Tombstone Territory

Tombstone Territory
Genre	Western
Starring	Pat Conway Richard Eastham
Narrated by	Richard Eastham
Theme music composer	William M. Backer
Opening theme	"Whistle Me Up a Memory" performed by William M. Backer
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	93
Production
Executive producer(s)	Frederick W. Ziv
Producer(s)	Frank Pittman Andy White
Editor(s)	W. Duncan Mansfield Joseph Silver
Cinematography	Monroe P. Askins Curt Fetters Robert Hoffman
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production company(s)	ZIV Television Programs
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC (1957-1959) Syndication (1959-1960)
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	October 16, 1957 (1957-10-16) – July 8, 1960 (1960-07-08)

Tombstone Territory is an American Western series starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. The series' first two seasons aired on ABC from 1957 to 1959. The third and final season aired in syndication from 1959 until 1960.

Series background

The program takes place in the boom town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, one of the Old West's most notorious frontier towns and the site of the shootout, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Located south of Tucson, Tombstone was then known by the sobriquet, "the town too tough to die." The theme song, "Whistle Me Up a Memory" was composed and performed by William M. Backer.^[1]

The series did not deal with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, or the Clanton Gang of the early 1880s, but with fictional characters in the American Southwest. Conway, then twenty-six, played the lawman in the series, Sheriff Clay Hollister. The Tombstone Epitaph, the actual name of the longstanding local newspaper, was edited in the series by Eastham's character of Harris Claibourne, who also narrated the series in a deep baritone voice.^[2]

The Ziv TV series aired on Wednesdays on ABC in the 1957-1958 season opposite Robert Young's sitcom Father Knows Best, then broadcast on NBC. It was returned to the ABC schedule for twelve new episodes on March 13, 1959, followed by summer rebroadcasts. It replaced the first season of Charles Bronson's Man with a Camera on Friday evenings at the 9 Eastern time slot, preceding the popular detective series 77 Sunset Strip. After the network run, Tombstone Territory was placed in syndication and ran mostly outside prime time in selected markets until it ceased production. Conway and Eastham appeared in all ninety-three episodes.^[2]

Cast

• Pat Conway as Sheriff Clay Hollister
• Richard Eastham as Harris Clayton Claibourne, Editor

Recurring

• Quintin Sondergaard appeared as Quint in eleven episodes of the two later seasons
• Gilman Rankin starred as Deputy Charlie Riggs in seven episodes
• Dennis Moore appeared as "Deputy" in five segments
• Robert J. Wilke, John Doucette, and Warren Oates all appeared three times, respectively, as Burt Foster, Apache Chief Geronimo, and Bob Pickett and in occasional other roles too.

Guest stars

James Best Peter Breck Diane Brewster Harry Carey, Jr. Lon Chaney, Jr. James Coburn Russ Conway Angie Dickinson Jack Elam Constance Ford Bruce Gordon Tom Greenway Dabbs Greer Virginia Gregg Ron Hagerthy Ron Hayes Michael Landon Keith Larsen Ron Hayes

Patrick McVey Tyler McVey Joyce Meadows Gerald Mohr Ed Nelson Leonard Nimoy Kathleen Nolan Denver Pyle Rhodes Reason Paul Richards Pernell Roberts Bing Russell Fay Spain Guy Stockwell Liam Sullivan Ralph Taeger Lee Van Cleef John Vivyan

References

1. ^ "TV Westerns: Tombstone Territory". fiftiesweb.com. http://www.fiftiesweb.com/western-2.htm. Retrieved February 1, 2009. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Alex McNeil, Total Television, New York: Penquin Books, 1996, 4th ed., p. 849, ISBN 0-140-24916-8

External links

• Tombstone Territory at the Internet Movie Database
• Tombstone Territory at TV.com