Original title
Riverboat
Released
9/13/1959
Origin country
US
Genre
Western
Production companies
Meladare Company
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
2
Number of episodes
44
Riverboat is a 44-episode western television series starring Darren McGavin and Burt Reynolds broadcast on the NBC television network from September 13, 1959 until January 2, 1961. It was produced by Revue Studios.
For a price, simple-minded Hunk Farber is only happy to reveal the whereabouts of his boss, Monte, who accidentally killed a senator's son. The reward in his pocket, Hunk heads for Captain Holden's riverboat. There he is eager to impress a young lady aboard the Enterprise.
Young Jefferson Carruthers has been assigned to a new post as an Indian agent. He and his wife board the Enterprise to travel to their new home. Also on board is Vance Muldoon, who plans to offer Carruthers money if he will smuggle liquor to the Indians.
Wealthy Roger Mowbray's marriage is threatened when an old sweetheart intimates that Roger married for money. Because he really loves his wife, Roger is doubly upset to discover that his father seems to be involved in the scheme to break up the marriage.
John Jenkins has placed a large down payment on land owned by three ruthless farmers. Jenkins is planning to deliver a shipment of peaches, via the Enterprise, to Cincinnati, as a final payment for the land. But the farmers plot to block the boat so the shipment of peaches will be spoiled.
Riverboat pilot John Murrell plans to hijack a shipment from rival pilot Dan Simpson. Murrell arranges to have Lela Candida take a job on Simpson's boat as a dancing girl, so that she can signal his raiders when to attack.
Ansel Torgin hires the Enterprise for his daughter's wedding. Captain Grey Holden recognizes the bridegroom as a drifter he once threw off his riverboat.
Laura Sutton is forced to kill her husband in self defense. Laura's brother-in-law, Jarrett Sutton, witnesses the shooting and tries to blackmail her.
Otto Justin, dealer in wild animals, is escorting a shipment of his captured beasts to St. Louis aboard the Enterprise. Widow Abby Saunders and her young son Paddy are both impressed with Justin's manner.
French playboy Andre Devereaux has become an American lieutenant. Assigned to lead some troops into Indian Territory, he finds that the normally peaceful Indians have been provoked to violence.
Prisoner Paul Drake is being returned to custody by a prison guard. Because Drake has already tricked him once, the guard shackles his prisoner to a deckhouse on the Enterprise.
Tommy Jones, a young stowaway, is discovered aboard the Enterprise. Also on board is a pair of thieves, who plan to blow up the boat to collect insurance on some diamonds they are shipping to St. Louis.
Lt. Perry Quinn, an officer in Sam Houston's Texas Army, hires the Enterprise to deliver a cargo of lead down river. Captain Grey Holden is warned that Santa Ana's agents may try to sabotage the shipment.
Actress Lorna Langton wants to charter the Enterprise and a skeleton crew for a trip to St. Louis. The actress has been told that her young son, kidnapped some years before, is being held in another town.
Anthony Lorrimer charters the Enterprise to deliver a cargo of farm machinery to his thriving community of Lorrimer City. Captain Grey Holden is unaware that the cargo is actually arms and ammunition.
The Enterprise steams upriver with a cargo of arms and recruits for the Fort Union outpost. At Akins Landing, Grey Holden is told by Homer Atkins that the Sioux have been watching the boat and are planning an uprising.
A group of volunteer teachers who have gone to the island of Diablo Corozan off the coast of Tampico are imprisoned when Spain conquers the island. The corrupt Spanish officials allow Joan Marchland, one of the teachers, to return to the United States to raise a ransom for the rest.
The Enterprise, tied up overnight, is boarded and highjacked by a vicious crew, who kill the three men left to guard the boat. Captain Grey Holden and Ben Fraser return to the scene in time to see their craft heading down the river. They set out overland to head her off.
Captain Grey Holden and his crew get into a street brawl over Martha Crane and land in jail. Martha agrees to bail them out on the condition that Grey will transport a supply of gunpowder up river to her father.
While the Enterprise makes a stop for wood, a group of Cajuns board the vessel and hijack a part of the cargo. Two people are shot during the incident.
