I didn't watch this show during it's initial run during the late 1950's, quite possibly because one of it's seasons ran opposite to "Trackdown" with Robert Culp which I never tried to miss. The show aired on the ABC television network on Friday evenings from 8:00 to 8:30, spanning the time frame September 1956 to August 1958. It might surprise folks to know that back then, it wasn't unusual for a series to run as many as thirty nine episodes per season; this one had thirty eight for a total of seventy six half hour programs.
Now even though I don't recall ever watching the show, somehow I do remember it's opening with that famous Bowie knife striking a wooden door. That caught my attention with such fascination that I began trying to emulate the practice with jackknives and sheath knives of my own. I got pretty good after a while but it took a lot of practice. One thing I learned is that you had to compensate for distance so that the blade would strike the tree I was aiming for just right. Oh man, cool memories.
Anyway, this series capitalized on a famous name of the old American West and South, even if it's stories were highly fictionalized. Actor Scott Forbes portrayed the legendary hero, attired equally comfortable in frontier buckskins or the refined look of a New Orleans gentleman. One thing prominent in a number of shows I just recently watched is that the stories went in for breaking a lot of furniture whenever Bowie was confronted with an altercation of some sort. Forbes was a pretty big guy, at times taking a page out of the Lone Ranger playbook by disguising himself as another character the way Clayton Moore used to in his show. One such example was when he appeared as a pirate along with Mike Mazurki in Episode #1.14 - 'Outlaw Kingdom'.
A number of actors had a recurring role in the series, like Robert Cornthwaite who appeared as naturalist John James Audobon, and Minerva Urecal, who showed up a few times as Bowie's mother. Other guests in the series included Michael Landon, Chuck Connors, and Mike Connors before they went on to bigger and better things, along with character actors like Denver Pyle, Claude Akins, William Schallert, and even June Carter Cash! Watching them today, the stories are pretty minimalist, and Forbes himself wasn't the greatest actor compared to some of the other TV Western stars of the era like Chuck Connors, Clint Walker or Hugh O'Brian. An annoying aspect of the shows I recently viewed was the A capella accompaniment during the low spots of the stories. They were performed by Ken Darby and the King's Men, who did similar work on 'The Adventures of Wyatt Earp' during that show's early run. Somehow the sound of that harmonizing humming just irritates the heck out of me.
Still, if you're an old time TV and movie Western fan, this show can be entertaining in it's own way, especially with it's revolving cast of guest stars. If you were intrigued by the New Orleans locations that many of the stories took place in, you'd be able to follow up this series when it finally went off the air by tuning into 'Yancy Derringer', which came on the scene in October 1958 on the CBS television network.
Now even though I don't recall ever watching the show, somehow I do remember it's opening with that famous Bowie knife striking a wooden door. That caught my attention with such fascination that I began trying to emulate the practice with jackknives and sheath knives of my own. I got pretty good after a while but it took a lot of practice. One thing I learned is that you had to compensate for distance so that the blade would strike the tree I was aiming for just right. Oh man, cool memories.
Anyway, this series capitalized on a famous name of the old American West and South, even if it's stories were highly fictionalized. Actor Scott Forbes portrayed the legendary hero, attired equally comfortable in frontier buckskins or the refined look of a New Orleans gentleman. One thing prominent in a number of shows I just recently watched is that the stories went in for breaking a lot of furniture whenever Bowie was confronted with an altercation of some sort. Forbes was a pretty big guy, at times taking a page out of the Lone Ranger playbook by disguising himself as another character the way Clayton Moore used to in his show. One such example was when he appeared as a pirate along with Mike Mazurki in Episode #1.14 - 'Outlaw Kingdom'.
A number of actors had a recurring role in the series, like Robert Cornthwaite who appeared as naturalist John James Audobon, and Minerva Urecal, who showed up a few times as Bowie's mother. Other guests in the series included Michael Landon, Chuck Connors, and Mike Connors before they went on to bigger and better things, along with character actors like Denver Pyle, Claude Akins, William Schallert, and even June Carter Cash! Watching them today, the stories are pretty minimalist, and Forbes himself wasn't the greatest actor compared to some of the other TV Western stars of the era like Chuck Connors, Clint Walker or Hugh O'Brian. An annoying aspect of the shows I recently viewed was the A capella accompaniment during the low spots of the stories. They were performed by Ken Darby and the King's Men, who did similar work on 'The Adventures of Wyatt Earp' during that show's early run. Somehow the sound of that harmonizing humming just irritates the heck out of me.
Still, if you're an old time TV and movie Western fan, this show can be entertaining in it's own way, especially with it's revolving cast of guest stars. If you were intrigued by the New Orleans locations that many of the stories took place in, you'd be able to follow up this series when it finally went off the air by tuning into 'Yancy Derringer', which came on the scene in October 1958 on the CBS television network.