BAT MASTERSON
Based on the real-life exploits of William Bartholomew Masterson, a Dodge City lawman who preferred to use his wits instead of his fists and his cane instead of his Colt, Gene Barry (born Eugene Klass) made his TV series debut in this popular Western during the genre's golden age in 1958. Bat Masterson was a lawman, scout and professional gambler who had an eye for the ladies and counted among his friends the legendary Wyatt Earp. The grateful citizens of Dodge City presented his trademark cane, derby and specially designed gun to him during his tenure as sheriff. The part of a flamboyant and debonair lawman was one that Barry would recreate successfully in 'Burke's Law', 'The Name of the Game' and 'The Adventurer'. The series style was no doubt influenced by the offbeat humour that had gone down so well with US audiences in 'Maverick', which had debuted the year before and in 1989 Barry briefly reprised the role for a single episode of 'Paradise'. William Conrad, who went on to star as burly private detective Frank Cannon, directed a number of episodes. (Trivia: Though his book contains some errors as a result of his attempting to debunk the accuracy of the persona Gene Barry depicted in the television series, Robert K. DeArment's Bat Masterson: The Man & The Legend, 1979, University of Oklahoma Press does a good job of documenting his origins).
107 episodes of 30 minute duration. Black and White. 1958-1961.
THE BED-SIT GIRL
Another sitcom from the prolific two Ron's writing team of Chesney and Wolfe, 'The Bed-Sit Girl' was written as a starring vehicle for Sheila Hancock (wife of the late John Thaw), who had become a household name in the duo's earlier smash hit comedy, 'The Rag Trade'.
Sheila was a secretary whose life was a steady stream of failed romances and frustrated failures but who never gave up her dreams of a more glamorous and fulfilling existence. She would have gladly swapped places with her airhostess friend and neighbour Dilys (occasional "Carry On" star - Dilys Laye) and attempted to associate herself with what she considered the jet set. The second series saw her with a boyfriend, David (Derek Nimmo), who lived in the bed-sit flat next door, and a new worldly-wise friend (after Dilys had jetted off permanently) called Liz (Hy Hazell).
12 episodes of 30 minute duration. BBC. 1965-66.
Click here for another picture from The Bed-Sit Girl
THE BIG VALLEY
Starring four times Academy Award nominee Barbara Stanwyck as iron willed cattle rancher Victoria Berkley, a rich widow and mother of an illegitimate boy, three sons and a daughter, and set in California's San Joaquin Valley around the 1870's. Eldest son Jarrod (Richard Long who had previously appeared in 'Maverick' and '77 Sunset Strip') was a successful San Franciscan lawyer, who handled the family's legal affairs; Nick Barkley (Peter Breck) ran the ranch whilst youngest son Eugene (Charles Briles) was something of a dreamer. Completing the family was former Disney girl Linda ('Dynasty') Evans as daughter Audra and Lee ('Six Million Dollar Man') Majors, making his TV debut as Heath. The series was created by Lou Edelman who had produced an earlier series for Stanwyck, and developed by A.I. Bezzerides, as an attempt to rival both 'Bonanza' and 'The Virginian'. However, it had a somewhat shorter television life than those other two series and finished after four seasons. The stirring theme tune was written by Lalo Schifrin.
112 episodes of 52 minute duration. 1965-69.
BIGGLES
The adventures of Major James Bigglesworth, better known in flying circles as "Biggles", were written by Captain W. E. Johns (February 5, 1893 - 21 June 1968) an English pilot and writer of adventure stories who created his air ace hero in the story "The White Fokker", published in the first issue of 'Popular Flying' magazine in March 1932. This 1960 series, made by Granada Television, was a children's adventure transmitted in an early evening slot (initially Fridays at 6.30pm and later twice a week with the second episode being added and then going out on Wednesday's and Friday's at 7.00pm). The story featured a post-war Biggles (played by Nevil Whiting) who had left the RAF to join the CID, heading up a crack unit of investigators that comprised himself, Bertie (Lord Bertram Lissie) and Ginger (Ginger Hebblethwaite), who would traverse the globe to solve crime. Ginger was played by John Leyton who, on the back of this success, turned pop star and had a Number One hit the following year with the haunting 'Johnny Remember Me'. But even more notable than that was that one of the writers of this series was Tony Warren-who, whilst working on 'Biggles' was also creating a 13-part soap called 'Florizel Street', but later (wisely) renamed 'Coronation Street'. Actor William Roache also worked on the series and was spotted by Warren who then cast him as 'The Streets' Ken Barlow.
