Wichita Town is a half-hour western television series starring
Joel McCrea, Jody McCrea, Carlos Romero, and George Neise that aired on NBC
from September 30, 1959, until April 6, 1960.
Joel McCrea played Marshal Mike Dunbar, in charge of keeping the peace the booming cowtown of Wichita, Kansas.
His deputies were Ben Matheson, played by McCrea's real life son, Jody, and Rico Rodriquez,
portrayed by Carlos Romero. Making occasional appearances were the town doctor,
Nat Wyndham (played by George Neise), the blacksmith,
Aeneas MacLinahan (played by Robert Anderson), and the bartender in the local saloon,
Joe Kingston, played in six episodes by Robert Foulk.
The model for shows such as these had already been laid out by other western programs such as
Gunsmoke, Lawman, and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, so Wichita Town may not have been unique
in its plotting and structure.
The two most unusual features about the series were the presence of Joel McCrea,
a favorite of Western movie audiences for his performance in such films as
Union Pacific, Buffalo Bill, and Ramrod,
and the fact that his real life son was in Wichita Town, but did not play his son.
Wichita Town was produced by Mirisch Company and
Joel McCrea's Production company for Four Star Television
and aired for a single season.
User Review
a sturdy marshal (joel McCrea) watches over the town of Wichita, Kansas in the 1880s
21 March 2006 | by dougbrode (United States)
Quote from dougThis short lived western, which appeared at a time when the airwaves were so glutted with cowboy shows that some had to fall through the cracks, has developed something of a cult reputation as being one of the really good ones that somehow got away. In truth, much of it was standard stuff, with the decent minded lawman (Joel McCrea) and his young deputy (Jody McCrea), pretty much the same formula as you could find over at ABC with Lawman (Wichita Town was on NBC). There was a nice feel for the cowtown, however, and several intriguing elements that are worth noting. For one thing, though the father and son team of the McCreas were featured, they didn't play father and son, though they were an older and younger man in a father-son style relationship. Second, though the characters' names were fictional, they were supposed to be Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. (Young Jody's character's name was even "Ben Masters," allowing for a hint at the historicity they had to suggest rather than admit owing to the fact that Hugh O'Brian and Alan Dinehart had already done the story of that friendship over at ABC on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. Perhaps that helps explain why Wichita Town never caught on - there was a sense of deja vu to it all, which doesn't mean that it wasn't good, only that it arrived a little late in the TV western game. Apparently, McCrea had wanted to play Earp on TV. One of his best B+ westerns of the mid-fifties was Wichita Town, in which he played Earp and Keith Larson (later in such TV westerns as Brave Eagle and Northwest Passage) was young Masterson. That film opened in theatres only months before the ABC Earp/Masterson series premiered. So McCrea backed off and then gave it a noble try with this one-season wonder. If hardly a classic of its type, this was a highly watchable variation on what then was an all too common theme, with McCrea bringing a certain substance to the role that most of the young cowboy stars then on the air couldn't come close to.