Riverboat
September 13, 1959 to January 2, 1961
NBC Television
Sunday, September 13, 1959; 7:00 – 8:00 PM
Twenty episodes ran at this time period. Beginning with episode #21,
“Path of the Eagle,” (February 1, 1960), the series was moved to Monday night at 7:30-8:30 PM.
Incidentally, this was the last episode Burt Reynolds appeared in.
31 episodes first season (two of which Darren
was
not in)
Regular cast first season:
Darren McGavin – Grey Holden
Burt Reynolds – Ben Frazer
Dick Wessell – Carney
Jack Lambert – Joshua
Mike McGreevey – Chip
John Mitchum – Pickalong
Bart Patton – Terry
13 episodes second
season
>Regular cast second season:
Darren McGavin – Grey Holden
Noah Berry, Jr. – Bill Blake
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Early Promo (1959)
“John James Audubon, the noted ornithologist was decidedly put out when
Internal Revenue officers took a flask of whiskey away from him while he was
riding a Missouri riverboat through “dry” territory. And Charles Dickens, who traveled the Mississippi aboard another riverboat, summed up the cruise with a terse “uncivilized.”
On the other hand, artist George Catlin so thoroughly enjoyed his riverboat roaming that he talked dozens of foreign dignitaries into taking the “grand tour” of the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
Because they rode the boats, some of history’s most noted figures will be portrayed in this years NBC-TV’s RIVERBOAT, a full-hour weekly program dealing with the romantic, colorful and sometimes uncomfortable life aboard sternwheelers.
The famous names will be worked into the storylines but they will not be entire episodes in and of themselves.
Young Philippe of France is one likely person encountered. He and his two brothers traveled from Pittsburgh to New Orleans and created a legend in so doing. Story has it the barge they were on got stuck. One of the boatmen yelled into their cabin, “Hey, you kings there, get yourselves up and shove this…barge off the bar!”
And, according to tale-teller, the royal gentry did just that. William Cullen Bryant toured as a newspaper correspondent of sorts and a young Captain of Volunteers named Abraham Lincoln was one of the persons he interviewed. Port Bryant described himself as enchanted by Lincoln’s “quaint and pleasant speech.”
And Walt Whitman, who is somewhat better remembered as a poet
than a newsman, also made the tour as a reporter. He didn’t like it much
better than did Dickens, however, since his principal recorded observation is
that there “was not room to turn and people sleep at night on the saloon
floor.”
Many theatrical greats traveled by riverboat to New Orleans to perform. Among them were Tyrone Power (great-grandfather of the late movie star), the Swedish Nightingale Jenny Lind and dancer Lola Montez, also famed, too, for her romance with Ludwig, “the king of Bavaria.”
William S. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, steamed by riverboat to the Mississippi Valley, looking for Aaron Burr, in the expectation of challenging him to a duel to avenge his father. The quest failed, however, when Burr refused to duel him.
Series stars Darren McGavin as Captain Grey Holden.
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Episodic reviews taken or adapted from “Television Westerns Episode Guide, All United States Series, 1949-1996,” by Harris M. Lentz III.
SEASON ONE
- 09/13/59 “Payment in Full”
For a price, simple-minded Hunk Farber is only happy to reveal the whereabouts
of his boss, Monte, who accidentally killed a senator’s son. The reward in
his pocket, Hunk heads for Captain Holden’s riverboat. There, he is eager
to impress a young lady aboard the Enterprise.
Nancy Gates
Also Ray
Louis Hayward
Barbara Bel Geddes
William Bishop
John Larch
2) 09/20/59 “The Barrier”
Young Jefferson Carruthers has been assigned to a new post as an Indian
agent. He and his wife board the Enterprise to travel to their new
home. Also on board is Vance Muldoon, who plans to offer Carruthers money
if he will smuggle liquor to the Indians.
Elizabeth Montgomery
John Kerr
William Bendix
Read Morgan
3) 09/27/59 “About Roger Mowbray”
Wealthy Roger Mowbray’s marriage is threatened when an old sweetheart intimates that Roger married for money. Because he really loves his wife, Roger is doubly upset to discover that his father seems to be involved in the scheme to
break up the marriage.
