Tue 4 Apr 2017
A TV Western Review: FRONTIER CIRCUS “Depths of Fear” (1961).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Westerns[13] Comments
FRONTIER CIRCUS. “Depths of Fear.” CBS-TV; 5 October 1961. (Season 1, Episode 1.) Chill Wills, John Derek, Richard Jaeckel. Guest Cast: Aldo Ray, James Gregory, Bethel Leslie. Creator: Samuel A. Peeples. Director: William Witney.
The concept of this series is both twofold and obvious from the title. It’s a western series with the setting and trappings of circus-related stories. Either that, or it’s a circus series taking place in the Old West. On the basis of watching only this one episode, I’m inclined to go with the latter. Just as in Wagon Train, to use the example that comes to mind almost immediately, it’s the people and their stories that make for the conflicts and the drama, not so much the setting.
Chill Wills (as Colonel Casey Thompson) is a partner in the T and T Circus with John Derek (Ben Travis), with Richard Jaeckel as their traveling scout and assistant. And every week for 26 weeks, a whole flock of middle- to high-level guest stars came on to have their fictional stories told. Among them: Sammy Davis Jr., Elizabeth Montgomery, Gilbert Roland, Irene Dunne, Don “Red” Barry, Dan Duryea, Vera Miles, Stella Stevens, Rip Torn, Claude Akins and many more.
The conflict in this first episode is a three-way one, between James Gregory, a martinet of a lion tamer as well as a wife-abuser; his wife, Bethel Leslie, who would leave him if she dared; and Aldo Ray, a drunken bum picked up the circus who was once also a lion tamer, but one who has lost his nerve because of a past incident in his life.
The story is fairly predictable one, but between the script and Wiliam Witney’s direction, the 50 minutes or so of running time go by very quickly, and the continuing members of the cast are sharp on their toes to jump right in whenever needed in support.
It’s an unusual combination of genres, and but with a good cast and guest stars, it’s no wonder that the series lasted a full year. In a way, though, it’s also no surprise that it wasn’t picked up for a second season. The confines of a circus just wouldn’t seem to allow for such a wide range of stories as was possible on the much longer-running (and aforementioned) Wagon Train series.
April 4th, 2017 at 8:06 pm
I liked Circus Boy — which had its own charm and did not channel Wagon Train. A Boy’s Own adventure instead of a soap opera on horse drawn wheels.
April 4th, 2017 at 8:23 pm
I lived in a town back then where we could watch two TV stations, neither one of which was an ABC outlet. So I grew up never have seen a single episode of CIRCUS BOY. My loss. It sounds wonderful. A boy’s own adventure, indeed.
April 4th, 2017 at 9:28 pm
I recall the series, but never watched an episode which is surprising considering my father and Westerns.
April 4th, 2017 at 9:58 pm
The complete season is available on DVD, I was surprised last week to learn, and of course I bought it right away.
April 4th, 2017 at 11:36 pm
Like many lovers of the western film I’ve bought the dvd sets of these TV series and have fond memories of watching them on TV as a child. Unfortunately they are now quite dated and I find them painful to watch. For instance my complaints include:
1–The violence is watered down so as to not cause any complaints from viewers. The audience included not only adults but children.
2–The language and dialog is laughable. No cussing or tough speaking allowed.
3–Though women appeared in these shows, the romance and sex was on the level of a what a child might expect.
4–Everyone was often so squeaky clean and close shaven you had to wonder where the indoor plumbing and running water was hidden. Bathing in the old west was an infrequent activity and bathrooms consisted of an outhouse. Not in these shows!
Fortunately some recent series like DEADWOOD and HELL ON WHEELS tried to show some of the real violence, language, and sex of the old west. The old TV series were aimed at the kid market and adults had to put up with the childish plots and behavior.
April 4th, 2017 at 11:56 pm
Are you talking about the socio-political content implicit in almost every frame of Deadwood? Ugly has its own philosophical strengths, but you have to be on board to accept this as entertainment.
April 5th, 2017 at 1:14 am
Actually I did not see DEADWOOD as “entertainment”. I watched each installment and have the dvd box set which I will view at some future time but I watched the series in more of a state of amusement and disbelief. It was so over the top and a reaction to the old view of the west as presented on TV. The violence, sex, language were all extreme but certainly of more interest than the bland TV series from the 50’s and 60’s. One of my favorite characters was the Chinese guy who only knew English curse words. Yet somehow he could communicate.
The show was interesting but I did not see it as entertainment. Many movies and shows are of interest but not as entertainment. For instance I’m watching the films of Ingmar Bergman again. I don’t consider all the films entertainment but they are great films which have many levels of meaning.
April 5th, 2017 at 12:04 pm
Your four complaints about vintage TV westerns are exactly the reasons why I can still watch and enjoy them.
Not very many at one time, I grant you, but in small does, absolutely. I don’t need to see outhouses, nor no-holds-barred bedroom scenes when I watch a western, nor even a lot of violence.
I’ve had a number of friends tell me I ought to watch DEADWOOD, but it’s not for me. There’s nothing there for me. No enjoyment, no admiration, nothing at all of interest. I’ll pass.
April 5th, 2017 at 12:29 pm
Steve, you have a lot of company because the Encore Western Channel has been running the TV western series for quite a while. Not to mention the dvd box sets that seem to be popular.
I wish I could enjoy them like I did decades ago but they just seem very dated and bland to me now.
April 5th, 2017 at 2:15 pm
Not that it’s relevant to the Encore Western channel, but if you watch any of the other cable channels that shoe retro-TV series, including westerns, all of the ads are for people over 65 or 70. Depends, reverse mortgage, new drugs with more side affects than cure for what it is that ails you, and so on and so on.
You’re missing out!
April 5th, 2017 at 3:21 pm
You can check out the series on YouTube. Here is an episode with John Derek and Stella Stevens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMESk0ghzw4
April 5th, 2017 at 7:33 pm
In the ’61-’62 season, NBC and ABC had middling schedules that drew middling numbers; no smashes, but they ran more or less even in the middle of the Nielsen pack.
All of CBS’s shows, including Frontier Circus, were in third place across the board.
The above is speculation; the actual numbers are nowhere to be found.
What is known is that ABC’s sitcom string (mostly, anyway), and The Untouchables as capper, went on to another season, as did NBC’s Outlaws and Dr. Kildare.
As to “realism”:
The filmed TV of the ’50s-’60s evolved from the second features/’programmers’ of the decade before.
These pictures rarely ran much more than an hour; bringing that down to fifty minutes was fairly simple to accomplish.
People went to programmers to see familiar faces going through familiar paces.
Not just stars, either; the character actors had a fan base of their own. When we kids saw the programmers on TV, our parents always pointed out the character faces to us – and did the same when those same faces turned up in prime time TV.
And of course, many of these same faces became “stars” of TV themselves – such as Chill Wills on Frontier Circus.
All of us – parents and kids – weren’t in search of “stark realism”; we were there to see our favorite faces in entertaining stories, and that’s what we got.
Now that I am older – quite a bit older, actually – than my parents were back in those days, this is a feeling I have come to know well …
April 6th, 2017 at 4:02 pm
Mike Doran —
Absolutely my experience.