The Rebel

Character actor Nick Adams was an unlikely choice for the lead on an action TV series, particularly a western, where the genre was dominated by large fellows like Clint Walker and James Arness. The diminutive Adams played Johnny Yuma, a Confederate veteran who after the Civil War wanders the west. But whereas virtually all of the other cowboys who did precisely that on a nearly endless number of shows were simply looking for work, romance, or adventure, Yuma was trying to 'find himself.' He was a writer, and "Johnny Yuma's Journal" always remained a focal point of the series. More interesting still was that the title had three meanings: One one level, Johnny was indeed a rebel in that he was among the defeated Southerners; on another, he was being played by Nick Adams, who had co-starred with James Dean in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, and ABC made a great deal of the fact that, in an era of adult westerns, this was the first "teenage western" - though Adams was over thirty when he filmed the show, the idea was to bring a James Dean type character to television, if in the context of a western to avoid any possible controversy. Finally, there was at least a hint of Camus's THE STRANGER, a certain existential quailty to the character and the stark situations in which he found himself, that made this show vaguely philosophical, intentionally or otherwise. Much of the action took place at night, allowing this a certain noir sensibility not in evidence on any other western of the era. One wonderful element was the theme song, performed by the inimicable Johnny Cash: "Johnny Yuma, was a rebel; he roamed through the west." The show was a huge hit, particularly with teenagers, but ended up getting canceled when ABC entered into a hostile relationship with the company that produced The Rebel and cut off their nose to spite their face by canceling one of their top rated shows. Unlike most canceled series, which went immediately into syndication, the Rebel was picked up by NBC as a midseason replacement, though all those episodes were reruns. This move may have been an attempt to keep Nick Adams 'live' in the public consciousness, as they premiered his new series, Saints and Sinners (about a newspaperman) in the fall of 1962, though that series was a flop.

I was an avid fan of "The Rebel" when it first came out and I was in high school. I was a shy, skinny kid who tended to get rammed into the hallway lockers by the beefy kids bruising by, so I liked the image portrayed in "The Rebel". In contrast to the big, imposing guys in the TV westerns of the late 50's and early 60's such as James Garner, Clint Walker, and Chuck Conners, Nick Adams playing Johnny Yuma was a small guy who was even kind of asking for it by wearing a Confederate cap which designated him as someone the big guys would take as a loser and therefore, a temptation to bully. The very first episode introduces Johnny Yuma as a loner riding into a small western town and leading his horse to the water trough. The town toughs immediately see the Confederate cap and start shoving him around. "Don't push," Yuma says not in a whiny voice but with warning menace. "You aught to be used to being pushed by now, Reb," one of the toughs smirks. By the time this episode is over, Johnny Yuma has emptied his Confederate cap and ball pistol into them and blasted them and with his sawed off double barreled shotgun. Then, he grabs from his saddle bag a cluster of dynamite with the fuse already fashioned, lights it, storms to the saloon, and tosses the explosive package over the swinging doors. Boom! Each week, Johnny Yuma encountered another version of bullying by the bad guys and apathy by the onlookers which kind of resembled Will Kane's isolation in "High Noon." And each week Johnny Yuma would fight and blast his way to vengeance and justice. I haven't seen any of "The Rebel" episodes for almost 40 years. On top of that I have been living in Asia since 1969. But in light of what I have read about the recent tendency in American high schools for certain alienated students to keep journals like Johnny Yuma did and to one day march into the cafeteria blasting away, I wonder if "The Rebel" serves as catharsis or provocation. Or just good entertainment.

In the 50s, as a kid, I watched Gunsmoke, Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel and the others.

When Johnny Yuma, 'The Rebel' came along, there was no need to watch the others. When it went off the air in two short years, I never watched Westerns again. This series said it all, the only one I thought projected the West as it might have been, the only one worth looking back at 50 years later.

It had decent scripts and all the technical trappings, but Nick Adams was a rebel from the first episode to the last.

I never cared for much Nick did before or after 'Rebel' but James Dean would have been proud of what his friend did in bringing a 'Rebel Without a Cause' to the west. I think Nick wanted it this way

I've stumbled upon this series pretty accidentally, as it is not known at all in my country. But once I've started watching it, I got addicted immediately. Nowadays, these series seems a bit naive, but perhaps this is what's most attractive about it. It is not action-packed and the main protagonist is not a super-hero like most of them are today. But what's more important, The Rebel is about people. Just those common folk of the immediate post-Civil war era, with the country still getting back from being torn apart, their life and death, feelings, emotions, wrongs and rights. And, what I reckon, the main idea of the series is that no matter what, staying a MAN is what keeps us from going down the dark.

I also enjoy the setting of the 1860s - its a wild-wild-west with a touch of progress. Indians, former military men of both armies, criminals, corrupt law enforcement, rednecks and all other inhabitants of the American continent, make watching this series a very enjoyable experience.

This is one of the best series that was made. The Rebel was a term given to the South and if anyone studied their untainted history they would see that they were not Rebels but good people. One person wrote derogatory comments which many liked. Jonny Yuma was a man and he went about doing good and seeking justice unlike the northern people. It shows a contrast which exists to this day about greed and helping others, The South was better at helping others while the northerners were greedy. That is what the civil war was about. The Northern greed as they needed the south's wealth. the North took it by force and labeled the ones who wished to leave the union as rebels. It is a great story of how the south stood for people and would help those in need.