Tombstone Territory is an American Western series starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. The series' first two seasons aired on ABC from 1957 to 1959. The first season was sponsored by Bristol-Myers and the second season by Lipton and Philip Morris. The third and final season aired in syndication from 1959 until 1960. The program was produced by Ziv Television.
Series background
This program took place in the boom town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, one of the Old West's most notorious towns and the site of the shootout known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Located south of Tucson, Tombstone was then known by the sobriquet "the town too tough to die." The program's theme song, "Whistle Me Up a Memory," was written and performed by William M. Backer. The series did not deal with real characters in the history of Tombstone in the 1880s, such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, or the Clanton Gang. It was about fictional characters in the American Southwest. The first episode opens, according to the Narrator, on August 4, 1881. Conway played Sheriff Clay Hollister. Eastham, the only other actor besides Conway to appear in all the episodes, played Harris Claibourne, editor of The Tombstone Epitaph. Eastham, originally a singer in opera and on Broadway, also narrated the series in a deep baritone voice, describing each episode as an actual report from the newspaper's archives. The Ziv TV series aired on Wednesdays on ABC in the 1957-1958 season opposite Robert Young's sitcomFather Knows Best, then broadcast on NBC. It was returned to the ABC schedule for 12 new episodes on March 13, 1959, followed by summer rebroadcasts. It replaced the first season of Charles Bronson's Man with a Camera on Friday evenings at the 9:00 Eastern time slot, preceding the popular detective series 77 Sunset Strip. After the network run, Tombstone Territory was placed in syndication and ran mostly outside prime time in selected markets until it ceased production. Conway and Eastham appeared in all 91 episodes. The ending credits indicate that "This series is produced with the full cooperation of Clayton A. Smith, Editor of the The Tombstone Epitaph and D'Estell Iszard, Historian".
Cast
Pat Conway as Sheriff Clay Hollister
Richard Eastham as Harris Clayton Claibourne, editor
Recurring
Robert Foulk appeared in 1957 and 1958 as Curly Bill Brocius in three episodes, "Gunslinger from Galeville", "Ride Out at Noon", and "Skeleton Canyon Massacre".
Quintin Sondergaard was cast as Quint in 11 episodes of the two later seasons.
Gilman Rankin starred as Deputy Charlie Riggs in seven episodes.
Dennis Moore appeared as "Deputy" in five segments.
Robert J. Wilke, John Doucette, and Warren Oates all appeared three times, as Burt Foster, Apache Chief Geronimo, and Bob Pickett, respectively, as well as occasional other roles.
On April 2, 2013, Timeless Media Group released season 1 on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. As of late 2014,The complete series of all 91 episodes has been released on DVD. In 2016, reruns of the show are aired daily on GETTV as a part of its daytime schedule.
