Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone is an American action/adventure television series that aired from September 24, 1964 to September 10, 1970 on NBC for 165 episodes, and was made by 20th Century Fox Television. The title role was played by Fess Parker. Ed Ames co-starred as Mingo, Boone's American Indian friend, for the first four seasons of the series. Albert Salmi portrayed Boone sidekick Yadkin in season one only. Country-western singer/ actor Jimmy Dean was a featured character from 1968- 1970 seasons. Actor and former NFL football player Roosevelt Grier made regular appearances in the 1969 to 1970 season.[1] The show was broadcast "in Living Color," beginning in fall, 1965, the second season. It was shot entirely in California and Kanab, Utah.

Daniel Boone was one of two iconic historical figures played by Fess Parker. He previously appeared as Davy Crockett in a series of episodes of the Disney anthology television series, to considerable acclaim. For his role as Boone, which lasted far longer but had arguably less impact, Parker again wore a raccoon-hide coonskin cap, which had been popularized years earlier by the Crockett shows. Daniel Boone's headgear was even mentioned in the show's theme song: "From the coonskin cap on the top of ol' Dan...." although the real life Daniel Boone did not actually wear a coonskin cap.

Parker's Boone was less of an explorer and more a family man than Parker's Crockett. Boone's wife Rebecca (played by Patricia Blair) and son Israel (Darby Hinton) were often featured in the stories. In reality, Boone had ten children. During the first two seasons, his daughter Jemima was shown (played by Veronica Cartwright), but she disappeared with no explanation toward the end of the second season. Western actor Chris Alcaide appeared twice on the series, once as an Indian, Flathead Joseph.

The series was set in the 1770s, just before and during the American Revolution, and mostly centered on adventures in and around Boonesborough, Kentucky. Some aspects of the show were less than historically faithful, which at one point led the Kentucky legislature to condemn the inaccuracies.

Inconsistencies included episodes such as "The Aaron Burr Story," a second-season episode in which the former Vice President of the United State visits Boonesborough. The episode was based on Burr's raising an armed group, allegedly to commit treason, in 1806, while another episode in the second season hinged on allegations that the Boonesborough settlers were planning insurrection against the British Crown, prior to the American Revolution. Still other episodes took place during the Revolution. No explanation was made for the 30-year discrepancy.

The character Mingo was half-Cherokee and highly educated, somewhat in the Tonto mold but with updated sensibilities and without the broken English. (A graduate of Oxford University, Mingo passed as a British officer in at least two episodes, and sang opera in another.) Singer Ed Ames's role as Mingo led to an infamous tomahawk-throwing demonstration on The Tonight Show that was rerun on anniversary clip shows for decades afterward. In reality, the Mingo were a small group of Natives (and not one man) who were related to the Iroquois.

Another television treatment of the life of Daniel Boone appeared on the Disney anthology series in 1960, with Dewey Martin starring as Boone. This four part series did not have remotely the same impact as the Crockett shows. Unsurprisingly, Fess Parker's Daniel Boone is much better remembered today than Martin's

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                 Series Cast:

Fess Parker - Daniel Boone
Patricia Blair - Rebecca Boone
Darby Hinton - Israel Boone
Ed Ames - Mingo
Dal McKennon - Cincinnatus
Veronica Cartwright - Jemima Boone
Albert Salmi - Yadkin

