The Adventures of Kit Carson

As a child in the early 1950s I regularly watched "The Adventures of Kit Carson". However I'm puzzled by a particular omission from the list of characters. I remember that in many episodes Kit Carson had as his sidekick a little girl called Joan. However, there's no mention of Joan in the cast list. Please can anyone explain or help with this? (The reason I remember 'Joan' so clearly is because when I played cowboys-and-Indians with my many boy cousins they always insisted that I be Joan! In addition I have just made contact with someone else who remembers watching "The Adventures of Kit Carson" and he confirmed that Joan was a regular participant, commenting that the relationship would never be allowed today!

Even though The Adventures of Kit Carson (from the 1950s) was a decidedly low-budget production, I found its half-hour episodes, for the most part, to be very entertaining, well-produced and, often-times, quite amusing.

From my point of view, I thought that actor Bill Williams had just the right sort of masculinity and overall ruggedness needed to be convincing and easily likable as the title character, Kit Carson. In fact, I thought that the uncomplicated Williams made for a truly ideal cowboy-dude.

Filmed in b&w, this solid and nicely-paced TV Western ran for 4 successful seasons (1951-1955).

Each episode featured yet another no-nonsense, action-packed yarn concerning the fearless activities of Kit and his Mexican sidekick/buddy, El Toro, played by Don Diamond.

Together these 2 loyal comrades traveled from town to town throughout the vast American Southwest fighting crime and upholding the law, always certain to win high praise and respect from the ever-grateful citizens.

Running for 4 seasons (from 1951-1955) - "The Adventures Of Kit Carson" was an American TV Western that (IMO) had both its fair share of good moments, as well as its not-so-good moments, too. Filmed in b&w - This low-budget television series was clearly aimed at entertaining the youngsters in the audience.

The adventures in this TV series always centered around the law-abiding activities of the fictitious cowboy hero, Kit Carson and his trusty sidekick, El Toro. Together these 2 diligent buddies traveled around (on horseback) from town to town in the American Southwest (during the late-19th century) bravely fighting crime and upholding the law.

The 104 half-hour episodes of the television western "The Adventures of Kit Carson" were originally broadcast in local syndication during the 1951-55 television seasons. Of course it played for years after on Saturday mornings.

The series fell into the "Kiddie" western category with shows like: "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok", "The Lone Ranger", "Rin Tin Tin", and "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon". The DVD release contains ten episodes of the series.

Blond, rugged, All-American action film hero ("Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo") Bill Williams played the title character. Don Diamond played Kit's ethnic sidekick El Toro. Diamond is probably best remembered as Corporal Reyes on Disney's "Zorro" series although he would go on to play "Crazy Cat" on "F-Troop".

The series was pretty straight forward, with few surprises, no shades of gray. Like "The Cisco Kid", the series served as an unlikely showcase for some of Hollywood's most attractive starlets. While none of these girls seem to have made it big, no other westerns of the period managed nearly this attractive a group of distaff guest stars.

In the early 1950's television was in it's infancy! This series is a wonderful example of hard work, good scripts and solid basic stories of right and wrong! Created to entertain children, shows like this feature the original action heroes the cowboy stars! Bill Williams and Don Diamond are very entertaining in their roles. Good horsemen and very capable with Colt 45 pistols. The horses are also amazing beautiful animals! Even though the outfits for the most part are not historically correct and the adventures of Kit Carson and his sidekick El Toro are purely fictional stories about a real true life adventurer of the old west, this series is top notch and though made for children to watch as long as the viewer keeps that in mind the series can be extremely enjoyable! So as a man who has watched many westerns I can most certainly recommend the episodes of this classic series to all ages.