The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp is the first Western television series written for adults. It premiered four days before Gunsmoke on September 6, 1955. Two weeks later came the Clint Walker western Cheyenne. The series is loosely based on the life of frontier marshal Wyatt Earp. The half-hour, black-and-white program aired for six seasons (229 episodes) on ABC from 1955 to 1961, with Hugh O'Brian in the title role. Plot The first season of the series purports to tell the story of Wyatt's experiences as deputy town marshal of Ellsworth, Kansas (first four episodes), and then as town marshal in Wichita. In the second episode of the second season, first aired September 4, 1956, he is hired as assistant city marshal of Dodge City, where the setting remained for three seasons. The final episode set in Dodge City (Season 5, Episode 1 - "Dodge City: Hail and Farewell") aired on September 1, 1959. Beginning the next week on September 8, 1959 (Season 5, Episode 2 - "The Trail to Tombstone"), the locale shifted to Tombstone, Arizona Territory, for the remainder of the series. Cast Main cast Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp (229 episodes) Morgan Woodward as "Shotgun" Gibbs (81 episodes) Ray Kellogg as Deputy Ollie (13 episodes) William Tannen as Deputy Hal Norton (56 episodes) Douglas Fowley/Myron Healey as John H. "Doc" Holliday (49 episodes/10 episodes) Mason Alan Dinehart as Bat Masterson (34 episodes) Fred Coby as Pony Deal (5 episodes) Damian O'Flynn as Judge Tobin/Dr. Goodfellow (68 episodes) Ray Boyle as Morgan Earp (15 episodes) John Anderson/Ross Elliott as Virgil Earp (5 episodes/4 episodes) Bill Cassady as Dr. McCarty (11 episodes)