Branded (TV series)

Branded is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1965 through 1966. It was sponsored by Procter & Gamble in its Sunday night, 8:30 p.m. Eastern time period. The series is set in the Old West, following the end of the American Civil War. The show starred Chuck Connors as Jason McCord, a United States Army cavalry captain who had been court-martialed and drummed out of the service following an unjust accusation of cowardice.

File:Chuck Connors Branded 1965.JPG

McCord leaving the fort as the gates close behind him

Opening

The opening title credits of each episode in the series feature a depiction of McCord's cashiering with the stripping of rank shoulder patches and his Light Cavalry Saber broken in two. McCord retained the handle of his broken saber with attached pommel. He had the remaining blade sharpened into a long knife, which he used in many episodes. McCord is sent out of the fort where this ceremony occurred, and the gates are closed behind him. Although the exact date of McCord's cashiering is never given, events and people depicted in episodes place the events of the series itself as sometime during the first administration of President Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1872) and after William Seward negotiated the Alaska Purchase. The name and location of the fort are also not given.

Pilot

In the pilot episode, "The Vindicator", McCord is confronted by a newspaper reporter (Claude Akins) who wants a follow-up story on the Bitter Creek massacre. McCord refuses to cooperate. He knows that General James Reed, McCord's mentor, was on a peace mission to meet representatives of the Cheyenne nation at Bitter Creek. His unit of 31 men was attacked by a group of renegade Indians known as Dog Soldiers. During the attack, McCord realized that the old general had taken leave of his senses. McCord assumed command, but it was too late. McCord was wounded in the battle and left for dead, the only survivor. He remained in a coma for 10 days after the attack. McCord was later hauled before a court-martial for desertion, convicted and drummed out of the Army.

The reporter tracks down a widow of the Bitter Creek massacre (June Lockhart). Her husband was third in command and had written several letters questioning Reed's mental state. Those letters would have been enough to grant McCord a new trial and possibly exonerate him, but McCord convinced the widow to burn the letters to protect Reed's reputation. McCord feared that if Reed's reputation were damaged, certain people in Washington, DC, would try to start a new war with the Apaches. McCord chose never to speak about what really happened at Bitter Creek.

In the series, McCord traveled through the Old West, continually being confronted by people who refuse to believe his innocence, requiring him to prove them wrong.

Guest stars

John M. Pickard appeared in six episodes as General Phil Sheridan. Other notable guest stars included Chris Alcaide, Russ Conway, Don Collier, Burgess Meredith, John Carradine, Pat Conway, Alex Cord, Janet De Gore, Dolores del Río, Chad Everett, I. Stanford Jolley, Martin Landau, June Lockhart, Warren Oates, Gregg Palmer, Larry Pennell, Burt Reynolds, Lee Van Cleef, Dick Clark, Bruce Dern and Michael Rennie.

Major League Baseball player Ron Perranoski appeared in a 1965 episode of Branded, while he was a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Series star Chuck Connors had played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Production

Created by Larry Cohen, the show was co-produced for most of its run by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions (which later folded ultimately into Fremantle), more widely associated with their productions of various game shows, in association with Sentinel Productions. Andrew J. Fenady served as the producer, later executive producer, on the series.

The series followed Chuck Connors's series The Rifleman, but it did not have that show's longevity, lasting only 48 episodes over two seasons. For the first season, 13 episodes were shot in black-and-white; the three-part story "The Mission" was shot in color. The second season of 32 episodes was made entirely in color.

Parts of Branded were filmed at the Kanab movie fort and Kanab Canyon in Utah.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Current distribution rights for Branded are owned by CBS Television Distribution (CBSTD) , the successor in interest to KingWorld, who had purchased the original distributor, Leo A. Gutman, Inc., in 1984.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Under Gutman, the show was part of Chuck Connors' Great Western Theatre.<ref name=":0" /> That series was originally syndicated internationally by ABC Films,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and then Firestone Film Syndication, who later go on to distribute many Goodson-Todman game shows.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Frequently, stations that air Branded have paired it with another Western series, the early Aaron Spelling production The Guns of Will Sonnett starring veteran Western actor Walter Brennan, which is also distributed by CBSTD.

Theme song

The theme song by Dominic Frontiere and Alan Alch contains the lyric: "Branded / Scorned as the one who ran / What do you do when you're branded / And you know you're a man?"

Episodes

Season 1 (1965)

All episodes in black-and-white except for the three-part episode, "The Mission," which was made in color Template:Episode table Template:Notelist

Season 2 (1965–66)

All episodes in color Template:Episode table

Home media

Timeless Media Group released both seasons of Branded on DVD in Region 1 in 2004–2005. Season 1 was released on August 3, 2004,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and season 2 was released on February 8, 2005.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On February 16, 2010, Timeless Media Group released Branded: The Complete Series, a six-disc box set featuring all 48 episodes of the series and several bonus features.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> More-recent prints cut for syndication are used for the set, and as a result, three minutes are missing from each episode. Broken Saber (the film re-editing of "The Mission Parts One, Two, And Three") is not included.

Merchandise

A tie-in board game called Branded Game was released by Milton Bradley in 1966.

Impact on popular culture

Branded is referenced in the Coen Brothers 1998 film, The Big Lebowksi. The Dude (Jeff Bridges) and Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) have tracked down a teenager named Larry Sellers to his home, believing the boy stole money from a ransom package they were to deliver. Walter has learned that Sellers's father is Arthur Digby Sellers, who must live in an iron lung, and that the older Sellers wrote 156 episodes of Branded. Upon entering the house and seeing the older Sellers in an iron lung, Walter acts with uncharacteristic humility and respect, in large part because of the reverence in which he holds Branded; before exploding into misdirected violence against a stranger's car after an obscene interrogation of Larry fails to elicit any response from the affectless boy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

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