Lo sceriffo del sud

After a string of hits movies to boot(which were mostly Westerns),legendary Hollywood actor Glenn Ford gave TV a try with this weekly series that is now seldom seen nowadays. Here you'll have a show that was part of a modern day Western,and part crime drama show all in one and it was one of those shows that kept you on what would happen next. Ford was the tough and sensitive sheriff of Madrid County who kept law and order with his deputy(Petticoat Junction's Edgar Buchanan). However it did tackle issues that were relevant in its day like the plight of the American Indian,and the overall discrimination of the Mexican American and other minorities. The overall opening sequence of the show(seen with Ford going through the mountain landscape in a Jeep)makes for one of the best shows ever from the early 1970's that is rarely seen. NOTE:The shows theme was written by composer Henry Mancini,and this would be Glenn Ford's only TV series to date which ran from 1971-1973 on CBS.

I find it astounding that "Cade's County" was on the air for only one season. (When re-run I believe it was called "Sheriff of Madrid", Madrid being the county seat of Cade's county.) Although it was never specified in which state the county existed, everything pointed to Arizona or New Mexico. Ford provided a mature, compassionate hero who was correctly unbending on matters of right and wrong but willing to help people: the ideal lawman. Edgar Buchanan, an actor whom I personally found irritating in most roles, was a fine foil for Ford. As Ford was in his forties there was no hint of Buchana as old mentor so the dynamics were a bit unusual, as though Marshall Dillon's deputy Chester had been twenty years Dillon's senior. Ford's Jeep ripping through the desert landscape was a treat. In one standout episode Bobby Darrin demonstrated acting powers even beyond what he demonstrated in the motion picture "Captian Newman, M.D." The theme song was and is superb.

Cades County had a great opening sequence with Glenn Ford riding his Jeep V6 through the desert landscape to the arrangement by Henry Mancini. It was a Big Picture title sequence for Television. I enjoyed this series and some of the episode's were well written and addressed some of the more difficult American issues of the time. Unfortunately, the budget,screen writing & direction was not of a consistently high standard (I am a fan of the Series). Some episodes were great, others very ordinary. I heard at the time that the network was selecting scripts from independent writers for each episode. If that was the case, a better idea would have been to stick with one set of writers so as to develop the characters and the story lines and retain an audience. We should recall that the early seventies was a time when older Movie stars were attracted to TV. Ford did an admirable job as Sam Cade as he did in all his movie roles. But in the end I believe it was the budget and the poor scripts that killed the series. Glenn Ford travelled to Australia to promote the Series in 1971/72 for the Australian TV Logie awards.

Regards Peter H Sydney, Austraila

This was how the series was called in Portugal when it aired around 1975. How do I add this info?

This series has a strong cast & good production. What happened that it ran so short a time? CBS was a big piece of the problem. This series was on the network which had given itself a black eye with the over hyped western dud Lancer. After such a terrible entry, folks ignored this entry because they were afraid it would be just as bad.

Then, CBS put it on late Sunday evenings. This time slot back in the three network days was a kiss of death for almost any program. As a matter of fact, Johnny Carson's quip concerning this show in a monologue on The Tonight Show then: "According to the latest Nielson ratings it dismayed CBS to find out that more than 90 percent of households tuned to Cades County on Sunday nights are using the program as a night light." Carsons pot shot at the show is a little cruel, but the program was canceled in one season.