Bronco (TV series)

Did You Know?

• Warner Bros. released the first three seasons on DVD via their Warner Archive Collection as manufacture-on-demand releases.
• The fourth and final season was released on DVD on May 19, 2015.

Overview

Bronco premiered in the fall of 1958 after a contract dispute between Warner Bros. executives and Clint Walker, star of the series Cheyenne. Walker had walked out over clauses requiring him to return half of personal appearance fees to Warner Bros. and to record only for Warner music labels. With the two sides at an impasse, the network hired newcomer Ty Hardin to play Bronco Layne but kept the title Cheyenne. When Walker returned, Bronco became a spin-off of Cheyenne.

Initially, Bronco alternated with another Western series, Sugarfoot, starring Will Hutchins. In 1960, the two began alternating with Cheyenne under the Cheyenne title; Sugarfoot was dropped in 1961, leaving only Bronco and Cheyenne to alternate. Other Warner Bros. Westerns in production at the time included Maverick, Colt .45, and Lawman, with characters occasionally crossing over. According to the theme song, Bronco came from the Texas Panhandle, but episodes are set throughout the West.

In the eighth episode, "Freeze-Out" (December 30, 1958), a writer calling herself Mary Brown, played by Grace Raynor, hires Bronco to escort her to a ghost town, where they encounter three men; the plot involves a body buried in a glacier and missing gold. James Drury appears as John Smith, and Edgar Stehli plays "Pancake" Riddle.

Guest stars

Peter Breck portrayed Theodore Roosevelt in "Yankee Tornado" (1961). Ahna Capri appeared as the child Emily in "A Town That Lived and Died" (1962). Russ Conway played Willis Turner, with Chris Alcaide as Brutus Traxel, in "The Silent Witness" (1959). Walter Coy appeared as Sheriff Walters in "The Turning Point" (1958), Victor Leggett in "Backfire" (1959), and Sheriff Springer in "Beginner's Luck" (1962).

Francis De Sales was Lawrence Larson in "Hero of the Town" (1959). Med Flory played Vance Pelham in "Then the Mountains" (1962). Dean Fredericks was Great Wolf in "Seminole War Pipe" (1960). Tod Griffin appeared as Sheriff Garth Nelson in "The Silent Witness" (1959) and Chip Garnes in "Volunteers from Aberdeen" (1960).

Rodolfo Hoyos, Jr. portrayed Manuel Figueres in "Flight from an Empire" (1959). I. Stanford Jolley played Stover in "Brand of Courage" (1958) and Old Man Shirley in "Shadow of Jesse James" (1960). Douglas Kennedy was Paul Duquesne in "Four Guns and a Prayer" (1958). Scott Marlowe appeared as John Wesley Hardin in "The Turning Point" (1958).

Gregg Palmer played Colton in "Destinies West" (1962). Judson Pratt was Marlow in "Manitoba Manhunt" (1961). Pernell Roberts appeared as Reverend Dave Clayton in "The Belles of Silver Flats" (1959). Randy Stuart played Claire Russo in "Tangled Trail" (1960).

Olive Sturgess was Virginia Munger in "Guns of the Lawless" (1961). Gary Vinson appeared four times in different roles between 1958 and 1961. Tony Young appeared twice, as Cpl. Red Bird in "The Burning Springs" (1959) and as Tod Chapman in "One Evening in Abilene" (1962).

Jack Nicholson appeared as the young lover Bob in the episode "The Equalizer" in season four, episode four (1961); Jack Elam played Mr. Thompson in the same episode.