Robert Vaughn
Vera Miles
Cameron Prud’homme
Madlyn Rhue
John Hoyt
Hank Patterson
Sandy Kenyon
4) 10/04/59 “Race to Cincinnati”
John Jenkins has placed a large down payment on land owned by three ruthless farmers. Jenkins is planning to deliver a shipment of peaches, via the Enterprise, to Cincinnati, as a final payment for the land. But the farmers plot to block the boat so the shipment of peaches will be spoiled.
Anne Baxter
Monica Lewis
Robert Lowery
Lloyd Corrigan
Don Haggerty
5) 10/11/59 “The Unwilling”
Riverboat pilot John Murrell plans to hijack a shipment from rival pilot Dan Simpson. Murrell arranges to have Lela Candida take a job on Simpson’s boat as a dancing girl, so that she can signal his raiders when to attack.
Eddie Albert
Debra Paget
6) 10/18/59 “The Fight Back”
Ansel Torgin hires the Enterprise for his daughter’s wedding. Captain Grey
Holden recognizes the bridegroom as a drifter he once threw off his riverboat.
John Ireland
Karl Swenson
Joan O’Brien
William D. Gordon
7) 10/25/59 “Escape to Memphis”
Laura Sutton is forced to kill her husband in self defense. Laura’s
brother-in-law, Jarrett Sutton, witnesses the shooting and tries to blackmail
her.
Jeanne Crain
Claude Akins
Philip Reed
Richard Wessel
8) 11/01/59 “Witness No Evil”
Otto Justin, dealer in wild animals, is escorting a shipment of his captured
beasts to St. Louis aboard the Enterprise. Widow Abby Saunders and her young son Paddy are both impressed with Justin’s manner.
Vincent Price
Barbara Lawrence
9) 11/08/59 “A Night At Trapper’s Landing”
French playboy Andre Devereaux has become an American lieutenant. Assigned to lead some troops into Indian Territory, he finds that the normally peaceful Indians have been provoked to violence.
Ricardo Montalban
Peter Whitney 
Jusdon Pratt
10) 11/22/59 “The Faithless”
Prisoner Paul Drake is being returned to custody by a prison guard.
Because Drake has already tricked him once, the guard shackles his prisoner to a deckhouse on the Enterprise.
Richard Carlson
Bethel Leslie
Burt Freed
William Phipps
Jeanne Bates
11) 11/29/59 “The Boy From Pittsburgh”
Tommy Jones, a young stowaway, is discovered aboard the Enterprise. Also on board is a pair of thieves, who plan to blow up the boat to collect insurance on some diamonds they are shipping to 
St. Louis.
Tommy Nolan
Mona Freeman
Robert Emhart
12) 12/06/59 “Jessie Quinn”
Lt. Perry Quinn, an officer in Sam Houston’s Texas Army, hires the Enterprise to deliver a cargo of lead down river. Captain Grey Holden is warned that Santa Ana’s agents may try to sabotage the shipment.
Mercedes McCambridge
Clu Gulager
Richard Gardner
13) 12/13/59 “Strange Request”
Actress Lorna Langton wants to charter the Enterprise and a skeleton crew for a trip to St. Louis. The actress has been told that her young son,
kidnapped some years before, is being held in another town.
Jan Sterling
Rhys Williams
Lawrence Dobkin
Peter Lazer
Richard Wessel
William D. Gordon
Lee Van Cleef
Glenn Thompson
14)
12/20/59 “Guns for Empire”
Anthony Lorrimer charters the Enterprise to deliver a cargo of farm machinery to
his thriving community of Lorrimer City. Captain Grey Holden is unaware that the cargo is actually arms and ammunition.
George Macready
Gena Rowlands
Dennis Patrick
15) 12/27/59 “Face of Courage”
The Enterprise steams upriver with a cargo of arms and recruits for the Fort
Union outpost. At Akins Landing, Grey Holden is told by Homer Atkins that
the Sioux have been watching the boat and are planning an uprising.
Joanna Moore
Tom Drake
Doug McClure
Tracey Roberts
Paul Birch
>16) 01/03/60 “Tampico Raid”
A group of volunteer teachers who have gone to the island of Diablo Corozan off the coast of Tampico are imprisoned when Spain conquers the island. The corrupt Spanish officials allow Joan Marchland, one of the teachers, to return to the United States to raise a ransom for the rest.
Patricia Crowley
Edward Colmans
17) 01/10/60 “Landlubbers”
The Enterprise, tied up overnight, is boarded and highjacked by a vicious
crew, who kill the three men left to guard the boat. Captain Grey Holden
and Ben Fraser return to the scene in time to see their craft heading down the
river. They set out overland to head her off.
