Trackdown (TV series)

Trackdown is an American Western television series starring Robert Culp that aired on CBS between 1957 and 1959. The series was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television and filmed at the Desilu-Culver Studio. Trackdown was a spin-off of Powell's anthology series, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater.

Trackdown
Robert Culp as Hoby Gilman (1957)
Genre	Western
Written by	D.D. Beauchamp Frank Burt Fred Freiberger Norman Jacobs Christopher Knopf Sidney Marshall John McGreevey John Robinson Sam Peckinpah
Directed by	Thomas Carr Lawrence Dobkin Richard Donner Don McDougall R.G. Springsteen
Starring	Robert Culp Ellen Corby Peter Leeds Norman Leavitt James Griffith Gail Kobe Addison Richards
Narrated by	Ed Prentiss
Theme music composer	William Loose and John Seely
Composer	Harry King
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	71 plus pilot
Production
Producer	Vincent M. Fennelly
Cinematography	Guy Roe
Running time	25 minutes
Production company	Four Star Productions
Release
Original network	CBS
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	October 4, 1957 – September 23, 1959
Chronology
Related shows	Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater Wanted: Dead or Alive

Synopsis

Trackdown stars Robert Culp as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman. It is set in the 1870s after the American Civil War. In early episodes, stories focused on Gilman going to different Texas towns in pursuit of wanted fugitives. At midseason, the series became set in the town of Porter, Texas. Episodes touched on multiple Western themes and topics, so it was known as "the thinking man's Western."[1][2]

Gilman is the de facto sheriff in Porter. His friends in the town include Henrietta Porter, portrayed by Ellen Corby (who later played Esther Walton on CBS's The Waltons). She is the widow of the town's founder and owns The Porter Enterprise newspaper. Occasionally, his duties as a Texas Ranger took him out of town, where he used his fast gun to "track down" and apprehend wanted criminals throughout the Lone Star State.

The pilot episode, "Badge of Honor", directed by Arthur Hiller, aired on Zane Grey Theater on May 3, 1957. Gilman, then an ex-Confederate cavalry officer, returns to his Central Texas hometown called "Crawford" after the war. He finds the town under the ruthless control of a gang led by an ex-Confederate colonel, Boyd Nelson, played by Gary Merrill. The town sheriff, portrayed by The Lineup star Tom Tully, is a drunken shell of the man whom Gilman had once known, who is afraid to face the outlaws. When a Texas Ranger came to arrest Colonel Nelson, he is fatally shot in the back. His Ranger badge falls on the dusty road. Gilman, who previously served with the Texas Rangers, was weary of the Civil War and did not want to continue as a lawman, but after learning of the Ranger's death, he picked up the badge and finished the job of bringing Nelson and his gang to justice.

Trackdown carried the endorsement of both the State of Texas and the Texas Rangers, an accolade no other Western television series has received. Some episodes were inspired by the files of the Rangers.[3]

