The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin

Did You Know?

• Actor James Brown said the show's stories taught that 'right was right and wrong was wrong.'
• TV Guide called the series 'crammed with action, gunplay and chase scenes,' while Variety criticized Lee Aaker as 'precocious' and said 'the dog does nothing exceptional either.'

Production

Producer Herbert Leonard conceived the show while lunching at the Fort Apache set on the Corrigan Movie Ranch. He secured rights from Rin Tin Tin owner Lee Duncan with a handshake and ten dollars, after enlisting Douglas Heyes to write the script. Episodes were filmed on a budget under $50,000 each, with outdoor action shot at Corriganville Movie Ranch and the Iverson Movie Ranch. A troupe of twelve character actors frequently played multiple roles in the same episode, sometimes appearing as both a cavalry soldier and an Apache.

Broadcast

The series aired Friday evenings on ABC for five seasons, then reran on ABC late afternoons from September 1959 to September 1961. CBS aired reruns on Saturdays from September 1962 to September 1964. A 1976 rerun package, with sepia-tinted prints and new color segments filmed in Utah, was unsuccessful due to poor local station scheduling. Modern syndication features remastered episodes with redubbed lines by different actors and a new theme song.