silverscreen888 Review of Northwest Passage

Northwest Passage (1958–1959)

Indisputably the Best Half-Hour Series in TV History; the Highest Quality

[9/10 · 25 August 2005]

"Northwest Passage's producers and writers drew their characters from the strongly-developed fictional personages of Kenneth Roberts' novel of the same name, set in US Revolutionary War times. Robert Rogers, here a fictionalized frontiersman and military man, was a real person, played in the film of this name by Spencer Tracy. The other were invented. This one-season 1958-59 program was, by my lights as writer, actor and director, the best one-half-hour program made for television in the twentieth century; it is indisputably the best-written and best-produced of all such series. The leading parts were played by Keith Larsen as Rogers, Buddy Ebsen as Hunk Marriner, Don Burnett as Langdon Towne and Philip Tonge as Gen. Amherst. The production qualities were, I suggest, far above average in every respect. The producer was "Star Trek" impresario Robert Justman; original music was composed by Raoul Kraushaar. The series' art direction was provided by William A. Horning and Merrill Pye with period set decorations by veterans F. Keogh Gleason, Henry Grace and Jack Mills. The directors who worked on this series included Otto Lang, George Waggener, Jacques Tourneur and Alan Crosland, Jr. Writers for the shows included Gerald Drayson Adams, Sloan Nibley and more. Many fine actors such as Lisa Gaye, Luis Van Rooten, Charles Horvath, Larry Chance and other contributed to the excellence of the production. The list included John Russell, Karen Steele, Claire Kelly, Peter Whitney, Carole Mathews, Lisa Montell, Paul Picerni, Marcia Henderson, Lee Van Cleef, Gene Nelson, De Forest Kelley, Murvyn Vye, Yvette Vickers, Morris Ankrum, Ben Wright, Patricia Donahue, Jay Novello, Joe Maross, Douglas Kennedy, Dean Harens, Payl Cavanagh, Carol Ohmart, Pernell Roberts, Richard Ney, Bruce Gordon, Sandy Kenyon, Angie Dickinson, Irene Tedrow, Emile Meyer, William Boyett, Alan Hale Jr., Harry Lauter and Denny Miller. I cannot recommend its strong feature-film-quality values too highly.