Before Gilligan’s Island, Russell Johnson Was In A Western Series With A Unique Plot

Before playing Professor Roy Hinkley on “Gilligan’s Island,” Russell Johnson made the Western TV show rounds. At one point, that led to him co-starring on the lesser-known series “Black Saddle,” which, though it lasted only two seasons, boasted some impressive guest stars and a unique premise: a gunfighter who becomes a lawyer.

It’s sort of funny to think that Johnson received a purple heart for being shot down over a tropical island in World War II, yet he’s mostly remembered for creating zany inventions as The Professor on a fictional tropical island. Considering how popular Sherwood Schwartz’s “Gilligan’s Island” was, though, it couldn’t really have been any different. After all, stories of wartime heroism don’t get massive syndication deals that ensure they permeate pop culture for generations to come. Unapologetically silly sitcoms like “Gilligan’s Island,” however, very much do.

Narrowly escaping death at the hands of Japanese forces is only one part of Johnson’s pre-“Gilligan’s Island” story, though. After leaving the United States Air Force, Johnson embarked on an acting career courtesy of the G.I. Bill and Hollywood’s Actors’ Lab. That prepared him for several years of supporting roles prior to joining the castaways in 1964, and many of those roles were in classic Western TV shows like “Gunsmoke,” “Rawhide,” and “Death Valley Days.” “Black Saddle,” on the other hand, saw Russell graduate to co-star, and while the show itself isn’t as well-known as those other examples, it was one of Johnson’s most interesting adventures on the frontier.

Russell Johnson claimed to have hated making Westerns but he sure was in a lot of them. He even co-led “Black Saddle,” a show that debuted in 1959 —the same year as Clint Eastwood’s “Rawhide” (on which Russell would later appear as a guest). Before he could join ramrod Rowdy Yates, however, Johnson saddled up alongside Peter Breck for his unique small-screen oater, itself a spin-off of an episode of CBS’s “Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre.”

That legendary Western anthology series featured a 1959 episode titled “A Threat of Violence,” in which Chris Alcaide played the lead role of Clay Culhane. A year later, “Black Saddle” debuted with Peter Breck as Culhane, a gunslinger who witnesses his younger brothers’ deaths during a shootout and decides that becoming an attorney is a better way to deal with the various confrontations that take place on the frontier of the post-Civil War United States. He thereafter travels across the New Mexico Territory from his base in the town of Latigo, offering his legal services to those who need it.

Culhane isn’t alone in his adventures, though. He’s closely followed by Russell’s U.S. Marshal Gib Scott, who isn’t entirely convinced that this former gunfighter has left his violent ways behind. In a sense, he’s right, as Culhane is often forced to pick up a gun despite his pledge to use the law as his weapon. In addition, Anna-Lisa plays Nora Travers, Culhane’s friend and a hotel owner, while Ken Patterson portrays saloon bartender Kelly.

“Black Saddle” aired 44 half-hour black-and-white episodes across two seasons, the first of which was broadcast on NBC before ABC picked up the show for a second season. The series debuted in January 1959 and lasted until May 6, 1960, making it a relatively short-lived show that still outdid other oaters of its era. Its fellow “Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre” offshoot and Sam Peckinpah-penned “The Westerner,” for instance, lasted for just one season of 13 episodes and remains one of the best Western TV shows nobody talks about anymore.

As does “Black Saddle,” which, during its run, welcomed several notable guest stars, including Warren Oates and James Coburn (who, the year after he guested on the show, played Britt in one of the greatest Westerns of the 1960s, i.e. “The Magnificent Seven”). Even the original Clay Culhane actor Chris Alcaide appeared in one episode. It all made this a significant project for Russell, who found himself working with some of the finest in the business four years prior to debuting as Professor Roy Hinkley.

Sadly, that opportunity didn’t last as long as it could have, but Johnson and Peter Breck had a great chemistry throughout and made the most of their short time together. Otherwise, Johnson filled the time between “Black Saddle” and “Gilligan’s Island” by appearing in three separate episodes of the decidedly more successful Western series “Death Valley Days.” Clearly, a man who’d been downed in WWII wasn’t going to let the cancellation of a TV show stop him.