Black Saddle

Black Saddle
Peter Breck as Clay Culhane and Anna-Lisa as Nora Travers (1959)
Genre	Western
Created by	Hal Hudson John McGreevey
Written by	Antony Ellis George Fass Gertrude Fass John Falvo Richard Fielder Frederick Louis Fox Hal Hudson Jack Jacobs Stuart Jerome Paul Kelly Paul King Ken Kolb Richard Levinson Robert Libott William Link John McGreevey Don Mullally Rod Peterson Joseph Stone John Tucker Battle
Directed by	Frank Baur William F. Claxton John English William D. Faralla Robert Florey Roger Kay Francis D. Lyon Gerd Oswald David Lowell Rich Boris Sagal James Sheldon Elliott Silvertstein
Starring	Peter Breck Russell Johnson Anna-Lisa J. Pat O'Malley Walter Burke
Theme music composer	Jerry Goldsmith Arthur Morton
Composers	Michael Hennagin Arthur Morton
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	44
Production
Executive producer	Hal Hudson
Producers	Antony Ellis Hal Hudson
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	24 mins.
Release
Original network	NBC (1959) ABC (1959-1960)
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural Stereo
Original release	January 10, 1959 (1959-01-10) – May 6, 1960 (1960-05-06)

Black Saddle is an American Western television series starring Peter Breck as that aired 44 episodes on NBC from January 10, 1959, to May 6, 1960. The half-hour program was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television, and the original backdoor pilot was an episode of CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, with Chris Alcaide originally portraying the principal character, Clay Culhane.^[1]

Synopsis[]

Detailed in the second episode of season two ("The Saddle"), series star Peter Breck's character, Clay Culhane, is a gunfighter who becomes a lawyer after his two brothers are killed in a bushwhack. Clay is seriously injured, but survived thanks to a man called McKinney, who nurses him back to health, and who turns out to be a former judge, who retired after sentencing one of his own sons to death for murder. Under McKinney, Culhane decides that his life should take a different direction, and studies the judge's law books, and is further taught court procedure by the judge. A year later, having been taught by the ex-judge, he passes a verbal examination and becomes a lawyer. His mentor is then killed by his other son, who hates his father for sentencing his twin brother to death.

Breck starred along with Russell Johnson (several years before his role as the Professor on Gilligan's Island) and Anna-Lisa in the roles of US Marshal Gib Scott and Nora Travers, respectively. Other recurring roles were filled by character actors J. Pat O'Malley in eight episodes as Judge Caleb Marsh and Walter Burke in five segments as Tim Potter.

Russell Johnson as Marshal Gib Scott

In the episode "Client Neal Adams" (May 9, 1959), James Drury (more than three years before the premiere of his own series The Virginian on NBC) guest-stars as Neal Adams, an old friend of Culhane's who has robbed a bank of $8,000. Shot in the back by a pursuing bounty hunter, played by Charles Aidman, Adams asks Culhane for help. Adams claims that the bounty hunter is the brother of a man whom Adams had earlier killed in self-defense. From the start, Marshal Scott doubts Adams' story and questions Culhane's judgment in the matter.^[2]

In "Client Peter Warren" (October 30, 1959), John Lupton, a year after the close of his Broken Arrow Western series, plays a man accused by townspeople of starting a fire that caused the death of his estranged wife's wealthy and respected aunt. The motive is inheritance of joint property from the aunt's pending estate. Culhane agrees to defend Warren, but instead finds evidence that Warren had been present at the scene of the fire. Ed Nelson portrays Lee Coogan, a hot-headed man and a former suitor of Mrs. Warren, played by Aneta Corsaut. Coogan is also determined to show Warren's guilt.^[3]

In "Apache Trail" (November 20, 1959), Culhane and Nora go to an Indian outpost to collect a debt owed to her. There, they encounter Sam King (DeForest Kelley), accused of defrauding tribesmen. King is beaten with a whip, but survives the ordeal, only to be shot and killed.^[4]

Cast[]

Main cast[]

• Peter Breck as Clay Culhane
• Russell Johnson as Marshal Gib Scott
• Anna-Lisa as Nora Travers
• J. Pat O'Malley as Judge Caleb Marsh
• Walter Burke as Tim Potter

Guest cast[]

Some of the Black Saddle guest stars include Chris Alcaide (who portrayed Clay Culhane in the original pilot), John Anderson, Parley Baer, Raymond Bailey, Paul Birch (in the role of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant in the episode "Mr. Simpson"), Lane Bradford, Paul Burke, James Coburn, John Dehner, Frank Dekova, Buddy Ebsen, Hampton Fancher, Scott Forbes in Episode "Client: Steele") , James Franciscus, Jack Ging, Dabbs Greer, Clu Gulager, Robert Harland, Stacy Harris, Brett King, Robert Knapp, John Marley, Ann McCrea, Patrick McVey, Vic Perrin, Stafford Repp, Bing Russell, Richard Rust, Robert F. Simon, and Patrick Macnee.

Episodes[]

Season 1 (1959)[]

Season 2 (1959–60)[]

Production[]

Filming[]

Black Saddle was filmed at the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, California. Several years later, Peter Breck starred as Nick Barkley in another, more successful Four Star series, The Big Valley, on ABC.

Scheduling[]

Black Saddle originally aired on NBC at 9 pm on Saturdays from January 10—May 30, 1959, before moving to ABC in October of that year, where it aired at 10:30 pm on Fridays after another Four Star production, The Detectives, starring Robert Taylor. Its competition on CBS was the interview program Person to Person created by Edward R. Murrow. NBC aired the 45-minute Gillette Cavalcade of Sports in the same time slot.

Theme[]

Although the Black Saddle TV series was cancelled over 50 years ago, its original theme tune, written by Herschel Burke Gilbert and Arthur Morton, has lived on and is still often performed. Many cover versions of the tune have been recorded; some of which are available on YouTube.

Syndication as The Westerners[]

For syndicated reruns, Black Saddle was combined with three other Western series from the same company: Law of the Plainsman starring Michael Ansara, Johnny Ringo starring Don Durant and Mark Goddard, and The Westerner with Brian Keith, under the umbrella title, The Westerners, with new hosting sequences by Keenan Wynn.

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Black Saddle.

• Black Saddle at IMDb
• Black Saddle at TVAddicts
• Black Saddle: Season 2, Ep.2 "The Saddle."