Tales of Wells Fargo
Tales of Wells Fargo is an American western television series starring Oklahoma native Dayle Lymoine "Dale" Robertson (1923-2013) that aired on NBC for five and a half seasons from March 18, 1957, to June 2, 1962.
Produced by Revue Studios (now Universal Television), the series was set in the 1870s and 1880s and filmed in Old Tucson, Arizona. It aired in a half-hour format with Robertson cast as Wells Fargo investigative agent James W. "Jim" Hardie until its final season when it expanded to an hour, switched to color, and focused on Hardie's ranch in fictitious Gloribee, near San Francisco, California. In the last season, William Demarest (1892-1983) in the role of Jeb Gaine, Virginia Christine (1920-1996) as Ovie Swenson, and Jack Ging (1931-2022), as Beau McCloud, joined the cast.[1] Demarest was cast in twenty-five episodes; Christine and Ging, fourteen episodes each.
Contents
Premise
The Jim Hardie character is based on a biography of Frederick J. "Fred" Dodge (1854-1938), a Wells Fargo detective who worked in Arizona, California, and Nevada. In the series story line, Hardie seemed to appear suddenly nearly anywhere in the West while engaged in Wells Fargo business.
Two other western series similarly focused on detectives. These programs, both syndicated, were Pony Express, which stars Grant Sullivan (1924-2011) as detective Brett Clark, which aired in the 1959-1960 season to coincide with the centennial of the Pony Express. Earlier, from 1954 to 1955, Jim Davis (1909-1981) had starred as railroad investigator Matt Clark in the syndicated Stories of the Century. Davis and Robertson each voiced the narration for their respective series. Robertson and Davis later landed roles in the 1980's prime-time soap operas, Dynasty and Dallas.
Robertson's soothing narration was especially essential to the success of the series, but the narrations ended with the final season. He voiced a self-reliant, traditional, and wholesome message in his narrations, always landing on the side of truth and justice. In the final season, however, the narrations were dropped. Jim Davis similarly had acted and narrated the first season of his syndicated western anthology series, Stories of the Century.
Historical figures
The character Jim Hardie seemed to cross paths with nearly all of the well-known western "badmen" and occasional law enforcement officers too, including:
- Clay Allison (Warren Stevens)
- Sam Bass (Chuck Connors)
- Tom Bell (Edward Platt)
- Billy the Kid (Robert Vaughn)
- Nellie Bly (Ann Helm)
- Butch Cassidy (Charles Bronson)
- Ike Clanton (Kelo Henderson)
- Kid Curry (Phillip Pine)
- The Daltons (Don Kelly, Harry Harvey, Jr., and Jeannette Nolan as their mother)
- Robert "Bob" Ford (Bobby Jordan)
- Luke Frazer (Charles Quinlivan)
- John Wesley Hardin (Lyle Bettger)
- Pearl Hart (Beverly Garland)
- John H. "Doc" Holliday (Martin Landau)
- Tom Horn (Les Johnson)
- Jesse James (Hugh Beaumont)
- Bill Longley (Steve McQueen)
- Johnny Ringo (Paul Richards)
- Belle Starr (Jeanne Cooper)
- John L. Sullivan (Claude Akins)
- Ben Thompson (lawman) (Don Megowan)
- Tiburcio Vasquez (Cesare Danova)
- Cole Younger (Royal Dano)[1]
In the 1957 Christmas episode entitled "Laredo" and set in Laredo, Texas, Jim Hardie must track gunrunners across the United States/Mexican border, a quest which keeps him from spending the holiday with friends as he had intended.[2]
In the 1958 Christmas episode entitled "The Happy Tree," Jim Hardie takes 12-year-old Jimmy Kramer (Brad Morrow), the son of an outlaw condemned to the gallows, from an orphanage in Kansas City to the happy home of Hank and Martha Benson. Jimmy is warmly welcomed but is rude and recalcitrant and asks to leave the home on Christmas as the family gathers around "The Happy Tree." Hardie works to get the boy to change his mind, with hope that he will lead Hardie to the location of missing Wells Fargo gold stolen by the boy's father. Bernadette Withers appeared as Jimmy's adopted sister, Jenny Benson, who falls from a hay loft but recovers.[3]
Other guest stars (A-H)
- Nick Adams
- Claude Akins (five times)
- Eddie Albert
- Chris Alcaide
- Morris Ankrum
- Roscoe Ates
- Roy Barcroft
- Dan Blocker
- Lane Bradford
- Edgar Buchanan
- James Coburn
- Russ Conway
- Ben Cooper
- Ellen Corby
- Walter Coy
- Dennis Cross
- Jim Davis
- John Dehner
- Buddy Ebsen
- Frank Ferguson
- Paul Fix (three times, once as General Philip Sheridan)
- Anthony George
- Bruce Gordon
- Dabbs Greer
- Ron Hayes
- Peter Helm
Guest stars (K-W)
- DeForest Kelley
- Michael Landon (three times, twice as a Wells Fargo rider)
- Tina Louise
- Barton MacLane
- Ann McCrae
- Frank McGrath
- Robert Middleton (four times)
- Ewing Mitchell
- Read Morgan
- Ed Nelson
- Jack Nicholson
- Leonard Nimoy
- Simon Oakland
- Warren Oates
- J. Pat O'Malley
- Gregg Palmer (four times)
- Dennis Patrick
- John M. Pickard
- Addison Richards as Lew Wallace, New Mexico territorial governor
- Quintin Sondergaard
- Guy Stockwell
- Barbara Stuart
- Olive Sturgess
- Lee Van Cleef
- Adam West
- Peter Whitney
- Robert J. Wilke[4]
Broadcast history
The pilot for Tales of Wells Fargo premiered on December 14, 1956, as an episode, "A Tale of Wells Fargo," on the anthology series Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, then on CBS.
In the 1960-61 season, Wells Fargo was scheduled opposite ABC's detective series, "Surfside 6" and CBS's new sitcom Bringing Up Buddy, starring Frank George Aletter (1926-2009). Wells Fargo and Surfside 6 survived another year, but Bringing Up Buddy was cancelled. Wells Fargo was the lead-in that year to a new NBC western, Klondike starring Ralph Taeger and James Coburn. For its first two years, Tales of Wells Fargo was in the Top 10 Nielsen Ratings, No. 3 in 1957-58 and No. 7 in 1958-59.[5][6]
The series can still be seen weekdays on the GRIT cable television channel.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Tales of Wells Fargo. Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved on February 12, 2020.
- ↑ Laredo; Tales of Wells Fargo. Internet Movie Database (December 23, 1957). Retrieved on February 12, 2020.
- ↑ "The Happy Tree" on Tales of Wells Fargo. Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved on February 27, 2020.
- ↑ Tales of Wells Fargo Episode List. Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved on February 12, 2020.
- ↑ TV Ratings: 1957-1958. classictvhits.com. Retrieved on Feburary 12, 2020.
- ↑ TV Ratings: 1958-1959. classictvhits.com. Retrieved on February 12, 2020.
