The Rebel

In the 50s, as a kid, I watched Gunsmoke, Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel and the others.

When Johnny Yuma, 'The Rebel' came along, there was no need to watch the others. When it went off the air in two short years, I never watched Westerns again. This series said it all, the only one I thought projected the West as it might have been, the only one worth looking back at 50 years later.

It had decent scripts and all the technical trappings, but Nick Adams was a rebel from the first episode to the last.

I never cared for much Nick did before or after 'Rebel' but James Dean would have been proud of what his friend did in bringing a 'Rebel Without a Cause' to the west. I think Nick wanted it this way

Character actor Nick Adams was an unlikely choice for the lead on an action-packed television western series where the genre was dominated by "Gunsmoke","Wagon Train","Have Gun Will Travel","The Rifleman",and "Tales of Wells Fargo",and "Cheyenne" just to name a few were the stars that dominated the "western" genre were Ward Bond,Robert Horton,Chuck Connors,not to mention James Arness and Clint Walker. "The Rebel" came out when the television landscape was dominated by "westerns",and "family situation comedies" that ruled the late-1950's and early-1960's. The series portrays the adventures of a young Confederate Army veteran named Johnny Yuma(Nick Adams)who was an inspiring writer who kept details of his activities in his journal. Haunted by the memories of the Civil War,Yuma,in search of inner peace,roams the American West specifically the Texas Hill Country and the South Texas plains who also fights injustice wherever he finds it and takes care of manners in his own hands with a double-barreled sawed off shotgun. Whereas virtually all the others "westerns" consisted of work,romance and adventure,"The Rebel" was about Johnny Yuma "finding himself" and along the way his encounters with ruthless gunslingers,hostile villains,and the like while Johnny Yuma comes out of these episodes "victorious".

Out of the 76 episodes that this series produced,all in classic black-and-white,"The Rebel" had Nick Adams as not only the star of the series,but also was involved with the show's design,inception,and writing,not to mention serving as its creator and executive producer along with producer Andrew J. Fenady(who appeared twice in the series once as United States Army General Philip Sheridan in the episode "Johnny Yuma at Appomattox"). The series was one of the few that producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman,through their production company Goodson-Todman Productions did outside of their game show ventures. The other series that Goodson and Todman produced was another western called "Branded" starring Chuck Connors that ran for 23 episodes. "The Rebel" originally aired on ABC-TV from October 4,1959 until the series finale on June 18,1961. The show's sponsor was the Proctor & Gamble Company. This series was the first "teenage western" whose audiences were the younger crowd. The show's title song was done by Johnny Cash. It was grand western,but it ended up getting canceled with the powers that be over at ABC entered into a hostile relationship with the company that produced the series,ending up canceling one of their top rated shows. In 1962,"The Rebel" was picked up by NBC in repeats as a mid-season replacement where all 76 episodes were re-runs. After that the series went into syndication in repeats.

Character actor Nick Adams was an unlikely choice for the lead on an action TV series, particularly a western, where the genre was dominated by large fellows like Clint Walker and James Arness. The diminutive Adams played Johnny Yuma, a Confederate veteran who after the Civil War wanders the west. But whereas virtually all of the other cowboys who did precisely that on a nearly endless number of shows were simply looking for work, romance, or adventure, Yuma was trying to 'find himself.' He was a writer, and "Johnny Yuma's Journal" always remained a focal point of the series. More interesting still was that the title had three meanings: One one level, Johnny was indeed a rebel in that he was among the defeated Southerners; on another, he was being played by Nick Adams, who had co-starred with James Dean in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, and ABC made a great deal of the fact that, in an era of adult westerns, this was the first "teenage western" - though Adams was over thirty when he filmed the show, the idea was to bring a James Dean type character to television, if in the context of a western to avoid any possible controversy. Finally, there was at least a hint of Camus's THE STRANGER, a certain existential quailty to the character and the stark situations in which he found himself, that made this show vaguely philosophical, intentionally or otherwise. Much of the action took place at night, allowing this a certain noir sensibility not in evidence on any other western of the era. One wonderful element was the theme song, performed by the inimicable Johnny Cash: "Johnny Yuma, was a rebel; he roamed through the west." The show was a huge hit, particularly with teenagers, but ended up getting canceled when ABC entered into a hostile relationship with the company that produced The Rebel and cut off their nose to spite their face by canceling one of their top rated shows. Unlike most canceled series, which went immediately into syndication, the Rebel was picked up by NBC as a midseason replacement, though all those episodes were reruns. This move may have been an attempt to keep Nick Adams 'live' in the public consciousness, as they premiered his new series, Saints and Sinners (about a newspaperman) in the fall of 1962, though that series was a flop.

I've stumbled upon this series pretty accidentally, as it is not known at all in my country. But once I've started watching it, I got addicted immediately. Nowadays, these series seems a bit naive, but perhaps this is what's most attractive about it. It is not action-packed and the main protagonist is not a super-hero like most of them are today. But what's more important, The Rebel is about people. Just those common folk of the immediate post-Civil war era, with the country still getting back from being torn apart, their life and death, feelings, emotions, wrongs and rights. And, what I reckon, the main idea of the series is that no matter what, staying a MAN is what keeps us from going down the dark.

I also enjoy the setting of the 1860s - its a wild-wild-west with a touch of progress. Indians, former military men of both armies, criminals, corrupt law enforcement, rednecks and all other inhabitants of the American continent, make watching this series a very enjoyable experience.

Nick Adams starred in this post Civil War western The Rebel and unlike many series was the one and only cast member. Johnny Yuma went west to do a bit of soul searching. Fighting on the losing side will have you analyzing yourself a lot. And he kept a journal of his travels.

His life might have been a lot easier had he worn traditional cowboy attire. But every week there was Adams in part f his Confederate uniform. Would have saved him a lot grief but then about half the episodes in the two year run would have disappeared. And Adams was always playing young men with a chip on their shoulder.

he Rebel lasted two seasons and was faithfully watched by my Ukranian grandparents because they liked to see a nice Ukranian kid like Nick Adams make good. That he did but he died way too young.