Casey Jones

This is the earliest show I can remember watching from it's first run, with the possible exceptions of the Roy Roger Show or The Adventures of Superman. I was born in 1953 and recall this show was on about the time my Dad got home from work. He wanted to spend some time with me after a long day at the office and we curled up together on the coach and watched Casey Jones "cannonballing down the track." I got a tape of the premiere episode a couple years and showed it to him. He couldn't remember the show, (He's pushing 90). But I could. It was an exciting episode about the railroad line trying to stay in business by proving it could deliver a mail contract faster than a rival running on conveniently parallel tracks. The "bad guys" cheated a lot but were beaten in the end. I noted with some amusement that they seemed to go past the same tree at least a dozen times. But it was fun and brought back warm memories.

I wholly agree with the comments above. It was a gentle family western with plenty of action but little "violence". It gave Alan Hale Jr. probably his best, if not his most famous role. He still expansively friendly and warm but also reasonably intelligent and well-principled, a good hero to have in a show such as this. There are so many actors famous for their TV roles who become prisoners of them and Mr. Hale was certainly one of them He was wonderful as "The Skipper", but he was excellent in this role as well and could have done a lot more than he was offered later in his career.

As I read the former comments,they brought back at lot of memories for me and I for one am certainly glad for these heart warming words.Casey Jones was my favorite TV show as a kid growing up in the 1950s.I had a Lionel train set and with Casey Jones on the TV,well could it get any better?.Recently I came across a fellow who will be lending me a recording of some of the episodes and what a joy it will be to see my childhood heroes again after almost 47 years!I think it is really interesting too ,to follow the other actors as many of them went on to do more work and provide people like me with hours of entertainment.Dubb Taylor who played the part of the steam locomotive fireman is also another hero of mine,I can still hear his very unique voice as he talks to Casey(Alan Hale Jr).I hope that some day more of this show will come out to entertain another generation of kids and big kids too,like me.

I saw this when I was a kid and loved every minute of it, even remembered the theme song 50 years later! I was amazed I could find the DVD on the Innovations catalogue and bought it now. Love watching it again. Some of the stuff is non-PC these days, but otherwise it's a great adventure. I would highly recommend it to steam train buffs.

"Casey Jones" was a first-run syndicated half-hour western series that ran during the '58-'59 television season and was a folksy, gentler family western series as opposed to some of the more violent adult westerns on the air during the late '50's and early '60's. Alan Hale Jr. played the legendary railroad engineer of the Cannonball Express for the Midwest and Central Railroad. Mary Lawrence portrayed Casey's wife Alice, Bobby Clark portrayed their son Casey Jr., Dub Taylor portrayed Casey's fireman Wallie Sims and Eddie Waller portrayed conductor Red Rock.

The series featured some of the same types of plots as other westerns of the time such as train robbers, vandals, etc. but the plots also centered as much on Casey's interaction with his family, particularly his young son, giving the series a much more laid back sort of ambiance. Alan Hale Jr. would go on to bigger and better (and stupider!) series after "Casey Jones" ended its single season run but this series was a solid family entertainment without insulting the intelligence as "Gilligan's Island" would do six years later.

Just watching up periscope and suddenly Casey Jones appears with a bevy of beauties on his arm. Casey Jones was on TV in the 60s and 70s in the UK. And a generation of kids knew the theme tune off by heart, great family entertainment on a Saturday morning , along with the flashing blade and Robinson Crusoe, and the bananas splits.