Trackdown

1 9 5 7 – 1 9 5 9 (USA)
70 x 30 minute episodes

Set in the American Southwest, Trackdown starred Robert Culp as mythical Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman, operating in Porter County, Texas, during the early 1870s.

Hoby is appointed as the town’s law officer by his superiors in Frontier Company A after the former town sheriff is killed.

Henrietta Porter (Ellen Corby), the founder of the town, now publishes the town’s only newspaper, the Enterprise. Aaron Adams (James Griffith) is Hoby’s friend and the town’s barber.

Penny Adams (Gail Kobe) is Aaron’s younger sister who has eyes for Hoby. Ralph (Norman Leavitt) is Hoby’s deputy.

While most businesses in town carry the name Porter before them (such as the Porter Hotel, the Porter Barber Shop, the Porter Bank), the local watering hole is called the Buckhorn Saloon.

Many of the stories told in the CBS series were adapted from cases in the files of the actual Texas Rangers, and it was for that reason that the show had the official approval of the State of Texas and the Rangers (a distinction that could be claimed by no other TV Western).

The series Wanted: Dead or Alive began life as an episode of Trackdown titled ‘The Bounty Hunter’.

Hoby Gilman
Robert Culp
Henrietta Porter
Ellen Corby
Aaron Adams
James Griffith
Penny Adams
Gail Kobe
Ralph
Norman Leavitt

Video