Tales of the Texas Rangers

Tales of the Texas Rangers is a western old-time radio drama, which aired on NBC from July 8, 1950 to September 14, 1952, and thereafter a 52-episode CBS television series broadcast on Saturday mornings from 1955 to 1958. Film star Joel McCrea voiced the radio version as the fictitious Texas Ranger Jayce Pearson, who uses the latest scientific techniques to identify criminals. His faithful horse, Charcoal, helps Pearson to track down the culprits. The radio shows, some of which are available on the Internet, are reenactments of actual Texas Ranger cases.

The television version was produced and also directed for several episodes by Stacy Keach, Sr. It was sponsored for part of its run by Wheaties cereal. Captain Manuel T. “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas, who was said to have killed thirty-one men during his 30-year career as a Texas Ranger, was the consultant for the television series, filmed by Screen Gems.

On radio, Joel McCrea’s Pearson often worked by request with a local sheriff’s office or police department, but in the television version, Willard Parker assumed the role of Jace Pearson and had a regular partner, Ranger Clay Morgan, who had been an occasional character on the radio show. Morgan was portrayed in the television version by Harry Lauter. William Boyett appeared five times on the television series, including the role of Wade Crowell in the 1955 premiere episode, “Ransom Flight.”