Morgan and Quentin, brothers separated after an attack by Cheyenne, where their parents where killed and Morgan was abducted, as was their sister.
Years later, the brothers reunite and go on a quest to find their sister, whereabouts still unknown.
Morgan (Russell) largely maintains the Cheyenne
ways that he was raised with, as opposed to Quentin (Matheson), who was the more typical 19th century white American.
Morgan's Cheyenne knowledge and skills were regularly utilised in the episodes, taking this kind of TV show a significant step away from virtually all that had preceded it. So in a sense, it was groundbreaking.
The premise seemed sound and the leads, both still relatively young, seemed to work well together. They were engaging and both would have been fairly familiar faces at the time, with Russell still familiar from childhood and other mostly Disney roles, and Matheson from Magnum Force and appearances in Bonanza.
However, it was disappointing to learn that the show would not reappear after the first season ended.
Was it cancelled too soon? I know now of low US ratings, and also with hindsight, I could see how it may have been difficult to maintain this kind of show long-term, with episodes becoming 'samey'. And if you think of similarities to this and "The Searchers" movie, how long could it go on for?
But I still wonder if it could have lasted a bit longer and maybe we could have got a look at this long-lost sister in one or more episodes, and maybe a proper conclusion that the cancellation did not allow.
You could always sense that Kurt Russell had the proper X factor of a film star to make it after what must have been a disappointing cancellation at the time.
As for Matheson, I have because of this cancellation, paid attention to his subsequent roles, and kind of rooted for him because of what happened with this one. He has managed to flit between co-starring roles in movies like Animal House and Fletch, with major and minor roles on the small screen, where he seems to have found his greatest success. John Hoynes in The West Wing may well be his most famous role, although I also liked his turn in Burn Notice.
I like to think that Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson still keep in touch, but who knows. I'm mostly glad that they both went on to bigger and better things and are still around at the time of writing.
