# The Alaskans

The Alaskans is a 1959–1960 ABC/Warner Bros. Western television series set during the late 1890s in the port of Skagway, Alaska. The show features Roger Moore as "Silky Harris" and Jeff York as "Reno McKee", a pair of adventurers intent on swindling travelers bound for the Yukon Territories during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush. Their plans are inevitably complicated by the presence of singer "Rocky Shaw" (Dorothy Provine), "an entertainer with a taste for the finer things in life".
The show was the first regular work on American television for the British actor Roger Moore.

## Background and production

The Alaskans is closely related to the ABC/WB series Maverick through broadcast and production. Maverick was the most prominent of ABC's Sunday night of Western dramas. For the 1959–60 season, Sundays began with Colt .45 and Maverick, then John Russell's Lawman and Nick Adams' The Rebel, and concluded with The Alaskans.
For Roger Moore, the series was memorable for being his "most appalling television series ever". In particular, he found that attempting to recreate Alaskan exteriors on a studio backlot in California made for disagreeably hot work days. The show also caused some marital strife for the actor when he had to admit to wife Dorothy Squires that he had fallen in love with co-star Dorothy Provine.

### Writing

Because of the 1960 Writers Guild of America strike as well as an ongoing Warner Bros. policy to save money on writers, The Alaskans inherited a certain amount of scripted material from Maverick. Moore bristled at the lack of originality in scripts: "An old Bronco script would interchange with an Alaskans or Maverick. In some cases, even the dialogue stayed unchanged." In 2007, Moore noted, "Quite often I realized that we were filming Maverick scripts, with the names changed." This made it simple for Jack L. Warner to envision Moore as Maverick, since Moore had literally delivered Garner's dialogue while reshooting the same scripts with different names and locales.

### Cancellation

The same year that The Alaskans was canceled, James Garner left Maverick. Moore became, under protest, Garner's replacement, playing Bret Maverick's cousin Beau Maverick in the fourth season of Maverick.

## Cast

* Roger Moore as Silky Harris
* Dorothy Provine as Rocky Shaw
* Jeff York as Reno McKee
* Ray Danton as Nifty Cronin
* John Dehner in two episodes each as Cornish and Soapy Smith