Gloria Talbott
Richard Devon
Kay E. Kuter
Arthur Batanides
Jerry O’Sullivan
Frank Warren
18) 01/17/60 “The Blowup”
Captain Grey Holden and his crew get into a street brawl over Martha Crane and land in jail. Martha agrees to bail them out on the condition that Grey will transport a supply of gunpowder up river to her father.
Directed by Darren McGavin
Whitney Blake
Dean Harens
Carlos Romero
James R. Scott
John Day
19) 01/24/60 “Forbidden Island”
While the Enterprise makes a stop for wood, a group of Cajuns board the
vessel and hijack a part of the cargo. Two people are shot during the
incident.
Miguel Landa
Patricia Michon
Bruce Gordon
Patrick Westwood
20) 01/31/60
“Salvage Pirates”
Louise Harrison and her boy friend, the only survivors of a boat tragedy, do
some quick thinking. Realizing that a fortune in jewels went down with the
ship, they appeal to their rescuer, Grey Holden, to help them retrieve Louise’s
dowry.
Judi Meredith
Richard Garland
Bern Hoffman
Johnstone White
Series moved to Monday night, 7:30-8:30 PM
21) 02/01/60 “Path of the Eagle”
A trip to Independence, Missouri brings back memories of a bitter adventure to Grey Holden. Holden tells the story to Chip and Joshua.
Dianne Foster
Dayton Lummis 
Myron Healey
Wilton Graff 
Grant Richards
22) 02/08/60 “The Treasure of Hawk Hill”
Bank robbers have a falling-out over some hidden loot. One of the men
manages to give a map of the hiding place to his son, before he is killed.
The boy heads up river on a raft to deliver it to his uncle.
Kent Taylor
Richard Hale
23) 02/22/60 “Fight At New Canal”
Grey Holden is chosen to represent riverboat captains in seeking a government-subsidized canal. Preliminary surveys and work must be completed before Congress will approve the project. Opponents of the canal set out to sabotage the project.
Charles Aidman
Jean Allison
John Maxwell
John Archer
24) 02/29/60
“The Wichita Arrows” *Darren was not
in this episode*
Dan Duryea
Betty Lou Keim
Don Haggerty
25) 03/07/60
“Fort Epitaph”
*Darren was not in this episode*
Dan Duryea
Joan Camden
Brad Weston
Charles Cooper
Mark Allen
Stuart Randall
Ronnie Rondell, Jr.
26) 03/14/60
“Three Graves”
The crew of the Enterprise planned a big night on the town. But when they dock, they find the place completely deserted, except for three new graves.
Beverly Garland
Robert Bray 
John McKee
Harry Ellerbe
Will White
27)03/21/60 “Hang the Men
High”
A young passenger on the Enterprise has been accused of murder by his dying father. An aroused posse set out to drag him off the Enterprise and serve up their own brand of justice.
Stephen McNally
Kren Steele
Walter Sande
Dallas Mitchell
Ray Hamilton
28) 03/28/60
“The Night of the Faceless Man”
The Enterprise makes a wood stop at a small river town. But there is no wood for sale to strangers.
Hugh Downs
Patricia Medina
Jocelyn Brando
Charles Gray
Douglas Kennedy
29) 04/04/60
“The Long Trail”
An Army colonel warns the Cherokee to take the long trail to a new settling
place. Pillagers burn the Indian village to make sure the Cherokee have no
reason to stay.
Perry Lopez
Abraham Sofaer
Anthony Caruso
Harry Lauter
30) 04/11/60
“The Quick Noose”
A noose is about to tighten around Carney’s neck. Visiting his brother in
Wingate, the riverboater is charged with murder.
Ed Nelson
Nan Leslie 
Jack Mather
31) 04/18/60
“The Sellout”
The Enterprise is badly in need of repairs and Holden has got to accept Nick Logan’s offer. He will repair the boat, if afterward, he and his partner can use it.
Frank Overton
Barbara Stuart
Bartlett Robinson
SEASON TWO
1) 09/19/60
“End of a Dream”
Fast talking Martinus Van der Brig persuades Holden and Bill Blake, the
riverboat’s new pilot, to transport a group of pioneers to some new territory,
recently purchased from Mr. Van der Brig.
