Some genius at Universal decided that the tale of Destry could be retold on the small screen, except that this time, this would not be about Tom Destry, who'd been played in movies by Jimmy Stewart and Audie Murphy. No, this was his son, Harrison (John Gavin), who was fronting a short-lived mid-season entry for ABC.
The problem? Westerns had peaked, and were gradually fading away. Destry got 13 weeks, and no more. Gavin narrated the episodes in character, the idea being that a first-person narrative, which worked so well for crime dramas such as Dragnet (not yet a Universal property) and Richard Diamond, might work in a Western. Uh, not here, though you could understand if you knew going in that Harrison Destry had been a sheriff before being framed for a crime he didn't commit.
Here's a sample clip:
Gavin later became an ambassador to Mexico, long after his acting career had ended. I don't think he was given another TV series, but I could be wrong.
Rating: B-.
Fall of 1965:
ReplyDeleteJohn Gavin was one of the stars of Convoy, a WWII series about Naval service in the North Atlantic.
Convoy has the "distinction" of being the last hour-long film series on NBC to be produced entirely in black & white; this made it stand out on "the Full Color Network", as NBC was promoting itself that fall.
Convoy was cancelled mid-season, leaving I Dream Of Jeannie as NBC's last B&W show (it converted to color for its own second season).
Hadn't heard of Convoy until now. Thank you.
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