A while back, Warner Archive dug the series Colt .45 out of their vaults for a stunning Blu-Ray set. They’ve done it again with a Warner Bros. series that’s been even harder to see over the years — The Alaskans (1959-60) starring Roger Moore and Dorothy Provine.
Roger Moore stars as Silky Harris, a con man in Skagway, Alaska during the state’s Gold Rush. Jeff York is his cohort Reno McKee and Dorothy Provine is the saloon singer Rocky Shaw. It looks and plays much like the other Westerns WB was putting on TV in the late 50s, only this one trades the Wild West for gold-crazy Alaska (which had recently become a state).
Of course, the Alaska we see here is actually the WB backlot. One of Roger Moore’s complaints about the show was how miserable it was wearing a parka in the California sun.
A TV show is almost like a living thing. It’s born, it grows and hopefully it finds its way. Most shows’ early episodes are a far cry from that first season’s final ones. With The Andy Griffith Show, for instance, Andy’s take on his character is almost completely different going from Season 1 to Season 2. And look at how The Man From UNCLE changed as it went to color (and maybe the suits saw the success of Batman).
Though The Alaskans was part of a terrific ABC Sunday-night lineup (all Westerns!), and it boasted an incredible roster of guest stars — from Julie Adams and Claude Akins to Frank Ferguson and Leo Gordon to Ray Teal and Lee Van Cleef to Marie Windsor and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., the show never quite took off. After a single season, it was done. (Moore was then coerced into joining the cast of Maverick when James Garner left).
The Alaskans has the look and feel of the other WB TV Westerns of the period (and reportedly some recycled Maverick scripts), but something never quite clicks. (Jeff York’s character often seems totally unnecessary.) Close, but no cigar.
But all these years later, with this nice Blu-Ray set at our disposal, it’s easy to give The Alaskans some grace. There’s that cast, directors like Jesse Hibbs, Leslie H. Martinson, Jacques Tourneur and George Waggner, and gorgeous 4K transfers from the camera negatives. I’ve longed to see it (never thinking I would), and even though its shortcomings were what I’d been warned about, it’s easy to recommend it.
It’s more than just a curio from the early days of Moore’s career, and I’m grateful to Warner Archive for putting it out.
And back to that idea of TV shows being like living things. The Alaskans didn’t get a second season, but here’s its chance at another life. Check it out.
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