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.
