Had George Montgomery played his cards right, he could have had a place in TV history as the first-ever star of an adult western. When Desilu began planning their series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, they had Montgomery in mind for the lead. As a veteran of countless B westerns that played theatres in the early fifties, he certainly seemed to be the most likely person to star in a TV show at that moment when the 'small' western was about to explode onto the 'small' screen, and filmed westerns would, more and more, be of the 'big' variety with Wayne, Stewart, etc. Perhaps surprisingly, Montgomery turned them down (the role of course went to Hugh O'Brian) and continued to make B western movies, though the choices soon became fewer and further between. In 1958, he was finally ready to go the small screen route. NBC mounted what was meant to be a 'super-western' - a predecessor of The Virginian, more or less - with a huge cast, a bigger than average budget, and a large scope. Montgomery played the mayor of the title town in Oklahoma, founded by his father. The original idea was that he'd star in one-third of the hour long episodes but also narrate (and perhaps do a cameo in) the others. One third of the shows would star handsome young John Smith as the town lawman, and the others would focus on Audrey Totter, a veteran of B movies (mostly westerns) as the show's answer to Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke. Only problem was, the writers couldn't figure out what to do with her, at least not in lead roles, so they became rare - so much so that Totter, unhappy about being reduced from a star to a bit player, walked away from the series. Meanwhile, the show - though a good one - was suffering in the ratings opposite Have Gun, Will Travel and Gunsmoke - among the top rated western shows - over at CBS on Saturday nights. (With its homey feel, Cimarron City would have been far better placed on Sunday evenings. Heck, it even had Dan 'Bonanza' Blocker in the cast as 'Tiny' Budinger!) All at once it alternated between the two male leads, who became ever more conventional and less interesting as the town's politics were played down in favor of routine western action. The most memorable episode of all was called Twelve Guns, a mini-epic with Nick Adams effectively cast as a Billy the Kid style tough kid who rides into town with a gang and virtually takes over. By the end of that first season, though, Cimarron City was a goner - too bad NBC didn't do with it what they would do with Bonanza a few years later, shifting from a Saturday night slot (where the ratings on both those shows were mediocre) over to Sunday, where this one - like that one - might have flourished.
