The Cisco Kid

Before the revolution brought about by the "adult" Westerns or 1955+ (Gunsmoke, Maverick, etc, the one's as a young boy I liked best) there were the kiddie Westerns: Wild Bill Hickock, The Range Rider, Buffalo Bill Jnr, The Lone Ranger and The Cisco Kid. Based (supposedly) on an O. Henry story, there was probably more kinship with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza - and formulaic B-Westerns of the '30s and '40s. One thing set this apart from others of their ilk: I met Duncan Reynaldo! I was a very young boy but I still treasure the memory of this friendly kind gentleman.

The Cisco Kid was originally introduced in O. Henry's "The Caballero's Way".

However,in the book he was a dangerous desperado, not the "Robin Hood" type character created in the TV series, etc.

This comment is in answer to a request by another commenter.

He could not find out where the Cisco Kid character came from.

He could not find it in his collection of O. Henry works.

I hope this has been of some help to him.

I find it really difficult to make this simple comment 10 lines.

If you would like to research it yourself, you can do so on-line.

Simply type in O'Henry.

Look up his biography, and short stories.

There you will find "The Caballero's Way" listed.

Here's "O. Henry's famous Robin Hood of the Old West!" Duncan Renaldo, The Cisco Kid of TV was a much more stand-up, stalwart hero than the short story character. Righting wrongs and doing good with his pal, Pancho Miguel Fernando Gonzalez de Conejo(Leo Carillo), Cisco was a model of right for a generation of wee cowpokes. Great low-budget nostalgic, formulaic kiddie western fun! And it's all in color, indicative of the foresight of the production company when TV was in it's infancy and a color set couldn't be had as yet!

MPI Video has compiled four DVD collections of 20 episodes each. That's just over half of the 156 episodes! Where are the rest, I wanna know?!? The color and quality are superb given the age of these shows, with great menus and all the stirring theme music and narration adding to the action and comic fun. Highly recommended!

I remember when I was little that I was just glued to this show. One of the 1st westerns that I remember seeing, and I've seen just about all of them. I haven't seen this show for years and it would be nice to see it again sometime.

Fell in love with the show when I was four years old, and never stopped loving it. I always felt that Cisco and Pancho were the ideal men--caring, brave, and gallant, protecting defenseless victims, sending their rewards to mission orphans, etc.

The early shows mentioned O. Henry, as in "O. Henry's Cisco Kid"--I have always wanted to know the name of the book or short story that contained the Cisco Kid. The story is not in any of my O. Henry collections, so maybe it went out of print. Also, it would be nice to know who wrote the lovely theme music, and if it's currently available.

The show was also notable, to me, for not using women characters only as victims--often, women were just as devious, villainous, and able as the men with whom they were associated.