How the West Was Won (TV series)

Plot

Zebulon Macahan worked as a mountain man and scout for the U.S. Army in the Indian Territories. After a decade away, he decided to visit his family in Manassas, Virginia, as the Civil War was about to begin. Because the war threatened their home, Zeb's sister-in-law Kate persuaded her husband Tim, Zeb's brother, to move their two sons and two daughters out west. The family found out that the first major battle might happen at Bull Run, close to where Tim and Zeb's parents lived.

Tim went back to Virginia while the rest spent the winter in the Indian Territories. Zeb discovered that a friend had been killed by a man named Dutton, who had escaped from an Army guardhouse where he was held for murdering innocent Indians. Dutton had sworn revenge on Zeb, so Zeb tried to stop him before he reached the Macahan homestead. Luke, one of the sons, traveled east to find his father and grandparents.

He arrived to find his grandparents had been killed by artillery fire during the First Battle of Bull Run. He learned his father had been forced into a Union Army unit heading to the Battle of Shiloh. Luke was also forced into service at Shiloh, got wounded, and was taken to a field aid station where he found his father dying from mortal wounds. Luke told his commanders he would not serve anymore and was about to be executed for desertion when shelling nearly wiped out his entire platoon.

He escaped on foot, reached Missouri, found a dead soldier's abandoned horse, and rode it until a local sheriff named Martin Stillman and his men caught him, accusing him of stealing the horse. Luke tried to explain he was a former Union soldier who had found it, but Stillman and his men, who supported the Confederacy, tried to lynch him. Luke got away, badly wounding Stillman's arm.

Cast

James Arness played Zebulon "Zeb" Macahan. Bruce Boxleitner portrayed Luke "Seth" Macahan, and William Kirby Cullen played Josh "Jed" Macahan. Fionnula Flanagan was Molly Culhane, Kathryn Holcomb played Laura Macahan, and Richard Kiley portrayed Timothy "Tim" Macahan. Jared Martin played Frank Grayson, Eva Marie Saint was Katherine "Kate" Macahan, Vicki Schreck played Jessica "Jessie" Macahan, and Harris Yulin portrayed Deek Peasley.

William Conrad served as the Narrator. In the first season, Tim's sons had different names than in the rest of the series: Boxleitner's character was renamed "Luke", and Cullen's character renamed "Josh". Guest stars included Ricardo Montalbán as Satangkai, a Sioux chief, and many others such as Richard Basehart, Brian Keith, Cameron Mitchell, Morgan Woodward, Ken Curtis, Michael Conrad, Christopher Lee, Tim Matheson, Lloyd Bridges, Don Murray, William Shatner, Anthony Zerbe, Woody Strode, David Huddleston, Gene Evans, and Jack Elam.

Home media

In Sweden and Norway, the series aired under the title Familjen Macahan and Familien Macahan, respectively. Its DVD release there was split into five boxes: the first arrived on November 25, 2009, containing four episodes including the pilot; the second on February 24, 2010, with five episodes; the third on May 12, 2010, also with five; the fourth on September 8, 2010, again five; and the fifth on December 1, 2010, holding six. A remastered edition followed in 2012, again in five boxes—the first on August 31, the rest on September 25—plus a complete set on November 21.

For Region 1, Warner Home Video put out season one on July 9, 2013, and season two on July 15, 2014. The third and final season came later, on April 19, 2016, as a Warner Archive MOD DVD. The second season originally aired as 14 episodes, with three of them filling three-hour slots and the rest running 60 minutes. For international syndication, these were recut into ten episodes, each roughly 90 minutes long.

Novelization

In January 1978, Ballantine Books published a nearly 400-page paperback novelization of early episodes, written by Lou Cameron. Cameron, a Western Writers of America Spur Award winner for his novel The Spirit Horses, adapted teleplays and screen stories by Calvin Clements, Colley Cibber, Howard Fast, William Kelley, John Mantley, Katharyn Michaelian, Jack Miller, and Earl W. Wallace. The novel shares the series title and is not to be confused with the identically titled 1962 feature film novelized by Louis L'Amour.