The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
| 06 September 1955 (USA)

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  • Reviews
    SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.
    ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
    Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
    Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
    raysond This prime-time Emmy nominated series along with "Gunsmoke", and "Cheyenne" set the stage that launched a great era of television Westerns. "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" was one of the tremendously popular half-hour shows that featured changes in locate while adding characters and changes of the actors playing the parts. Originally offer to George Montgomery, the title part went to lean and athletic actor Hugh O'Brien who remained with the series throughout it's entire six-year run who appeared in all 229 episodes. This was one of the great Desilu produced Westerns to come out of the mid-1950's with big name guest stars and superb writing and direction in all episodes. "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" premiered on ABC's prime-time schedule on September 6, 1955 premiering exactly four days before "Gunsmoke"(which aired on a rival television network) and produced by Robert Sisk, Louis F. Edelman, and Roy Rowland(who served as the executive producers of this series). "Wyatt Earp" was placed on ABC's Tuesday night schedule in prime-time for the remainder of it's run which aired at 8:30pm eastern/7:30pm central. The series was produced by Desilu Productions(the production company founded by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball)and was filmed at the Desilu-Cahuenga Studios. The show's sponsors throughout it's run were The General Mills Corporation, Proctor & Gamble, and The Parker Pen Company. A total of 229 episodes were produced in black and white from September 6, 1955 until the final episode of the series on June 27,1961. Interesting note about this show. An off-camera barbershop quartet(The Ken Darby Singers)sang the theme song and hummed the background music during the first two seasons.Hugh O'Brien was the perfect choice as Wyatt Earp,the fictional character whose reign of law and order in the Old West set the stage for what was to come. During the series six-year run, it started with Wyatt's experiences as the deputy town marshal for the first four episodes in Ellsworth, Kansas and then moving towards Wichita,Kansas. There the show shifted from his stint in Dodge City, Kansas to Tombstone,Arizona Territory(toward the show's final two seasons). This brilliantly produced and intelligent writing of this series brought on board great guest stars as well as keeping TV-Viewers tuned in for some great action sequences that made this show stand out from all the other Westerns that came during the mid-1950's. Some of the best writers lend themselves to some of the great episodes ranging from John Dunkel to Wells Root, Frederick Hazlitt-Brennan, Buck Houghton, Dan Ullman, to Michael Fessier, Thomas Reed, Richard Sanville, and Celeste Plank. Big name directors like Frank McDonald, Roy Rowland, Paul Landres, Sidney Salkow and Lewis R. Foster contribute to some of the episodes.Several big name guest stars appeared on this series ranging from newcomers like Angie Dickinson, Ed Nelson, James Coburn, Stacy Harris, Mike Connors(the future "Mannix"), Ron Ely(the future "Tarzan"),and James Best, Robert Fuller(the future "Laramie"), along with Steve Brodie to seasoned actors like Morgan Woodward, Paul Brinegar, Ray Kellogg, Denver Pyle, Lash La Rue, to Glenn Strange, John Anderson, John Dehner, Gloria Talbott, Gregory Walcott, Jean Allison, Harold J. Stone, along with Barney Phillips, Adele Mara, Whit Bissell, Sheb Wooley, Eddy Waller, John Carradine, Patricia Donahue, Frank Ferguson, Ellen Corby, and Marie Windsor. After "The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp" was canceled on June 27, 1961 after six seasons and 229 episodes, the show that replaced it in the fall of 1961 was the short-lived situation comedy series "Calvin and the Colonel"
    jonesy74-1 Okay, here's my gripe. If you're going to make a Western series about a famous American Old-West character with a MUSTACHE, which, by the way, was the lawman's most prominent feature, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! MAKE THE ACTOR GROW A CRUMMY MUSTACHE! Or, if he refuses, FOR PITY'S SAKE, HAVE MAKE-UP GLUE ONE TO HIS UPPER LIP! I mean, THIS IS Hollywood, for cryin' out loud!Also, Wyatt Earp WAS NEVER MARSHALL OF TOMBSTONE! I don't know where they got this stuff.Hugh O'Brien (who was once introduced as "Hug" O'Brien on "The Hollywood Palace" by Raquel Welch. She, of course was playing dumb-ditz that night and it had to be explained by the host - Bing Crosby? - that the "h" made the "g" silent) was a little froo-frooed with the silk vest and all that.And, what was up with that theme song? Any Western that had a barber-shop quartet sing its theme song deserves no respect! "Wyatt Earp. Wyatt Earp. Brave, courageous and bold. Long live his name and long live his glory," etc. Please! The words were a bit more Ivanhoe-ish than fit for a rootin' tootin' shoot 'em up Western.All funnin' aside, yeah, as a tyke, I liked this show. It was a good old Western with gun-slingin' and horses.
