Cheyenne

Cheyenne is an American Western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1962. The show was the first hour-long Western, and was the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season. It was also the first series to be made by a major Hollywood film studio which did not derive from its established film properties, and the first of a long chain of Warner Bros. original series produced by William T. Orr. Synopsis The show starred Clint Walker, a native of Illinois, as Cheyenne Bodie, a physically large cowboy with a gentle spirit in search of frontier justice who wanders the American West in the days after the American Civil War. The first episode, "Mountain Fortress", is about robbers pretending to be Good Samaritans. It features James Garner (who had briefly been considered for the role of Cheyenne but could not be located until after Walker had already been cast) as a guest star, but with higher billing given to Ann Robinson as Garner's intended bride. The episode reveals that Bodie's parents were killed by Indians, tribe unknown. He was taken by Cheyenne Indians when he was an infant but left to be raised by a white family when he was 12. (One episode, 'West of the River' is inconsistent and states that he was taken and raised by the Cheyenne when he was 10 years old, and he left them by choice when he was 18 years old.) In the series, the character Bodie maintains a positive and understanding attitude toward the Native Americans, despite the death of his parents. In Season 5, Episode 1 "The Long Rope", which originally aired on September 26, 1960, Cheyenne returns to the town where he was raised by a family (the Pierces) whose father/husband Jeff was lynched when he, Cheyenne, was a youth. This causes some confusion with the viewer as it was said that Cheyenne was raised by a Cheyenne tribe after unknown Indians had killed his parents, but the various accounts say that he left the tribe at 12 or 18. Cast Clint Walker as Cheyenne Bodie (107 episodes) L.Q. Jones appeared as "Smitty" Smith in episodes 1, 2 and 4 but other than that there were no other continuing characters, although several actors were frequently used in guest or bit roles. Clyde Howdy appeared as a variety of characters in 49 episodes; Chuck Hicks can be seen playing assorted characters in 15 episodes; and Lane Chandler appears as different characters in 10 episodes.