Saturday, February 13, 2016

Forgotten TV: The Tall Man (1960)

One of the cool things about Time Warner Cable adding Get TV to their digital tier, at least in upstate New York, is their lineup includes some long forgotten Western series, which fill the Saturday afternoon lineup.

Leading off the block is The Tall Man, a Revue Studios (Universal) entry that ran on NBC for 2 seasons. The Tall Man was a fictionalized account of the on-again, off-again friendship between Sheriff Pat Garrett (Barry Sullivan) and gunslinger William Bonney, alias Billy the Kid (Clu Gulager). Set in New Mexico, Bonney often assists Garrett in capturing other outlaws. The ironic thing was, Bonney was just 21 when he was shot by Garrett. Gulager was 11 years older than that when he was cast as Bonney.

I was hoping to have today's episode, with guest star James Coburn, accompanying this piece, but, unfortunately, it isn't available on YouTube. Yet. Instead, we'll give you the intro:



Series creator Samuel A. Peeples would move his Western tack to 20th Century Fox after The Tall Man ended. At Fox, Peeples produced Custer & Lancer, both starring Wayne Maunder, but Peeples is also known for having written some classic Star Trek episodes. Coincidentally, another writer associated with Trek, Dorothy "D. C." Fontana, also wrote for The Tall Man.

Rating: B.

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