This has previously been reviewed over at The Land of Whatever, but it also belongs here because it was a weekend series. In the 518, it aired mostly on Sundays, but it likely also aired on Saturdays in other parts of the country.
Death Valley Days, sponsored & packaged by the folks behind Borax, Borateem, et al, launched in 1952 with the Old Ranger (Stanley Andrews) as host. Andrews had the longest run, before being succeeded by future president Ronald Reagan, then Robert Taylor and Dale Robertson. When the series was revived in the 80's, singer Merle Haggard simply cut new bumpers around selected reruns.
I'd usually sit with my late father to watch the show, mostly during the Taylor-Robertson era. When they brought the show back with Haggard, it wasn't picked up in the 518.
From 1963, we serve up one of the first color episodes of the series, "Three Minutes to Eternity", with a pre-F-Troop Forrest Tucker, Tom Skerritt, Jim Davis (ex-Stories of The Century), Ed Peck (who'd later bedevil the Fonz on Happy Days), and Hank Patterson (2 years before Green Acres).
2 comments:
Like this episode. DEATH VALLEY DAYS was always hit and miss, but (arguably) my all time favorite TV actress Lisa Gaye was on it frequently, and Dale Robertson was always a welcome presence--from my birth state of Oklahoma also.
I'm going to be checking on Forrest Tucker's complete filmography (TV), and see what else I can come up with.
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