44 Episodes of 30 minute duration. Granada Television. April - October 1960.
BILLY BUNTER
William George Bunter was an oversized schoolboy who attended Greyfriars School and often got involved in a number of comic misadventures. In fact it was from the children's comic Magnet that Bunter sprung, transferred to television by his creator Frank Richards. The shows were performed live twice a night (at 5.25pm and 8pm) on Tuesday's, from 1952 to 1961 and made a star of lead actor Gerald Campion (who was 29 at the time), but not as big a star as one of his schoolboy tormentors, namely, Michael Crawford. Anthony Valentine and Melvyn Hayes also got early TV exposure and the series gave rise to two catchphrases; "Yaroo" and "Oh, Crikey!" Well, it was the fifties!
Approx 120 episodes of 30 minute duration. BBCTV 1952-61.
BOUQUET OF BARBED WIRE
Infidelity, lust and incest came to British television screens in 1976 by way of Andrea Newman's adaptation of her own 1969 novel which starred Frank Finlay as Peter Manson, a well-off middle-class publisher who dotes just a little too much on his daughter, Prue (played by Susan Penhaligon). Together they live in domestic harmony with wife and mother Cassie (Sheila Allen) until one hot summer Prue returns from University pregnant and married to American, Gavin Sorensen (James Aubrey). Peter can hardly contain his jealousy and his obsessive love for his pouting manipulative daughter soon tears the family apart. For his part, Gavin has no qualms about seducing Prue's mother, who is more than happy to find a distraction from her husband. Viewers had never quite seen anything like it before and were totally gripped by the smouldering forbidden antics of all involved with the tabloid press having a field day describing in detail each steamy scene. The critic Clive James wrote of the first series "by the end, everybody had been to bed with everybody else except the baby." Although Prue dies in childbirth that didn't stop the other characters from returning for a second series, "Another Bouquet" written for television before being novelised, LWT Controller Cyril Bennett having asked Andrea Newman to come up with a sequel to what had been a phenomenal hit for ITV. When we catch up with them again Gavin and Cassie are still having a relationship in spite of the American having found himself a new girlfriend, Sarah (Deborah Grant), who soon becomes the fixation of Peter. It seems nobody has learned their lesson!
7 episodes of 60 minute duration. LWT. 1976
THE BUCCANEERS
Future Hollywood actor Robert Shaw ('The Sting', 'Jaws') made his small screen debut as ex-pirate Dan Tempest, the leader of a small band of freebooters who roamed the Caribbean Seas in the 1720's on their ship The Sultana. The Deputy Governor of New Province persuaded Tempest and his men to fight on behalf of the Crown against the advancing Spanish, and so began 39 episodes of swashbuckling adventures and the first pirate series for the small screen. Made by Sapphire Films and ITC the series was filmed at Nettlefold Studios, Walton-On-Thames with sea sequences shot just off the coast of Falmouth. The ship itself was already a well-established star having been used as the Hispaniola in Disney's 'Treasure Island', and the Peaquod in John Huston's 'Moby Dick'. Unusually, the regular cast (amongst who was Roger Delgado, later to star as Doctor Who villain The Master), did not actually appear until episode three, the first two being used to set the scene. Guest stars included future 'Carry On' star Joan Sims and a very young Jane Asher. Shaw was not the first choice to play the lead, the producers cast Alec Clunes (father of modern day TV star Martin) but prospective US buyers CBS thought he was 'too British' for American viewers, and so Shaw, who at that time was struggling and broke, was given the role (Clunes was recast as Governor Woodes Rogers). The series made him but he didn't take long to become disenchanted with the scripts as well as the gruelling schedule that demended 39 episodes in seven months. By the end of the first series America had lost interest in the swashbuckler (showing a preference for Western's) and without the promise of overseas sales the series was cancelled. Shaw found himself hopelessly typecast and his career didn't pick up until 1963 when he appeared as a cold-blooded Russian killer in the James Bond film 'From Russia With Love.' In 1976 he reprised his pirate image for the big screen in 'The Scarlet Buccaneer'...but it was a critical and box office flop.
39 episodes of 30 minute duration. ITC/Sapphire. 1956-57.
BURKE'S LAW
Amos Burke was the mega wealthy boss of LAPD's murder squad who was driven around in a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce by Henry (Leon Lontoc). Originally intended as a series for Dick Powell who played the character in one of his 'Dick Powell Theatre' presentations called 'Who killed Julia Greer', the part fell to former 'Bat Masterson' star Gene Barry (real name Eugene Klass). All of Burke's cases were called "Who Killed..." with the name of that weeks unlucky victim tagged on to the end, and all of the cases revolved around the world of high society and millionaires to which Burke fitted into seamlessly. He was assisted by detectives Tim Tilson (Gary Conway) and Lester Hart (Regis Toomey), with Sgt Amis (Eileen O'Neill) joining later. The series also boasted the highest head count in guest stars, 63 in the first eight episodes alone. Burke eventually quit the police force to become an undercover agent as US television tried to cash in on the James Bond craze with a series entitled 'Secret Agent', but returned to the police force in a 1994 revival of the original series.
94 episodes of 50 minute duration. ABC 1963-65.
