Nichols

James Garner starred in two of the most celebrated, popular, and delightful Television Shows ever, Maverick and The Rockford Files. However, they were not his only contributions to our TV heritage. One can think of the wonderful, but rapidly canceled God, The Devil, and Bob, in which he was utterly convincing Deity. However, his most shamefully overlooked TV show was this startling comedy western, which my family loved. Set in the dying old West of 1914, and starring , in addition to Garner, Henry Darrow, Margot Kidder and Stuart Margolin, this show poked fun at most of the conventions of the western genre. It was wonderfully written, directed and acted. Perhaps not surprisingly,it was canceled, in an act of network stupidity ranking right up there with the cancellations of East Side / West Side, Slattery's People, Star Trek, My World And Welcome To it, and The Rogues.

NBC was putting out a lot of good product when this series came out, but none of it was getting viewers. At least according to their executives who wisely canceled good shows like Star Trek & My World & Welcome To It because of low ratings. NBC's advertisers were getting a bargain from NBC's ignorance.

This show stands out as the only time James Garner wasn't enough to get viewers. It is ashame as this show had an excellent support cast from Stuart Margolin (later Angel in the Rockford files), to Neva Patterson to Margot Kidder.

It was set in a 1900 western town. Garner was playing a sheriff who did not want to use violence to do his duties. It was small town stuff, but it was excellent. It wasn't long after this that Jim Rockford brought Garner back to success, but for my money, this show was good enough, it just wasn't in the right time, right place, or given the right opportunity.

The show was so good that most of the folks who worked on it also got jobs on Rockford.

I guess I'm one of the few who remembers this very funny show. The turn of the century Old West, with technology about to change the frontier forever, made for a very interesting setting, and the cast did a good job of getting into the period, pulling it off without being camp. Garner was great, Margot Kidder was delightful, and John Beck made a terrific villain. The show was of such high quality it's no wonder it lasted such a short time.

I, too, loved this show as a kid, but as other posters have written, no one else seems to remember it. Its setting -- an Arizona town at the twilight of the wild west era, but before the First World War -- was one reason that made it so compelling. Another was the odd horn solo theme music that I could still hum decades after the last time I heard it. A couple of years ago I managed to track down a recording of the tune from an online guy who specializes in old TV show themes. He was not familiar with the show or its music until I asked him to find it. He later told me that a few episodes had recently aired on TV Land or some other nostalgia TV channel. Years after Nichols was canceled, I read or heard somewhere that it was James Garner's favorite show. Go figure.

The first time I remember seeing James Garner was in this series. It was set in the late 1800s and he played a sort of smart-alec who inherited the name of the founder of the town but basically nothing else. The people of the town kind of looked down on him. He rode around town on a motorcycle, which in those days was like a moped in that it had pedals like a bicycle (in fact that's how you started it).

It was hilarious and I was very disappointed when it was canceled. When I saw Rockford, I thought "wow, that's the same guy that was in Nichols, I wonder if this show will be any good."

Margot Kidder was in this too. I hope someday I get to see reruns to see if it's as good as I remember.