Broken Arrow (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Broken Arrow is a Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 series which ran on ABC-TV
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 in prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...

 from 1956 through 1958 on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Repeat episodes were shown by ABC on Sunday afternoons during the 1959–60 season. Selected repeats were then shown once again in prime time (on Sunday evenings) during the summer of 1960.

Synopsis

Broken Arrow told a fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

alized account of the historical
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 relationship between Indian agent
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...

 Tom Jeffords
Tom Jeffords
Thomas Jonathan Jeffords was a U.S. Army scout, Indian agent, and later a stagecoach driver in the Arizona Territory. His friendship with Apache leader Cochise was instrumental in ending the Indian wars in that region....

 (John Lupton
John Lupton
John Rollin Lupton was an American film and television actor.Upon graduation from New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Lupton secured immediate stage work. Then he was signed as a contract player at MGM in Hollywood...

) and the Chiricahua
Chiricahua
Chiricahua are a group of Apache Native Americans who live in the Southwest United States. At the time of European encounter, they were living in 15 million acres of territory in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona in the United States, and in northern Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico...

 Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...

 chief Cochise
Cochise
Cochise was a chief of the Chokonen band of the Chiricahua Apache and the leader of an uprising that began in 1861. Cochise County, Arizona is named after him.-Biography:...

 (Michael Ansara
Michael Ansara
Michael Ansara is a Syrian-born American stage, screen, and voice actor best known for his portrayal of Cochise in the American television series Broken Arrow, Kane in the 1979-81 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Commander Kang on three different Star Trek TV series.- Early life and...

).

The series was based on the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 Blood Brother by Elliott Arnold
Elliott Arnold
Elliott Arnold was an American newspaper feature writer, novelist, and screenwriter.He was born in Brooklyn, New York and became a feature writer with the New York World-Telegram...

, which was made into the movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 Broken Arrow
Broken Arrow (1950 film)
Broken Arrow is a western Technicolor film released in 1950. It was directed by Delmer Daves and starred James Stewart and Jeff Chandler. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, and won a Golden Globe award for Best Film Promoting International Understanding. It made history as the first...

in 1950. The television pilot aired on May 1, 1956 on CBS's The 20th Century-Fox Hour, with Lupton in the title role. The series, which began on September 25, 1956, was produced by TCF Television Productions, the TV division of 20th Century-Fox and was filmed at 20th Century-Fox Studios. The series was syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 under the title Cochise.

Broken Arrow was one of the few westerns to portray Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 in a positive light, but Michael Ansara found the role unchallenging. Ansara told TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...

magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 in a 1960 interview: "Cochise could do one of two things–stand with his arms folded, looking noble; or stand with arms at his sides, looking noble."

Robert F. Simon
Robert F. Simon
Robert F. Simon was an American character actor, often portraying military or authority figure roles. Though his face was recognized by audiences, he was mostly unknown by name...

 appeared as Ben Slade in the Broken Arrow pilot. In 1957, Simon guest starred as General Everitt in the Broken Arrow episode entitled "Ghost Face". Gilman Rankin
Gilman Rankin
Gilman W. Rankin was a Massachusetts-born actor who appeared primarily in television westerns between 1956 and 1975. Between 1957 and 1959, he had a supporting role as Deputy Charlie Riggs in seven episodes of the series Tombstone Territory...

, of the western series Tombstone Territory
Tombstone Territory
Tombstone Territory is an American Western series starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. The series' first two seasons aired on ABC from 1957 to 1959...

, guest starred as Tawanga in the 1957 episode "The Doctor". Gregg Palmer
Gregg Palmer
Gregg Palmer, originally Palmer Lee is an American actor, known primarily for his prolific work in television westerns...

 appeared as Lieutenant Savage in the 1957 episode "White Savage". Chris Alcaide
Chris Alcaide
Christopher "Chris" Alcaide was an American actor particularly known for his role in television westerns. He surfaced to national attention as Deputy Joshua Tate in the 1956 film Gunslinger, co-starring Beverly Garland as a woman marshal.In 2003, Alcaide was among recipients, including the Sons of...

 appeared twice on the series as Brown Eagle in "Passage Deferred" (1956) and as John Brett in "Hired Killer" (1958). James Philbrook
James Philbrook
James Philbrook was an American actor who appeared in supporting roles in three short-lived television series between 1959 and 1963: The Islanders on ABC and The Investigators and The New Loretta Young Show, both on CBS...

 appeared as Clem Harrison in the episode "Manhunt" (1958). Phyllis Avery
Phyllis Avery
Phyllis Avery was an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Avery was born in New York City to Evelyn and author Stephen Morehouse Avery. Her father hailed from Webster Groves, Missouri, near St. Louis. Her first role was as Marjorie in the 1951 film Queen for a Day based on...

 played an unnamed teacher in another Broken Arrow episode.

Cultural references

  • The Blackfoot
    Blackfoot
    The Blackfoot Confederacy or Niitsítapi is the collective name of three First Nations in Alberta and one Native American tribe in Montana....

    Indians would use a broken arrow to signal that they would cease fighting.
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