Custer (TV series)
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox television
| image = Wayne Maunder Custer 1967.JPG
| caption = Wayne Maunder as Custer.
| runtime = 60 minutes
| starring = {{Plainlist|
}}
| producer = Frank Glicksman
| composer = {{Plainlist|
- Richard Markowitz (1.1)
- Leith Stevens (1.1, 1.5, 1.7, 1.13; and theme music)
- Robert Drasnin (1.12)
- Harry Geller (1.14)
- Irving Gertz (1.15)
- Joseph Mullendore (1.17, as "MULLENDORE")
}}
| country = United States
| network = ABC
| first_aired = {{Start date|1967|09|06}}
| last_aired = {{End date|1967|12|27}}
| num_seasons = 1
| num_episodes = 17
}}
Custer, also known as The Legend of Custer, is a 17-episode military-Western television series which ran on ABC from September 6 to December 27, 1967, with Wayne Maunder in the starring role of then Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Criticizing the series as "glamorizing Custer," a concerted protest headed by the Tribal Indians Land Rights Association successfully halted broadcast of the series under the FCC fairness doctrine.Tahmahkera, Dustin. Tribal Television: Viewing Native People in Sitcoms. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014, p. 11
Format
Alex McNeil, Total Television, New York: Penguin Books, 1996, 4th ed., p. 190
Robert F. Simon played Custer's commanding officer, U.S. General Alfred H. Terry. Slim Pickens starred as California Joe Milner. Michael Dante appeared as Sioux Chief Crazy Horse. Peter Palmer played Sergeant James Bustard, a former Confederate soldier. Grant Woods appeared as Captain Myles Keogh. Read Morgan appeared in the episode "Spirit Woman" in the role of a medicine man.
Guest stars included Lloyd Bochner (as James Stanhope), Rory Calhoun (as Zebediah Jackson), Philip Carey (as Benton Conant), James Daly (as John Rudford), Alexander Davion (as Capt. Marcus A. Reno), Burr DeBenning (as Uvalde), Yvonne De Carlo (as Vanessa Ravenhill), Gene Evans (as Deedricks), Arthur Franz (as Grey Fox and Bledsoe), Billy Gray (as Billy Nixon), Barbara Hale (as Melinda Terry), Stacy Harris (as John Glixton), Earl Holliman (as Dan Samuels), Robert Loggia (as Lt. Carlos Moreno), Darren McGavin (as Jeb Powell), Ralph Meeker (as Kermit Teller), Mary Ann Mobley (as Ann L'Andry), Agnes Moorehead (as Watoma), Edward Mulhare (as Col. Sean Redmond), Kathleen Nolan (as Nora Moffett), Larry Pennell (as Chief Yellow Hawk), Paul Petersen (as Lieutenant Cox), Donnelly Rhodes (as War Cloud), Chris Robinson (as Lt. Tim Rudford), Ned Romero (as Running Feet), Barbara Rush (as Brigid O'Rourke), Albert Salmi (as Capt. John Mark Charrington), William Smith (as Chief Tall Knife), Dub Taylor (as Trader), Ray Walston (as Ned Quimbo), James Whitmore (as Eldo), Terry Wilson (as Brownsmith), and William Windom (as Clark Samson). In the last episode entitled "The Raiders", Custer enlists the aid of Kiowa Indians to help him to locate the parties responsible for a series of wagon train raids.{{cite web|url=http://www.tv.com/custer/show/3469/summary.html|title=Custer|publisher=TV.com|accessdate=January 11, 2009|archive-date=March 15, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315040727/http://www.tv.com/custer/show/3469/summary.html|url-status=dead}}
Maunder was twenty-eight when he was cast as the 28-year-old Custer. The show was canceled due to poor reviews{{Cite web | url=http://www.tvparty.com/tunnel.html |title = Time Tunnel}} and protests by Native American tribes throughout the United States.{{Cite book|title=Custer died for your sins : an Indian manifesto|last=Vine.|first=Deloria|date=1988|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=0806121297|location=Norman|pages=24|oclc=17234301}}Brian W. Dippie, Custer's Last Stand: The Anatomy of an American Myth. Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1994
{{ISBN|0803265921}}, (p.120)
Two episodes, No. 1 and No. 6, were later combined and released as a feature length film, entitled "Crazy Horse and Custer, The Untold Story". On June 7, 2016, Shout! Factory released Custer: The Complete Series (Collector's Edition) on DVD.
Episodes
{{Episode table |total_width= |background=FFD700 |season= |title= |director= |writer= |airdate= |episodes=
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 1
| Title = Sabers in the Sun
| DirectedBy = Sam Wanamaker
| WrittenBy = Samuel A. Peeples
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|09|06}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 2
| Title = Accused
| DirectedBy = Lawrence Dobkin
| WrittenBy = Al C. Ward
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|09|13}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 3
| Title = Glory Rider
| DirectedBy = Lawrence Dobkin
| WrittenBy = Jack Turley
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|09|20}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 4
| Title = To the Death
| DirectedBy = Herschel Daugherty
| WrittenBy = Samuel A. Peeples
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|09|27}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 5
| Title = Massacre
| DirectedBy = Herschel Daugherty
| WrittenBy = Daniel Mainwaring
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|10|04}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 6
| Title = War Lance and Saber
| DirectedBy = Norman Foster
| WrittenBy = Shimon Wincelberg
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|10|11}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 7
| Title = Suspicion
| DirectedBy = Alex March
| WrittenBy = John Dunkel
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|10|18}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 8
| Title = Breakout
| DirectedBy = László Benedek
| WrittenBy = Shimon Wincelberg
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|11|01}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 9
| Title = Desperate Mission
| DirectedBy = László Benedek
| WrittenBy = Warren Douglas
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|11|08}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 10
| Title = Under Fire
| DirectedBy = Lawrence Dobkin
| WrittenBy = Arthur Browne Jr.
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|11|15}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 11
| Title = Death Hunt
| DirectedBy = Leo Penn
| WrittenBy = Steve McNeil & Richard Bartlett
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|11|22}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 12
| Title = Blazing Arrows
| DirectedBy = Christian Nyby
| WrittenBy = Bob and Wanda Duncan
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|11|29}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 13
| Title = Dangerous Prey
| DirectedBy = Leo Penn
| WrittenBy = Richard Sale
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|12|06}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 14
| Title = Spirit Woman
| DirectedBy = László Benedek
| WrittenBy = William Blinn
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|12|13}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 15
| Title = The Gauntlet
| DirectedBy = Don Richardson
| WrittenBy = Shimon Wincelberg
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|12|20}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 16
| Title = The Raiders
| DirectedBy = Norman Foster
| WrittenBy = Shimon Wincelberg
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1967|12|27}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 17
| Title = Pursued
| DirectedBy = Leo Penn
| WrittenBy = John Dunkel
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1968|01|03}}
| ShortSummary =
| LineColor = FFD700
}}
}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0061244|Custer}}
Category:1960s Western (genre) television series
Category:1967 American television series debuts
Category:1967 American television series endings
Category:American Broadcasting Company television dramas
Category:Cultural depictions of George Armstrong Custer
Category:Cultural depictions of Crazy Horse