The Adventures of Kit Carson

Even though The Adventures of Kit Carson (from the 1950s) was a decidedly low-budget production, I found its half-hour episodes, for the most part, to be very entertaining, well-produced and, often-times, quite amusing.

From my point of view, I thought that actor Bill Williams had just the right sort of masculinity and overall ruggedness needed to be convincing and easily likable as the title character, Kit Carson. In fact, I thought that the uncomplicated Williams made for a truly ideal cowboy-dude.

Filmed in b&w, this solid and nicely-paced TV Western ran for 4 successful seasons (1951-1955).

Each episode featured yet another no-nonsense, action-packed yarn concerning the fearless activities of Kit and his Mexican sidekick/buddy, El Toro, played by Don Diamond.

Together these 2 loyal comrades traveled from town to town throughout the vast American Southwest fighting crime and upholding the law, always certain to win high praise and respect from the ever-grateful citizens.

In the early 1950's television was in it's infancy! This series is a wonderful example of hard work, good scripts and solid basic stories of right and wrong! Created to entertain children, shows like this feature the original action heroes the cowboy stars! Bill Williams and Don Diamond are very entertaining in their roles. Good horsemen and very capable with Colt 45 pistols. The horses are also amazing beautiful animals! Even though the outfits for the most part are not historically correct and the adventures of Kit Carson and his sidekick El Toro are purely fictional stories about a real true life adventurer of the old west, this series is top notch and though made for children to watch as long as the viewer keeps that in mind the series can be extremely enjoyable! So as a man who has watched many westerns I can most certainly recommend the episodes of this classic series to all ages.

What I remember best about The Adventures of Kit Carson is that it was not for some reason, broadcast in New York City. I only got to see this show when visiting my grandparents in Rochester every summer. Little did I know what I was seeing had absolutely nothing to do with the real Mr. Carson who was quite the frontier figure.

Christopher 'Kit' Carson's (1809-1868) active career lasted from the Era of Good Feeling until the Civil War. He was a fur trapper and mountain man from a teen who came to fame as a guide for John C. Fremont's map-making expeditions. The trails that he and the other mountain men kept as a secret were mapped by Fremont with Carson showing the way. He fought in the Mexican War and the Civil War attaining the rank of general.

The Carson I saw as played by Bill Williams with a brace of pistols was a wandering fellow who was a general righter of wrongs in an era following when the real Carson died. At least the west looked pretty much like the post Civil War frontier we saw in a gazillion westerns. Williams was pretty much the standard cowboy hero.

Carson had a Mexican sidekick named El Toro played by Don Diamond who was better known much later as Corporal Reyes in Walt Disney's Zorro series and as Crazy Cat of the Hekawis on F Troop. He played a mean guitar, had an amorous nature, and Carson kept him around for more than laughs the way the Cisco Kid did Pancho.

Kit Carson was a most remarkable man and he's been portrayed many times on the big and small screen. Which is probably why this series hasn't had a market for syndication for years. Still seeing it again would be nostalgic and fun.

The 104 half-hour episodes of the television western "The Adventures of Kit Carson" were originally broadcast in local syndication during the 1951-55 television seasons. Of course it played for years after on Saturday mornings.

The series fell into the "Kiddie" western category with shows like: "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok", "The Lone Ranger", "Rin Tin Tin", and "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon". The DVD release contains ten episodes of the series.

Blond, rugged, All-American action film hero ("Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo") Bill Williams played the title character. Don Diamond played Kit's ethnic sidekick El Toro. Diamond is probably best remembered as Corporal Reyes on Disney's "Zorro" series although he would go on to play "Crazy Cat" on "F-Troop".

The series was pretty straight forward, with few surprises, no shades of gray. Like "The Cisco Kid", the series served as an unlikely showcase for some of Hollywood's most attractive starlets. While none of these girls seem to have made it big, no other westerns of the period managed nearly this attractive a group of distaff guest stars.

As a child in the early 1950s I regularly watched "The Adventures of Kit Carson". However I'm puzzled by a particular omission from the list of characters. I remember that in many episodes Kit Carson had as his sidekick a little girl called Joan. However, there's no mention of Joan in the cast list. Please can anyone explain or help with this? (The reason I remember 'Joan' so clearly is because when I played cowboys-and-Indians with my many boy cousins they always insisted that I be Joan! In addition I have just made contact with someone else who remembers watching "The Adventures of Kit Carson" and he confirmed that Joan was a regular participant, commenting that the relationship would never be allowed today!