Temple Houston (TV series)

Temple Houston is an American Western television series starring Jeffrey Hunter as real-life 19th century Texas lawyer Temple Lea Houston. It ran for one season on NBC from 1963 to 1964. It is considered "the first attempt ... to produce an hour-long western series with the main character being an attorney in the formal sense."[1] Temple Houston was the only program which Jack Webb sold to a network during his ten months as the head of production at Warner Bros. Television.[2] It was also the lone series in which Hunter played a regular part.[3] The series' supporting cast features Jack Elam and Chubby Johnson.

Temple Houston
Jeffrey Hunter in Temple Houston (1963)
GenreWestern
Legal drama
Comedy
Directed byLeslie H. Martinson
William Conrad
Robert Totten
Irving J. Moore
Alvin Ganzer
Robert D. Webb
StarringJeffrey Hunter
Jack Elam
James Best
Frank Ferguson
Chubby Johnson
Mary Wickes
Opening theme"The Yellow Rose of Texas"
as arranged by
Frank Comstock and
Ned Washington
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes26
Production
Executive producersWilliam T. Orr
Jack Webb
Jeffrey Hunter
ProducersRichard M. Bluel
Joseph Dackow
Lawrence Dobkin
Jimmy Lydon
EditorByron Chudnow
Running time60 minutes
Production companiesApollo Productions
Rancom Productions Inc.
Temple Houston Company
Warner Bros. Television
Release
Original networkNBC
Original releaseSeptember 19, 1963 (1963-09-19) 
April 2, 1964 (1964-04-02)

Plot

Temple Houston is based loosely on the career of the real-life circuit-riding lawyer Temple Lea Houston (1860–1905), son of the more famous Sam Houston. Little, however, binds all the episodes together under a common framework. The series variously cast the characters and situations in both an overtly humorous and a deadly serious light. Author-historian (and attorney) Francis M. Nevins asserts of the first episode entitled "The Twisted Rope", "Clearly, the concept here is Perry Mason out West", going so far as to note that Temple Houston's court opponent "apes Hamilton Burger by accusing Houston of 'prolonging this trial with a lot of dramatic nonsense'".[1] Later episodes turned Houston into more of a detective than a lawyer. Over the course of the series, the bulk of the narrative sees Houston actually gathering evidence, rather than trying cases. In the end, the series largely eschewed criminal law in favor of overtly humorous plots, such as in the episode "The Law and Big Annie", in which Houston uses his legal expertise to help a friend decide what to do after he inherits an elephant.[1]

The producers tried to avoid any storylines that would embarrass the two surviving children of Temple Houston who were still living when the series aired.[4]

Cast

Main cast

Guest stars

Episode list

No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air date
0"The Man from Galveston"William ConradDean Riesner,
Michael S. Zagor
N/A
1"The Twisted Rope"Abner BibermanS: James Warner Bellah;
T: Jack Turley
September 19, 1963 (1963-09-19)
2"Find Angel Chavez"Herman HoffmanJohn Hawkins,
Steve McNeil
September 26, 1963 (1963-09-26)
3"Letter of the Law"Robert TottenDonald S. SanfordOctober 3, 1963 (1963-10-03)
4"Toll the Bell Slowly"Gerd OswaldRobert Leslie Bellem,
Carey Wilber
October 17, 1963 (1963-10-17)
5"The Third Bullet"Alvin GanzerAntony EllisOctober 24, 1963 (1963-10-24)
6"Gallows in Galilee"Robert TottenE.M. ParsonsOctober 31, 1963 (1963-10-31)
7"The Siege at Thayer's Bluff"Alvin GanzerPreston WoodNovember 7, 1963 (1963-11-07)
8"Jubilee"Robert TottenJohn Robinson,
Paul Savage
November 14, 1963 (1963-11-14)
9"Thunder Gap"Leslie H. MartinsonHarold Jack Bloom,
Thomas Thompson,
Preston Wood
November 21, 1963 (1963-11-21)
10"Billy Hart"William ConradHerman Groves,
Norman Jolley
November 28, 1963 (1963-11-28)
11"Seventy Times Seven"Robert TottenD.D. Beauchamp,
Arthur Browne Jr.
December 5, 1963 (1963-12-05)
12"Fracas at Kiowa Flats"Leslie H. MartinsonCarey WilberDecember 12, 1963 (1963-12-12)
13"Enough Rope"Irving J. MooreRobert Vincent WrightDecember 19, 1963 (1963-12-19)
14"The Dark Madonna"John FloreaGerry DayDecember 26, 1963 (1963-12-26)
15"The Guardian"Robert D. WebbDonald S. SanfordJanuary 2, 1964 (1964-01-02)
16"Thy Name Is Woman"William ConradKen PettusJanuary 9, 1964 (1964-01-09)
17"The Law and Big Annie"Ken PettusCecil SmithJanuary 16, 1964 (1964-01-16)
18"Sam's Boy"Irving J. MooreWarren DouglasJanuary 23, 1964 (1964-01-23)
19"Ten Rounds for Baby"Irving J. MooreWilliam R. CoxJanuary 30, 1964 (1964-01-30)
20"The Case for William Gotch"Leslie H. MartinsonHerman GrovesFebruary 6, 1964 (1964-02-06)
21"A Slight Case of Larceny"William ConradKen PettusFebruary 13, 1964 (1964-02-13)
22"Last Full Moon"Leslie H. MartinsonRobert SabaroffFebruary 27, 1964 (1964-02-27)
23"The Gun That Swept the West"William ConradUnknownMarch 5, 1964 (1964-03-05)
24"Do Unto Others, Then Gallop"Leslie H. MartinsonRon BishopMarch 19, 1964 (1964-03-19)
25"The Town That Trespassed"William ConradJack TurleyMarch 26, 1964 (1964-03-26)
26"Miss Katherine"Leslie H. MartinsonKen PettusApril 2, 1964 (1964-04-02)

