Les Monroe

As a young man growing up in Jackson Hole I had the privilege of working as a stunt double, stand-in for one of the Schultz twins on the TV show "The Monroes". My cousin provided the horses for the show and got me the job for the summer. My favorite person on the set was Ben Johnson who played the one armed cowboy Sleeve. He played football with us kids and was very kind to us when we were treated mostly as invisible or in the way by the other stars especially Barbara Hershey who was a perfect snob. In nearly all of the episodes when you see one of the twins from the back or from far away or in any rough action that is really me.

Lived in the little town of Jackson, Wyoming at the time they shot this series here. They filmed this series mostly in Grand Teton National Park until the weather got too cold in the late fall and then they went back to LA and rebuilt the cabin set on a sound stage which you could easily tell. The location shots had a wide view of the Teton range with few trees and the interior sets had all these trees with a painted vista of the Tetons. That is also when the ratings went downhill on the latter episodes and ABC axed this show. It was quite neat to see the major guest stars fly in and out of Jackson and Barbra Hershey was actually very cordial. The little Twins on the series were cute as well. Anyway a good western.

Underrated TV western that sadly only lasted a season. The sweeping vistas on location in the Grand Teton National Park were memorable. Nice theme song by David Rose, who would later do "Little House on the Prarie". Michael Anderson and Barbara Hershey were creditable as the older siblings, while the younger ones were thankfully un-precocious! All and all among the more realistic westerns of the era. One of the twins, Kevin Schultz, would go on to portray Tom Sawyer in live action/cartoon "New Adventures of Huck Finn" later in the 1960s. My folks loved the big white Great Pyrenees dog so much that our next dog was a Great Pyrenees! In answer to an earlier reviewer, the dog's name was Snow.

My family produced a weekly rodeo in Jackson the summer of 1966. I was 20 years old and had just finished a successful season attending college on a rodeo scholarship. One of the stars of The Monroes was Ben Johnson who, in 1953, as a professional cowboy won the world calf roping championship! Ben Johnson and I became acquainted and he introduced me to Jack Sonntag, the production manager of The Monroes who hired me as an extra to ride horses. I was given one, short speaking part coupled with a stunt which involved my getting shot off of my horse in the middle of the creek. All in all, it was a fun summer in Jackson Hole Wyoming, rodeoing on the weekends and making movies during the week. Two years ago I discovered that the Monroe series was available on DVD and of course I ordered it but I was disappointed with the quality of the DVD; they are way too dark. My grandkids watch the videos and think it's neat for their old grandpa to be in-the-movies.

A wonderful series! A beautiful theme song by David Rose, gorgeous scenery and great characters portrayed by Ron Soble, Ben Johnson and Liam Sullivan. However, the only reason I feel in love with this series was the incredibly handome James Westmoreland who portrayed Ruel Jaxon ( a fabulous cowboy name!), who is one of Major Mapoy's ranch hands. I was thirteen years old and I made sure I never missed an episode. I wrote Mr. Westmoreland a fan letter and he graciously set me a glossy 9 x 11 photograph and a very kind note thanking me for taking the time to write him a letter and for appreciating his performances on The Monroes. Both items were personally written to me and autographed. Over fifty years later, I still treasure these items. Purchased the DVD set and I am enjoying it as much as I did many years ago. Very enjoyable! Would love to see more programs like this back on the air