''Custer'', also known as ''The Legend of Custer'', is a 17-episode
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...
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western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
* Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that i ...
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed ...
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his clas ...
. Criticizing the series as "glamorizing Custer," a concerted protest headed by the Tribal Indians Land Rights Association successfully halted broadcast of the series under the
FCC fairness doctrine
The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manne ...
.
Format
Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, 4th ed., p. 190Robert F. Simon played Custer's commanding officer, U.S.
General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...
California Joe Milner
Moses Embree Milner (May 8, 1829 – October 29, 1876), also known as "California Joe", was an American miner and frontier scout.
Biography
Moses Embree Milner was born in Stanford, Kentucky on May 8, 1829. At age 14 he moved west to St. Louis, M ...
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse ( lkt, Tȟašúŋke Witkó, italic=no, , ; 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by ...
. Peter Palmer played Sergeant James Bustard, a former Confederate soldier. Grant Woods appeared as Captain Myles Keogh. Read Morgan appeared in the episode "Spirit Woman" in the role of a
medicine man
A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective languages, for spiritual healers and cerem ...
.
Guest stars included
Lloyd Bochner
Lloyd Wolfe Bochner (July 29, 1924 – October 29, 2005) was a Canadian actor. He appeared in many Canadian and Hollywood productions between the 1950s and 1990s, including the films ''Point Blank'' (1967), '' The Detective'' (1968), '' The ...
(as James Stanhope), Rory Calhoun (as Zebediah Jackson),
Philip Carey
Philip Carey (born Eugene Joseph Carey, July 15, 1925February 6, 2009) was an American actor.
Early life and education
On July 15, 1925, Carey was born in Hackensack, New Jersey.James Daly (as John Rudford), Alexander Davion (as Capt. Marcus A. Reno), Burr DeBenning (as Uvalde),
Yvonne De Carlo
Margaret Yvonne Middleton (September 1, 1922January 8, 2007), known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Hollywood film star in the 1940s and 1950s, made several recordings, and late ...
(as Vanessa Ravenhill),
Gene Evans
Eugene Barton Evans (July 11, 1922 – April 1, 1998) was an American actor who appeared in numerous television series, television films, and feature films between 1947 and 1989.
Background
Evans was born in Holbrook, Arizona and raised i ...
Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017) was an American actress who portrayed legal secretary Della Street in the dramatic television series ''Perry Mason'' (1957–1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actr ...
(as Melinda Terry), Stacy Harris (as John Glixton),
Earl Holliman
Henry Earl Holliman (born September 11, 1928) is an American actor, animal-rights activist, and singer known for his many character roles in films, mostly Westerns and dramas, in the 1950s and 1960s. He won a Golden Globe Award for the film '' ...
(as Dan Samuels),
Robert Loggia
Salvatore "Robert" Loggia ( , ; January 3, 1930 – December 4, 2015) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Jagged Edge'' (1985) and won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for ...
Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker (born Ralph Rathgeber; November 21, 1920 August 5, 1988) was an American film, stage, and television actor. He first rose to prominence for his roles in the Broadway productions of '' Mister Roberts'' (1948–1951) and '' Picnic' ...
(as Kermit Teller),
Mary Ann Mobley
Mary Ann Mobley (February 17, 1937 – December 9, 2014) was an American actress, television personality, and Miss America 1959.
Career
Mobley was born in 1937 in Biloxi, Mississippi. After her reign as Miss America 1959, Mobley embarked on a c ...
(as Ann L'Andry),
Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress. In a career spanning four decades, her credits included work in radio, stage, film, and television.Obituary '' Variety'', May 8, 1974, page 286. Moorehead was t ...
(as Watoma),
Edward Mulhare
Edward Mulhare (8 April 1923 – 24 May 1997) was an Irish actor whose career spanned five decades. He is best known for his starring roles in two television series: '' The Ghost & Mrs. Muir'' and '' Knight Rider''.
Early life and career
Mul ...
Paul Petersen
William Paul Petersen (born September 23, 1945) is an American actor, singer, novelist, and activist.
Petersen first rose to prominence in the 1950s playing Jeff Stone on ''The Donna Reed Show'', and transitioned to a singing career in the 19 ...
(as Lieutenant Cox),
Donnelly Rhodes
Henry Donnelly Rhodes (December 4, 1937 – January 8, 2018) was a Canadian actor, known professionally as Donnelly Rhodes. He had many American television and film credits, probably best known to American audiences as the hapless escaped convic ...
Ned Romero
Ned Romero (December 4, 1926 – November 4, 2017) was an American actor and opera singer who appeared in television and film.
Early childhood and education
Romero was born on December 4, 1926 in Franklin, Louisiana, the seat of St. Mary Par ...
(as Running Feet),
Barbara Rush
Barbara Rush (born January 4, 1927) is an American actress. In 1954, Rush won the Golden Globe Award as most promising female newcomer for her role in the 1953 American science-fiction film ''It Came from Outer Space''.Warren 1982, pp. 151–6 ...
(as Brigid O'Rourke),
Albert Salmi
Albert Salmi (March 11, 1928 – April 22, 1990) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Best known for his work as a character actor, he appeared in over 150 film and television productions.
Early life
Salmi was born and raised ...
(as Capt. John Mark Charrington), William Smith (as Chief Tall Knife),
Dub Taylor
Walter Clarence "Dub" Taylor Jr. (February 26, 1907 – October 3, 1994),Dub Taylor, 87, Actor in Westerns, The New York Times, October 5, 1994, Section B, Page 12 was an American character actor who from the 1940s into the 1990s worked extens ...
(as Trader),
Ray Walston
Herman Raymond Walston (November 2, 1914 – January 1, 2001) was an American actor and comedian, well known as the title character on '' My Favorite Martian''. His other major film, television, and stage roles included Luther Billis (''South Pac ...
(as Ned Quimbo),
James Whitmore
James Allen Whitmore Jr. (October 1, 1921 – February 6, 2009) was an American actor. He received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Tony Award, plus two Aca ...
William Windom
William Windom (May 10, 1827January 29, 1891) was an American politician from Minnesota. He served as U.S. Representative from 1859 to 1869, and as U.S. Senator from 1870 to January 1871, from March 1871 to March 1881, and from November 1881 ...
(as Clark Samson). In the last episode entitled "The Raiders", Custer enlists the aid of
Kiowa
Kiowa () people are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th a ...
Indians to help him to locate the parties responsible for a series of
wagon train
''Wagon Train'' is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957–1962), and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and became number one in the Nielsen ratings ...
raids.
Maunder was twenty-eight when he was cast as the 28-year-old Custer. The show was canceled due to poor reviews and protests by Native American tribes throughout the United States.Brian W. Dippie, ''Custer's Last Stand: The Anatomy of an American Myth''. Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1994
, (p.120)
Two episodes, No. 1 and No. 6, were later combined and released as a feature length film, entitled ''"Crazy Horse and Custer, The Untold Story"''. On June 7, 2016, ''Custer: The Complete Series (Collector's Edition)'' was released on dvd by Shout! Factory.