The Range Rider | |
---|---|
Genre | Western |
Written by |
Buckley Angell Eric Freiwald Oliver Drake Orville H. Hampton Lawrence Hazard Edward Llewellyn Joe Richardson Arthur Rowe Jack Townley |
Directed by |
George Archainbaud William A. Berke Thomas Carr John English Wallace Fox D. Ross Lederman Frank McDonald Don McDougall Ray Nazarro |
Starring |
Jock Mahoney Dick Jones |
Opening theme | "Home on the Range" |
Composer(s) |
Carl Cotner Walter Greene |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 79 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
Gene Autry Louis Gray |
Producer(s) |
Hugh McCollum Armand Schaefer |
Running time | 30 mins. (approx) |
Release | |
Original network | Syndication |
Picture format | Black-and-white |
Audio format | Monaural |
Original release | April 5, 1951 – September 1, 1953 |
The Range Rider is an American Western television series that aired in syndication from 1951 to 1953. A single lost episode surfaced and was broadcast in 1959. The Range Rider was also broadcast on British television during the 1960s, and in Melbourne, Australia during the 1950s.
Jock Mahoney, later star of CBS's Yancy Derringer, played the title character in seventy-nine black-and-white half-hour episodes, along with partner Dick West, played by Dick Jones, later star of the syndicated series Buffalo Bill, Jr. The character had no name other than Range Rider. His reputation for fairness, fighting ability, and accuracy with his guns was known far and wide, even by Indians. Mahoney towered over Jones, conveying the idea that Dick West was a youth rather than a full-grown adult.
Stanley Andrews, the first host of the syndicated anthology series, Death Valley Days, appeared in seventeen episodes of The Range Rider in different roles, including "Pack Rat" and "Marked for Death" in 1951 and "Marshal from Madero" in 1953. Gregg Barton similarly guest starred in sixteen episodes. Harry Lauter, later a co-star with Willard Parker on CBS's Tales of the Texas Rangers, appeared eleven times, including the episodes "Ten Thousand Reward" and "Dim Trails" (both in 1951), "Ambush in Coyote Canyon" (1952), and "Convict at Large" and "Marshal from Madero" (both in 1953). William Fawcett, prior to NBC's Fury, guest starred in nine episodes, including in "Diablo Posse", as Matt Ryan in "Last of the Pony Express", "Dim Trails" (all 1951), and "Shotgun Stage" (1952).