    silverscreen888 This tremendously popular and long-running half-hour series featured changes of locale, added characters and deaths, and in several cases changes of the actors plying parts. Central to the proceedings from first to last from 1955--1961 was lean and athletic Hugh O/Brian as a plausible young Wyatt Earp. Into this the life of this fictionalized American icon, other characters real and imagined were introduced. The series was first located in Kansas cattle towns such as Wichita and Dodge City; then O'Brian moved to Tombstone, Arizona. He became and remained a town marshal during this time. Other regulars of note in this very intelligently-made, innovative and realistic series--one whose 'history' was decidedly not of a documentary variety--included Lloyd Corrigan as Ned Buntline, Alan Dinehart as Bat Masterson, several Doc Hollidays, Gloria Talbott, Don Haggerty, Denver Pyle, Damian O'Flynn, Carol Stone as Kate Holliday, Selmer Jackson, Randy Stuart, Wlliam Tannen, Paul Brinegar as Mayor "Dog" Kelly, Trevor Bardette as Old Man Clanton, Steve Brodie as Sheriff Johnnie Behan, Ross Elliott and others as Wyatt Earp's brothers, etc. The peculiar and memorable structure of the show allowed "changes" in character, relationships, locations, etc. when many series did not permit such alterations. In addition, the show's producers used some actors in guest roles many times, including Sam Flint, Steve Pendleton, Rico Alaniz and more. Guest stars of note included Anna May Wong, Arthur Space, Ann Robinson, Howard Petrie, George Wallace, Richard Travis, Robert Lowery, James Coburn, Peggy Knudsen, Fay Baker, Carolyn Craig, Jim Bannon, Nancy Hadley, Whitner Bissell, Angie Dickinson, Francis de Sales, Peter Mamakos, Ed Nelson, Richard Devon, Lane Bradford, Dorothy Green and John Vivyan, plus many more. Directors of record included Paul Landres and Frank McDonald. The staff of writers included Frederick Hazlitt Brennan, John Dunkel and Dan Ullman. These professionals kept up the show's very consistent quality throughout, I suggest. During its run, this series was shot by six cinematographers but only two art directors, by Ralph Berger and Albert M. Pyke, created its authentic western 'look'. Set decorations were done by Jack Mills and Kenneth W. Swartz. Bruce Bilson was second-unit director, with Hollywood veteran Roy Rowland as executive producer. The producers employed a gun expert, several production specialists and very good but less-expensive talents in order to keep up their high-standard of quality. The series ended with a memorable five-part but not-very-accurate gunfight at the OK Corral. This by my lights was a first-rate narrative TV series, I assert, one which was much imitated for decades afterward. Also of note was the show's theme song, whose picture of Earp set the tone for Eliot Ness, The Lawman, and Kojack among many other TV lawmen to come.
    cootum When TV Land recently began showing reruns of "Wyatt Earp," I had forgotten that, apparently in the early episodes, the only music heard was an a cappella male quartet. Not only did they sing the theme song, but periodically during those episodes, to augment certain special "drama," they would chime in, humming either low in the background for sentimentality, or swelling to full volume when the emotions were supposed to be at peak. The only lyrics heard were those of the theme song; otherwise, the musical accompaniment consisted entirely of that periodic humming in four-part harmony. Written out, it appeared, "mmmm-oooooo-AAAAHHHH-OOOOOHHH!!" Bypassing a full orchestra was one sure way to save a chunk of cash for the budget. Then in other, perhaps later, episodes, orchestral music replaced that humming, and the a cappella quartet only sang the theme song. I must admit that the humming contributed a rather corny element to the show.
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