Episodes List With Original Air Dates

The First Season

  1. Ken-Tuck-E (9/24/1964)
  2. Tekawitha McLeod (10/1/1964)
  3. My Brother's Keeper (10/8/1964)
  4. The Family Fluellen (10/22/1964)
  5. The Choosing (10/29/1964)
  6. Lac Duquesne (11/5/1964)
  7. The Sound of Wings (11/12/1964)
  8. A Short Walk to Salem (11/19/1964)
  9. The Sisters O'Hannrahan (12/3/1964)
  10. Pompey (12/10/1964)
  11. Mountain of the Dead (12/17/1964)
  12. Not in Our Stars (12/31/1964)
  13. The Hostages (1/7/1965)
  14. The Returning (1/14/1965)
  15. The Prophet (1/21/1965)
  16. The First Stone (1/28/1965)
  17. A Place of 1000 Spirits (2/4/1965)
  18. The Sound of Fear (2/11/1965)
  19. The Price of Friendship (2/18/1965)
  20. The Quietists (2/25/1965)
  21. The Devil's Four (3/4/1965)
  22. The Reunion (3/11/1965)
  23. The Ben Franklin Encounter (3/18/1965)
  24. Four-Leaf Clover (3/25/1965)
  25. Cain's Birthday - Part 1 (4/1/1965)
  26. Cain's Birthday - Part 2 (4/8/1965)
  27. Daughter of the Devil (4/15/1965)
  28. Doll of Sorrow (4/22/1965)
  29. The Courtship of Jericho Jones (4/29/1965)

The Second Season

  1. Empire of the Lost (9/16/1965)
  2. The Tortoise and the Hare (9/23/1965)
  3. The Mound Builders (9/30/1965)
  4. My Name Is Rawls (10/7/1965)
  5. The Old Man and the Cave (10/14/1965)
  6. The Trek (10/21/1965)
  7. The Aaron Burr Story (10/28/1965)
  8. Cry of Gold (11/4/1965)
  9. The Peace Tree (11/11/1965)
  10. The Thanksgiving Story (11/25/1965)
  11. A Rope for Mingo (12/2/1965)
  12. The First Beau (12/9/1965)
  13. The Perilous Journey (12/16/1965)
  14. The Christmas Story (12/23/1965)
  15. The Tamarack Massacre Affair (12/30/1965)
  16. Gabriel (1/6/1966)
  17. Seminole Territory (1/13/1966)
  18. The Deserter (1/20/1966)
  19. Crisis by Fire (1/27/1966)
  20. The Gun (2/3/1966)
  21. The Prisoners (2/10/1966)
  22. The Fifth Man (2/17/1966)
  23. The Gun-Barrel Highway (2/24/1966)
  24. The Search (3/3/1966)
  25. Fifty Rifles (3/10/1966)
  26. The Trap (3/17/1966)
  27. The Accused (3/24/1966)
  28. Cibola (3/31/1966)
  29. The High Cumberland - Part 1 (4/14/1966)
  30. The High Cumberland - Part 2 (4/21/1966)

The Third Season

  1. Dan'l Boone Shot a B'ar (9/15/1966)
  2. The Allegiances (9/22/1966)
  3. Goliath (9/29/1966)
  4. Grizzly (10/6/1966)
  5. First in War, First in Peace (10/13/1966)
  6. Run a Crooked Mile (10/20/1966)
  7. The Matchmaker (10/27/1966)
  8. Onatha (11/3/1966)
  9. The Loser's Race (11/10/1966)
  10. The Enchanted Gun (11/17/1966)
  11. Requiem for Craw Green (12/1/1966)
  12. The Lost Colony (12/8/1966)
  13. River Passage (12/15/1966)
  14. When a King Is a Pawn (12/22/1966)
  15. The Symbol (12/29/1966)
  16. The Williamsburg Cannon - Part 1 (1/12/1967)
  17. The Williamsburg Cannon - Part 2 (1/19/1967)
  18. The Wolf Man (1/26/1967)
  19. The Jasper Ledbedder Story (2/2/1967)
  20. When I Became a Man, I Put Away Childish Things (2/9/1967)
  21. The Long Way Home (2/16/1967)
  22. The Young Ones (2/23/1967)
  23. Delo Jones (3/2/1967)
  24. The Necklace (3/9/1967)
  25. Fort West Point (3/23/1967)
  26. Bitter Mission (3/30/1967)
  27. Take the Southbound Stage (4/6/1967)
  28. The Fallow Land (4/13/1967)

