The Alaskans is a 1959–1960 ABC/Warner Bros. Western television series set during the late 1890s in the port of Skagway, Alaska. The show features Roger Moore as "Silky Harris" and Jeff York as "Reno McKee", a pair of adventurers intent on swindling travelers bound for the Yukon Territories during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush.[3] Their plans are inevitably complicated by the presence of singer "Rocky Shaw" (Dorothy Provine), "an entertainer with a taste for the finer things in life".[4]
| The Alaskans | |
|---|---|
 Roger Moore on the set of The Alaskans, 1959 | |
| Genre | |
| Directed by |
|
| Starring | |
| Theme music composer | "Gold Fever" by Mack David and Jerry Livingston[2] |
| Composer | Max Steiner |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 36 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | William T. Orr |
| Producers |
|
| Production location | California |
| Editors |
|
| Running time | 49-51 minutes |
| Production company | Warner Bros. Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | October 4, 1959 – June 19, 1960 |
| Related | |
The show was the first regular work on American television for the British actor Roger Moore.
Background and production
editThe Alaskans is closely related to the ABC/WB series Maverick through broadcast and production. Maverick was the most prominent of ABC's Sunday night of Western dramas. For the 1959–60 season, Sundays began with Colt .45 and Maverick, then John Russell's Lawman and Nick Adams' The Rebel, and concluded with The Alaskans.[5]
For Roger Moore, the series was memorable for being his "most appalling television series ever". In particular, he found that attempting to recreate Alaskan exteriors on a studio backlot in California made for disagreeably hot work days.[6] The show also caused some marital strife for the actor when he had to admit to wife Dorothy Squires that he had fallen in love with co-star Dorothy Provine.[7]
Writing
editBecause of the 1960 Writers Guild of America strike as well as an ongoing Warner Bros. policy to save money on writers, The Alaskans inherited a certain amount of scripted material from Maverick. Moore bristled at the lack of originality in scripts: "An old Bronco script would interchange with an Alaskans or Maverick. In some cases, even the dialogue stayed unchanged."[7] In 2007, Moore noted, "Quite often I realized that we were filming Maverick scripts, with the names changed."[8] This made it simple for Jack L. Warner to envision Moore as Maverick, since Moore had literally delivered Garner's dialogue while reshooting the same scripts with different names and locales.
Cancellation
editThe same year that The Alaskans was canceled, James Garner left Maverick. Moore became, under protest,[7] Garner's replacement, playing Bret Maverick's cousin Beau Maverick in the fourth season of Maverick.
Cast
edit- Roger Moore as Silky Harris
- Dorothy Provine as Rocky Shaw
- Jeff York as Reno McKee
- Ray Danton as Nifty Cronin
- John Dehner in two episodes each as Cornish and Soapy Smith
Guest stars
editEpisodes
edit| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Gold Sled" | Józef Lejtes | Lowell Barrington & Harry Whittington (novelette) | October 4, 1959 |
| 2 | "Cheating Cheaters" | George Waggner | James O'Hanlon | October 11, 1959 |
| 3 | "The Devil Made Five" | Jacques Tourneur | Bret Harte (story) & Harold Medford | October 18, 1959 |
| 4 | "The Petticoat Crew" | Robert Gordon | Pat Fielder & Gibson Fox | October 25, 1959 |
| 5 | "Starvation Stampede" | Robert Gordon | Talbot Jennings & Dick Nelson | November 1, 1959 |
| 6 | "Big Deal" | Robert Gordon | C.L. Moore | November 8, 1959 |
| 7 | "Contest at Gold Bottom" | William A. Seiter | Unknown | November 15, 1959 |
| 8 | "Winter Song" | Unknown | Unknown | November 22, 1959 |
| 9 | "The Golden Fleece" | Unknown | Talbot Jennings | November 29, 1959 |
| 10 | "Doc Booker" | Unknown | Unknown | December 6, 1959 |
| 11 | "The Abominable Snowman" | Unknown | Unknown | December 13, 1959 |
| 12 | "Remember the Maine" | Unknown | Unknown | December 20, 1959 |
| 13 | "Million Dollar Kid" | Unknown | Unknown | January 3, 1960 |
| 14 | "The Trial of Reno McKee" | Unknown | Unknown | January 10, 1960 |
| 15 | "Gold Fever" | Unknown | Unknown | January 17, 1960 |
| 16 | "The Challenge" | Unknown | Unknown | January 24, 1960 |
| 17 | "The Long Pursuit" | Unknown | Unknown | January 31, 1960 |
| 18 | "Spring Fever" | Unknown | Unknown | February 7, 1960 |
| 19 | "Black Sand" | Unknown | Unknown | February 14, 1960 |
| 20 | "The Seal Skin-Game" | Unknown | Unknown | February 21, 1960 |
| 21 | "Peril at Caribou Crossing" | Unknown | Unknown | February 28, 1960 |
| 22 | "Behind the Moon" | Unknown | Unknown | March 6, 1960 |
| 23 | "Partners" | Unknown | Unknown | March 13, 1960 |
| 24 | "Disaster at Gold Hill" | Unknown | Unknown | March 20, 1960 |
| 25 | "The Last Bullet" | Unknown | Unknown | March 27, 1960 |
| 26 | "A Barrel of Gold" | Unknown | Unknown | April 3, 1960 |
| 27 | "The Bride Wore Black" | Unknown | Unknown | April 10, 1960 |
| 28 | "Odd Man Hangs" | Unknown | Unknown | April 17, 1960 |
| 29 | "Counterblow" | Unknown | Unknown | April 24, 1960 |
| 30 | "Heart of Gold" | Unknown | Unknown | May 1, 1960 |
| 31 | "Kangaroo Court" | Unknown | Unknown | May 8, 1960 |
| 32 | "The Silent Land" | Unknown | Unknown | May 15, 1960 |
| 33 | "Calico" | Unknown | Unknown | May 22, 1960 |
| 34 | "Sign of the Kodiak" | Unknown | Unknown | May 29, 1960 |
| 35 | "White Vengeance" | Unknown | Unknown | June 5, 1960 |
| 36 | "The Ballad of Whitehorse" | Unknown | Unknown | June 12, 1960 |
Home media
editThe Alaskans is scheduled to be released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection on August 27, 2024.[9]
References
edit- ^ Roger Moore's official site Archived 2007-09-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Classic TV Themes entry for The Alaskans
- ^ Episode World's synopsis of The Alaskans
- ^ The Alaskans at TVDays.com Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Rebel at tvobscurities.com
- ^ "Roger Moore Official Site". Archived from the original on 2007-07-04. Retrieved 2007-08-10. Moore, Roger and Ken Roche. "The Roger Moore Story". TV Times Extra. Independent Publications, Ltd. 1972.
- ^ a b c "Roger Moore Official Site". Archived from the original on 2007-07-05. Retrieved 2007-08-10. Moore, Roger and Ken Roche. "The Roger Moore Story". TV Times Extra. Independent Publications, Ltd. 1972.
- ^ Moore answer to a June 2007 question on his official website Archived 2007-08-21 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Warner Archive Announces June Releases". Blu-ray.com. 24 April 2023.
External links
edit- The Alaskans at IMDb