Bearcats!

"Bearcats!" was a Western television series broadcast on the CBS television network during the Fall 1971 television season.

Set in 1914, somewhat later historically than a "traditional" Western, the stories centered around the heroes' use of a 1914 Stutz Bearcat automobile. "Any" automobile, let alone a fancy one like the Stutz, was an extreme rarity in the West of that era. How the heroes paid for this expensive ride was rather unusual, as well. They undertook work which would probably loosely be considered "private security" for a prosperous clientèle and rather than charging a traditional fee, extracted from the client a blank check, with the amount charged to be determined by just how difficult/dangerous the job proved to be once it was completed. Typical adventures included learning who was setting fire to oil wells near the Mexican border and stopping mercenaries from sabotaging medical supplies being sent overseas to the Allies in World War I.

Episodes of this series were shot in and around Tucson, Arizona and also in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico.

"Bearcats!", despite a large promotional campaign prior to its premiere, was a huge disappointment in the Nielsen ratings, losing badly to both "The Flip Wilson Show" on NBC and a more traditional Western, "Alias Smith and Jones", on ABC, and was cancelled midseason. (This marked the last time, as of 2006, that two Westerns broadcast by major U.S. networks have competed in the same time slot for viewers, marking a milestone in the decline of the Western era in U.S. network television programming.)

Cast

*Rod Taylor as Hank Brackett
*Dennis Cole as Johnny Beach

References

Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows

External links

*
* [http://www.fanfromfla.net/rodtaylor/bearcats.shtml Page on the series at the Rod Taylor site]