Casey Jones

I remember the first time that I saw Gilligan's Island at the age of 14 and immediately flashed back to having seen Al Hale Jr. about 7 years earlier in the Casey Jones TV series. I like Hale in both, but given my propensity for railroad-related genre, I give the sentimental vote to Hale for Casey Jones and the comedy vote to Hale for Gilligan's Island. In any case, it would be great to see re-runs on cable, probably best on TV Land but certainly would be appreciated on Nickelodeon. Also would be good as part of a documentary on the wide variations of 1950's TV westerns. The other Casey Jones that I remember was the very excellent Walt Disney color cartoon (about 15-20 minutes in length) that was always paired with The Legend of Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed, on the Disneyland TV show.

Just watching up periscope and suddenly Casey Jones appears with a bevy of beauties on his arm. Casey Jones was on TV in the 60s and 70s in the UK. And a generation of kids knew the theme tune off by heart, great family entertainment on a Saturday morning , along with the flashing blade and Robinson Crusoe, and the bananas splits.

When Gilligan's Island first came out, I remember my family and I exclaiming whenever we saw Alan Hale Jr. appear on the screen, "Hey, it's Casey Jones!" I truthfully don't remember much about the series, as I was but a tyke when I watched it, other than seeing Alan Hale Jr's friendly, smiling face looking out from the train as the opening credits rolled. I remember liking the show and our family sitting around the t.v. enjoying Hale's characterization of the legendary engineer. I enjoyed the other comments and remember it as good, wholesome family entertainment.

When I was in my twenties and living in Los Angeles at the time, I took my fiancé (now, wife) to visit Alan Hale Jr's Fish and Chips Restaurant in Glendale. Hale just seemed like a very happy and likable fellow as well as a great character actor.

I appear to be the only person from the UK with a review for this superb show. It was shown in the UK in the 60's about 9 years after it was first produced. I was 7 years old then and remember the show with burning clarity . I still can't believe that they only made 32 episodes, and only 26 were ever shown in the UK, the show seemed to run forever ! I suppose when you're 7 years old, time seems to stretch out into infinity. Even now when I spot Alan Hale Jr. on a rerun of a film such as "Young at Heart" or a TV show such as the "Land of the Giants" I say to myself there goes Casey Jones. He played the role so brilliantly. Even when I spot his Dad, Alan Hale Snr. On one of the many films he made with Errol Flynn, I say to myself there goes Casey Jones's Dad ! If he had made another season of shows typecasting would have inevitably followed. It seems that he didn't, because of a prior commitment to another show at the time. How strange show business is. When you're 7 it's not show business though. Alan Hale Jr. really was Casey Jones, riding the Cannonball Express, and always will be.

"Casey Jones" was a first-run syndicated half-hour western series that ran during the '58-'59 television season and was a folksy, gentler family western series as opposed to some of the more violent adult westerns on the air during the late '50's and early '60's. Alan Hale Jr. played the legendary railroad engineer of the Cannonball Express for the Midwest and Central Railroad. Mary Lawrence portrayed Casey's wife Alice, Bobby Clark portrayed their son Casey Jr., Dub Taylor portrayed Casey's fireman Wallie Sims and Eddie Waller portrayed conductor Red Rock.

The series featured some of the same types of plots as other westerns of the time such as train robbers, vandals, etc. but the plots also centered as much on Casey's interaction with his family, particularly his young son, giving the series a much more laid back sort of ambiance. Alan Hale Jr. would go on to bigger and better (and stupider!) series after "Casey Jones" ended its single season run but this series was a solid family entertainment without insulting the intelligence as "Gilligan's Island" would do six years later.