Wells Fargo

(IMO) - "Tales Of Wells Fargo" was a first-rate TV Western of the late-1950s that was just as entertaining and action-packed as was the ever-popular "Gunsmoke" of that same era in boob-tube history.

Not only did "Tales Of Wells Fargo" clearly have a sizable budget to work with (which really helped to bring honest period authenticity to this production) - But, on top of that - There was also some real intelligent thought put into this program's scripts, as well (which certainly kept the story-lines interesting and believable without being unnecessarily padded by irksome filler scenes).

And, as an added bonus - I, personally, thought that actor, Dale Robertson (who played the character of cowboy/agent, Jim Hardie) was a very welcome asset to the overall success of this particular TV Western from yesteryear.

The Western Encore channel has only just recently begun to show "Tales of Wells Fargo" here in January of 2016. I haven't watched this black and white cowboy show since it originally aired on network television back in the late Fifties and early Sixties. I must admit that I am really enjoying watching Dale Robertson as the Wells Fargo special agent or troubleshooter. The show brings to mind "Have Gun, Will Travel." Hardie, like Paladin, is a man who would rather use his wits and wiles before resorting to his fists or weapon. Like Paladin, Joe Hardie, travels all over the west and into Canada, tracking down highway agents, frauds and thieves.

Watching the first five b&w, 30 minute episodes was pure classic TV Western fun. Dale Robertson is Wells Fargo's special agent, Jim Hardy. Things go south in season 6 when the show expands to 60 minutes and color. Extra regular cast members are added, including William Demarest, Uncle Charlie from My Three Sons and a sidekick named, Bo. Not sure why the changes, but the series became silly and pointless. If The Big Valley had not come out a few years later, I would think they were trying to imitate that show.

If Dale Robertson had come along about ten years earlier he would have been a great cowboy hero and Herbert J. Yates no doubt would have had him in his stable of western heroes. But he came along just as the B western was going out of business on the big screen and quite frankly he was a much better actor than some of the B cowboys. He did some serious B films, never quite getting stardom on the big screen, though some of the films were good.

The small screen treated him better with the Tales Of Wells Fargo series in which Dale's character of Jim Hardie narrated his exploits in tracking down those who would rob from his employer the Wells Fargo company.

I think the series was good because it called for Robertson to be a detective as well as a cowboy hero. The scripts were intelligently written given the constraints of developing characters in only thirty minute episodes for the most part.

In the last season the show was expanded to sixty minutes, but the producers also decided to give Robertson's character Jim Hardie a ranch and something of a home life. It never seems to cease, a perfectly good format, tinkered with and then cancellation.

Still Tales Of Wells Fargo gave Dale Robertson his career role, at least the one this fan remembers him best for. And he was a left handed draw, the most well known one on television until Michael Landon as Little Joe Cartwright came along.

Leave it to NBC they bought tales of Wells Fargo which ran for 5 years and was a nice neat 30 minute show. Crisp writing single character show that was well written and had a very good start. Then NBC got their hands on it. Made it an hour long split the story up with 7 people , moved the location to a horse farm and somehow decided a great them music need to be change to something that put you to sleep. Watch the first five seasons and skip this 1061 stew of whatever they made. What a great idea reminds you of a giant company buying a smaller successful one because of a great product they want then changing the ingredients or quality to try and make even more money and destroying what they bought.