Bat Masterson (1958)
Bat Masterson is an American Western television series which showed a fictionalized account of the life of real-life marshal/gambler/dandy Bat Masterson. The title character was played by Gene Barry and the half-hour black-and-white shows ran on NBC from 1958 to 1961. The series was produced by Ziv Television Productions, the company responsible for such hit series as Sea Hunt and Highway Patrol.
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Episode 1 - Debt of Honor
Release Date: 1960-09-29Bat grubstakes Cactus Charlie, an elderly prospector searching for a gold strike. Charlie finds gold, all right, the proceeds from a recent robbery and the crooks who buried the loot will stop at nothing to recover their ill-gotten gains.
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Episode 2 - Law of the Land
Release Date: 1960-10-06Working again for his friend Hugh Blaine, Bat is hired to investigate the theft of barbed-wire fencing that prevents cattle from climbing onto a railroad's right-of-way. Question is whether Bat wants to tackle the five to one odds.
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Episode 3 - Bat Trap
Release Date: 1960-10-13Midas Creek hires Bat to run their annual shooting contest. The council believe that the local bully will generally do anything in his power to win the contest. When the local gunsmith wins, it's the thug's rifle vs. Bat's pistol.
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Episode 4 - The Rage of Princess Anne
Release Date: 1960-10-20Bat has an interest in a mine in Colorado and discovers its conditions are unsafe, but the general manager is forcing the miners to work in it anyway. He decides to convince the other owners including its pretty namesake to improve safety.
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Episode 5 - The Hunter
Release Date: 1960-10-27An Englishman has a theory that accuracy is more important in a gunfight than speed or size of the ammunition. When he kills a bully with his specially designed rifled pistol, the Englishman decides he's ready to take on his goal - Bat.
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Episode 6 - Murder Can be Dangerous
Release Date: 1960-11-03When Bat catches his gambling casino partner embezzling money, he kicks the man out, telling him never return unless he brings $25,000 to buy Bat's interest in the business. The partner plans to get control of Bat's half by killing him.
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Episode 7 - High Card Loses
Release Date: 1960-11-10After a bank robbery Bat finds himself broke so he accepts an offer from a friend for a job. When his friend is murdered, Bat agrees to undertake his unfinished business - delivering three mail-order brides to their new husbands.
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Episode 8 - Dakota Showdown
Release Date: 1960-11-17Bat rides to the assistance of his friend, a sheriff, but arrives after the Dakota boys gun him down. The president of the town council asks Bat to step into the office, but Bat decides the job should go to another person.
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Episode 9 - Last of the Night Raiders
Release Date: 1960-11-24Bat is asked by a woman to help her and her young son escape the deadly Doolin gang who Bat has tangled with before. She wants to return to St. Louis with her son to her parents but her son wants to stay knowing only the gang as family.
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Episode 10 - Last Stop to Austin
Release Date: 1960-12-01Bat thinks a young gunfighter might be the son of a man with whom he fought at the Battle of Adobe Wells. He plans to appeal to the governor for a pardon for his crimes because of the unrewarded service of his father.
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Episode 11 - A Time to Die
Release Date: 1960-12-15Bat returns to Casper, Wyoming to testify at a murder trial. He learns that all the other witnesses are either dead or are afraid to testify and the father of the man under arrest intends to eliminate the last witness
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Episode 12 - Death by Decree
Release Date: 1960-12-22Bat inherits a casino from an old enemy and soon discovers why. Upon arriving in town, he learns that the casino is $3000 behind in its mortgage payments and the previous owner was killed by the town marshal who owns the mortgage.
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Episode 13 - The Lady Plays Her Hand
Release Date: 1960-12-29An eastern gambler playing a "system" breaks the bank at Bat's casino, putting the dapper Masterson out of business. Bat wonders if the "system" didn't have more than a little help from his pretty dealer.
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Episode 14 - Tempest at Tioga Pass
Release Date: 1961-01-05When a old miner refuses to allow a road to be built through a high mountain pass he owns, the California Governor asks Bat to intervene. Bat finds the holdout to be an old friend Soda Smith and all is not as the Governor thought.
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Episode 15 - The Court Martial of Major Mars
Release Date: 1961-01-12The stagecoach in which Bat Masterson, Major Mars and pretty Lottie Tremaine are traveling is waylaid by a vengeful gang led by an Indian whose family was slain when the Major's men wiped out a village. Bat is forced to defend the Major.
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Episode 16 - The Price of Paradise
Release Date: 1961-01-19Pat arrives in Paradise, Colorado to collect a gambling debt from a crooked casino owner who doesn't like to pay his debts. He also doesn't like to pay his taxes - until Bat accepts an appointment as the new county tax assessor.
