Daniel Boone

From DANIEL BOONE TV SERIES WEBSITE, 2008

002 Tekawitha McLeod (#7402)

Original Air Date: 10-01-64

Written by Paul King
Directed by Thomas Carr
Produced by Vincent M. Fennelly

Fess Parker ............. Daniel
Albert Salmi ............. Yadkin
Ed Ames ............. Mingo
Patricia Blair ............. Rebecca
Veronica Cartwright ............. Jemima
Darby Hinton ............. Israel
Dallas McKennon ............. Cincinnatus
Lynn Loring ............. Tekawitha
Edna Skinner ............. Sadie Clayburn
Chris Alcaide ............. Flathead Joseph
Robert Foulke ............. Sledge Clayburn
David Cadiente ............. Telequah
Donald O'Rourke ............. Timmy Kincaid
and Hannibal, the Goose

By TOM SOTER

The second episode produced, “Tekawitha McLeod” is an engrossing story of family ties and also a parable about race relations that is summed up best by Cherokee runaway Tekawitha’s observation: “The color of my skin cannot change what is in my heart.”

The story is relatively simple, but like many DANIEL BOONE episodes holds deeper meanings. An Indian half-breed kidnaps Tekawitha, daughter of the chief of the Cherokee. She is offered to Boone, and when he learns that she is white, trades her for a jug of rum and some gunpowder and vows to return her to her “people” – her white family. Later, it turns out that he knew her mother, who was actually an early, pre-Rebecca sweetheart, adding a personal stake in his fulfilling his vow. When the Cherokee learn that Tekawitha is in Boonesborough, they threaten to attack the fort unless the princess is returned to them. Boone refuses, saying she is with her people. As the two sides get ready to engage in battle, Tekawitha chooses to return to the Cherokee, saying that the Indians are her family. In other words, Boone and the settlers – who thought they were doing the right thing by fighting for Tekawitha’s right to be with the “civilized” whites – were actually wrong. They didn’t look beyond her skin to see what was in her heart. They were practicing a kind of reverse racism.

You can see why the series producers chose this as the second episode to be broadcast (in the 1960s, the production and broadcast orders of TV shows did not often coincide, especially for new series, which tried to put their strongest episodes upfront). There are many bucolic family scenes, spotlighting each of the characters: Daniel doing his chores (chopping wood) and singing Israel to sleep (he sings twice in this episode – the first time is when he brazenly walks into the Cherokee camp during a war council, disarming the Indians by warbling a folksy tune); Becky singing as she cooks; Israel with his pet goose, Hannibal, and also hunting what he thinks is a possum (actually a skunk, until Daniel stops him); Jemima on the porch, combing her hair “100 strokes”; and Yadkin being, well, Yadkin (the series lost an irreplaceable character when Albert Salmi left in the second season).

There’s also a fair amount of drama in “Tekawitha McLeod” but not much action – this is a character-based, issue-oriented episode, the sort of tale the series would regularly alternate with more action-oriented episodes (the perfect blending of both action- and character-based stories were the first season’s “Cain’s Birthday” and the second season’s “The High Cumberland”).

Technically, the episode (directed by long-time ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN director Thomas Carr) is well done, although some of the studio shots of Boonesborough are noticeably different in lighting than the location photography of the Indians massing. Paul King’s teleplay works on many levels, and has some nice moments, most notably when Daniel asks Mingo whose side he will be on in the coming battle (“You would be a hard man to kill,” Mingo says, meaning, of course, both physically and emotionally), and in the aforementioned speech by Tekawitha in which she claims the Cherokee as family and also hints that Boone has actually been chasing a ghost, a dream of what might have been: “In me you see a memory – someone who should have waited.” The cast is top notch, with Parker already pitch-perfect as Boone in only his second appearance (Nice line: “Fetch Ticklicker and my bonnet,” he calls out to Israel, referring to his gun and coonskin cap). But the real surprise is Cincinnatus. Did you ever wonder hat he looked like without his beard? Well, wonder no longer.

A top-notch installment, which set the template for good things to come.
Fess Parker, with Tom Soter, 1998

008 A Short Walk to Salem (#7403)
Original Air Date: 11-19-64
Written by Paul King
. Directed by Harry Harris. Produced by Vincent M. Fennelly
Fess Parker ............. Daniel
Albert Salmi ............. Yadkin
Ed Ames ............. Mingo
Patricia Blair ............. Rebecca
Darby Hinton ............. Israel
Dallas McKennon ............. Cincinnatus
James Waterfield ............. Simon Girty
Charles Briggs ............. Hiram Girty
Dean Stanton ............. Jeb Girty
Robert Sorrells ............. Luke Girty
William Fawcett ............. Ben Pickens
and Hannibal, the Goose

Daniel, Yadkin, Mingo, and Israel encounter Simon Girty and his three no-account sons, who make off with the Boonesborough settlers’ seasonal take of furs. Girty is the brains of the outfit, which isn’t saying much: not only does he steal the furs in broad daylight in front of a crowd of people, but he regularly lets his victims live – although trussed up in a way that allows them a chance at escape, albeit slim. When he robs Yad in the pre-credits teaser, for instance, he leaves him hanging upside down, trussed to a tree branch (Daniel’s later encounter with his pal, in which he jokes about Yad’s unusual method of attracting game and “saving” gunpowder is a treat – Parker at his deadpan best). Later, Girty ties Boone and Yadkin to the ground – again, giving them an opportunity to escape. (This, of course, is standard villain behavior in most adventure stories; if the bad guy just shot the hero when he had him at his mercy, there would be no story.)

“A Short Walk to Salem,” as its ironic title indicates, is a bit of Boone whimsy, the kind of Kentucky tall tale that old Dan’l might have entertained his neighbors with at a hoedown. It tells how a man, using only “what the good Lord gave him,” with a little help from ignorance, fear, and superstition, can outfox a group of surly characters with four rifles. It is a light-hearted romp, with a pair of fistfights, a lovely scene between Dan and Becky, and a delicious coda when Boone, Yadkin, Mingo, and Israel all respond in their own inimitable ways to Becky’s query: “Did you have any trouble along the way?” Indeed! This is a delightful episode, with a rousing Copland-esque score (worthy of a CD release) by Star Trek’s Alexander Courage (that is, if the closing credits are to be believed; for some reason, Ed Ames is listed as playing Mingo and Taramingo – although it can’t be the credit list from “My Brother’s Keeper,” in which Taramingo appeared, because the Girtys are listed too).