Original title
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
Released
9/6/1955
Origin country
US
Genre
Drama, Western
Production companies
Desilu Productions, sfm Entertainment, Wyatt Earp Enterprises
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
6
Number of episodes
226
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp is a television western series loosely based on the life of frontier marshal Wyatt Earp. The half-hour black-and-white program aired for 229 episodes on ABC from 1955 to 1961 and featured Hugh O'Brian in the title role.
Ellsworth, Kansas 1873. Young Wyatt arrives in town fresh from a buffalo hunt looking to clean up and find his friend Sheriff Whitney who has sent for him. Despite it's peaceful appearance, Ellsworth is an ornery little town in need of cleaning up. When his frind is shot, Wyatt feels he must take a stand.
An immature rancher's son forced to sell a herd at at a low price tries to make up the difference in a poker game while drunk and loses. Earp refuses to help since no law was broken so the son takes matters into his own hands.
Earp spots old buffalo hunter Jake Caster in a saloon. Jake lives with the his wife's tribe, the Cheyenne. He tells Earp his wife is dead as he eyes some soldiers. When one of the soldiers is killed, trouble erupts and Earp suspects Jake.
Wyatt Earp's propensity for playing the lone hand gets him trapped by his hated enemies, the Big T outfit, at Adobe Springs. His enemies, who greatly outnumber him, seek to starve him out. But word that Wyatt is in a real jam is spread by a cowhand grateful for past favors, and soon wuch old friends and strange characters - each grateful in his own way - quietly assemble to rescue Wyatt in an all-time famous gun battle with the Big T. These characters include Bat Masterson, Ben Thompson, Doc Holliday, John Wesley Hardin, Mannen Clements and others.
While away for the day helping Sheriff Masterson, Earp appoints Hal Norton as his Chief Deputy. Hal is forced to confront several problems while Earp is gone. He recalls how Earp would act in similar cases in deciding on what to do.
Custer's widow is worried about an upcoming hearing on Major Reno's actions during Custer's last stand. A civilian scout for Reno at the battle is trying to blackmail her. They meet at Dodge City where Earp tries to intercede and help her.
In which Wyatt Earp is beset by two perils, a man and a woman both determined to kill him. Both arrive in Dodge simultaneously. The man, an ex-convict, awaits his opportunity, which arrives when Wyatt, very interested in the girl, takes her picknicking. After Wyatt disposes of the girl and her gun the man attacks him - making Wyatt's innocent picnic one of the most eventful Sunday afternoons any Marshal ever spent.
There have been repeated attacks on the Wells, Fargo coaches running from Hays, Kansas to Dodge City. To Wyatt Earp, an old and trusted former employee, comes the request that he again ride shotgun over the line and thus put renewed confidence in those who shipped money by Wells, Fargo. But the order only served to bring out the guilty verdicts in renewed force, for they were anxious to get Earp, their greatest enemy in the state.
Wyatt Earp's two Indian friends, Mr. Cousin and Mr. Brother, have information about four notorious murderers, The Dry Gulchers, when they intercept the Indians and kill one of them. Earp swears he will run them into the ground and in ""One"" he starts and is successful in part of his quest.
Wyatt Earp continues his search for the remaining three men (he has already bagged one) who killed his Indian friend, Mr. Brother. But this time Wyatt and Bat Masterson, in addition to chasing the Dry Gulchers, has to contend with a group of Cheyenne and a young Army lieutenant still damp behind the ears. But Wyatt bags number two of his query. Two down, two to go.
When the notorious Dry Gulchers killed one of Wyatt Earp's Indian friends, Mr. Brother, they brought upon themselves Earp's relentless pursuit. Now two of the Dry Gulchers have been caught, the chase is well into Texas and Wyatt has enlisted the aid of the Texan Rangers as the third captive is sought.
The last of the notorious Dry Gulchers, sought by Wyatt Earp, because he is one of a group which murdered his Indian friend, Mr. Brother, is hardest of the group to catch. He is protected by a father and daughter in a ranch deep in Texas. And the mixture of man and women against Wyatt proves almost his undoing. The death of Wyatt's Indian friend is avenged.
A mysterious killer has ambushed and killed nine people in the Robbers' Roost country of Utah. Wyatt's old Army friend, Colonel Benteen, begs him to take the case so that the cavalry may be saved in the event of an Apache attack. And before Wyatt is through he has to enlist the aid of every notorious outlaw in Robbers' Roost to get the mysterious killer and those behind him.
In his most energetic disguise, that of a cowhand, Wyatt Earp is after the murderer of a cousin and joins a cattle outfit coming up the Chisholm Trail. The Outfit is commanded by a devious tyrant who has unique punishments for those who offend him. Wyatt, suspecting him early, is put through a tough time.
Earp and Judge Tobin are forced to enforce a rustling law they think is too strict. A group of five ranchers have filed a complaint against another rancher but all of them have been guilty. Even Shotgun Gibbs is accused of stealing Roscoe.
Again Wyatt Earp meets his friend Ned Buntline and Mr. Buntline has just published a book describing Wyatt as the King of the Frontier without realizing the embarrassment to which such stuff will subject Wyatt. Embarrassment it is when Wyatt is forced to enter a rodeo to prove that Mr. Buntline is no liar and the big feature is a ""shootout"" at two hundred yards, between Wyatt and his Buntline Special and an enemy with a Winchester.
