Overland Trail

Overland Trail premiered in 1960 which was the height of an era when westerns were just dominating prime time viewing. It was an entertaining sort and it starred William Bendix who was never bad in anything as a gruff and hearty supervisor of the Overland Stage Lines and his young sidekick Doug McClure. Bendix was a troubleshooter and usually had to shoot some trouble that McClure got in. McClure was an orphan kid who Bendix raised and taught the business. Apparently McClure learned the facts of life on his own because he was constantly getting involved with one female or another. With those California surfer boy looks, McClure was to guarantee a young audience.

Which sadly never materialized. Bendix who made radio and television history as the ever put upon Chester A. Riley in The Life Of Riley just went back to feature films. As for McClure he found television immortality in The Virginian and any number of action/adventure films in his life.

Overland Trail never found its audience. I remember it being on Sunday night and Sunday nights had Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan, Maverick and Lassie on so it was a tough field.

Bendix always hawked the virtues of the Concord stages that Overland Stage used. I can still hear him saying the title quote in one of the episodes.

William Bendix starred in this show as Fred Kelly who worked for the Overland stage company along with Doug McClure as Frank 'Flip' Flippen. Flip was raised by Indians and had a reckless streak in him which the gruff Kelly tries to keep in check. The episodes I've seen are very entertaining and are a sort of mix of The Tales Of Wells Fargo but with some of the humour of Laredo. It's the banter between the older, gruff Bendix and the very youthful McClure which makes this quite a fun show. For example, Flip isn't as tied to the job as Kelly and sometimes has notions of leaving the job- in one episode to get married! Kelly isn't above conning Flip into taking 'one last job' for the company which always leads to him staying on. The show had a short run, lost in the glut of TV westerns, although the trend was past its peak. An entertaining show nonetheless.

I liked it. I didn't think i would because i don't care for Doug. Never have but i liked Bendix he was more seasonal and acted like how men should. I watched it for the reason why i watch everything the guest star men. Grizzly Palmer, absent his beard was on one; boy they build them big in Norway. Charles maxwell shared in an episode with him, always had the hots for him. Allen Jaffe portrayed the hidden in the background Indian on 3 eps. George Keymas was in one, though he was in bad need of a haircut on that one. Was a face. I think Dad would have liked it, had he been alive to watch it with me.

Overland Trail, aka Overland Stage, is an entertaining Western that never caught on with the public. Was it because of "Western Fatigue"? Was it because the show aired on Sunday nights, up against powerful competition on other networks including Lassie, and The Ed Sullivan Show? Was there a lack of chemistry between the two lead characters? Was character Flip Flippen's incessant skirt-chasing a bit offensive to the Sunday night audience? Should Overland Trail have been a 30-minute show, instead of the one hour program that sometimes dragged in the middle?

When the show failed to draw an audience after a four month run, the network cancelled Overland Trail. That's a shame, because all 17 shows are entertaining; a couple of them are quite good.

I rate this short-lived series 9 out of 10 stars.