The Outcasts (American TV series)
| The Outcasts | |
|---|---|
 From left: Otis Young as Jemal David, and Don Murray as Earl Corey. | |
| Genre | Western |
| Created by | Ben Brady Leon Tokatyan |
| Written by | Albert Aley Harold Jack Bloom Richard M. Bluel Ben Brady Gerry Day Anthony Lawrence Don Tait Leon Tokatyan |
| Directed by | Robert Butler Marc Daniels Robert Sparr Paul Landres Joseph Lejtes Allen Reisner E.W. Swackhamer |
| Starring | Don Murray Otis Young |
| Music by | Hugo Montenegro |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Hugh Benson |
| Producer | Jon Epstein |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 48 mins. |
| Production company | Screen Gems |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | September 23, 1968 – May 5, 1969 |
The Outcasts is an American Western genre television series, appearing on ABC in the 1968-69 season. The series stars Don Murray and Otis Young. It is most notable for being the first television Western with an African American co-star.[1]
Synopsis[]
"Jemal David and Earl Corey. One black, one white; one ex-Union soldier, one ex-Confederate officer; one ex-slave, one ex-slave owner. Together, they are the Outcasts."
Those words opened a series telling the story of bounty hunter Jemal David (Young) and ex-Confederate cavalry officer Earl Corey (Murray) who teams up with David in the early 1870s.
Several dynamics ran through the show. For one, the two heroes were not friends - Corey would frequently to call David "Boy" and David would call him "Boss". They were reluctant partners, both very fast and deadly with a gun, who were thrown together by circumstance when Corey walked into town carrying his saddle and needing a job, and David badly needing another gun to watch his back. Each had something the other wanted. And David was a realist, knowing there were places Corey could enter that he, a black man, could not. There were times when Corey had to ponder whether to side with other whites or back up his new partner. And David had to learn to trust a man who, a few years before, had held the whip hand - literally - and who once considered slaves to be "inventory". But, as they moved through their new situation, a grudging respect came into being. It was not real friendship. "We ride together" Corey said, when asked. But there were hints along the way.
A rich - poor dichotomy was very subtle. Earl Corey had lived on a Virginia plantation, a rich man, who returned after the war to find his plantation untouched, everything just as he left it - but now in the hands of his pro-Union brother whom Corey, and other Southerners, considered a traitor. With the Union army and the carpetbaggers now in charge, Corey found himself with nothing. Jemal David, on the other hand, had been a slave who had never owned anything. Even his name was manufactured from a bottle of hair tonic. But he was now fairly prosperous, at least by his own standards. Earl tended to be tense in this "new" environment, but Jemal took things in stride, having come up, as he said: "a tough road... a long, hard road..." Both men lived only for the day.
Episodes[]
| No. | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Outcasts" | September 23, 1968 |
| 2 | "A Ride to Vengeance" | September 30, 1968 |
| 3 | "Three Ways to Die" | October 7, 1968 |
| 4 | "The Understanding" | October 14, 1968 |
| 5 | "Take Your Lover in the Ring" | October 28, 1968 |
| 6 | "The Heroes" | November 11, 1968 |
| 7 | "My Name Is Jemal" | November 18, 1968 |
| 8 | "The Night Riders" | November 22, 1968 |
| 9 | "The Heady Wine" | December 2, 1968 |
| 10 | "The Man from Bennington" | December 16, 1968 |
| 11 | "The Bounty Children" | December 23, 1968 |
| 12 | "They Shall Rise Up" | January 6, 1969 |
| 13 | "Alligator King" | January 20, 1969 |
| 14 | "The Candidates" | January 27, 1969 |
| 15 | "The Glory Wagon" | February 3, 1969 |
| 16 | "Act of Faith" | February 10, 1969 |
| 17 | "The Thin Edge" | February 17, 1969 |
| 18 | "Gideon" | February 24, 1969 |
| 19 | "And Then There Was One" | March 3, 1969 |
| 20 | "Hung for a Lamb" | March 10, 1969 |
| 21 | "A Time of Darkness" | March 24, 1969 |
| 22 | "The Town That Wouldn't" | March 31, 1969 |
| 23 | "The Stalking Devil" | April 7, 1969 |
| 24 | "Give Me Tomorrow" | April 21, 1969 |
| 25 | "The Long Ride" | April 28, 1969 |
| 26 | "How Tall Is Blood?" | May 5, 1969 |
Film[]
In 1973, several episodes of the series were compiled together as an overseas theatrical release entitled Call Me By My Rightful Name.[2]
Syndication[]
The Outcasts aired on the classic TV network Get TV on Sunday mornings between 2016 and 2020.[3] In October 2021, Get TV began airing The Outcasts on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Reception[]
The show was criticized for "excessive violence", and was canceled after 26 episodes.
Harlan Ellison deplored the show in his review for the Los Angeles Free Press. The inclusion of a black character, he said, was supposed to illustrate that black people were "normal, functioning members of the society", but the writers and producers were so out of touch that they were incapable of portraying black people as they really are. Citing an episode where Corey seduces an innkeeper's wife while David watches, he conceded that it was realistic to show black/white romance as unthinkable for the time, but that showing David as having normal desires wouldn't have been too much to ask: instead, "the black man is allowed to vent his frustration and loneliness and hostility only through the use of the gun. We know what jingo propaganda that parallels."[4]
Awards and nominations[]
| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | American Cinema Editors, USA | Best Edited Television Program | Norman Colbert | Won |
| 1969 | Emmy Award | Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition | Hugo Montenegro | Nominated |
References[]
- ^ "Otis Young, 69, Actor Who Broke A Barrier". New York Times. October 23, 2001. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
- ^ Erickson, Hal. "Call Me By My Rightful Name (1973) - Overview". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on February 16, 2013. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
- ^ "Spend Your Sundays Under The Big Sky With Classic Westerns On getTV". www.get.tv. Retrieved 2021-10-05.
- ^ Harlan Ellison, The Glass Teat (Pyramid, 1975), chapter 2 (October 11, 1968).
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Outcasts (TV series). |
- The Outcasts at IMDb
- 1968 American television series debuts
- 1969 American television series endings
- American Broadcasting Company original programming
- 1960s American drama television series
- English-language television shows
- Period television series
- 1960s Western (genre) television series
- Television series by Screen Gems
- Television series set in the 1860s