Was there supposed to be more of ‘Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp’?
You have questions. I have some answers, including dips into the vintageTV vault.
Q: Would you know anything about the ’50s series “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp”? After six years the last episode ended on a cliffhanger! Was there supposed to be another season but they were canceled? The ending made no sense.
A: From what I have read about the 195561 drama, it did leave things a bit openended in the last episode, which dealt with the aftermath of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. In an interview for the Television Academy Foundation, Hugh O’Brian, who played Earp, said the producers of the show had other projects they wanted to do and decided six seasons were enough. The star felt the show could have run another couple of years. But he was happy it was ending because he had other projects he wanted to pursue, too, and “Earp” had been too timeconsuming to let him.
By the way, you can find O’Brian’s interview, along with many others with major figures in TV history at interviews.televisionacademy.com. O’Brian passed away in 2016 at the age of 91.
Q: In the 1980s I saw an ABC afterschool special and I can’t recall the title. It was about a family of four (parents, preteen son and daughter) who went for a plane ride and crashed in the forest. The parents were severely hurt (father broken leg and trapped in the plane, and the mom was also very hurt). The preteen kids had to go for help alone. What is the name of the show and where can I find it?
A: With some help from Flashbak.com, the closest I can get to the program you are describing is not an “ABC Afterschool Special,” but a drama that aired under the “ABC Afternoon Playbreak” banner. Those productions, first shown from 1973 to 1975, include “Can I Save My Children?” It’s not a perfect match to your memory but it involved a woman (Diane Baker), her two children (Tammi Bula and Patrick Cranshaw), a plane crash and, according to an ad, a “fight for their survival in a barren wilderness.” David Hedison also starred. I can’t vouch for many more details, nor have I found the program anywhere.
Q: In the early ’70s there was a movie where Jack Palance was Dracula. It was a good movie but I never saw it mentioned again after seeing it in the theater. What was the name of it? I wouldn’t mind seeing it again. I was only 19ish, maybe it wasn’t as good as I remember.
A: Palance played the Prince of Darkness in a movie simply called “Dracula.” It originally aired as a TV movie in 1974 and has many admirers, not only for Palance’s performance but for the script by the great Richard Matheson and direction by Dan Curtis. In fact, it has been released as “Dan Curtis’ Dracula” digitally and on DVD and Bluray via Amazon.com and other vendors.
Q: I have not seen “Magnum P.I.” for a month or so. I’m wondering what ever happened to this show as I liked it.
A: The reboot of the old Tom Selleck series (with Jay Hernandez now playing Magnum) had its firstseason finale in April. CBS has renewed it for a second season, where it will be on Friday nights — conveniently between another reboot, “Hawaii Five0,” and the latest Selleck series, “Blue Bloods.” All three begin new seasons Sept. 27. And before you ask, “MacGyver,” yet another reboot, which had been on CBS on Friday nights, is not in CBS’s fall lineup but is set to return later in the 20192020 season.