Episode list

Season 1: 1957–58

Nº	Ep	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original Air date
1	1	"The Marple Brothers"	Thomas Carr	John McGreevey	October 4, 1957
2	2	"Law in Lampasas"	Thomas Carr	Norman Jacobs	October 11, 1957
3	3	"The San Saba Incident"	Don McDougall	D.D. Beauchamp	October 18, 1957
4	4	"Easton, Texas"	Thomas Carr	John Robinson	October 25, 1957
5	5	"Like Father"	John English	John Robinson	November 1, 1957
6	6	"Sweetwater, Texas"	Don McDougall	Norman Jacobs	November 8, 1957
7	7	"Alpine, Texas"	Thomas Carr	Fred Freiberger	November 15, 1957
8	8	"Self-Defense"	Thomas Carr	John Robinson	November 22, 1957
9	9	"End of an Outlaw"	Thomas Carr	Curtis Kenyon	November 29, 1957
10	10	"Look for the Woman"	Don McDougall	Daniel B. Ullman	December 6, 1957
11	11	"The Town"	Don McDougall	Sam Peckinpah	December 13, 1957
12	12	"Man and Money"	Don McDougall	Daniel B. Ullman	December 27, 1957
13	13	"The Reward"	Don McDougall	Fred Freiberger	January 3, 1958
14	14	"The Farrand Story"	Don McDougall	John Robinson	January 10, 1958
15	15	"Right of Way"	Don McDougall	Don Clark	January 17, 1958
16	16	"The Witness"	Thomas Carr	Christopher Knopf	January 24, 1958
17	17	"The Toll Road"	Don McDougall	Fred Freiberger	January 31, 1958
18	18	"The Young Gun"	Thomas Carr	Daniel B. Ullman	February 7, 1958
19	19	"The Wedding"	Don McDougall	Sidney Marshall	February 14, 1958
20	20	"The Trail"	Don McDougall	John Robinson	February 28, 1958
21	21	"The Bounty Hunter"	Don McDougall	John Robinson	March 7, 1958
22	22	"The Judge"	Don McDougall	John Robinson	March 14, 1958
23	23	"The House"	Thomas Carr	John Robinson	March 21, 1958
24	24	"The Boy"	Thomas Carr	John Robinson	March 28, 1958
25	25	"The Pueblo Kid"	Don McDougall	Frank Bert	April 4, 1958
26	26	"The Winter Boys"	Don McDougall	Frank Bert	April 11, 1958
27	27	"The Mistake"	Don McDougall	John Robinson	April 18, 1958
28	28	"The Deal"	Don McDougall	John Robinson	April 25, 1958
29	29	"The Jailbreak"	Don McDougall	John McGreevey	May 2, 1958
30	30	"The End of the World"	Don McDougall	John Robinson	May 9, 1958
31	31	"The Brothers"	Don McDougall	D.D. Beauchamp	May 16, 1958
32	32	"The Governor"	Don McDougall	Fred Freiberger	May 23, 1958

Season 2: 1958–59

Nº	Ep	Title	Directed by	Written by	Air date
33	1	"Killer Take All"	TBA	TBA	September 5, 1958
34	2	"Outlaw's Wife"	TBA	TBA	September 12, 1958
35	3	"Chinese Cowboy"	TBA	TBA	September 19, 1958
36	4	"The Set Up"	TBA	TBA	September 26, 1958
37	5	"A Stone for Benny French"	TBA	TBA	October 3, 1958
38	6	"Trapped"	TBA	TBA	October 10, 1958
39	7	"Matter of Justice"	TBA	TBA	October 17, 1958
40	8	"Tenner Smith"	TBA	TBA	October 24, 1958
41	9	"The Avenger"	TBA	TBA	October 31, 1958
42	10	"The Schoolteacher"	TBA	TBA	November 7, 1958
43	11	"Deadly Decoy"	TBA	TBA	November 14, 1958
44	12	"Sunday's Child"	TBA	TBA	November 21, 1958
45	13	"Day of Vengeance"	TBA	TBA	November 28, 1958
46	14	"Three-Legged Fox"	TBA	TBA	December 5, 1958
47	15	"The Kid"	TBA	TBA	December 12, 1958
48	16	"Guilt"	TBA	TBA	December 19, 1958
49	17	"Every Man a Witness"	TBA	TBA	December 26, 1958
50	18	"McCallin's Daughter"	TBA	TBA	January 2, 1959
51	19	"Bad Judgment"	TBA	TBA	January 28, 1959
52	20	"Terror"	TBA	TBA	February 4, 1959
53	21	"The Feud"	TBA	TBA	February 11, 1959
54	22	"The Samaritan"	R.G. Springsteen	D.D. Beauchamp and Mary M. Beauchamp	February 18, 1959
55	23	"The Gang"	TBA	TBA	February 25, 1959
56	24	"The Threat"	TBA	TBA	March 4, 1959
57	25	"Hard Lines"	TBA	TBA	March 11, 1959
58	26	"Fear"	TBA	TBA	March 18, 1959
59	27	"Stranger in Town"	TBA	TBA	March 25, 1959
60	28	"The Protector"	TBA	TBA	April 1, 1959
61	29	"False Witness"	TBA	TBA	April 8, 1959
62	30	"The Trick"	TBA	TBA	April 15, 1959
63	31	"The Eyes of Jerry Kelso"	TBA	TBA	April 22, 1959
64	32	"Gift Horse"	TBA	TBA	April 29, 1959
65	33	"The Vote"	TBA	TBA	May 6, 1959
66	34	"The Unwanted"	TBA	TBA	May 13, 1959
67	35	"Toss Up"	TBA	TBA	May 20, 1959
68	36	"Inquest"	TBA	TBA	September 2, 1959
69	37	"Back to Crawford"	TBA	TBA	September 9, 1959
70	38	"Blind Alley"	TBA	TBA	September 16, 1959
71	39	"Quiet Night in Porter"	TBA	TBA	September 23, 1959

