Richard Anderson makes his only appearance on the series as Lt. Flintridge Cohill. He is a new Calvary officer who is up against the grizzled Captain Nathan Brittles, played by William Conrad. The setting is the US prairie, west of Nebraska’s Platte River. Cohill is having problems reconciling the textbook theories of warfare taught to him at West Point versus the actual tactics that might be effective in a foray against Indians. The hardened Captain Brittles has other ideas. We gradually learn that the captain has had experiences that Cohill can learn from, if he allows himself to, and that Brittles has deeper reasons why he wants Cohill to succeed when his own career did not.
The script was adapted by William N. Robson from a 1946 short story by James Warner Bellah. He was a successful author of stories about the American West, writing 19 novels and numerous short stories. Some of the latter became popular movies produced by the legendary John Ford: Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Rio Grande. He was co-author of the screenplay for the 1962 film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
The program was recorded on Wednesday, September 10, 1958. Rehearsal began at 2:00pm, followed by recording at 4:30pm. That session included in-studio edits until 6:00pm. Additional production edits were completed by 8:00pm.
Two recordings have survived. The network recording is a heavily edited home recorded aircheck in very low quality sound. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#698) is the much preferred recording.
Of the four ad slots in the network program, only GMC Trucks was booked at the time of recording. The three other slots were allocated before broadcast. The home aircheck recording has not commercials as they were edited out.
Richard Anderson had a very long and very busy television and movie career. Nostalgia fans would know him best for his role as Oscar Goldman in The Six Million Dollar Man and as the replacement for Ray Collins’ Lt. Tragg in Perry Mason as Lt. Steve Drumm. At the time of this broadcast, he had a supporting role in the popular 1958 film Long, Hot Summer. An overview of his very successful career can be found at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Anderson
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP580914
THE CAST
RICHARD ANDERSON (Cohill), William Conrad (Captain), Joe de Santis (Sergeant), Sam Edwards (Mitt), Allen Manson (Opdyke), Bill Quinn (Sarver), Chet Stratton (Coffin), George Walsh (Narrator)
William Conrad is credited as “John Biedermeyer.”
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