National Velvet

1 9 6 0 – 1 9 6 2 (USA)
58 x 30 minute episodes

12-year-old Velvet Brown (Lori Martin) lives on the Brown Dairy Ranch with her parents, Martha (Ann Doran) and Herbert (Arthur Space), her mischievous 6-year-old brother Donald (Joey Scott), her beautiful 16-year-old sister Edwina (Carole Wells) and a ranch hand and former steeplechase jockey named Mi Taylor (James McCallion).

Velvet owns a beautiful chestnut horse called King, which she hopes will run in the Grand National steeplechase someday.

Edwina – called “Winna” – shares a bedroom with Velvet and is a sophomore at Valley High School. She breeds canaries and had two boyfriends – the more steady Theodore P. (“Teddy”) Nelson (Carl Crow), an anthropology professor at State College, and the occasional Carl Evans (Michael Vandever), a local boy.

Donald is a typical little boy who gets hurt (for example, falling down the stairs), adopts stray animals, fibs, blames his sisters for things he did and is often confused by “big words” (like “elopement”).

Based on the 1944 feature film of the same title starring a young Elizabeth Taylor, episodes of the NBC series revolved around incidents in the lives of the Brown family, with particular focus on Velvet as she trained King for the Grand National.

Velvet Brown
Lori Martin
Martha Brown
Ann Doran
Mi Taylor
James McCallion
Herbert Brown
Arthur Space
Edwina Brown
Carole Wells
Donald Brown
Joey Scott
Theodore P (Teddy) Nelson
Carl Crow
Carl Evans
Michael Vandever

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