The Fourth Season

  1. The Ballad of Sidewinder and the Cherokee (9/14/1967)
  2. The Ordeal of Israel Boone (9/21/1967)
  3. The Renegade (9/28/1967)
  4. Tanner (10/5/1967)
  5. Beaumarchais (10/12/1967)
  6. The King's Shilling (10/19/1967)
  7. The Inheritance (10/26/1967)
  8. The Traitor (11/2/1967)
  9. The Value of a King (11/9/1967)
  10. The Desperate Raid (11/16/1967)
  11. The Spanish Horse (11/23/1967)
  12. Chief Mingo (12/7/1967)
  13. The Secret Code (12/14/1967)
  14. A Matter of Blood (12/28/1967)
  15. The Scrimshaw Ivory Chart (1/4/1968)
  16. The Imposter (1/18/1968)
  17. The Witnesses (1/25/1968)
  18. The Flaming Rocks (2/1/1968)
  19. Then Who Will They Hang from the Yardarm If Willy Gets Away? (2/8/1968)
  20. The Spanish Fort (2/15/1968)
  21. Hero's Welcome (2/22/1968)
  22. Orlando, the Prophet (2/29/1968)
  23. The Far Side of Fury (3/7/1968)
  24. Nightmare (3/14/1968)
  25. Thirty Pieces of Silver (3/28/1968)
  26. Faith's Way (4/4/1968)

The Fifth Season

  1. Be Thankful for the Fickleness of Women (9/19/1968)
  2. The Blackbirder (10/3/1968)
  3. The Dandy (10/10/1968)
  4. The Fleeing Nuns (10/24/1968)
  5. The Plague That Came to Ford's Run (10/31/1968)
  6. The Bait (11/7/1968)
  7. Big, Black and Out There (11/14/1968)
  8. Flag of Truce (11/21/1968)
  9. The Valley of the Sun (11/28/1968)
  10. The Patriot (12/5/1968)
  11. The Return of Sidewinder (12/12/1968)
  12. Minnow for a Shark (1/2/1969)
  13. To Slay a Giant (1/9/1969)
  14. A Tall Tale of Prater Beasely (1/16/1969)
  15. Copperhead Izzy (1/30/1969)
  16. Three Score and Ten (2/6/1969)
  17. Jonah (2/13/1969)
  18. Bickford's Bridge (2/20/1969)
  19. A Touch of Charity (2/27/1969)
  20. For Want of a Hero (3/6/1969)
  21. Love and Equity (3/13/1969)
  22. The Allies (3/27/1969)
  23. A Man Before His Time (4/3/1969)
  24. For a Few Rifles (4/10/1969)
  25. Sweet Molly Malone (4/17/1969)
  26. A Pinch of Salt (5/1/1969)

The Sixth Season

  1. A Very Small Rifle (9/18/1969)
  2. The Road to Freedom (10/2/1969)
  3. Benvenuto... Who? (10/9/1969)
  4. The Man (10/16/1969)
  5. The Printing Press (10/23/1969)
  6. The Traitor (10/30/1969)
  7. The Grand Alliance (11/13/1969)
  8. Target Boone (11/20/1969)
  9. A Bearskin for Jamie Blue (11/27/1969)
  10. The Cache (12/4/1969)
  11. The Terrible Tarbots (12/11/1969)
  12. Hannah Comes Home (12/25/1969)
  13. An Angel Cried (1/8/1970)
  14. Perilous Passage (1/15/1970)
  15. The Sunshine Patriots (1/22/1970)
  16. Mama Cooper (2/5/1970)
  17. Before the Tall Man (2/12/1970)
  18. Run for the Money (2/19/1970)
  19. A Matter of Vengeance (2/26/1970)
  20. The Landlords (3/5/1970)
  21. Readin', Ritin', and Revolt (3/12/1970)
  22. Noblesse Oblige (3/26/1970)
  23. The Homecoming (4/9/1970)
  24. Brining Up Josh (4/16/1970)
  25. How to Become a Goddess (4/30/1970)
  26. Israel and Love (5/7/1970)