Riverboat (TV series)

Riverboat
Broadcaster Hugh Downs (left) and Darren McGavin in the Riverboat episode, "Night of the Faceless Men" (1960)
Starring	Darren McGavin Burt Reynolds Noah Beery, Jr.
Composer(s)	Elmer Bernstein (season one) Gerald Fried Fred Steiner Alexander Courage Al Woodbury Leo Shuken Jack Hayes
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	44
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	Meladare Co. Productions Revue Studios
Distributor	Universal Television NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network	NBC
Picture format	Black and white (1959–1961)
Original release	September 13, 1959 – January 2, 1961

Riverboat is an American western television series produced by Revue Studios and was broadcast on the NBC television network from 1959 to 1961 It starred Darren McGavin and Burt Reynolds.

In the series, Captain Grey Holden and his crew navigate the vessel called the Enterprise principally, along the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers. Some episodes are set in the eastern end of the American West or in the Midwest. Holden and his men encounter interest characters along the way, including U.S. President Zachary Taylor, General Winfield Scott and a pre-presidential Abraham Lincoln. One episode focuses indirectly on the Texan Revolution of 1836. Unlike most westerns, which are set after the American Civil War, the story's time frame of precedes the sectional conflict, the 1830s and the 1840s. The series ended on the NBC mid-season schedule in January 1961 by a drama about the sectional conflict, The Americans.

Dan Duryea played Captain Brad Turner in the first two episodes, before Darren McGavin replaced him for forty episodes. Burt Reynolds in his television debut role played Ben Frazer in twenty episodes, before reporting disputes with McGavin and being replaced by Noah Beery, Jr. who played Bill Blake.