The Adventures of Champion

One of the big producers of TV westerns in television's first decade was the first of those singing cowboys Gene Autry. Among the shows he produced besides his own was Annie Oakley, The Range Rider, Buffalo Bill Jr., and this one starring his horse Champion.

Unlike Roy Rogers for whom there was only one Trigger, Autry had about four or five versions of his steed at the ready for movies, personal appearances and in this case a television series.

The Adventures Of Champion had the bad luck to debut when Autry was gradually getting out of television when G rated cowboys were being replaced by the adult western. It also had the bad luck to debut around the same time as a boy/horse show in a modern western setting named Fury was winning viewers on Saturday morning.

According to a recent biography of Gene Autry, Public Cowboy Number One, Gene originally offered the adult father figure role to one of his fellow singing cowboys Monte Hale. However Hale turned the role down because he didn't like being billed under the horse in the credits and the role of the sheriff went to Jim Bannon.

The cast as it finally rounded out was young Barry Curtis who lived with his uncle Jim Bannon and made a friend of the unrideable Champion which was the exact same premise that Fury had. For good measure young Curtis had a Rin Tin Tin German Shepherd dog in Rebel.

It was a nice kids show, but it certainly wasn't as memorable in the consciousness as Fury was.