Stagecoach West

6.0

1960•1h

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

38 Episodes • Premiered 1960

1. High Lonesome

Simon meets a man at a way station who has been hired to kill him.

2. The Land Beyond

3. Dark Return

4. The Unwanted

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.

5. A Fork in the Road

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.

6. A Time to Run

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.

7. Red Sand

Simon picks up two lost travelers in a sand storm and then learns they just robbed a bank.

8. The Saga of Jeremy Boone

9. Life Sentence

10. The Storm

11. Three Wise Men

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.

12. By the Deep Six

The stagecoach gets ambushed and it don't look good for the passengers aboard.

13. Object: Patrimony

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.

14. Come Home Again

15. The Brass Lily

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.

16. Finn McColl

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.

17. Image of a Man

An alcoholic lawyer is forced to prosecute a man for murder and has been told he better not lose the case.

18. Not in Our Stars

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.

19. The Arsonist

20. Songs My Mother Told Me

Luke and Simon are suspicious when Davey begins to slip out with food and clothes. They find out that he befriended a murder witness.

21. The Root of Evil

22. The Outcasts

Deputy Ken Rawlins fires after a fleeing holdup gang. One of the men he kills is his own brother.

23. The Remounts

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.

24. House of Violence

25. The Butcher

A butcher of sorts comes in hot pursuit of Simon's stagecoach.

26. Fort Wyatt Crossing

Luke finds a badly wounded soldier sprawled across the road.

27. A Place of Still Waters

28. Never Walk Alone

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.

29. The Big Gun

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.

30. The Dead Don't Cry

31. The Raider

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.

32. Blind Man's Bluff

A couple must run for their lives after a blind gunfighter threatens to kill them.

33. The Bold Whip

34. The Orphans

Two children come from Spain to join their father, but when they arrive, they find him dead.

35. The Guardian Angels

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.

36. The Swindler

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.

37. The Renegades

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.

38. The Marker

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.