Disneyland: Davy Crockett - Indian Fighter (1954)

The jewel in the crown of the TV anthology Disneyland's first season was the phenominally successful three-part miniseries Davy Crockett, an entertaining mixture of fact and legend surrounding fabled frontiersman Davy Crockett (Fess Parker). All three episodes were originally introduced with series host-producer Walt Disney reading a chapter from Davy Crockett's Journal, whereupon a series of semi-animated tableaux faded into the live-action portion of the program. In Episode One, civilian Indian Fighter Davy Crockett proves indispensible to both British and American armed forces with his unorthodox but effective methods of lessening the threat of Indian attack. Eventually, Davy and his pal George Russel (Buddy Ebsen) are assigned to track down the fearsome Chief Red Stick (Pat Hogan), in hopes of bring peace to the territory once and for all. Captured by Red Stick's warriors, Davy earns the Chief's respect by beating him in hand-to-hand combat, thereby proving himself as effective a man of peace as a man of war. Among other achievements, this episode introduced one of the biggest hit songs of the 1950s, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett"--and also transformed Davy's coonskin cap into a national status symbol. In 1955, the three Emmy-winning Davy Crockett episodes were re-edited and released as the theatrical feature Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi