Actor Tris Coffin, producer/actor Russell Hayden and director Oliver Drake had all been making B-westerns for decades by the time they got together and produced this show, and their experience and expertise combined to make this one of the best western series of the '50s, or any other era for that matter (to be perfectly honest, it's much better than many of the films they made before it!). Coffin is perfectly suited for the part of a tough Arizona Ranger captain--he has the look, the attitude and the bearing of an experienced lawman. The stories are uniformly interesting, intelligent and well written, the location work is well utilized and the show doesn't have the cheap, cramped look of other contemporary western series, such as "Annie Oakley" or "Judge Roy Bean," for example, and is not oriented towards kids, as those series were. It's more along the lines of another fine western series of the time, "Boots and Saddles," in that it doesn't have action for action's sake, and what action there is isn't of the cartoonish, Saturday-afternoon-serial type. And to top it off, it tied with another great western series, "Lawman," for the best theme song of any western series--EVER!
If this show happens to get rerun on The Western Channel or some other equally hip cable network, don't miss it.
If this show happens to get rerun on The Western Channel or some other equally hip cable network, don't miss it.