Notable episodes

"The End of the World" received considerable media attention after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in 2016, nearly 60 years after the episode first aired.[4][5][6][7] In the episode, a rabble-rousing doomsayer named Walter Trump (played by Lawrence Dobkin) comes to town. He scares the townsfolk with talk of an impending disaster and claims to be the only person who can save them – by building a wall. He also threatens to sue Hoby when accused of dishonesty. By the end of the episode, he is arrested as a conman and fraud. The coincidental similarity to Donald Trump's name and proposed border wall was noted.[4]

Vanity Fair wrote that "of all the books and movies that presaged the rise of our reality-TV president... none are so eerily on the nose as this once-obscure, 1958 episode of Trackdown in which a demagogue named Trump attempts to convince a town that only he can save its citizens... by building a wall."[5] The Wrap asked, "Want to talk about a weird coincidence?.... Some may call this episode titled 'The End of the World' the ultimate illustration of life imitating art, considering the episode aired May 9, 1958... it is pretty amusing, especially when the TV character threatens, 'Be careful, son. I can sue you.'"[6] The San Francisco Chronicle stated that "the character's speech is so similar to the president-elect's, it almost seems as if Donald Trump borrowed some catchphrases from Walter Trump."[7]

Appearances

In addition to Steve McQueen, who starred in the successful Trackdown spinoff, Wanted: Dead Or Alive, four other future co-stars of television series also produced by Four Star Television played in Trackdown episodes:

Russell Thorson, who later co-starred in the ABC/Four Star hit series The Detectives played in the Trackdown episodes "The Protector" as a crooked sheriff, and "McCallin's Daughter" as Dr. Aaron Hosper.[8][9]

Johnny Crawford, one of the original Mouseketeers from The Mickey Mouse Club and future co-star of the successful ABC/Four Star series The Rifleman as Mark McCain, also played Eric Payne in two Trackdown episodes, "The Boy" and "The Deal".[10][11]

Don Durant, who went on to star in the popular (but cancelled after one season) CBS/Four Star series, Johnny Ringo, played in the Trackdown episodes "Killer Take All" and "A Quiet Night in Porter".[12][13]

Karen Sharpe, who also co-starred in Johnny Ringo as Johnny's love interest Laura Thomas, was featured in the Trackdown episode "The Young Gun".[14]

Guest stars

• Nick Adams
• Chris Alcaide
• John Anderson
• Robert Armstrong
• Phyllis Avery
• Trevor Bardette
• Claudia Barrett
• James Best
• Paul Birch
• Whit Bissell
• Paul Brinegar
• Walter Brooke
• Edgar Buchanan
• Ahna Capri
• James Coburn
• Russ Conway
• Walter Coy
• Johnny Crawford
• Dennis Cross
• Richard Devon
• James Drury
• Don Durant
• Scott Forbes
• Robert Foulk
• Beverly Garland
• Dabbs Greer
• Richard Hale
• Rodolfo Hoyos, Jr.
• Richard Jaeckel
• Vivi Janiss
• DeForest Kelley
• Michael Landon
• Forrest Lewis
• Strother Martin
• Carole Mathews
• Steve McQueen
• Rita Moreno
• Vic Morrow
• Warren Oates
• Susan Oliver
• Paul Richards
• Pernell Roberts
• Gloria Saunders
• Karen Sharpe
• Harold J. Stone
• Ray Teal
• William Talman
• Russell Thorson
• Lee Van Cleef
• Stuart Whitman
• Jean Willes
• Chill Wills

Spin-off

Steve McQueen first appeared as the bounty hunter Josh Randall in a March 1958 episode ("The Bounty Hunter") which served as the pilot of his own subsequent CBS series, Wanted: Dead or Alive, a spin-off of Trackdown, launched the following broadcast season. Both series were presented in half-hour episodes and filmed in black and white. McQueen also appeared in a May 1958 episode of Trackdown titled "The Brothers", in which he played a dual role.

