The show was supposed to be color from the beginning, but sponsor Procter & Gamble, who regularly sponsored NBC's Sunday night half hour programs between The Magical World of Disney (1954) and Bonanza (1959) insists that the show would be in black and white. It gradually went to color by its second and final season.
Larry Cohen said he created series as an allegory about the blacklisting of ordinary people in the days of Senator Joseph McCarthy. He claimed he was fired from the series at the insistence of its right-wing star, Chuck Connors, when he made the mistake of telling him this.
In a commentary for The Innocent (1967) on The Invaders (1967) DVD, creator Larry Cohen says that "Branded" did not have a pilot episode. He says that it was put on the air because of the pitch for the show and because it would star Chuck Connors.
Spoofed in Mad Magazine as "BrandXed".
As originally broadcast in 1965, the opening credits showed Chuck Conners being cashiered from the Army. In the process, his sword was broken and the pieces were thrown to the ground making a peculiar sound. The song was played in the background and sounded this way: "What do you do when you're branded, [BONG] and you know you're a man?". Somebody in charge of the show must have noticed this because after several weeks the theme song was changed so that the sound of the sword hitting the ground was no longer on the beat.
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