By the time Cheyenne entered its eighth and final season in the fall of 1962, only one other western series, Gunsmoke, had been on the air as long. However, in terms of episode count, Gunsmoke was the clear winner: throughout most of its run, Cheyenne had been seen in weekly rotation with such other Warner Bros. series as Conflict, Sugarfoot and Bronco, and thus had only turned out 95 episodes in its eight years' existence. And although Cheyenne would be telecast each and every week during its final season (a first for the show!), only 13 new shows were seen, bringing the count up to 108. A tall in the saddle and broad-shouldered as ever, steely-eyed Clint Walker is in fine fettle during the terminal episodes of the series that made him a star. The season opener "The Durango Brothers" features an early appearance by actress Sally Kellerman. A few weeks later, a pre-Dukes of Hazzard James Best and Denver Pyle both appear in "Sweet Sam." Lee Van Cleef, several years removed from his spaghetti-western stardom, is among the villains in "Man Alone." And Richard Webb, the stalwart "Captain Midnight" of an earlier TV generation, is seen in "Wanted for the Murder of Cheyenne Bodie". The final first-run episode, "Showdown at Oxbend", originally aired December 17, 1962. Cheyenne would briefly return to ABC from April to September of 1963, but all the episodes shown during this period were reruns.
by Hal Erickson
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