Yancy Derringer

This was a really a neat and fun TV show to watch. I loved the fact that a Native American was given a decent part in a TV show. X-Brands always seemed so cool and aloof as Pahoo. The writers gave him dignity. It was also a cool concept and interesting that it was set in New Orleans. I enjoyed watching Jock Mahoney in almost anything he ever was in. He always looked so debonair, but capable in this series. I really would hope that this series could be released on DVD. If not on DVD, maybe it could be shown somehow on cable or satellite (TV Land?). The "Range Rider", that he was also in, was a cool show, too. I wouldn't mind seeing that show again, too, either on DVD or TV.

I remember this TV show quite well. It was a favorite of mine at a young age. I rarely missed an episode. I do remember Yancy carrying various small derringers. Pahoo carried a shotgun always hidden under some type of blanket as I remember. However I never remember Pahoo uttering much in the way of dialog. He and Yancy communicated thru the use of sign language. This gave the viewer(me)the impression that Pahoo either could not speak at all or wished only to communicate in sign language. As a sidelight of course was the fact that Yancy was indeed a gambler on the Mississippi and old New Orleans was a backdrop to this show. It ended much too soon.

Richard Sale (pulp writer and movie writer and movie producer) teamed up with his wife Anita Loos (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) to produce 39 episodes of a syndicated show. Jock Mahoney, the stunt man extraordinary and THE RANGE RIDER, was casted as a ex-confederate soldier coming back to a Yankee controlled New Orleans after the war. Opening episode, he and Pahoo were waving a Confederate Flag in the middle of the river to hitch a ride on a riverboat. Audacious and charming was Yancy.

"Yancy Derringer" was one of those series that dared to be different, a 'Western' that was set in post-Civil War New Orleans. If your memories of Jock Mahoney are of him as a lean, middle-aged Tarzan in his two 1960s appearances as the Ape Man, the show may be something of a surprise. He is soft-spoken, smooth, and dapper, here, and altogether 'cool'.

Loaded with a laid-back charm, an Indian partner (X Brand) unique in series television in his status as the hero's 'equal' and not just a 'sidekick' (an episode where the pair take the grievances of the Indian nations to Congress is a personal favorite), and one of the most beautiful theme songs of fifties television, the short-lived program is certainly as 'watchable' as the more successful "Have Gun, Will Travel", "Wanted: Dead or Alive" and the other more 'adult' westerns of the period.

If the series re-emerges on one of the 'nostalgia' cable channels, check it out...you won't be disappointed!

. . . they speak of Yancey D."

So went the theme song to this undeservedly short-lived series. Nominally billed as a "western" (Yancey did, after all, wear a broad-brimmed hat, there were horses about, and his best friend was an Indian), this show was hard to categorize, even in the era of the so-called "adult western."

There was always the hint of a dark side to Yancey, all things considered; a feeling that tucked away behind his reserved manner lay a past that may not always have been too cool (or, alternately, as a friend of mine once suggested, perhaps a bit TOO cool). Moreover, unlike most of his contemporary action heroes, Mr. D. didn't always fight fair: forced into a bare-knuckles match against an huge opponent, Yancey took advantage of his knowledge that the guy had spent the previous night guzzling beer, hammering him into collapse with a series of belly punches you could almost feel through the TV screen.

Not the nicest guy in town, in other words. But eminently effective. And thoroughly watchable. A great series.