
• Gregg Palmer appeared in the 1958 episode "The Troubled Town".
• James Philbrook appeared as Yancey Lewis in the episode "Return to Friendly" (1959).
• John M. Pickard as Ben Kirby in "The Gunfighter" (1959) and as Jess Walton in "Borrowed Time" (1960)
• Gilman Rankin, also of Tombstone Territory, appeared on The Texan.
• Robert F. Simon appeared as Will Crandall in the episode "Reunion" and as Vance in another segment "The Guilty and the Innocent".
• Barbara Stuart appeared as Poker Alice in three 1960 episodes, "The Taming of Rio Nada", "Sixgun Street", and "The Terrified Town".
• Beverly Washburn appeared as Henrietta Tovers in "No Tears for the Dead" (1958) and as Greta Banden in "Badman" (1960).

References

External links

• The Texan at the Internet Movie Database
• The Texan at TV.com