The Gabby Hayes Show

The Gabby Hayes Show is a general purpose Western television series in which the film star and Roy Rogers confidant, George "Gabby" Hayes (1885–1969), narrated each episode, showed clips from old westerns, or told tall tales for a primarily children's audience.[1] The first Hayes program ran on NBC at 5:15 p.m. Eastern for fifteen minutes three times per week and preceded the puppet series, Howdy Doody. It aired from December 11, 1950, to January 1, 1954. The second version was a half-hour broadcast on Saturday mornings, carried for only thirteen weeks from May 12 to July 14, 1956, on ABC.[2]

The Gabby Hayes Show
Hayes in 1953.
Written by	Jerome Coopersmith Horton Foote
Directed by	Vincent J. Donehue
Starring	George "Gabby" Hayes
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	4
Production
Running time	15 minutes (1950-1954); 30 minutes (1956)
Release
Original network	NBC (1950-1954) ABC (1956)
Picture format	Black and white (1950-1954; 1956)
Original release	December 11, 1950 (1950-12-11) – July 14, 1956 (1956-07-14)

The show was sponsored by Quaker Oats' puffed cereals, which were "shot from guns". As was common at the time, the host delivered the commercial. This often included Hayes firing a small cannon loaded with the cereal at the camera, while warning the viewers to "Watch out for your televisionary sets!"

The floor manager for the show was Fred Rogers[3] (of children's television show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood ) until 1953 when he left NBC to start working in public television.

Selected episodes from 1956

Selected episodes and guest stars from archival footage include:

• "Ambush Trail" (I. Stanford Jolley as Bolton)
• "Enemy of the Law" (Tex Ritter as Tex)
• "Fighting Vigilantes" (Lash LaRue, known as the cowboy with the bullwhip, as Cheyenne Davis)
• "Ghost Town Renegades" (La Rue and William Fawcett, later of NBC's Fury series, as Jonas Watson)
• "His Brother's Ghost" (Buster Crabbe as Billy Carson)
• "Navajo Kid" (Jolley)
• "Overland Riders" (Crabbe)
• "Shadow Valley", with Eddie Dean and Roscoe Ates as Soapy Jones. Both Dean and Ates were co-stars of the 1950 ABC series The Marshal of Gunsight Pass.
• "Stage to Mesa City" (La Rue)
• "Stagecoach Outlaws" (Crabbe and Jolley)
• "Terrors on Horseback" (Crabbe and Jolley)
• "Three in the Saddle" (Ritter)
• "Wild Horse Phantom" (Crabbe and Kermit Maynard, brother of western film star Ken Maynard)[4]

Wright King appeared on the program in 1950–1951 in the roles of both bandit Sam Bass and the youthful Mark Twain.[5]

In 1953, the 15-minute episodes of The Gabby Hayes Show were nominated for an Emmy Award for children's programming.[6] Hayes retired after the close of the 1956 series.

References

1. Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. p. 172. ISBN 978-0823083152. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
2. Alex McNeil, Total Television, New York: Penguin Books, 1996, 4th ed., p. 311
3. Tuttle, Shea (2019). Exactly as You Are: The Life and Faith of Mister Rogers. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4674-5727-9. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
4. "Episode List of The Gabby Hayes Show (1956)". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
5. "Credits for Wright King". IMDB. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
6. "Awards for The Gabby Hayes Show (1953)". IMDB. Retrieved February 28, 2009.

External links

• The Gabby Hayes Show on IMDb