Cimarron City (TV series)

Cimarron City is an American one-hour Western television series, starring George Montgomery as Matt Rockford and John Smith as Lane Temple, airing on NBC from October 11, 1958, to September 26, 1959.^[1] Cimarron City is a boomtown in Logan County, Oklahoma, north of Oklahoma City. Rich in oil and gold, Cimarron City aspires to become the capital of the future state of Oklahoma, to be created in 1907.

Cimarron City
George Montgomery as Matthew Rockford, with guest star Fred MacMurray, in "I, the People" (1958)
Genre	Western
Written by	Norman Jolley Richard Morgan Tom Seller
Directed by	Richard Bartlett Abner Biberman John Meredyth Lucas
Starring	George Montgomery John Smith Audrey Totter Dan Blocker
Theme music composer	Frederick Herbert Stanley Wilson
Composer	Paul Dunlap
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	26
Production
Producers	Richard Bartlett Norman Jolley
Cinematography	Jack MacKenzie William A. Sickner John F. Warren
Editor	Lee Huntington
Running time	60 minutes
Production companies	Mont Productions Revue Studios
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 27, 1958 (1958-09-27) – April 4, 1959 (1959-04-04)

Synopsis

Matthew Rockford is the son of an area cattle rancher, who is the founder and mayor of Cimarron City. Lane Temple, the blacksmith, serves also as the deputy sheriff. He maintains the law amid the crooked schemes concocted in Cimarron City.

Audrey Totter played Beth Purcell, the owner of the boarding house.^[1] The episodes were supposed to rotate equally among Montgomery, Smith, and Totter. The writers, however, did not give Totter enough stories as promised, and she was phased out in favor of male leads.^[2]

Cimarron City also featured Dan Blocker (before Bonanza) in two roles. In the second episode, Blocker plays outlaw Carl Budinger, who is killed. In the fourth episode, he reappears as Carl's good-hearted brother, Tiny Budinger, who becomes one of Rockford's ranch hands.

Production notes

The producers were Richard Bartlett and Norman Jolley.^[1] Stanley Wilson wrote the theme music.^[3]

In its initial run, Cimarron City was placed opposite two half-hour Western programs on CBS, Have Gun, Will Travel and Gunsmoke,^[1] from 9:30 to 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturdays. From June 1960 to September 1960, reruns were shown on Fridays from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time, again on NBC.^[4]

Newspaper columnist Erskine Johnson wrote that NBC created Cimarron City expressly "to shoot it out with CBS TV's two guns – the half-hour Have Gun and the top-rated Gunsmoke, in most sections of the country."^[5] When the show's ratings failed to meet NBC executives' expectations, Smith's and Totter's roles grew in size and Montgomery "became a wanderer instead of a stay-at-home"; writers and directors were also changed.^[5] NBC spent additional money to bring in guest stars while sponsors were leaving the show, with several episodes having no sponsor. Toward the end of the series' original run, NBC found four rotating sponsors, some of whom limited their involvement to purchasing spot announcements.^[5]

Cast

• George Montgomery as Matt Rockford, Mayor^[6] and as narrator^[4]
• John Smith as Deputy Lane Temple^[6]
• Audrey Totter as Beth Purcell^[6]
• Dan Blocker as Tiny and Carl Budinger^[6]
• Wally Brown as Jed Fame^[6]
• Claire Carleton as Alice Purdy^[6]
• Pete Dunn as Dody Hamer
• George Dunn as Jesse Williams^[4]
• Tom Fadden as Silas Perry^[4]
• Stuart Randall as Sheriff Art Sampson^[4]
• Addison Richards as Martin Kingsley^[6]
• Fred Sherman as Burt Purdy^[6]
• Nesdon Booth as Frank the bartender

Guest stars

Nick Adams Morris Ankrum Frank Bank (uncredited) Edgar Buchanan John Carradine Walter Coy Linda Darnell Dan Duryea Olive Carey Spencer Chan Mike Connors Eduard Franz Robert Fuller Peter Graves Raymond Guth Myron Healey

