Writing
The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.
Bob and his wife Linda accompany his brother Jim on a sailing cruise to Costa Rica, where Jim will start as a missionary. In a terrible storm their boat flips over. Jim believes the accident was a sign from god and throws away their distilling apparatus and food - "You shall not interfere with god's will". However nobody knows they're lost, so no one searches them for weeks.
Steve Sinclair is a world-weary former gunslinger, now living as a peaceful farmer. Things go wrong when his wild younger brother Tony arrives on the scene with his new bride Joan Blake.
Three high school buddies – Kleber, Mack and T.J. – are involved in a night of horrific violence. While only one is the perpetrator, the others do nothing. The victim dies, and the trio hide the body and promise to never speak of it again. 25 years later, Kleber is a world-famous journalist, Mack is a movie star, and T.J. is a demagogic evangelist who runs a controversial church. They meet once more in the place where the fateful night took place, and it ends in tragedy.
A rich landowner of Wyoming fights to prevent the Texas herds from trampling his rich meadows.
A fictional drama, covering a 30-year period, about a poverty-stricken teenager forced to give up her illegitimate son at birth, and the climb to wealth and power as the wife of a newspaper publisher who helps her locate her son, in whose future she becomes obsessed.
A sensitive but confused teenager feels pressure from all directions and turns to drugs, which causes problems for him in school and at home.
A Liverpool tug boat captain finds he's won a fortune on the penny pools and it changes his life. However, after giving up his job and throwing a large expensive party, he discovers that he may not really have won after all.