Wyatt's younger brother, Morgan Earp, visits Dodge City and is immediately involved with Doc Holliday in a scheme to rescue the outlaw Smiley Dunlap, who is being held prisoner by Greg Norton and his gang. Wyatt's task of saving Morgan and Doc from being killed is made harder by his desire to keep his little brother from knowing he had a hand in rescuing the rescuers.
Doc Holliday is very sick with his wife Kate threatening to leave him since he won't follow anyone's instructions to get better. Earp convinces him he should reform to keep Kate. The reformed Doc with no liquor and guns keeps Earp busy.
In 1879 Mayor Kelley wants to close down the remaining saloons just as Bat returns to take over the Lone Star saloon across from the most successful saloon and he has a young hostess he hopes to marry to draw the men to it.
Wyatt Earp came to Tombstone as a land agent for the Earp Brothers, Inc. - voluntarily unarmed - and unwilling to heed the warnings of Doc Holliday, who maintained that Dodge City and its violence was mild in comparison to the lawless activities of Tombstone. Wyatt's encounters with Tombstone's silver miners and cowboys, and his narrow escapes from Death, bore out Doc's admonitions, and the revelation of Wyatt's true identity - while it temporarily saved him - only made him a better target for dangers to come.
When Wells, Fargo called on Marshal Wyatt Earp to put an end to stage robberies on its Charleston-to-Benson line, the Company was putting Wyatt's reputation in peril. During the times when Wyatt rode shotgun for Wells, Fargo, no road agent had ever gotten away with a dime of money shipments. But this was Arizona Territory where robbing stages was a highly organized business. In this instance, Wyatt outlined a daring plan - the outcome of which no one could be sure.
Every day the stagecoach rolled into Tombstone, bringing men from every corner of the world - from every kind of past. One such man was Dobie Jenner. His past had been a terrifying one, and it took a lot of maneuvering and quick thinking on Wyatt's part in order to keep Dobie alive to face his future.
Like all the mining towns in the West, Tombstone was a magnet to men and women from all over the world. It had a large foreign population, a large segment of which was Chinese. Several hundred, most of whom did not speak English, were newly arrived from China. It was inevitable that such a large group might bring trouble to Wyatt Earp.
Wyatt Earp had managed to stay alive in Wichita, Dodge City and Tombstone because he was more intelligent than the gunslingers, outlaws and hoodlums who hated him. But Old Man Clanton, who controlled Cochise County, Arizona, had never really worked at the job of killing him. To slay a John Law, even in Arizona Territory, was a last resort which sensible hoodlums shrank from. Marshal Earp, however, had become an intolerable menace to the Clantons and the Ten Percent Ring in Tucson. The time had come to kill Wyatt Earp and Clanton had no intention of failing.
During a robbery Doc Goodfellow is shot accidentally by the Hewitt gang. Doc Holliday says a real surgeon is needed to remove the bullet. The closest one is Dr. Mason who is now a prospector. Earp finds Mason is suffering from gold fever.
Marshal Wyatt Earp faced the hatred and gunfire of many men in the towns of Wichita, Dodge City and Tombstone . . . but none hated him more than did the Ten Percent Ring. They could neither buy him nor drive him out of Arizona by force . . .
A young man just released from prison is determined to go straight. However, his efforts are being sabotaged by his girlfriend's brother, a no-account gambler who has massive gambling debts to a man who wants to collect.
Wyatt's deputy, Shotgun Gibbs, runs off a saddle bum who was hassling a pretty young widow who had hired him to help her go to Colorado. Her two kids immediately take a liking to Gibbs while Wyatt and Doc wonder if Gibbs needs a change.
Marshal Wyatt Earp faced the hatred and gunfire of many men in the towns of Wichita, Dodge City and Tombstone . . . but none hated him more than did the Ten Percent Ring. They could neither buy him nor drive him out of Arizona by force . . .
The famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral had its inception in the hold-up of a Sandy Bob Line Stage. After the death of Old Man Clanton, Marshal Earp thought he say a chance to split Clanton's outfit by tricking the outlaws into gunning each other down. Wyatt knew that if this failed there would have to be a fight to the finish between the John Law's of Tombstone and the Clanton outlaws.
The long struggle for law and order in Arizona, which exploded in thirty seconds of deadly gunfire at the O.K. Corral, placed Wyatt Earp among the great Marshals of the Western Frontier. But that famous gunfight has been a matter of controversy ever since 1881. Witnesses from the outlaw element contradicted one another on so many vital points that no reputable historian has taken their version seriously. Marshal Wyatt Earp's story of the fight was told under oath and transcribed verbatim. This is Wyatt's testimony of what happened that bloody day in Tombstone . . .
The gunfight at the O.K. Corral is over---and Wyatt is charged with murder. Wyatt: Hugh O'Brian. Doc: Douglas Fowley. Clum: Stacy Harris. Judge: James Seay. Morgan: Dirk London. Virgil: John Anderson. Ringo: Norm Alden. Curly: William Phipps.
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