The Gabby Hayes Show
Gabby Hayes hosted history stories and western film clips.
Two separate children's shows on NBC, both backed by Quaker Oats, shared the name The Gabby Hayes Show. One featured history tales, while the other presented clips from old westerns.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Children's television series; Western
- Writer
- Jerome Coopersmith; Horton Foote
- Director
- Vincent J. Donehue
- Presenter
- Gabby Hayes
- Country
- United States
- Runtime
- 15 and 30 minutes
- Channel
- NBC
- First aired
- 15 October 1950
Facts from the source article.
Sunday history series
The live half-hour program first aired on October 15, 1950, under the name The Quaker Oats Show, which was changed the following year. Host Gabby Hayes sat in a general store set in "Quaker Canyon" and shared funny historical tales with child actors Clifford Sales and Lee Graham. Horton Foote and Jerome Coopersmith wrote the history-based scripts, and production took place in NBC's Studio 3A at Rockefeller Center. In 1950, it reached 39 cities. Early episodes featured the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Battle of the Alamo, a young Buffalo Bill, John Paul Jones, and Thanksgiving. Ross Martin portrayed Wyatt Earp in January 1952, with Betty Garde playing Belle Starr the following week. A newspaper column on January 27, 1952, reported the Sunday series had been canceled.
Weekday western film series
It started three days a week—Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—before expanding to a full five-day schedule. Each fifteen-minute episode featured Hayes spinning yarns about his oddball relatives, followed by clips from an old B-western movie that continued across multiple days. He wrapped up with another tall tale. A young Fred Rogers worked as a floor manager on the show before heading back to Pittsburgh to join the first public television station, WQED.
More in 1950s American Children's Television Series
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