''The Oregon Trail'' is an American

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

that aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

from September 21 until October 26, 1977. The series was filmed in the

Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2019, the city's estimated population was 75,038. Flagstaff's combined metropolitan area has ...

area.Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, 4th ed., p. 629

Cast

Rod Taylor Rodney Sturt Taylor (11 January 1930 – 7 January 2015) was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including ''The Time Machine'' (1960), ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (1961), '' The Birds'' (1963), and ''In ...

as Evan Thorpe *

Andrew Stevens Herman Andrew Stevens (born June 10, 1955) is an American executive, film producer, director and actor. Early life Stevens was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the only child of actress Stella Stevens and her former husband Noble Herman Stephens. Ca ...

as Andy Thorpe *Gina Marie Smika as Rachael Thorpe *

Darleen Carr Darleen Carr (born Darlene Farnon) is an American actress, singer, and voice-over artist. She is also known as Darlene Carr or Darleen Drake. She has two sisters, both actresses (Shannon Farnon and Charmian Carr). Early years Carr was born in ...

as Margaret Devlin * Charles Napier as Luther Sprague *

Tony Becker Tony Becker (born September 14, 1963 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actor best known for his role as Private Daniel 'Danny' Purcell on the 1987-1990 CBS Vietnam War series ''Tour of Duty''. Career Becker's first television role was ...

as William Thorpe

Episodes

NBC cancelled the show after six episodes, but the remaining seven episodes were later aired on

BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

in the UK, and the entire series was shown in the UK on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

, from November 1977 to January 1978.

Production

Terry Wilson (Bill Hawks in ''

Wagon Train ''Wagon Train'' is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957–1962), and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and became number one in the Nielsen ratings. It ...

'') served as production supervisor on the series, and series stars Rod Taylor and Charles Napier co-wrote the theme song, "Oregon Bound", with singer Danny Darst. The budget for the series was a reported $380,000 an episode.

Home media

On April 13, 2010,

Timeless Media Group Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

(TMG) released the show on six DVDs, running 750 minutes. The set includes 14 original episodes, including the feature-length pilot and the six episodes that did not air on NBC.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Trail (Tv Series), The 1970s Western (genre) television series 1977 American television series debuts 1977 American television series endings NBC original programming Television series by Universal Television Oregon Trail Television shows set in Nebraska