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Episode 17 - End of the Line
Release Date: 1961-01-26Bat's lucrative contract to build a railroad in Colorado is in jeopardy. His crew is menaced by natural disasters and then wagon loads of equipment are lost. Just when things it seems things can't get worse, Bat is arrested for murder.
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Episode 18 - The Prescott Campaign
Release Date: 1961-02-02Bat's old friend from Dodge City, Marshal Ben Holt, asks him to help fight a scheme plotted by the power-grabbing land baron General Silas Guild. When he arrives, Bat isn't sure that the Marshal is on the side of law and order.
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Episode 19 - Bullwhacker's Bounty
Release Date: 1961-02-16Bat's plan to journey to Cheyenne for a big poker game are disrupted when the cavalry escort for a vital load of gunpowder is wiped out and the only men available to drive the wagons to the supply starved Fort Stewart appear unreliable.
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Episode 20 - A Lesson in Violence
Release Date: 1961-02-23In response to an urgent telegram offering a large salary, Bat rides to a remote Texas ranch where he is to drive a herd of 2000 cattle to Abilene. As he arrives he finds that the Grant family believes he's a hired killer and pays for it.
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Episode 21 - Run for Your Money
Release Date: 1961-03-02Saloonkeeper Crimp Ward challenges a local bank to back up it's gold certificates.
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Episode 22 - Terror on the Trinity
Release Date: 1961-03-09Bat wins a mining claim in a lottery, but a huge bearded man attacks Bat when he tries to find it. He throws Bat into the Trinity River and Bat floats downriver finding his companion Bob Bradbury dead on the other side of the river.
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Episode 23 - Episode in Eden
Release Date: 1961-03-16When gunslingers employed by Sam Shanks terrorize the small New Mexico town of Eden, Bat is drafted to serve as a special prosecutor when one of Shank's men is to be tried for murder and the expected result is a not guilty verdict.
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Episode 24 - The Good and the Bad
Release Date: 1961-03-23A gang of outlaws tries to take a Medal of Honor from a woman whose husband gave his life for it. Bat offers a $100 in exchange for the medal, but the gunman escapes with Bat's money, cane and the medal of honor with Bat in hot pursuit.
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Episode 25 - No Amnesty for Death
Release Date: 1961-03-30Bat's riding rescues three men from the gallows - he bears an amnesty for all combatants in the Lincoln County War. The three gunmen soon return to their criminal ways and Bat must help the local marshal hunt down the recently freed men.
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Episode 26 - Ledger of Guilt
Release Date: 1961-04-06Bat rescues a woman from three men trying to grab her and her carpet bag. The woman tells Bat she and her father were the prisoners of a gang of outlaws who rode with Jesse James and she has the evidence to prove it.
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Episode 27 - Meeting at Mimbres
Release Date: 1961-04-13Several Indian tribes claim that white men are kidnapping their women and children to be sold for slaves or held for ransom. In order to prevent an all-out war with the local tribes, the U.S. Army sends Bat Masterson to investigate.
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Episode 28 - Valley of Death
Release Date: 1961-04-20A wounded and fainting Bat delivers a message to a Major at Fort Logan ordering the Colonel to skip a meeting with the Indians. However, the Major believing the Colonel is impeding his political career doesn't deliver the message.
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Episode 29 - The Fourth Man
Release Date: 1961-04-27Bat rides into town to meet a young friend. He arrives too late - the young man was killed when he accused three wealthy ranchers of cheating at cards and the sheriff refuses to arrest the men responsible for the murder.
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Episode 30 - Dead Man's Claim
Release Date: 1961-05-04When a new silver strike is made in Monument City, Nevada, Bat returns to the former ghost town to check on his four year old claim and finds two claim jumpers are prepared to shoot first and ask questions later.
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Episode 31 - The Marble Slab
Release Date: 1961-05-11Pinkerton hires Bat to get evidence against a gang that is terrorizing a town. Bat goes undercover as a marble salesman to convince the leader that so prominent a citizen should have a statue in his honor erected in the town square.
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Episode 32 - Farmer with a Badge
Release Date: 1961-05-18Bat is ambushed in the desert by two men, his horse and water stolen. Left to die he is rescued by a farmer who is now the town marshal. Bat is determined to help the young lawman gain confidence in his ability to keep the peace.
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Episode 33 - The Fatal Garment
Release Date: 1961-05-25Bat is hired to serve as a bodyguard at Wyatt Earp's El Paso casino, but the two of them can't prevent a robbery which costs Wyatt Earp $13,000 as he won't bank his money. The robbers use a costly shirt as a gift to distract Bat.
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Episode 34 - Jeopardy at Jackson Hole
Release Date: 1961-06-01Bat is called upon by the daughter of an old friend to investigate his murder in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The family runs a freight and stage line there but the drivers are being killed for some reason and the line is nearly bankrupt.