Alan Hale Jr. Starred In A Legendary TV Actor's Western Series For 6 Episodes

In the late 1950s, a pre-"Gilligan's Island" Alan Hale Jr. appeared in a recurring role on "The Texan." This particular gig saw him share the screen with Rory Calhoun, in what was one of his most notable TV Western roles. In fact, the man who became best known as The Skipper played two separate characters on the Western show.

By the time Hale Jr. debuted as Captain Jonas Grumby on "Gilligan's Island" in 1964, he was a seasoned acting pro with multiple credits under his belt. On the film side he'd collaborated with everyone from Gregory Peck to Kirk Douglas. But he was most prolific on the small screen, to the extent that if you take a close look at his career you can pretty much chart the history of Western TV series from the 1950s through to the end of the 1960s.

Hale. Jr appeared in the forgotten Western gem that changed TV forever "Cheyenne," and acted opposite a young Clint Eastwood in "Rawhide." He showed up in multiple episodes of "Gunsmoke," visited "Bonanza" and guested on "The Gene Autry Show" several times. Hale Jr. even fronted his own Western series in 1958 with "Casey Jones." That same year, he shared the screen with Calhoun's Bill Longley in "The Texan."

This series was relatively short-lived compared to some of the other shows of the era, running from 1958 to 1960 on CBS. It saw Calhoun's legendary gunslinger traverse the post-Civil War Texas landscape, visiting various towns and usually encountering some sort of trouble in the process. Hale Jr. found himself part of that trouble on multiple occasions, playing the character Sculley in five episodes of Season 2. But Sculley wasn't actually the only role Hale Jr. played on "The Texan."

1958 was a big year for Alan Hale Jr. who that year starred opposite a future screen legend when he guested on Steve McQueen's "Wanted Dead or Alive." In that instance, he tried to get the better of McQueen's shootist and met his maker. But that same year he also felled Rory Calhoun's wandering cowboy on "The Texan" — or so he thought.

Before he debuted as Sculley in Season 2 of the show, Hale Jr. showed up in a Season 1 episode playing a different character altogether. Episode 9, "The Widow of Paradise," is one of the show's more ridiculous installments. It sees Bill Longley arrive in Montana, where he kills a challenger only to find that, due to an outdated law, he's legally required to support the dead man's wife and child. The peripatetic gunslinger suddenly finds himself bound to a family he never asked for. But when Hale Jr.'s Jake Bricker shows up and immediately becomes smitten with Calhoun's new wife, The Texan sees an opportunity to use Bricker's crush to his advantage.

The episode is a delightful piece of late-50s TV horse opera nonsense. There's an extended bar fight where The Skipper and Calhoun hand out some serious cowboy ass-kickery, and the pair's final duel, in which Hale Jr. (ostensibly) cuts down his rival with a pistol Longley modified to shoot at a slight angle is absurd in the best way possible. Not content with getting the best of the fastest gun in the West, however, Hale Jr. returned to "The Texan" in Season 2, and this time he stuck around for a while.

Alan Hale Jr. returned to "The Texan" in Season 2, Episode 14, "Dangerous Ground." This time, he played Irishman Sculley, a railroad worker who along with his crew is warned by a local rancher not to lay track on his land. That rancher then shoots and wounds one of the workers, after which Bill Longley and the gang take his son captive. But this is where things get slightly complicated. It seems "Dangerous Ground" was aired prior to the follow-up episode, "End of the Track," despite the latter introducing the railroad workers and Longley's association with them.

Regardless, Sculley and the railroad crew were featured on "The Texan" for five episodes, during which time they were misled by an old prospector, faced down a gang of convicts, and dealt with a former crewman who returned to make trouble. In his various scenes, Hale Jr. delivers a performance pitched somewhere between the comedy antics of The Skipper and his more subtly charismatic rendition of outlaw Cole Younger in the 1957 Western "The True Story of Jesse James." He's clearly having the most fun when he's trying to start a fight in an upscale restaurant, providing a solid comic foil to Rory Calhoun's stern cowboy.

After Season 2, Episode 25, "Showdown," Sculley and the railroad workers weren't seen again. Hale Jr., meanwhile, was busy guesting on every other show on TV. In 1960 — the year "Showdown" aired — he appeared in "The Alaskans," "Shotgun Slade," "Maverick," and "Cheyenne." He remained busy right up until his debut as "The Skipper" in 1964. Bill Longley, however, did not. "The Texan" wrapped up with its 78th episode, "24 Hours to Live" in 1960, after which Rory Calhoun's cowboy rode off for the last time.