Ed Hinton Bern Hoffman Clyde Howdy Gary Hunley Richard Jaeckel Vivi Janiss Douglas Kennedy Barbara Lawrence Norman Leavitt John Litel June Lockhart Fred MacMurray Dorothy Malone Ken Mayer John McIntire Gary Merrill

Elizabeth Montgomery Rita Moreno J. Carrol Naish Debra Paget Gregg Palmer Luana Patten Larry Pennell Joe Ploski Jason Robards, Sr. Pernell Roberts Boyd Stockman Dean Stockwell Randy Stuart Gloria Talbott William Talman Lee Van Cleef

Episode list

No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"I, the People"	Jules Bricken	Fenton Earnshaw	October 11, 1958 (1958-10-11)
2	"Terror Town"	Richard H. Bartlett	Trebor Lewis	October 18, 1958 (1958-10-18)
3	"To Become a Man"	Richard H. Bartlett	Norman Jolley	October 25, 1958 (1958-10-25)
4	"Twelve Guns"	Richard H. Bartlett	Lew Richards & Norman Jolley	November 1, 1958 (1958-11-01)
5	"The Medicine Man"	Richard H. Bartlett	Norman Jolley	November 8, 1958 (1958-11-08)
6	"Hired Hand"	John Brahm	Lew Richards	November 15, 1958 (1958-11-15)
7	"Kid on a Calico Horse"	Herschel Daugherty	E. Jack Neuman	November 22, 1958 (1958-11-22)
8	"The Beast of Cimarron"	Abner Biberman	Norman Jolley	November 29, 1958 (1958-11-29)
9	"A Respectable Girl"	Richard H. Bartlett	Leo Townsend	December 6, 1958 (1958-12-06)
10	"The Blood Line"	Douglas Heyes	Douglas Heyes	December 13, 1958 (1958-12-13)
11	"Cimarron Holiday"	Richard H. Bartlett	Norman Jolley	December 20, 1958 (1958-12-20)[7]
12	"McGowan's Debt"	Herschel Daugherty	James Charles Lynch	December 27, 1958 (1958-12-27)
13	"The Bitter Lesson"	John Meredyth Lucas	Ernest Haycox	January 3, 1959 (1959-01-03)
14	"A Legacy of Ossie Harper"	Jules Bricken	Ernest Kinoy Jameson Brewer	January 10, 1959 (1959-01-10)
15	"Child of Fear"	Richard H. Bartlett	Virginia Spies	January 17, 1959 (1959-01-17)
16	"Burn the Town Down"	Richard H. Bartlett	Ralph Winters	January 24, 1959 (1959-01-24)
17	"Runaway Train"	Richard H. Bartlett	Norman Jolley	January 31, 1959 (1959-01-31)
18	"The Beauty and the Sorrow"	Richard H. Bartlett	Halsted Welles	February 7, 1959 (1959-02-07)
19	"Return of the Dead"	Richard H. Bartlett	Tom Seller	February 14, 1959 (1959-02-14)
20	"Blind is the Killer"	John Meredyth Lucas	David Henry Lord	February 21, 1959 (1959-02-21)
21	"The Unaccepted"	Jerry Hopper	Cyril Hume	February 28, 1959 (1959-02-28)
22	"The Ratman"	Richard H. Bartlett	Richard Carlyle	March 7, 1959 (1959-03-07)
23	"Have Sword --Will Duel"	Sidney Lanfield	Tom Seller	March 14, 1959 (1959-03-14)
24	"Chinese Invasion"	Justus Addiss	William E. Raynor	March 21, 1959 (1959-03-21)
25	"The Town is a Prisoner"	Richard H. Bartlett	Richard Morgan	March 28, 1959 (1959-03-28)
26	"The Evil One"	Christian Nyby	David Boehm	April 4, 1959 (1959-04-04)

Home media

On March 6, 2012, Timeless Media Group released Cimarron City: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.^[8]