The most classic of television Westerns must surely be The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. The thirty-minute black and white program aired on ABC beginning in 1955. The theme song was sung by the barbershop quartet known as The Ken Darby Singers.
The program was the first of the Western genre to be written for adults. Hugh O’Brian starred as the handsome Marshal Wyatt Earp. The show was loosely based on real-life Wyatt Earp, who was legendary as one of the Old West’s toughest gunmen.
In the script, liberties were taken with some of the historical details. And O’Brian was cleanshaven unlike the original mustachioed Earp. Still, the program was groundbreaking in its portrayal of the Old West.
See the Frank McDonald papers at UW’s American Heritage Center to learn more.