Louise Harrison and her boy friend, the only survivors of a boat tragedy, do some quick thinking. Realizing that a fortune in jewels went down with the ship, they appeal to their rescuer, Grey Holden, to help them retrieve Louise's ""dowry.""
A trip to Independence, Missouri brings back memories of a bitter adventure to Grey Holden. Holden tells the story to Chip and Joshua.
Bank robbers have a falling-out over some hidden loot. One of the men manages to give a map of the hiding place to his son, before he is killed. The boy heads up river on a raft to deliver it to his uncle.
Grey Holden is chosen to represent riverboat captains in seeking a government-subsidized canal. Preliminary surveys and work must be completed before Congress will approve the project. Opponents of the canal set out to sabotage the project.
Dan Duryea steps into the leading role for the first of two episodes.
Dan Duryea has the leading role in the second of two episodes.
The crew of the Enterprise planned a big night on the town. But when they dock, they find the place completely deserted, except for three new graves.
A young passenger on the Enterprise has been accused of murder by his dying father. An aroused posse set out to drag him off the Enterprise and serve up their own brand of justice.
The Enterprise makes a wood stop at a small river town. But there is no wood for sale to strangers.
An Army colonel warns the Cherokee to take the long trail to a new settling place. Pillagers burn the Indian village to make sure the Cherokee have no reason to stay.
A noose is about to tighten around Carney's neck. Visiting his brother in Wingate, the riverboater is charged with murder.
The Enterprise is badly in need of repairs and Holden has got to accept Nick Logan's offer. He will repair the boat, if afterward, he and his partner can use it.
Fast talking Martinus Van der Brig persuades Holden and Bill Blake, the riverboat's new pilot, to transport a group of pioneers to some new territory, recently purchased from Mr. Van der Brig.
Milton Frome, Holden and Blake have an idea for making the Enterprise famous by shanghaiing President Zachary Taylor. They get some help from a girl named Lucy Belle.
To Captain Holden, his romance with Marie Tourette was just a pleasant interlude, until he discovers she is passing him off as her fiancé. While her family is in on the deception, they expect Grey to follow through and marry
Gentleman Dan Muldoon is backing Dublin Boy against Gunner Stagle for the bare-knuckle championship of the river. Before the fight, Dublin Boy proves to have a glass jaw, when flattened by Grey, thus forcing the captain to take his place in the ring. Grey triumphs and becomes ""river champion.""
There was no bridge on the river to Captain Holden's knowledge, but someone has constructed a railroad trestle over the water. When the Enterprise runs into its pilings, Holden sues for damages, finding himself in court against a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln.
Sir Oliver Garnett and Juliet, his young companion, are shipwrecked actors. Captain Holden fishes them out of the river and books them as entertainers aboard the Enterprise.
The feuding families of Jennings and Cox are going to a fair, and Holden unwittingly books both families on the Enterprise. Now Grey has to act as peacemaker or have the riverboat wrecked by gunfire.
If Grey will lure a belle named Lucinda away from Colonel Ashley's son Tony, the colonel will provide a profitable cotton cargo for the Enterprise. Unfortunately, Lucinda overhears the proposition.
Army Sgt. Dan Phillips is trying to recruit new members for his platoon. Using a convincing argument - a hit on the head - he has filled all but two spots in his quota. And he has eyes on Phelan, one of Grey's crewmen, for one of those spots.
The Enterprise arrives at Chicota Landing with a cargo of gunpowder for the Army. Before they can unload it, the boat is taken over by a gang of Mexican bandits led by Juan Cortilla.
Brian Cloud monopolizes all the cotton crop in the area, and Laurie Rawlings, the wife of a cotton planter, doesn't like being under Cloud's thumb.
In town to have an aching tooth removed, Carney stops at the saloon for a bolstering drink. This makes him late for the dentist, so Blake undertakes to separate Carney from his tooth.
Norwegian songbird Julie Lang wants to take her troupe to New Orleans for an engagement, but she has no money. Grey finally agrees to take the troupe aboard the Enterprise, for an IOU against their New Orleans receipts. Along the way, a future crewman of another famous ship called Enterprise, steals her jewelry.
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