Colt .45

Of all the many westerns that Warner Bros. had on ABC during the late fifties, this was the least successful. More correctly, the ONLY show of this type that didn't succeed for the studio and the network. By the time it arrived on the air, ABC was already airing Cheyenne, Bronco, Sugarfoot, Maverick, and Lawman, all of which had long, healthy runs. Colt .45 premiered in a late evening Friday spot, opposite strong competition on the other two networks. Wayde Preston played a big, rugged fellow who traveled the west, bringing sample guns to stores that could then order them from the Colt firearms company back east. Secretly, though, he was a government agent, and each town he went into not only had a store desiring to order pistols but also some villain who needed to be taught a lesson. One particularly memorable episode featured a mild-mannered small fellow who had read about knights and hid a breastplate under his coat, so that he could shoot it out with gunfighters, allow them to fire at his heart, then (protected by the metal) blow the guy away. When he picked on Chris Colt, though, he made a mistake, for the hero had figured out the guy's strategy and put a bullet right between his eyes. Like Clint Walker over at Cheyenne, Preston was a troublesome actor - he wanted better scripts and more money - and, since the ratings weren't all that great, the show was cancelled. Both the network and studio had second thoughts, though, and brought Colt .45 back for another try, this time on Sunday nights, and it fared better, despite being loaded down with reruns. When the new episodes did appear, Preston sported a mustache that made him look more authentically western, though this was a rarity on TV at the time. Once again, he and the studio clashed, so before long he was gone, with Donald May replacing him as his cousin, Sam Colt, Jr. There was an episode in which Preston turned the job over to May, but in a bizarre move, it wasn't aired as the first of the May episodes but the last - so audiences had no idea why there was a new guy on the series until the series was about to end! By that time, it was on Tuesday nights, and everyone involved in this (and for that matter most TV westerns) had run out of new ideas. So what they did for the final half-season was to imitate a Republic-produced series from earlier in the decade, Stories Of the Century - by having May meet one real-life gunfighter (Billy the Kid, Jesse James, etc.) on his travels. Ultimately, though, it was the first WB/ABC western to "go" - cancelled in summer, 1960. That fall, a Maverick episode had Bart (Jack Kelly) running into the stars of all the other Warner/ABC westerns in a single episode . . . but when he arrived at the home of Chris Colt, there was only a dusty gun hanging from a peg, and the man was gone. Though nobody perhaps knew it at the time, this served as a symbol for the fate of most all such westerns, which would reach the end of the trail within the next two to three years.

Producer Roy Huggins ( "Cheyenne", "Maverick", "77 Sunset Strip", "Run For Your Life") developed and produced the pilot for "Colt 45", which started in 1957. The villain in the pilot episode of "Colt 45" was named Jim Rexford (played by Andrew Duggan). Roy Huggins also began "Maverick" in 1957.

On Roy Huggins' "The Lawyers" segment of "The Bold Ones", one 1969 episode is titled "The Rockford Riddle" because the Darrell's secretive client is named Henry Rockford (played by Charles Aidman).

Roy Huggins turned Jim Rexford and Henry Rockford into Jim Rockford when Huggins re-teamed with "Maverick" star James Garner for "The Rockford Files" in 1974.

One of the most memorable of the theme songs, though musically not up to the quality of some such as "Maverick". The ads were a bit silly: "Beneath this salesman exterior..." caused my waggish brother to quip "beats a heart of gold". But though relatively short-lived and suffering from Warner's rehashed scripts, Preston was suitably solid and stolid; and yet, perhaps because of the tie in to the Colt revolver, and the undercover agent aspect, it was great fun!

Full disclosure: I just got the Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray set of this show. Although I am a huge fan of TV westerns, I had never seen this show before, and I'm not even sure if I've heard of it before. If the title sounds familiar, it is likely because of the name of the classic gun (which figures heavily into the show), the beer, and a movie with the same title.

I am only just about finished with the first disc, just about to watch the 6th episode.

But based on what I have seen so far, I think it is a show that got better as it went on. I would probably only give the pilot episode, maybe a 6.5 -7 at the highest. But by the time I got to the third episode, I could see them finding their stride and it getting better with each one.

Now, that I have seen 5 full episodes (and in this beautiful pretty high definition, projected on my wall), I would say it's easily a 7.5 - 8.

And based on that trajectory, I could easily project that it might even get to the level of a 9 by the end of the series (which I guess only ran three seasons. Probably part of the reason I have never seen it before: probably was not as widely syndicated as some other classic TV Westerns).

Just as a point of reference, I would rate much of the first few seasons of THE VIRGINIAN, GUNSMOKE (at least for the first 5 seasons or so), HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE and TOMBSTONE TERRITORY, as 10/10. Probably also THE REBEL (short entire series), and THE WESTERNER. I don't think this is quite going to be in that top tier for me.

But I am really enjoying it and can see myself watching a few of these many times.

And any of these classic B&W Westerns (and that gets at least a point in its favor from me), that tells their stories in less than a half-hour (a sadly dead storytelling form these days: the half-hour *drama*), also is rarely gonna be less than a 7.5 for me already. My bias is showing.

I plan on reviewing some of the individual episodes. And probably will also cover the show a bit on my podcast: THE CHAPLAIN AMERICA STORY HOUR.

I was so young when this show aired that I did not understand what he was really doing. I may not have continued watching when the Preston was replaced; I have no memory of that. Preston must have been effective in the role--he held my interest. I do recall that the mustache was a bit of a turnoff for me. Yeh, I wanted my 19th century heroes to look like mainstream 20th century men. But I kept watching. I recall comic books, too.