With plenty of great Westerns out there, you can’t ever go wrong with John Wayne. The Duke starred in more Westerns than just about any Golden Age Hollywood star, including some of the most recognizable titles out there. It’s no surprise, then, that a few of them were so popular that they eventually found new life on television. While Hondo is perhaps the best example of this, there is one other notable Wayne picture that was reborn on the small screen, this time with some of the main cast intact. That’s right, if you didn’t already know, the Duke’s 1972 Western, The Cowboys, eventually spawned a television series sequel, only it was terribly short-lived.
2 Years After John Wayne’s ‘The Cowboys’ Movie, ABC Made a TV Series
In the early 1970s, the rural purge had wiped out almost every Western on television. Long-running CBS and NBC hits Gunsmoke and Bonanza held out for several more years, but eventually they caved to the pressure of urbanized storytelling and the rising popularity of the cop show. But that didn’t stop ABC from attempting to hold on to the former cash cow, and that’s where The Cowboys came in. Just two years after the controversial The Cowboys hit theaters (controversial due to it being one of the few pictures where Wayne actually dies), ABC launched a new half-hour Western under the same title. Essentially a sequel to the feature film, Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh note in their book, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present, that the show “was a kind of teenage Western in which seven young boys, ages 9 to 17, faced the trials of growing into manhood while helping a widow run a ranch in the New Mexico Territory in the 1870s.”
Now, The Cowboys likely isn’t the first of Wayne’s theatrical Westerns that one would expect to be adapted for the small screen. After all, it’s one of the only productions that Wayne’s character is killed off in. The main pull for audiences coming to the theater to see The Cowboys — itself an adaptation of the 1971 novel of the same name by William Dale Jennings, who co-wrote the screenplay — was due to the Duke himself. So, why would this same audience, who just watched Wayne’s Wil Andersen die at the hands of Bruce Dern‘s Asa Watts, tune in for a Duke-less Cowboys follow-up? Well, the truth is, the show was a gamble from the beginning, firstly due to the declining popularity of the television Western and also because of Wayne’s lack of involvement. While the Duke reportedly voiced his approval of The Cowboys television show, it didn’t have the same effect on the brand that his introduction to Gunsmoke did two decades prior.
Still, Wil Anderson’s mentorship of the young cowboys, effectively passing the Western torch to a new generation of riders, was something the network wanted to explore — and it’s easy to see why. While many consider The Shootist (the final installment in Wayne’s extensive career) to be the “end-all, be-all” finale to the Duke’s filmography, it was The Cowboys where Wayne gave his seal of approval to the next wild bunch of Westerneers. Thus, it stands to reason that The Cowboys should have continued onto television, where these rising stars could make names for themselves and earn their keep in the genre before moving on to bigger and better things. It’s no wonder, then, that many of the stars from the film returned under the guidance of series producer David Dortort, whose previous hits include The Restless Gun, The High Chaparral, and, most famously, Bonanza.
Who Returned to the TV Series From the John Wayne Western?
As noted, the series itself followed the same characters from the feature film, though many were recast. A decade before he tackled Father Murphy, Moses Gunn took over Roscoe Lee Browne‘s role as Jebediah Nightlinger for television, and Diana Douglass did the same with Sarah Cunningham‘s character, the widow Annie Andersen. Gunn and Douglass were quite capable actors themselves, and did well as the titular cowboys’ adult supervisors as they battled restless Comanches, greedy cattle rustlers, and plenty of other black hats across the New Mexico Territory. Although Roscoe Lee Browne, in particular, was a standout performer in the 1972 film, Gunn was an inspired cast for the television adaptation.
Of course, the real knockouts of The Cowboys were always the titular heroes themselves, and it certainly helped that many of them returned from the feature film. Future Longmire star A Martinez is perhaps the most well-known of the bunch, reprising his role as the oldest boy, Cimarron, whose wild, no-nonsense attitude leads the charge with a fierce energy that finds its way back to the small screen. Alongside him is Robert Carradine‘s Slim Honeycutt, another one of the older boys who likewise becomes a leader in the group. These two had it out in the film adaptation, but they often work side-by-side here. Also joining them in the series are Sean Kelly and Clay O’Brien, but while these two played “Stuttering” Bob Wilson and Hardy Fimps, respectively, in the film, they were recast on television as Jimmy Phillips and Weedy. It’s hard to say why Kelly and O’Brien were recast for the show. Perhaps the producers thought they had aged out of their previous roles, or maybe they wanted to give them better material to work with.
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In any case, the eleven cowboys featured in the film are whittled down to seven for the TV show, with Kelly’s original character, “Stuttering” Bob, being removed from the show entirely and O’Brien’s Hardy instead played by Mitch Brown. Other cowboys include Kerry MacLane‘s Homer Weems (replacing Mike Pyeatt) and Clint Howard‘s Steve (replacing Steve Benedict). Future Dallas star Jim Davis even joined the series as the recurring Marshal Bill Winter, who often found himself mixed up with whatever problem the cowboys were trying to solve. With a cast like this, a TV series continuation of The Cowboys just made sense. The only trouble is that it came about at the wrong time.
‘The Cowboys’ Western Series Didn’t Last Long on ABC
Airing from February 6 to May 8, 1974, The Cowboys produced 12 episodes total before ABC gave it the axe. While reruns ran on the network through mid-August, the show itself concluded abruptly with the final episode, “Requiem for a Lost Son.” Whether the network just didn’t fully believe in the series or audiences failed to show up for a Wayne-less Cowboys, it appeared that the Western’s time on television was over. While a few rural dramas, such as Little House on the Prairie, would find success that very same television season, The Cowboys was sadly not one of them. Had it been made a decade earlier, perhaps it would be far more well-known these days, but it has largely been lost to time. Even compared to other short-lived Western projects, like Lloyd Bridges‘ The Loner, Kurt Russell‘s The Quest, or Josh Brolin‘s The Young Riders, The Cowboys hasn’t found the same post-cancellation love, and that’s a tragedy.
These days, it’s impossible to find episodes of The Cowboys anywhere online. The show wasn’t even given the gift of a physical media release back when so many distribution companies were re-issuing classic TV Westerns onto DVD. It’s too bad, because these days there seems to be as much an audience for it as ever. Though it may not have been as memorable as the iconic John Wayne feature that preceded it, The Cowboys was a show that dared to continue the legacy by propping up new stars who, if given the proper chance, could have carried the genre through the ’70s. Instead, it was clear that networks and audiences alike were largely finished with Westerns. Thankfully, the genre hasn’t stayed down.
The Cowboys
- Release Date
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1974 – 1973
- Network
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ABC
- Directors
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William Witney
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John Carradine
Oscar Schmidt
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