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Wagon train

Wagon Train
Wagon Train .jpg
Title card
Also known as ''"Major Adams, Trailmaster";
"Trailmaster"''
Genre Western
Starring Ward Bond
Robert Horton
John McIntire
Robert Fuller
Michael Burns
Frank McGrath
Terry Wilson
Scott Miller
Theme music composer Jack Brooks
Sammy Fain
Jerome Moross
Henri René
Stanley Wilson
Ending theme Sammy Fain (Season two)
Jack Brooks (Season two)
Jerome Moross (seasons four, five, six)
Composer(s) Lloyd R. Apperson
John Williams (2.14, 2.38)
Frederick Herbert (2.14, 2.38)
Stanley Wilson (2.24, 2.38)
Jack Hayes (2.34)
David Raksin (2.7)
David Buttolph (2.33)
Roy Webb (2.3)
Laurindo Almeida (2.2)
Hans J. Salter
Conrad Salinger
Albert Woodbury
Ernest Gold
Alexander Courage
Nathan Scott
Morton Stevens
Heinz Roemheld (2.4)
Lyn Murray
Cyril J. Mockridge
Richard Shores
Jerome Moross
Sidney Fine
Dale Butts (5.2)
Axel Stordahl (5.17)
William Lava (5.21)
Jerry Goldsmith (4.37)
Frank DeVol (3.4)
Frank Skinner (2.1)
Tak Shindo (2.9)
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 8
No. of episodes 284 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Howard Christie
Richard Lewis
Producer(s) Howard Christie
Richard Lewis
Frederick Shorr
Running time 60 minutes
(1957–63; 1964–65)
90 minutes
(1963–64)
Production company(s) Revue Studios (1957–1963)
Universal Television (1963–1965)
Distributor NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network NBC (1957–62)
ABC (1962–65)
Picture format Black-and-white
(1957–62; 1964–65)
Color
(1963–64) 4:3
Audio format Monaural
Original release September 18, 1957 (1957-09-18) – May 2, 1965 (1965-05-02)
Chronology
Preceded by Wagon Master
The Big Trail

Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC 1957–62 and then on ABC 1962–65, although the network also aired daytime repeats, as Major Adams, Trailmaster and Trailmaster (post-1961 episodes without original series lead Ward Bond), from January 1963 to September 1965. The show debuted at #15 in the Nielsen ratings, rose to #2 in the next three seasons, and peaked at #1 in the 1961–62 television season. After moving to ABC in the autumn of 1962, the ratings began to decline, and Wagon Train did not again make the Top 20 listing.

The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by Scott Miller and Robert Fuller.

The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail (1930) starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.

As a serial anthology, the series told the not well chronicled story of the million-plus, very ordinary people, from all over the world (not just the Eastern United States), who trekked in Conestoga wagons (pulled by horses or oxen), from the "frontier" to start new lives. At the time, the "frontier" included cities and towns such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, Saint Louis, and Independence (Missouri). Wagon trekkers included individuals, individual families, and groups of families, often representing a particular racial, religious, or ethnic character. Their treks brought them to settle the area from Nebraska to what would become the states of Oregon, Washington, and California.


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