Trackdown (TV series)

Trackdown
Robert Culp as Hoby Gilman (1957)
Genre	Western
Written by	D.D. Beauchamp Frank Burt Fred Freiberger Norman Jacobs Christopher Knopf Sidney Marshall John McGreevey John Robinson Sam Peckinpah
Directed by	Thomas Carr Lawrence Dobkin Richard Donner Don McDougall R.G. Springsteen
Starring	Robert Culp Ellen Corby Peter Leeds Norman Leavitt James Griffith Gail Kobe Addison Richards
Narrated by	Ed Prentiss
Theme music composer	William Loose and John Seely
Composer	Harry King
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	71 plus pilot
Production
Producer	Vincent M. Fennelly
Cinematography	Guy Roe
Running time	25 minutes
Production company	Four Star Productions
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	October 4, 1957 (1957-10-04) – September 23, 1959 (1959-09-23)
Related
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater Wanted: Dead or Alive

Trackdown is an American Western television series starring Robert Culp that aired on CBS between 1957 and 1959. The series was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television and filmed at the Desilu-Culver Studio. Trackdown was a spin-off of Powell's anthology series, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre.

Trackdown stars Robert Culp as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman. It is set in the 1870s after the American Civil War. In early episodes, stories focused on Gilman going to different Texas towns in pursuit of wanted fugitives. At midseason, the series became set in the town of Porter, Texas. Episodes touched on multiple Western themes and topics, so it was known as "the thinking man's Western".^[1][2]

Gilman is the de facto sheriff in Porter. His friends in the town include Henrietta Porter (portrayed by Ellen Corby). She is the widow of the town's founder and owns The Porter Enterprise newspaper. Occasionally, Gilman's duties as a Texas Ranger took him out of town, where he used his fast gun to "track down" and apprehend wanted criminals throughout the Lone Star State.

The pilot episode, "Badge of Honor", directed by Arthur Hiller, aired on Zane Grey Theatre on May 3, 1957. Gilman, then an ex-Confederate cavalry officer, returns to his Central Texas hometown, called "Crawford", after the war. He finds the town under the control of a ruthless gang led by an ex-Confederate colonel, Boyd Nelson (played by Gary Merrill). The town sheriff (portrayed by Tom Tully) is a drunken shell of a man Gilman had once known, who is afraid to face the outlaws. When a Texas Ranger came to arrest Colonel Nelson, he is fatally shot in the back. His Ranger badge falls on the dusty road. Gilman, who previously had served with the Texas Rangers, was weary of the Civil War and did not want to continue as a lawman, but after learning of the Ranger's death, he picks up the badge and finishes the job of bringing Nelson and his gang to justice.

Trackdown carried the endorsement of both the State of Texas and the Texas Rangers, an accolade no other Western television series has received. Some episodes were inspired by the files of the Rangers.^[3]

All Trackdown episodes were produced by Vincent Fennelly. John Robinson wrote 14 segments, including the pilot. Richard Donner was one of the directors. Sam Peckinpah wrote one episode, "The Town", about a cowardly community afraid to resist the clutches of an outlaw gang, but he did not direct any Trackdown episodes.

Robert Culp wrote one episode, titled "Back to Crawford", which features his then-wife, Nancy Asch-Culp. The episode was directly related to the first regular series episode, "The Marple Brothers", as Nancy portrayed a former childhood friend of Hoby's, Merrilee Quintana, with whom Hoby was once in love, who was out to kill his sister Norah as revenge for his killing her young husband in the line of duty, and who was one of the evil Marple Brothers he encountered in Episode 1. Gilman's sister was played by actress Peggy Webber, reprising her role from the series pilot.

In an interview, Robert Culp stated that Trackdown was conceived by its creators as "the Western Dragnet".^[1][4][5] The pilot of the series was written by John Robinson, who, according to Culp in that same interview, was partly responsible for the creation of Dragnet.^[5]

The series narrator was character actor Ed Prentiss.

From 2016 to 2020, episodes of Trackdown aired Saturday mornings on MeTV.^[6]

The episode, "The End of the World", received considerable media attention after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in 2016, nearly 60 years after the episode first aired.^{[7][8][9][10]} In the episode, a rabble-rousing doomsayer named Walter Trump (played by Lawrence Dobkin) comes to town. He scares the townsfolk with talk of an impending disaster and claims to be the only person who can save them – by building a wall. He also threatens to sue Hoby when accused of dishonesty. By the end of the episode, he is arrested as a conman and fraud. The coincidental similarity to Donald Trump's name and proposed border wall was noted.^[7]

A Vanity Fair author wrote, "Of all the books and movies that presaged the rise of our reality-TV President... none are so eerily on the nose as this once-obscure, 1958 episode of Trackdown in which a demagogue named Trump attempts to convince a town that only he can save its citizens... by building a wall."^[8] The Wrap asked, "Want to talk about a weird coincidence?.... Some may call this episode titled 'The End of the World' the ultimate illustration of life imitating art, considering the episode aired May 9, 1958... it is pretty amusing, especially when the TV character threatens, 'Be careful, son. I can sue you.'"^[9] The San Francisco Chronicle stated, "The character's speech is so similar to the President-elect's, it almost seems as if Donald Trump borrowed some catchphrases from Walter Trump."^[10]

A review in the trade publication Variety described Trackdown as "a moderately good western half-hour telefilm with a moderately good star performer".^[11] The review complimented characterizations but said the plot "was as loaded with holes as the villains were".^[11]

• Trackdown at IMDb