Crusader (TV series)

Crusader
Brian Keith as Matt Anders, 1955
Genre	Adventure/Drama
Written by	Ed Adamson
Directed by	Jus Addiss Earl Bellamy Herschel Daugherty Brian Keith Leslie H. Martinson
Starring	Brian Keith
Narrated by	Edwin W. Reimers
Composer(s)	Paul Dunlap
Country of origin	USA
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52
Production
Producer(s)	Dick Lewis
Running time	30 mins. (approx)
Production company(s)	Revue Studios
Distributor	NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network	CBS
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	October 7, 1955 – December 28, 1956

Crusader (sometimes erroneously listed as The Crusader) is a half-hour black-and-white American adventure/drama series that aired on CBS for two seasons from October 7, 1955 to December 28, 1956. It was originally sponsored by Camel cigarettes.

The series stars Brian Keith as the fictitious free-lance journalist Matt Anders, whose mother's death in a World War II Nazi concentration camp in German-occupied Poland propels him to combat injustices worldwide during the height of the Cold War. Keith's Crusader has been compared to Zorro, The Lone Ranger, or The Cisco Kid in that the principal character is devoted to altruism. Anders is particularly interested in liberating oppressed peoples from communism. The series began as Nikita S. Khrushchev emerged as the premier and the general secretary of the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union. The 52-episode program, Keith's first television series, aired on CBS at 9 p.m. Eastern on Fridays. It was replaced on January 4, 1957, by the Howard Duff and Ida Lupino sitcom, Mr. Adams and Eve, the story of the private lives of two fictitious married Hollywood actors.