Stagecoach West (1960)
Stagecoach West is an American Western drama television series which ran for thirty-eight episodes on the ABC network from October 4, 1960, until June 27, 1961. Characters Luke Perry and Simon Kane operate the Timberland Stage Line from fictitious Outpost, Missouri to San Francisco, California. Simon's 15-year-old son, David "Davey" Kane, joins the two as they face stagecoach robbers, murderers, inclement weather, and human interest stories. Perry and Kane, who are both deputy U.S. marshals, had been on opposite sides of the American Civil War; Kane, a captain in the Union Army, while Perry had fought for the Confederate States of America. The one-hour black-and-white program was offered at 9 p.m. Eastern on Tuesdays opposite NBC's Thriller, hosted by Boris Karloff, and CBS's The Red Skelton Show. Rogers became well-known a dozen years later on M*A*S*H, and Bray later portrayed the forest ranger Corey Stuart on Lassie from 1964–1969, both on CBS. Child actor Richard Eyer had starred in a number of films in the 1950s, including Friendly Persuasion and Desperate Hours. Stagecoach West was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television. It is believed that the series was cancelled despite the high quality of its production because of the glut of westerns on television at the time that it aired. The same fate had fallen on CBS's Johnny Ringo, a 1959 one-season spin-off of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater.
Seasons & Episode
Simon meets a man at a way station who has been hired to kill him.
Luke makes an unscheduled stop to take a lame horse out of the lead spot. But Johnny Kelly accuses Luke of making the passengers sitting ducks for road agents. He pulls a gun and doesn't live to regret it.
Simon and Davey, driving West with a coffin, are held up by a stranger---who demands the corpse. Simon: Robert Bray. Davey: Richard Eyer. Gibbs: Jack Warden. Ohio: Richard Devon. Ciell: Jack Elam. Somerset: Joe Perry.
Luke picks up a wounded fugitive and plans to turn him over to the Mexican Government, but he is soon overtaken by a group of bounty hunters who also want the man.
Simon picks up two lost travelers in a sand storm and then learns they just robbed a bank.
Webb Crawford, a fugitive wanted for robbery, is dying of leukemia and has one last wish, to be with his wife and children on Christmas Eve.
The stagecoach gets ambushed and it don't look good for the passengers aboard.
Susan McLord and her fiance Lionel Chambers try to elope on Luke's stage. But a band of renegades intercept the coach, killing Chambers and kidnapping Susan.
Singer Lily de Milo comes to Outpost to fill a singing engagement. But before this canary gets a chance to warble, a couple of birds shoot her.
Finn McCool is making overtures to Mrs. Robert Allison on Simon Kane's stage. Kane doesn't like this sort of carrying on, so he challenges McCool to a fist fight.
An alcoholic lawyer is forced to prosecute a man for murder and has been told he better not lose the case.
Simon offers shelter to Ben Wait, a man who's trying to dodge a vengeful blow from Aaron Sutter. Sutter insists that Wait murdered his daughter.
Luke and Simon are suspicious when Davey begins to slip out with food and clothes. They find out that he befriended a murder witness.
Deputy Ken Rawlins fires after a fleeing holdup gang. One of the men he kills is his own brother.
Davey is taken hostage by two men who plan to steal a herd of wild horses. Simon and Luke see only one way to get Davey back, assist the horse thieves.
A butcher of sorts comes in hot pursuit of Simon's stagecoach.
Luke finds a badly wounded soldier sprawled across the road.
Train robber Cole Eldridge is pardoned by the governor and released from prison. He gets on a train and discovers that a member of his old gang is aboard and is planning to rob the train.
Luke is carrying a Gatling gun in his stage for delivry to an army post. He is intercepted by Mexican revolutionary Francisco Martinez and his band, followers of Juarez in the war against Maximillian.
Emily Prince and her homesteader fiance, Gil Soames are to meet at Halfway House. But killer Mel Harney, who was once engaged to Emily, arrives there before either of them.
A couple must run for their lives after a blind gunfighter threatens to kill them.
Two children come from Spain to join their father, but when they arrive, they find him dead.
Among the passengers on Luke's stage are a dude, a preacher and a gambler. When the coach is attacked by Indians, Luke has more trouble with the passengers than with the Indians.
Hollis Collier offers the citizens of Outpost a chance to invest their money in a gold mine. Simon thinks Collier is up to no good, but David is convinced of the man's honesty.
A group of renegade soldiers, headed by Ed Bush and Tom Lochlin, are headed for the Canadian border. To be less conspicuous, they decide they need a stagecoach.
Luke is helping Jenny Forbes hide from her former boyfriend, a gambler called Mingo. When Mingo learns of this, he sends Luke a present - a tombstone.
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