Tombstone Territory

Tombstone Territory is an American Western television series starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. The first two seasons aired on ABC from 1957 to 1959. The first season was sponsored by Bristol-Myers and the second season by Lipton and Philip Morris. The third and final season aired in syndication from 1959 until 1960. The program was produced by Ziv Television.

Overview

This program took place in the boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, one of the Old West's most notorious towns and the site of the shootout known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Located south of Tucson, Tombstone was then known by the sobriquet "the town too tough to die". The program's theme song, "Whistle Me Up a Memory", was written by William M. Backer and performed by Jimmy Blaine.
The series did not deal with real characters in the history of Tombstone in the 1880s, such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, or the Clanton gang, with the exception of Curly Bill Brocius, who appeared in the first season. It was about fictional characters in the American Southwest. The first episode opens, according to the narrator, on August 4, 1881. Conway played Sheriff Clay Hollister. Eastham, the only other actor besides Conway to appear in all the episodes, played Harris Claibourne, editor of The Tombstone Epitaph. Eastham, originally a singer in opera and on Broadway, also narrated the series in a deep baritone voice, describing each episode as an actual report from the newspaper's archives.
Gerald Mohr played Doc Holliday in the first-season Tombstone Territory episode titled "Doc Holliday in Durango", initially broadcast in 1958. The previous year, Mohr had portrayed Holliday in an episode of Maverick titled "The Quick and the Dead" starring James Garner and Marie Windsor. Mohr's version of Holliday was identical in both series.
The ending credits indicate, "This series is produced with the full cooperation of Clayton A. Smith, editor of the TOMBSTONE EPITAPH and D'Estell Iszard, historian".
The program was a notable early example of a television network imitating itself. At the time it was airing Tombstone Territory, whose main character resembled Wyatt Earp in everything but name, ABC also was broadcasting The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.

Cast

Pat Conway as Sheriff Clay Hollister
Richard Eastham as Harris Clayton Claibourne, editor
Gilman Rankin starred as Deputy Charlie Riggs in eight episodes, only appearing in the first season.

Recurring

Robert Foulk appeared as Curly Bill Brocius.
Quentin Sondergaard was cast as Deputy Sheriff Quint, who appeared throughout the series.
Dennis Moore appeared as Deputy Lee in 6 episodes.
Harry Woods appeared as Dr. Cunningham in 6 episodes
Robert J. Wilke, John Doucette and Warren Oates all appeared three times, as Burt Foster, Apache Chief Geronimo, and Bob Pickett, respectively, as well as occasional other roles. Kenne Duncan appeared three times as a Tombstone bartender.

Guest stars

Release

Home media

On April 2, 2013, Timeless Media Group released season 1 on DVD in Region 1.
As of late 2014, The Complete Series of all 91 episodes has been released on DVD.

Syndication

Reruns aired on FETV from 2021 to 2022, and as of 2022, the show is aired daily on Grit as a part of its daytime schedule.

Merchandising

The TV show was also adapted into a comic book, Four Color #1123, by Dan Spiegle and Paul S. Newman, published & distributed by Dell Comics.