The Canceled Offbeat 1970s Western Series That Starred A Superman Actor

In the early 1970s, NBC attempted to update the flailing Western genre with an endearingly offbeat series that saw James Garner play a sheriff who rides motorbikes and hates violence. Was it successful? No. "Nichols" was canceled after just one season, but it's one of those fascinating TV curios well worth a revisit, especially since it also starred a pre-"Superman" Margot Kidder.

By the '70s, the Western was on its last legs, having essentially brought a six shooter to a phaser fight. The increasing popularity of sci-fi had signed the Western's death certificate after the genre had shown remarkable resilience for decades, enduring previous nadirs only to re-emerge. Alas the '70s were its final hurrah, and it was a fairly gloomy farewell. The decade saw John Wayne — the living embodiment of the Western genre — killed by Bruce Dern in "The Cowboys" before the man himself passed away in 1979. It was an oddly fitting time for the Duke to go, marking the simultaneous passing of the genre that had made him a star. Before the Western could expire for good, however, there were some attempts to keep it on life support, one of which was "Nichols."

Unless you happened to be paying close attention to Thursday night TV between September 16, 1971, and March 14, 1972, you've probably never heard of this delightfully strange attempt to update the Western. I say "update," but "Nichols" was set in 1914, which was a time period antiquated enough to maintain the sense of an Old West adventure yet modern enough that it allowed the show's hero to ride a motorcycle rather than a traditional steed. None of that made for a successful series, however, and NBC shot down "Nichols" after its first season.

"Nichols" (also known as "James Garner as Nichols") starred, er, James Garner as Frank Nichols, a sheriff who lives in a town that's also called Nichols. That should give you some idea of what we're dealing with. The story sees Frank leave the U.S. army after 18 years, renouncing the violence of the armed forces and returning to the Arizona town founded by his family. Once there, he discovers a new dynasty, the Ketchams, has taken over, and is dismayed to find that matriarch Ma Ketcham (Neva Patterson) is intent upon ruining his plan to live in relative peace. The powerful rancher blackmails Garner's former army man into becoming sheriff despite the fact he has absolutely no interest in law enforcement.

His only form of protest is to refuse to use any sort of violence in his new role. As such, he doesn't carry a gun, even when facing down the many criminals that besiege the titular town. He also rides a pretty rickety-looking motorcycle, which was seemingly designed to make him look more modern and cooler than other Western heroes but ends up making him look like a man suffering a mid-life crisis.

The one weapon Nichols does have at his disposal, however, is his charm, which, aside from helping him talk his way out of encounters with criminals, works wonders for his relationship with Margot Kidder's barmaid Ruth. At the time, Kidder — who passed away in 2018 at the age of 69 — was seven years away from playing Lois Lane in Richard Donner's seminal "Superman," without which we wouldn't have the modern blockbuster. In "Nichols," she seemed to be having a grand old time in what was a very silly show that, sadly, didn't last beyond 24 episodes.

According to producer Meta Rosenberg (via The Television Academy), getting "Nichols" green-lit was as simple as going to NBC and telling them James Garner wanted to star in a show, at which point the network handed her "a tremendous amount of money" to hire some writers to produce three pilot scripts. Rosenberg took on three scenarists, including a young James L. Brooks, whose pilot was the best of the bunch. But Brooks was unavailable to write for the show full-time, so Rosenberg chose Frank Pearson's pilot: "Nichols."

As the producer recalled, the show was unique because its relatively modern setting gave it a "whole different look." NBC executive Mort Werner was, however, "absolutely crestfallen" because Garner "wasn't John Wayne." Rosenberg continued, "He had a reluctant sheriff who didn't want to get killed and was very sharp and funny, and he wanted John Wayne — somebody who was macho." Despite Werner pushing to make changes, Rosenberg stood firm, prompting a noncommittal approach from the network. "[NBC] kept moving it around," Rosenberg explained," because they didn't like it and it failed, we did one year."

After ratings fell, NBC retitled "Nichols" to "James Garner as Nichols" in order to capitalize on the actor's fame. As the New York Times reported back in November 1971, the network then moved the show from Thursday nights to Tuesday nights. It didn't help. "Nichols" was finally canceled after the show made a bizarre effort to retool things by having Garner's sheriff get shot and killed, only for his identical twin (also Garner) to arrive in town with a much more gung-ho approach to law enforcement. He never got to mete out his more John Wayne-like justice, though, as NBC pulled the plug, leaving "Nichols" with a fittingly ridiculous conclusion.