Rescued from a wagon train travelling through Wyoming territory when it was attacked by Cheyenne Indians, a young baby boy was raised as a son by Chief White Cloud (Richard Hale), who gave him the name Grey Fox (because he “was so quiet and solemn that he must have the brain of a wise grey fox”).
When he was 12, Grey Fox chose to go the way of the white man. He took the name Cheyenne Bodie and set out on his own.
Cheyenne (Clint Walker) drifted from job to job as he travelled across the American frontier of the 1860s – ranch hand, cavalry scout, undercover agent for the Army, deputy, trail boss and wagon train guide, to name but a handful.
He also encountered plenty of villains, lots of beautiful girls, and more than his share of gunfights.
He was a strong, quiet man who fought for the rights of others.
He was proud of his heritage and dedicated to helping the army build up the land and establish a peace treaty with his blood brothers (he could read smoke signals and was trusted by the Indian chiefs).
He carried a hunting knife on the left side of his holster (his gun was on the right) and was looking for a place to settle down and raise horses.
The show was lavishly produced, movie-style, by Warner Brothers, but the attraction was obviously Walker himself. He had a sidekick, a government mapmaker named Smitty (LQ Jones) for the first season, but after that, he worked alone.
Cheyenne was originally presented as one of three rotating elements – along with Kings Row and Casablanca – of Warner Bros. Presents, the studio’s first venture into television, and quickly emerged as the most popular of the three.
Hour-long westerns were difficult to produce on a once-a-week basis, however, so the programme continued to alternate with other series, first Conflict (1956-57) and then Sugarfoot(1957-59). In fact, Clint Walker’s Cheyenne was rarely seen on a weekly basis during its original run.
The series was based, rather loosely, on a 1947 movie of the same name starring Dennis Morgan. But the production was plagued by problems behind the scenes, and in 1958, Clint Walker left after Warner Bros. refused to release him from some of the more stringent requirements of his contract, which had been signed before Cheyenne became a hit.
Among other things, Walker did not want to have to kick back 50% of all personal appearance fees to the studio; he wanted higher payment for reruns, and he wanted permission to make records for labels other than Warner’s own.
Stripped of its star, the studio nevertheless refused to give an inch and continued the series under the name Cheyenne, with an unknown actor, Ty Hardin, in the leading role, now named Bronco Layne. Walker, meanwhile, was legally prevented from working anywhere.
In early 1959, Walker and the studio came to an agreement, and Walker returned to the series.
For part of the 1959-1960 season, Cheyenne alternated with Shirley Temple’s Storybook. Then, for 1960-1961, Cheyenne became The Cheyenne Show, a rotating anthology in which Walker appeared on most weeks, interspersed with episodes of Ty Hardin as Bronco and Will Hutchins as Sugarfoot.
In 1961-1962, Sugarfoot was dropped, and only Cheyenne and Bronco were seen.
Finally, in 1962, the show went solo again, but only for one more season – and then Walker rode off into the sunset for the last time.
Cheyenne Bodie
Clint Walker
Smitty
L Q Jones
Bronco Layne
Ty Hardin
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He also encountered plenty of villains, lots of beautiful girls, and more than his share of gunfights.
The series was based, rather loosely, on a 1947 movie of the same name starring Dennis Morgan. But the production was plagued by problems behind the scenes, and in 1958, Clint Walker left after Warner Bros. refused to release him from some of the more stringent requirements of his contract, which had been signed before Cheyenne became a hit.
