Branded (TV series)

Branded
Connors as Jason McCord and guest star Anna Morrell, 1965
Genre	Western
Created by	Larry Cohen
Starring	Chuck Connors John Howard William Bryant
Opening theme	"Branded" by Dominic Frontiere and Alan Alch
Composer(s)	Dominic Frontiere Richard Markowitz (1.13)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	48
Production
Executive producer(s)	Harris Katelman (1965)
Producer(s)	Cecil Barker (1965) Andrew J. Fenady
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	The Branded Company (1965) Goodson-Todman Productions Sentinel Productions
Distributor	King World Productions CBS Television Distribution
Release
Original network	NBC
Picture format	Black-and-white Color
Original release	January 24, 1965 – September 4, 1966

Branded is an American Western series that aired on NBC from 1965 through 1966. It was sponsored by Procter & Gamble in its Sunday night, 8:30 p.m. Eastern time period. The show starred Chuck Connors as Jason McCord, a United States Army cavalry captain who had been drummed out of the service following an unjust accusation of cowardice.

The opening title credits of each episode in the series feature a depiction of McCord's cashiering: his hat is pulled off, his epaulets are torn from his uniform, his buttons are pulled off, and his saber is broken, while a drum plays over Dominic Frontiere's and Alan Alch's theme song:

All but one man died
There at Bitter Creek
And they said he ran away.

Branded!
Marked with a coward's shame.
What do you do when you're branded?
Well, you fight for your name.

He was innocent
Not a charge was true
But the world would never know.

Branded!
Scorned as the one who ran.
What do you do when you're branded,
And you know you're a man?
Wherever you go for the rest of your life, you must prove
You're a man.

He is then sent out of the fort where this occurred, and the gates are closed behind him.

In the pilot episode, "The Vindicator," McCord is confronted by a newspaper reporter (Claude Akins) who wants a follow-up story on the Bitter Creek massacre. McCord refuses to cooperate. He knows that General James Reed, McCord's mentor, was on a peace mission to meet representatives of the Apache nation at Bitter Creek. His unit of 31 men was attacked by a group of renegade Indians known as "Dog Soldiers." During the attack, McCord realized that the old general had taken leave of his senses. McCord assumed command, but it was too late. McCord was wounded in the battle and left for dead, the only survivor. He remained in a coma for 10 days after the attack. McCord was later charged with desertion, convicted, and cashiered out of the Army.