MovieChat Forums > Laramie (1959) Discussion > "Men of Defiance"--the pilot?

"Men of Defiance"--the pilot?

posted 9 years ago by Bilwick1
6 replies | jump to latest

Today, in the usual "Laramie" timeslot, Grit TV ("Television with backbone!") aired "Men of Defiance," which I thought at first was a movie--the credits were done like the opening credits of MY DARLING CLEMENTINE--but apparently was the pilot for "Laramie" (although had they gone ahead with the show adhering to the pilot, it would have been more aptly titled "Defiance" rather than "Laramie." Robert Fuller had only a supporting role as Deputy Marshal Jess Harper, while the real star was veteran Don Megowan. (Baby Boomers may remember him best as Col. Travis in Disney's "Davy Crockett at the Alamo"). Instead of a swing station outside Laramie, the setting was a stockade trading post in the Southwest, with Megowan playing Clint, the head of the trading post. I guess between the pilot and the eventual tv show, the whole trading post setting was scrapped, Megowan/Clint was booted out as the hero, and only Fuller's Jess Harper was retained. One thing the pilot had in common with the series was a high body count.

[–] actionsub 9 years ago

Actually, "Men of Defiance" was a pilot...for another series. The practice back then was to often put together a pilot as an episode of an existing series with maybe a character or two showing up from that series. They would call this a "backdoor pilot". (For instance, the pilot for "The Andy Griffith Show" aired as an episode of "Make Room for Daddy" with Danny Thomas getting ticketed while passing through Mayberry.)
Revue had hoped to spin off "Men of Defiance" into a show of its own, but it failed to sell.

[–] sharallwillis-850-636616 9 years ago

The Men of Defiance was a pilot, Laramie was already in it's 2nd season. The closing theme of the episode was intended to be the theme for the Men of Defiance series.

[–] ben-thayer 9 years ago

I thought it was the last ep of S1...that's what this site claims.

[–] Bilwick1 9 years ago

Thanks for all of the above. It was on CoziTV the other day and now I can see where it was more like a spin-off pilot from LARAMIE than the other way around.

[–] susanramsey919 9 years ago

i was watching this episode today, 4-15-2916 and when i saw the beginning of the credits there was a song going. when i was listening of the song thought i was watching a movie. i looked on my tvguide app it did say laramie another thing i noticed and no one put it here jess was in the oklahoma territory and jess was living in wyoming. so i couldn't understand why he was in oklahoma. then i xame here and saw this post but seen it was here couple years ago. also never heard of cozy. also why did grit tv take this long to put this episode on their network? its not a bad episode and like someone said it was considered the last episode of season 1. it had to do with laramie if it was put as an episode and had it listed on this site. also the cook, Norman Leavitt was in an episode or 2 in larmaie.

another thing i was watching an episode in color one where mike brought jess to slim's place as a new person and mike wanted jess to stay. so how can this happened when jess is been in the black and white episodes.

[–] ceuyoyi 9 years ago

The first episode of the series was filmed in color, although I think it was originally shown in B & W like the rest of seasons 1 and 2. Seasons three and four were then filmed in color.