Cliff Robertson
Susan Cummings
Robert C. Wilke
June Vincent
Ben Wright
2) 09/26/60
“That Taylor Affair”
Milton Frome, Holden and Blake have an idea for making the Enterprise famous by shanghaiing President Zachary Taylor. They get some help from a girl named
Lucy Belle.
Arlene Dahl
Robert Ellenstein
Stanley Adams
Paul Fix
Gil Rankin
3) 10/03/60
“The Two Faces of Grey Holden”
To Captain Holden, his romance with Marie Tourette was just a pleasant
interlude, until he discovers she is passing him off as her fiancé. While
her family is in on the deception, they expect Grey to follow through and marry
her.
Suzanne Pleshette
Thomas Gomez
Celie Lovsky 
Lillian Buyeff
Nico Minardos
Herb Ellis
Lomax Study
4) 10/10/60
“River Champion”
Gentleman Dan Muldoon is backing Dublin Boy against Gunner Stagle for the bare-knuckle championship of the river. Before the fight, Dublin Boy proves to have a glass jaw, when flattened by Grey, thus forcing the captain to take his place in the ring. Grey triumphs and becomes “river champion.”
Dennis O’Keefe
Slim Pickens
Norma Crane
Ralph Reed 
Jack Hogan 
5) 10/24/60
“No Bridge on the River”
There was no bridge on the river to Captain Holden’s knowledge, but someone has constructed a railroad trestle
over the water.
When the Enterprise runs into 
its pilings, Holden sues for damages, finding himself in court against a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln.
Sandy Kenyon
Hayden Rorke
Pat Michon
Denver Pyle 
Bartless Robinson
Tyler McVey 
6) 10/31/60 “Trunk Full of Dreams”
Sir Oliver Garnett and Juliet, his young companion, are shipwrecked actors. Captain Holden fishes them out of the river and books them as entertainers aboard the Enterprise.
Raymond Massey
Bethel Leslie
Willard Waterman
Mary Tyler Moore
Hugh Sanders
Jody Fair
7) 11/07/60 “The Water of Gorgeous Springs”
The feuding families of Jennings and Cox are going to a fair, and Holden unwittingly books both families on the Enterprise. Now he has to act as peacemaker or have the riverboat wrecked by gunfire.
Buddy Ebsen
Sherry Jackson
Barry Atwater
Jocelyn Brando
Gregory Walcott
Dody Heath
8) 11/21/60 “Devil in Skirts”
If Grey will lure a belle named Lucinda away from Colonel Ashley’s son Tony, the colonel will provide a profitable cotton cargo for the Enterprise.
Unfortunately, Lucinda overhears the proposition.
Gloria Talbott
Frank Silvera
Brad Weston
Arthur Batanides
9) 11/28/60 “The Quota”
Army Sgt. Dan Phillips is trying to recruit new members for his platoon.
Using a convincing argument – a hit on the head – he has filled all but two spots in his quota. And he has eyes on Phelan, one of Grey’s crewmen, for one of those spots.
Gene Evans
James Griffith
Ron Haggerty 
Tom Gilleran
Stuart Randall
10) 12/05/60 “Chicota Landing”
The Enterprise arrives at Chicota Landing with a cargo of gunpowder for
the Army. Before they can unload it, the boat is taken over by a gang of Mexican bandits bed by Juan Cortilla.
Joe DeSantis
Connie Hines
John McLiam
11) 12/12/60 “Duel on the River”
Brian Cloud monopolizes all the cotton crop in the area, and Laurie Rawlings,
the wife of a cotton planter, doesn’t like being under Cloud’s thumb.
Fay Spain
Claude Akins
Robert Emhardt
Edgar Buchanan
12) 12/26/60 “Zigzag”
In town to have an aching tooth removed, Carney stops at the saloon for a bolstering drink. This makes him late for the dentist, so Blake undertakes to separate Carney from his tooth.
Charles Bronson
Stella Stevens
William Fawcett
Don O’Kelly
John Milford
Ray Teal
Tom Fadden
Phil Tully
13) 01/02/61 “Listen to the Nightingale”
Norwegian songbird Julie Lang wants to take her troupe to New Orleans for an
engagement, but she has no money. Grey finally agrees to take the troupe aboard the Enterprise, for an IOU
against their New Orleans
receipts. Along the way, a future crewman of another famous ship called Enterprise, steals her jewelry.
DeForest Kelley
Jeanne Bal
Jack Albertson
Paul Stader
Hal Needham
Claire Carleton
John Warburton
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