La grande caravane

I remember watching "Wagon Train" when I was a child. It ranked up there with such western classics as "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza," "Have Gun Will Travel," and "Laramie." I think the earlier episodes that featured Ward Bond as the Major and Robert Horton as Flint were somewhat better than the last few years the show was on. Of course, Charlie the cook was everyone's favorite character. It was interesting to see what obstacle the wagon master had to overcome on a weekly basis: blizzards, floods, Indians, outlaws, religious fanatics, small pox, snakes, droughts and so on. There's an episode featuring the great Charles Laugthon as a pompous Englishman that is my favorite. This television program is the epitome of true grit on the lonely frontier.

As a lad way back in the day I was one big fan of this TV series. Even at that age I appreciated all the famous guest stars this series seemed to attract.

Take a look at the film credits of Ward Bond. You can hardly find a player, male or female, who at one point did not work with Ward Bond. All the more remarkable when you consider his rightwing politics and championing of the blacklist. The man was hated in some circles, but apparently no one denied his talent.

It was a simple concept, Ward Bond as Major Seth Adams and his team led a group of hardy pioneers across the plains and mountains to California post Civil War. EAch episode focused on those traveling in a particular wagon or someone they met on the way who was usually a name guest star.

Wagon Train was enormously popular. When Ward Bond died in November of 1960 it was national news. It was quite a month, his death and that of Clark Gable almost put the election of a new president named Kennedy out of the headlines.

Bond's death also allowed Wagon Train to pioneer what Law and Order later perfected, the revolving change of regulars. Only Frank McGrath and Terry Wilson stayed with the show for the entire run.

Frank McGrath and Terry Wilson were a pair of stunt men who worked a whole lot for John Ford and though they had done some roles with dialog in front of the camera, Wagon Train made their faces familiar to the public. McGrath was funny little guy as cook Charlie Wooster who must have kept them all amused because the regulars were forever complaining about his lousy cooking.

Wilson played Bill Hawks and comments have been made about the horrible continuity Wagon Train had. It sure did and the most glaring example was that when the show first started, Hawks had a wife named Emily in that first season. She was not only dropped. but later on Hawks referred to himself as a bachelor. Couldn't do that today.

John McIntire replaced Bond and was more than adequate as the father figure wagonmaster. There was a good episode that introduced McIntire as a temporary and sadistic wagonmaster played by Lee Marvin takes over and at the same time, the train picks up McIntire who's just seen his family massacred by Indians. McIntire is a former wagonmaster and he and Marvin have a confrontation.

Robert Horton was scout Flint McCullough and several episodes featured him in the lead and they took him to the places he was scouting with guest stars there for him to interact with. Supposedly political differences were pretty rife between him and Bond. He quit as he was planning to do anyway as I remember even after Bond died. Bad career move though, he never got anything as good as Flint McCullough again.

After that a host of new regulars came on the show, Robert Fuller, Denny Miller, and Michael Burns. The train came to an end in 1965. I was sorry to see it end.

Hallmark channel runs Wagon Train sometimes, here's hoping they start them again.

Would like to know why Wagon Train is never shown in reruns. It was one of my favorite westerns and I would love to see the episodes again. I remember watching it every week with my Dad (who also loved westerns), in fact, the first time my future husband came to my house, we were watching Wagon Train, and he watched it with us, even though he didn't really care for westerns! It's a wonder we made it together, but we have been married now for 43, almost 44 years. I really preferred Ward Bond as the wagon master, but of course, he died and they had to replace him. Flint McCullough was my favorite character. I thought he had the most exciting role, being the one who always went ahead to check things out for the rest of the wagon train.

Perhaps the quintessential show from the Golden Age of TV westerns, this series ran from 1957 to 1965 and it had a simple but compelling format. Each week it told the story of one of the travelers on an 1870's "wagon train" making its way across the American West. This format thus combined the sweeping backdrop of an ever-changing frontier with the small, personal story of a single individual.

So popular did the show become that it attracted an impressive array of "guest stars" -- Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Rhonda Fleming, Barbara Stanwyck, Leslie Nielsen, Lee Marvin, etc.

The earlier shows in the series were probably the best since they featured Ward Bond as the leader of the wagon train and Robert Horton as his scout. Ward's death in 1960 and Horton's departure in 1962 weakened the series though it maintained a respectable level of production for several more years.

While the TV westerns that arose in the Eisenhower years are now nostalgically regarded as fine "family" entertainment, it's curious that they often showed their leading actors stripped half-naked and subjected to various forms of torture. "Wagon Train" was no exception. On the 1-15-1958 episode titled "The Gabe Carswell Story," for example, a bare-chested Robert Horton is staked out spreadeagle-style under the scorching sun and left to die by a villainous "half-breed." And in the 12-13-1961 episode titled "The Traitor," Horton is stripped to the waist, tied to a wagon wheel, and whipped across his bare back. In both cases the sado-masochistic nature of these sequences is emphasized rather than muted and the exposed muscularity of the actor is openly exploited.

While Ward Bond could never be replaced, many viewers looked kindly on his successor, John McIntire. Robert Fuller, however, never quite seemed adequate as Robert Horton's replacement.

I had never watched WAGON TRAIN when I was growing up as at that time I wasn't particularly fond of westerns. The only one I remembered enjoying was Death Valley Days. So it was with some amusement that when I ordered Wagon Train: The Complete Color Season at Amazon.Com, I was thinking at the time I was ordering the other shows. At 50, my mind was already slipping. When it came, I decided to give it a try. The DVD set includes all 32 episodes of Wagon Trains only color season, plus 16 episodes of the best of the black and white seasons. It turned out to be one of the best television series I have ever bought. What made the color season unique was that the shows were ninety minutes long, each story practically a movie unto themselves. The colors on the transfers were still vivid and the black and white episodes were crisp and clear. Unlike other comments, I really enjoyed John McIntyre in the role of Chris Hale as Wagonmaster. He reminded me almost of John Wayne in his later years, in movies such as True Grit and The Sons Of Katie Elder. The ensemble cast on this show was excellent as well as the endless parade of guest stars, most notably in the color season with Barbara Stanwyck, appearing in two episodes, Suzanne Pleshette, playing a very unsympathetic bad girl role, and Burgess Meredith in a touching, sentimental role that will leave tears in your eyes. Wagon Train was truly one of the great westerns. If you can't find it on TV, I suggest you get it on DVD in whatever form you can find.