Production

Pilot

The earliest known conceptual documents for Temple Houston date back to 1957.[5] It took about six years for a pilot to be filmed. That pilot, The Man from Galveston, was filmed in March 1963, but was never broadcast on television. Instead, the 57-minute film was released theatrically late in 1963. The series used a different cast from the movie pilot.[6] Jeffrey Hunter was the only cast member to star in both pilot and series, although his character was re-dubbed Timothy Higgins in the pilot when it was released as a theatrical film.

The series was produced by Warner Bros. Television and Apollo Productions, a company co-owned by star Jeffrey Hunter, who had demanded to produce it in exchange for a film and television commitment to Warner Bros.[5]

By December 1963, the series was rated 31st of the 32 new shows that season.[5] NBC then ordered a switch back to more humorous stories.[7] but the change merely allowed the series to continue to the end of the season.

Cancellation

Temple Houston was pulled after one season of twenty-six episodes. Hunter later indicated that he thought the series failed because of an inability to establish a consistent tone.

Syndication

Because the show produced so few episodes, it had little presence on the domestic syndication market. However, it appears to have enjoyed limited international syndication. The series was shown in Japan in 1963,[8] and on Australian regional television station GTS-4 in 1974.[9]

In the United Kingdom the series was shown on BBC One television between October 1964 and July 1965, inspiring one of the few pieces of memorabilia from the show—a 1965 British annual.[10] As in the US, the pilot The Man From Galveston was never shown on UK TV but did duty as a cinema second feature in April 1964 (supporting Warner's Mary, Mary).

References

  1. Nevins, Frances M. "Westerns". Prime Time Law: Fictional Television as Legal Narrative. Robert M. Jarvis and Paul R. Joseph, Editors. Carolina Academic Press. 1998. p. 212-213
  2. "Jack Webb at The Museum of Broadcast Communications". Archived from the original on 2013-08-22. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
  3. Jeffrey Hunter's Notable Television Appearances Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Production memo, Temple Houston files, Warner Bros. Archives, Cinema-Television Library, University of Southern California. The producers did not consult with Houston's family about the series, other than to inquire if any direct descendants were still living. Frank X. Tolbert, "Temple Houston's Family Speaks Up," Dallas Morning News, August 25, 1963, sec. 1, p. 23
  5. Jeffreyhuntermovies.com Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine Glenn A. Mosley, "Temple Houston: The Story Behind a Forgotten Western". Wildest Westerns Magazine, Issue No. 2, 2000. Under this contract, Hunter appeared in the Warner Bros. 1965 theatrical releases Murieta (1965) and Brainstorm.
  6. Production memo, Temple Houston files, Warner Bros. Archives, Cinema-Television Library, University of Southern California.
  7. J. D. Spiro. "Happy in Hollywood". The Milwaukee Journal. 4 July 1965.
  8. "Japanese Net Buys 'Houston' in TV Package," Dallas Morning News, August 27, 1963, sec. 3, p. 5.
  9. 1974 Australian television schedule Archived 2007-08-31 at the Wayback Machine
  10. The 1965 Temple Houston Annual at booksandcollectibles.com.au.
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