Production notes

All Trackdown episodes were produced by Vincent Fennelly.[15] John Robinson wrote 14 segments, including the pilot. Richard Donner was one of the directors. Sam Peckinpah wrote one episode, "The Town", about a cowardly community afraid to resist the clutches of an outlaw gang, but he did not direct any Trackdown episodes. Robert Culp wrote one episode titled "Back To Crawford", which featured his then-wife, Nancy Asch-Culp. This episode was directly related to the first regular series episode, "The Marple Brothers", as Nancy portrayed a former childhood friend of Hoby's, Merrilee Quintana, with whom Hoby was once in love, who was out to kill his sister Norah as revenge for his killing her young husband in the line of duty, who was one of the evil Marple Brothers that he encountered in episode one.[16][17] His sister was played by actress Peggy Webber, reprising her role from the series pilot.[18][19] She went on to guest-star in "Child Out of Time", an episode of Culp's series I Spy a few years later.[20]

In an interview, Robert Culp stated that Trackdown was conceived by its creators as "the Western Dragnet".[1][21][22] The pilot of the series was written by John Robinson, who according to Culp in that same interview, was partly responsible for the creation of Dragnet[22] along with that series' star, Jack Webb.

It was this series, Trackdown, that first brought Culp to national public attention, eight years before he starred with Bill Cosby in I Spy.

The series narrator was character actor Ed Prentiss.[23]

Hoby Gilman's use of the Smith & Wesson .44 Schofield revolver instead of the more-popular Colt Peacemaker is also notable.

Syndicated reruns of this series have been broadcast in the early 2000s on TV Land and other cable networks. CBS Television Distribution now has the TV distribution rights to Trackdown due to CBS's ownership of the show via its co-production with Four Star.

Unlike the series that spawned it, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, and the series which it spawned, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Robert Culp's Trackdown, as of 2018, has not had an official DVD release.

In late 2016, episodes of Trackdown began airing Saturday mornings on MeTV.[24]

References

1. "Do You Remember... "Trackdown"". westernclippings.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
2. "Culp interview". tripod.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
3. "Trackdown Television Series Archives, 1957-1959". Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
4. Evon, Dan (13 January 2017). "Did a 1950s TV Episode Feature a Character Named Trump Who Offered to Build a Protective Wall?". Snopes.com. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
5. Nguyen, Tina (9 Feb 2017). "This Television Show Predicted Donald Trump... in 1958". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
6. Rossi, Rosemary (9 January 2017). "1950s TV Show Had Villain Named Trump Who Promised to Save World by Building a Wall". The Wrap. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
7. Moffitt, Mike (10 January 2017). "Did '50s TV show feature a con artist named Trump promising to build a wall?". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
8. "The Protector". 1 April 1959 – via IMDb.
9. "McCallin's Daughter". 2 January 1959 – via IMDb.
10. "The Deal". 1 January 2000 – via IMDb.
11. "The Boy". 1 January 2000 – via IMDb.
12. "Killer Take All". 5 September 1958 – via IMDb.
13. "Quiet Night in Porter". 1 January 2000 – via IMDb.
14. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0732769/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_30
15. "Vincent M. Fennelly".
16. Michelle Palmer (27 June 2011). ""Trackdown" The Marple Brothers (TV Episode 1957)". IMDb. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
17. Michelle Palmer (11 November 2011). ""Trackdown" Back to Crawford (TV Episode 1959)". IMDb. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
18. "Peggy Webber". IMDb. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
19. "Peggy Webber".
20. "Child Out of Time". 11 January 1967 – via IMDb.
21. "Robert Culp". Archive of American Television. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
22. "Trackdown". Archive of American Television. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
23. http://ctva.biz/US/Western/Trackdown_RobertCulp.htm
24. "Schedule".

External links

• Trackdown at IMDb
• Trackdown at TV.com
• Trackdown episode guide