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date |
| 1 | "Gold Sled" | Józef Lejtes | Lowell Barrington & Harry Whittington (novelette) | October 4, 1959 (1959-10-04) |
| 2 | "Cheating Cheaters" | George waGGner | James O'Hanlon | October 11, 1959 (1959-10-11) |
| 3 | "The Devil Made Five" | Jacques Tourneur | Bret Harte (story) & Harold Medford | October 18, 1959 (1959-10-18) |
| 4 | "The Petticoat Crew" | Robert Gordon | Pat Fielder & Gibson Fox | October 25, 1959 (1959-10-25) |
| 5 | "Starvation Stampede" | Robert Gordon | Talbot Jennings & Dick Nelson | November 1, 1959 (1959-11-01) |
| 6 | "Big Deal" | Robert Gordon | Catherine Kuttner | November 8, 1959 (1959-11-08) |
| 7 | "Contest at Gold Bottom" | William A. Seiter | (Story) Marion W. Horvitz (Teleplay) Samuel F. Roeca and Marion W. Horvitz | November 15, 1959 (1959-11-15) |
| 8 | "Winter Song" | Leslie H. Martinson | Talbot Jennings | November 22, 1959 (1959-11-22) |
| 9 | "The Golden Fleece" | Leslie H. Martinson | (Story) Jack Emanuel and Joel Rogosin (Teleplay) Samuel F. Roeca | November 29, 1959 (1959-11-29) |
| 10 | "Doc Booker" | Robert Gordon | Steven Ritch | December 6, 1959 (1959-12-06) |
| 11 | "The Abominable Snowman" | Lew Landers | (Story) Herb Golden (Teleplay) Laszlo Gorog | December 13, 1959 (1959-12-13) |
| 12 | "Remember the Maine" | Everett Sloane | Herman Epstein | December 20, 1959 (1959-12-20) |
| 13 | "Million Dollar Kid" | George waGGner | (Story) David Newhouse (Teleplay) Samuel F. Roeca | January 3, 1960 (1960-01-03) |
| 14 | "The Trial of Reno McKee" | Lew Landers | (Story) Dick Nelson (Teleplay) Robert E. Thompson | January 10, 1960 (1960-01-10) |
| 15 | "Gold Fever" | Lew Landers | (Story) Harry Tatelman (Teleplay) Samuel F. Roeca and William Driskill | January 17, 1960 (1960-01-17) |
| 16 | "The Challenge" | Lew Landers | (Story) David Newhouse (Teleplay) Laszlo Gorog | January 24, 1960 (1960-01-24) |
| 17 | "The Long Pursuit" | Leslie H. Martinson | Story Steve Frazee and Lee Loeb Teleplay Lee Loeb | January 31, 1960 (1960-01-31) |
| 18 | "Spring Fever" | Lew Landers | Story Leslie H. Martinson Teleplay Oscar Brodney | February 7, 1960 (1960-02-07) |
| 19 | "Black Sand" | Robert T. Sparr | Story Hugh Benson Teleplay Leonard Heideman | February 14, 1960 (1960-02-14) |
| 20 | "The Seal Skin-Game" | Leslie Goodwins | Buckley Angell | February 21, 1960 (1960-02-21) |
| 21 | "Peril at Caribou Crossing" | Lew Landers | Story Boris Ingster Teleplay Herman Epstein | February 28, 1960 (1960-02-28) |
| 22 | "Behind the Moon" | Charles Haas | Story Boris Ingster and Dick Nelson Teleplay Samuel F. Roeca | March 6, 1960 (1960-03-06) |
| 23 | "Partners" | Herbert L. Strock | Jo Conway | March 13, 1960 (1960-03-13) |
| 24 | "Disaster at Gold Hill" | George waGGner | Catherine Kuttner | March 20, 1960 (1960-03-20) |
| 25 | "The Last Bullet" | Charles Haas | Story Maurita Pittman Teleplay Russell Hughes and W. Hermanos | March 27, 1960 (1960-03-27) |
| 26 | "A Barrel of Gold" | Reginald LeBorg | Melvin Levy | April 3, 1960 (1960-04-03) |
| 27 | "The Bride Wore Black" | Charles Haas | Story Sig Herzig Teleplay W. Hermanos | April 10, 1960 (1960-04-10) |
| 28 | "Odd Man Hangs" | Lew Landers | Story Ralph Berard Teleplay Tom Blackburn and W. Hermanos | April 17, 1960 (1960-04-17) |
| 29 | "Counterblow" | Leslie Goodwins | Story Burt Arthur Teleplay Bernie Giler and W. Hermanos | April 24, 1960 (1960-04-24) |
| 30 | "Heart of Gold" | Robert B. Sinclair | W. Hermanos | May 1, 1960 (1960-05-01) |
| 31 | "Kangaroo Court" | Jesse Hibbs | Story Edward E. Sewabrook & Homer McCoy & Oscar Millard Teleplay Robert Schaefer & Eric Freiwald & Robert Smith | May 8, 1960 (1960-05-08) |
| 32 | "The Silent Land" | Lew Landers | W. Hermanos | May 15, 1960 (1960-05-15) |
| 33 | "Calico" | Robert B. Sinclair | Story Maurita Pittman Teleplay W. Hermanos | May 22, 1960 (1960-05-22) |
| 34 | "Sign of the Kodiak" | Lew Landers | W. Hermanos | May 29, 1960 (1960-05-29) |
| 35 | "White Vengeance" | Lew Landers | Story Raphael Hayes Teleplay Raphael Hayes and W. Hermanos | June 5, 1960 (1960-06-05) |
| 36 | "The Ballad of Whitehorse" | Charles Haas | W. Hermanos | June 12, 1960 (1960-06-12) |

## Home media

The Alaskans is scheduled to be released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection on August 27, 2024.