La flèche brisée

I well remember his series with great fondness. My Mother watched primarily to drool over Michael Ansara and I because of the fine flavour of Native American culture. Let us remember the time: in Westerns all Indians were "bad guys" save for Tonto, and the Apaches were the worst of the worst. Yet in "Broken Arrow", as in the motion picture upon which it was based, the Apaches were human and Cochise an heroic figure up to whom any little boy could look. John Lupton suffered from the ""Sugaroot" Will Hutchin's "aw shucks" young Jimmy Stewart lightweight syndrome" but somehow overcame it by dint of good acting and a underlying tragic flavour shared with Ansara and with the whole series. The tension in the series was cultural; the friendship of Cochise nd Tom always balanced against this cultural gulf. Not a typical Western at all but an exploration of multiculturalism in its best sense, "Broken Arrow" was unique in its day.

I don't remember much of the actual episodes; only the lessons taught me by the series. My mom (who claimed to be in some small part Blackfoot),had me watch the first few episodes and after that I watched them without her having to coax me. She had told me that the Indians,contrary to what we were lead to believe in school,had a strong sense of honor,Justice, Codes of Conduct and fair play,and took care of and had great respect for their elderly within the tribe. Years later,when I found myself in Ranger training with a full blood Apache, I found him to be a friend who, not only reinforced what mom had said, but was a wealth of information on their customs,rituals,and history. We'd been assigned on several missions together in Vietnam and I believe he'd adopted me as his little brother(then I was 5'8" and he was 6'4")Since I was the smaller I'd go in while he watched my back. It was a learning experience for the both of us as each found that what we had learned in our younger years truly had to be,as YODA would say "unlearn what you have learned". Much like what Broken Arrow taught me,what we all thought to be the case, was NOT the case at all. Perhaps we all could benefit from the lessons Broken Arrow has to teach!?

I just answered my own question. Montalban played Cochise in The 20th Century Hour TV series (a series of single one-hour TV made versions of 20th Century Fox movies). This still starred John Lupton as Tom Jeffords. They apparently made the series after this, except with Michael Ansara. I found this by checking the last TV entry on IMDB for Ricardo Montalban under TV episodes. I personally never remember seeing The 20th Century Hour.

I just saw what appears to be the first TV episode of Broken Arrow with Lupton as Tom Jeffords and Ricardo Montalban as Cochise. This is the episode where Jeffords' wife dies, like in the movie with Jimmy Stewart. I only remember Michael Ansara as Cochise, but not so. I don't know when he changed parts. (Maybe the original was a single episode on Zane Grey Theater, which like The Rifleman, became a series?)

"Broken Arrow" was 20th Century Fox' entry into the race for western TV supremacy in 1956. It did'nt happen here. Unlike Warner Bros., TFC didn't apply the movie like production values to its TV arm and it shows. But does it really matter with westerns? Not as much. Syrian born actor Michael Ansara was well cast as the brooding Cochise. One wonders how much he must have cringed as Tom Jeffords (bloodbrother to Cochise and Army officer) played to the hilt by actor John Lupton, had a tendency to sometimes over-dramatize his parts. Lupton (as did Ansara) went on to play charactor parts in a host of movies and other TV shows. (Ansara as you probably know was married for a time to actress Barbara Eden).The show was nontheless entertaining and was blessed with a bevy of first class directors and guest actors.Broken Arrow was somewhat unusual for its time as unlike other shows and movies of its time it showed that Indians can be reasonable and humane!Nostalgia buffs would love to see cleaned up studio versions of this instead of the grainy 16mm versions available today! Where are they?