ALIAS SMITH & JONES

by Ronald Jackson

Classic TV Westerns, 1994

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Starring Peter Deuel and Ben Murphy

 

CREDITS:

ABC: January 21, 1971 through January 13, 1973 (48 episodes); Produced by: Universal Television; Executive Producer: Roy Huggins; Creator/Producer: Glen A. Larson; Directors: Bruce Kessler, Barry Shear, Arnold Laven, Douglas Heyes, Jeffrey Hayden, Jack Arnold, Gene Leavitt; Music: Billy Goldenberg, Robert Price.

 

CAST:

Hannibal Heyes alias Joshua Smith....Peter Deuel (later Roger Davis)

Jed "Kid" Curry alias Thaddeus Jones....Ben Murphy

Clementine Hale....Sally Field

 

Alias Smith & Jones was one of the best Westerns to hit television in the 1970s. This lighthearted series followed in the footsteps of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which starred Robert Redford and Paul Newman.

 

Hannibal Heyes, alias Joshua Smith, and Jed "Kid" Curry, alias Thaddeus Jones, were two amiable ex-bank robbers trying to give up the life of crime and go straight to clear their names. They had been promised full pardons by the governor if they could stay out of trouble for at least one year. That could be hard to do, since every lawman, bounty hunter, and outlaw had a score to settle with these two characters. Smith and Jones roamed through Kansas Territory, often with another lovable rogue, Clementine Hale (for feminine interest)--played by Sally Field in her post-Flying Nun/Gidget days--valiently trying to keep clear of their former outlaw gangs to protect their pardons and to stay away from illegal business opportunities. It wasn't easy.

 

Peter Deuel committed suicide December 31, 1971, at age thirty-one.

 

Roger Davis, the show's unseen narrator to the time, replaced Peter Deuel in the final episodes of the series.

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