Shortly after CBS debuted Frontier Gentleman in February of 1958, a second new western show, Luke Slaughter of Tombstone, debuted on Sunday February 23rd, 1958 at 2PM eastern time.
Sam Buffington starred in the title role, with a vocal quality in line with William Conrad’s Marshall Dillon of Gunsmoke and Raymond Burr’s Captain Lee Quince of Fort Laramie.
Buffington was only 26, and a relative stranger to American audiences. Born in Swansea, MA on October 12th, 1931, he was balding and husky, with a big mustache. He had the physicality of a man much older than his age, which lent itself to portraying an Arizona cavalryman turned cattleman. He’d found Hollywood western work in television for network shows like Tales of Wells Fargo, Maverick, and Cheyenne.
The series was produced and directed by William N. Robson, who’d stuck by radio from its earliest days to its waning moments in the late 1950s. Tom Hanley expanded his abilities to include script writing. On Slaughter, he doubled as editorial supervisor, while also laying sound patterns with Ray Kemper and Bill James.
Although CBS ad sales managed to get the May 4th, 1958 episode sponsored by O’Brien Paints, finding regular sponsorship for a Sunday at 2PM western with little name value was impossible.
CBS cancelled the show after just sixteen episodes. The last Luke Slaughter of Tombstone aired on June 15th.
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