Bill Longley is The Texan. A level headed “cowboy” always on the move. He never looked for trouble but it usually found him. Trouble may have found him but he was so fast with a gun that it never stuck around.

The Texan

Season 1 Ep.01: Law of the Gun

Bill Longley arrives in a small Texas town with the intension of helping Les Torbit, an old army buddy, in his range war with Kyle Richards’ outfit. Longley soon learns that Torbit is held for accidentally shooting Richards’ teen-aged daughter, but a potential lynch mob is getting liquored up to hang the prisoner if the girl dies.Bill Longley arrives in a small Texas town with the intension of helping Les Torbit, an old army buddy, in his range war with Kyle Richards’ outfit. Longley soon learns that Torbit is held for accidentally shooting Richards’ teen-aged daughter, but a potential lynch mob is getting liquored up to hang the prisoner if the girl dies.

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Rory Calhoun’s version of Bill Longley, “The Texan”, took great liberties with the truth about the bigoted real life Longley who killed his first man when he was 15 in 1866 and was eventually hung in 1878 at 27. A little closer to the truth was the “Bill Longley” episode of “Stories of the Century” (5/20/54) with Longley portrayed by Douglas Kennedy.

Longley, as conceived and played by Calhoun, was a fast gun, a loyal friend to the downtrodden and mortal enemy to lawbreakers in his Monday night half hour CBS series (9/29/58-9/12/60) primarily sponsored by Viceroy and Lever Brothers. (Reruns aired on ABC from 10/60-5/62, first in daytime, then on Saturday mornings.)

“The Texan” Rory Calhoun gets the drop on badman Bob Hopkins in the episode “Ruthless Woman” (’60).Rory not only starred as “The Texan” but produced the series with partner Vic Orsatti through their Rorvic Productions. In their 2/13/60 issue, Rory prophetically told TV GUIDE he and Orsatti got together on “The Texan” because they were “thick as thieves. We’re both thieves.” According to some sources, Calhoun never received his “just rewards” from the partnership. Laughing at the time, Calhoun continued, “I did several pictures for Vic (“Ride Out For Revenge”, “Domino Kid”, “Hired Gun”, “Apache Territory”). We decided to go into television in ‘58 with our own series. Not ‘The Texan’. We had a sea story. But Vic lived across the street from Desi Arnaz who had ‘The Texan’. They got together on that and we held our other one back. Desi’s deal was better.”

Episodes were budgeted at $40,000 and they filmed two per week on stage 11 at Desilu. Much of the location shooting was done at Pearl Flats in the Mojave Desert.

Cast and Crew:
Director: Felix E. Feist
Writer: Curtis Kenyon
Stars:

Rory Calhoun, Regis Parton and Duncan Lamont

Production Company: Desilu Productions, Rorvic Productions
Audio/Visual: mono, black & white
Date Release: 1958
Additional details in:

The Texan in IMDB | The Texan in TV.com

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