Stories of the Century is a 39-episode Western historical fiction television series starring Jim Davis that ran in syndication through Republic Pictures between 1954 and 1955.

Synopsis

Jim Davis, who became famous decades later as the patriarch Jock Ewing in the Dallas television series, held a dual role as the show s narrator and Southwest Railroad detective Matt Clark. Mary Castle co-starred in twenty-six episodes as Clark s assistant, Frankie Adams; she was replaced by Kristine Miller, who appeared in thirteen episodes as Margaret Jonesy Jones. Clark and his female associates traveled the American West weekly seeking to capture the most notorious badmen, placing Clark at the right place and the right time to capture great moments in the history of the American Old West. Clark s appearances often seemed contrived, as when he appears just at the time young Robert Ford was assassinating Jesse James. Though Clark himself was fictional, the events he encountered were generally real, with their historicity enforced with newspaper accounts and some historical records.

The series was the first television production of Republic Pictures, later CBS Paramount Television, which then used the name Hollywood Television Service, and subsequently Studio City Television Service. The episodes were filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth in Los Angeles County, California. The series also filmed some scenes at nearby Vasquez Rocks.

In various episodes, Stories of the Century cast Marie Windsor as Belle Starr, Lee Van Cleef as Jesse James, Slim Pickens as a variation of the Sundance Kid rechristened the Smiling Kid in an episode about Butch Cassidy, Rick Jason as Joaquin Murrieta, Steve Brodie as Harry Tracy, John Dehner as Henry Plummer, Richard Jaeckel as Billy the Kid, and Bruce Bennett as William Quantrill of Quantrill s Raiders .

Production notes

In 1955, Stories of the Century became the first western to win an Emmy Award in the category of Western or Adventure Series . One of its competitors was The Roy Rogers Show.

In later rebroadcasts, as was common practice of the time (episodes that aired in reruns were usually given a separate title from new episodes), the program was entitled The Fast Guns.

The series has since lapsed into the public domain in the United States.

Year	1954
ReleaseDate	1954-01-23
Plot	Railroad detective Matt Clark roams the west, tracking down outlaws and bandits who are preying on the railroad.
Awards	Won 1 Primetime Emmy, 1 win total
Stars	Jim Davis, Mary Castle, Kristine Miller
Series Produced by	Edward J. White
Series Music by	Jerry Roberts
Series Cinematography by	Bud Thackery,John L. Russell
Series Film Editing by	Irving M. Schoenberg,Cliff Bell Sr.,Tony Martinelli,Richard L. Van Enger
Series Art Direction by	Frank Arrigo,Walter E. Keller,Frank Hotaling,Jerome Pycha Jr.
Series Set Decoration by	John McCarthy Jr.,Perry Murdock,George Milo,Edward G. Boyle,Robert Priestley
Series Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Arthur J. Vitarelli
Series Stunts	Dale Van Sickel,David Sharpe,Tom Steele
Series Additional Crew	Morton W. Scott
Genres	Western
Companies	Hollywood Television Service, Republic Pictures (I), Studio City Television Service
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	TV-PG
ImDbRating	7.1
ImDbRatingVotes	169
Keywords	railroad detective,detective,train,stock footage,railroad