The Alaskans (1959-1960)

INFORMATION FROM IMDb

Plot Summary
When gold was discovered in the Yukon in the 1890's,
thousands of hopeful prospectors headed north for a chance at becoming rich.
The easiest passage to the Yukon was through the small Alaskan port town of Skagway,
which quickly exploded into a sprawling boom town,
offering almost everything a miner could want, for a price.
Adventurers Silky Harris and Reno McKee have arrived in this town
looking to make their fortunes. Not mining for gold,
but by catering to and fleecing the hardy, hard-living miners who pass through town.
Written by Jean-Marc Rocher

Series Cast
Roger Moore..Silky Harris (37 episodes, 1959-1960)
Dorothy Provine ... Rocky Shaw (36 episodes, 1959-1960)
Jeff York ... Reno McKee (36 episodes, 1959-1960)
Ray Danton ... Nifty Cronin (33 episodes, 1959-1960)
Rex Reason ... Gordon Talbot ... (4 episodes, 1960)
John Dehner ... Cornish ... (4 episodes, 1959-1960)
and many more..

Series Directed
Robert Gordon ... (2 episodes, 1959)
Lew Landers ... (2 episodes, 1960)
Robert B. Sinclair ... (2 episodes, 1960)
Joseph Lejtes ... (1 episode, 1959)
William A. Seiter ... (1 episode, 1959)
Reginald Le Borg ... (1 episode, 1960)
Leslie H. Martinson ... (1 episode, 1960)
George Waggner ... (1 episode, 1960)
and many more..

Series Produced
William T. Orr ... executive producer (37 episodes, 1959-1960)
Harry Tatelman ... producer (3 episodes, 1959)
sand many more...

Series Music
Mack David ... composer: theme music (37 episodes, 1959-1960)
Jerry Livingston ... composer: theme music (37 episodes, 1959-1960)
and many more..

Trivia
According to Roger Moore in his autobiography, the fake snow used in production
was initially made with gypsum and cornflakes.
However, it later included six inch nails and lumps of wood.
The crew were allow to wear protective masks, but the actors were not.
Moore said that the cast members had to go to the studio nurse at least twice a day
to get their eyes flushed out from the dirt and grit.

Roger Moore said that the Skagway streets were actually a back lot in Burbank, California.
The cast were dressed in giant snow boots, fur boots, gloves and parkas,
yet the temperature was usually in the eighties.

The Screen Writers Guild went out on strike in January 1960 and did not settle
with the major studios until June 1960.
After Warners had gone through all existing scripts of "The Alaskans"
they began to rework old scripts from their series "Maverick".
Hardly more than character names were changed which made the plot
very predictable to "Maverick" fans. It is interesting to note that "The Alaskans"
went off the air at the same time that the writers settled their strike.

Wheels were hidden underneath the sleds in order
to make it easier for the dogs to pull them.

Filming Location
Stage 24, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

The Alaskans is a 1959–1960 ABC/Warner Brothers western television series
set during the late 1890s in the port of Skagway, Alaska.

The show features Roger Moore as "Silky Harris" and Jeff York as "Reno McKee",
a pair of adventurers intent on swindling travelers bound for the Yukon Territories
during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush.
Their plans are inevitably complicated by the presence of singer "Rocky Shaw" (Dorothy Provine),
"an entertainer with a taste for the finer things in life".

The show was the first regular work on American television for the British actor Roger Moore.

The Alaskans is closely related to the ABC/WB series Maverick through broadcast and production.
Maverick was the most prominent of ABC's Sunday night of western dramas

For the 1959–60 season, Sundays began with Colt .45 and Maverick,
then John Russell's Lawman and Nick Adams' The Rebel, and concluded with The Alaskans.

This may have influenced the career path of Roger Moore.
The same year that The Alaskans was cancelled, James Garner left Maverick.
Moore became, under protest,[Garner's replacement,
playing Bret Maverick's cousin Beau Maverick in the fourth season of Maverick.

User Review

Celebrating the new state
16 March 2002 | by jeff hill(Sapporo, Japan)

Quote

I remember "The Alaskans" as not just another western but a celebration that Alaska had just been made a state back then in 1959. The show took place during the Gold Rush of the 1890's. Roger Moore played Silky as a guy who was tough enough to take everything rugged Alaska could throw at him and still be calm, cheerful, smooth, and charming. Dorothy Provine played Rocky as a woman smart enough and tough enough to run a saloon and enticing enough to attract every man in town as a customer. Hence, her saloon became a kind of focal point for both the openings and the conclusions of the episodes. By 1960 Hawaii was the new state, so the novelty of Alaska had kind of worn off. So Dorothy Provine moved her saloon to "The Roaring Twenties" TV series.