Alias Smith and Jones

The western was the first and perhaps the most popular genre ever produced in both movies and on television. The very first movie made for theaters was a fifteen minute oater called The Great Train Robbery in 1903. William S. Hart and Buck Jones made westerns popular in the silent era, and Harry Carey and Tom Mix topped a plethora of cowboy actors in the 1920s, both leading the transition into talkies. Many future stars, including Clark Gable, got their start in westerns. Gable's first credited role was in a William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy) cowboy picture called The Painted Desert, in which he played a very grumpy bad guy.

In 1930 John Wayne was given his first starring role in The Big Trail. It was a monumental production about the Oregon Trail, but because the movie studio used a new widescreen format called 70 mm Grandeur Film, the movie flopped. Theaters were unwilling to change to the widescreen because of the cost and the uncertainties of the onset of the Great Depression. With few exceptions, such as The Plainsman, starring Gary Cooper in 1936, Westerns were relegated to B movie and weekly serial productions through most of the 1930s.

Then John Ford, the greatest of all western movie directors, took John Wayne, by this time a B movie western staple, and not only made him a star but elevated the western to A level status in Stagecoach. From the 1940s through the 1970s westerns again dominated the screen, and no actor more personified the genre than Duke Wayne, who rode the western to superstardom.

Along came television and again the most popular form of entertainment was the western. There were at least 91 different western shows on TV in the 1950s, beginning with Hopalong Cassidy and The Lone Ranger in 1949, and extending on into the 1960s. The longest running TV drama until Law and Order was Gunsmoke, which was on the air from 1955 to 1975. TV westerns still dominated the early 60s, but by the end of the decade most of them were gone. In 1970 there were only eight western shows left, and four of those would not be around in 1971. Two others would be gone in '72, and Bonanza, after the death of Dan Blocker (Hoss) would only limp through its fourteenth and final season in 1973.

In the '70's only eighteen new westerns appeared on TV, most of which didn't make it through one season. The most successful was Michael Landon's Little House on the Prairie, which lasted nine years from 1974 until 1983. Clint Walker made several made for TV western movies, but the best of all of these '70s productions were two mini-series, Centennial, and James Arness's How the West Was Won. In the '70's cop and detective shows dominated the airwaves, and in the '80s prime-time soaps eclipsed everything in popularity.

Several attempts through the years to bring back the western failed to gain strong followings, although there were some quality programs such as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and on the Silver Screen blockbusters like Silverado, and Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider. Nowadays if you want to watch a good western you have to go back to the good old days to find them. Fortunately in the DVD age they can be found. There are also western channels on cable and satellite TV, and a lot of programs can be found on the internet for free on such websites as Youtube.

The reason for the decline in the popularity of the western may have been that after twenty years of saturation every night on TV the story lines had become monotonous and people grew tired of them. In 1971, however, there was one new western that potentially had the appeal to revive interest in the genre. Alias Smith and Jones hit the screen in January as a mid season replacement and was an immediate hit. It was an unlikely tale about two outlaws trying to go straight and the predicaments they went through in order to get amnesty from the governor of Wyoming. The addition of occasional humor to a somewhat serious/somewhat tongue-in-cheek drama gave the show a light-hearted air that resonated with the viewing audience and in the fall it was back for a second season.

Smith and Jones starred two young, good-looking guys who meshed so well together you might have thought they were close brothers. In fact, Pete Duel and Ben Murphy who played Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, alias Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones, had a chemistry that Murphy would later say was just luck. They worked together well but did not socialize off the set. Roger Davis had become friends with Duel previously when they had worked on another TV pilot. Both Davis and Murphy greatly admired Duel's talent and ease as an actor.

Before Smith and Jones, Duel had been in two TV series, Gidget, in which he co-starred with Sally Fields, and Love in the Afternoon with Judy Carne. He had also made numerous guest appearances on different TV shows before he was picked for the part of Hannibal Heyes. His resonant baritone voice was perfect for the role of a "silver-tongued" manipulator who could talk his way out of any situation. Ben Murphy had fewer credits to his record, but Kid Curry, the fastest gun in the west, would be the biggest role he would ever play. After Smith and Jones he starred in two short-lived series and appeared in episodes of numerous other programs. Roger Davis got his start in a World War 2 drama called The Gallant Men in 1962. Later he would appear in two Dark Shadows movies as well as the soap opera. His greatest claim to fame may have been that he was the first husband of Charlie's favorite Angel, Jaclyn Smith. (She was also his first wife.)

The show moved smoothly into its second season and continued its success until tragedy struck on December 31, 1971. Few people knew that there was a dark side to Pete Duel. In spite of all of his good looks, success, and fame, he brooded over his life and conditions in the world. He felt like he had to do something to make it a better place, and that somehow he wasn't doing enough. He often suffered from fits of depression. In 1968 he campaigned for Eugene McCarthy in his bid for the Democratic nomination for president, but came away disappointed when McCarthy lost. He also had a problem with alcohol and began to despair when he lost his driver's license for a drunk driving accident he caused that injured two women. As his drinking became worse he became despondent for not being able to break the addiction. Then in the early morning hours of New Year's Eve, after an argument with his girlfriend, he got drunk, put a gun to his head and killed himself.

The producers of the show, uncaring, money greedy mongrels that they were, called Roger Davis that very morning to take Duel's place as Hannibal Heyes and continued working without even taking a moment to mourn Duel's passing. Davis and Murphy tried, but there wasn't the chemistry that had developed between Murphy and Duel. In all fairness to Davis, nobody could have filled the role once Pete Duel had established it. They continued to finish the second season and start a third, but the show's popularity died with Pete Duel, and so did any real chance (if there actually was one) of reviving the 1950s and early '60s popularity of the TV western.

Recently I came across Alias Smith and Jones on Youtube, all fifty episodes. I'm about half way through. Most of them aren't that good of quality, but it has been fun watching and remembering some of the episodes I watched 43 years ago. In 1971 it was my favorite show on television. I still remember how saddened I was when I heard the news about Pete Duel on the radio. It still saddens me to this day. I suppose it was one of the things that kind of marked a passing for me from a time of teenage innocence to the realities of life. Six weeks earlier, a friend of mine since the first grade, Dean Mosier, had been killed in a motorcycle accident, but Duel took his own life. It added perspective. Life is short and can be taken in a heartbeat, and all the fame, money, women, and success in the world can't bring peace to a troubled heart. Neither can drowning your sorrows in alcohol.

It also saddens me that the western movie genre has mostly disappeared from our culture today. Oh there are still westerns from time to time, but none like those simple old programs of half a century ago that often taught real values of decency and family, character and integrity, and sometimes even Christian principles. Today's movies dwell in computer generated unrealities filled with potty-mouthed dialogues and actions that are generally indecent and teach nothing of merit. How far we have come!

Interesting that the decline of the western sort of coincided with the removal of God and the Bible from public schools and discourse in the early '60s. Just a thought, but could it be that there is a connection?

Oh for the days of Smith and Jones.