Cheyenne-Renegades

CHEYENNE

"Renegades"

Original air date Feb 11, 1958
Directed by Alan Crosland, Jr.
Written by Oliver Drake

Regular Cast
Clint Walker as Cheyenne Bodie

Guest Cast
Peter Brown as Jed Wayne
Olive Sturgess as Kathy Donovan
Bartlett Robinson as Col. Donovan
Steve Darrell as Little Elk
Connie Buck as Laloma
Tom McKee as Sgt. Horne
Mike Forest as Yellow Lance
Tom Fadden as Sgt Bridger
Steve Pendleton as Sgt. Wayne
Roy Barcroft as Sheriff Willoughby
Joe Brooks as armed sentry

Jed has been boarded out with strangers since his mother died. All he has from his father is a horse, a saber, a medal and one months back pay. He's been running wild and is serving 10 days for disturbing the peace. Cheyenne bails Jed out of jail and tells him his father's last wish was for him to enlist.

In this episode of Cheyenne, Peter Brown plays another of our favorite "boy becomes a man" parts as Jed Wayne, the son of a cavalry sergeant who died a hero saving his unit, including Cheyenne. Before he died, Sgt. Wayne made Cheyenne promise to check on his son who will be old enough to enlist when he turns 17 in a few months.

Things don't go well at the fort for either Cheyenne or Jed. Col. Donovan expects Cheyenne to help negotiate a treaty with Little Elk which will force the Comanches to move hundreds of miles to the southwest to desert country. Cheyenne knows that the Comanche cannot agree to these terms and that many settlers will be killed in the war which will inevitably follow an attempt to make a forced move.

Jed enlists, then immediately tries to resign when he's told he can't keep Glory, the horse his father gave him. They compromise by allowing him to sell the horse to the cavalry for the remount pool for assignment to Jed. However, Jed is not two minutes out of Cheyenne's sight when he's in a fight with another soldier who made fun of Glory by decorating him with flowers. The only bright note for Jed is a flirtation with a pretty girl who asks about Glory. But even that turns sour when he finds out she's the Colonel's daughter.

In the review the next day, Jed falls off Glory during a cavalry exercise neither of them is trained for and Glory suffers a bowed tendon. When Jed finds out the army vet plans to shoot Glory, he takes off with him into Indian Country where he runs into Chief Little Elk. Little Elk admires a man who cares more for his horse than for himself. He takes Jed to the Comanche camp where Little Elk's lovely daughter gives him some Indian herbs to help Glory's tendon.

When Cheyenne catches up with him, Jed makes a show of holding him off with a rifle, but Cheyenne doesn't buy the bad boy act. And when Jed realizes his presence will make trouble for Little Elk's people, he agrees to go back to the fort, leaving Glory behind. Little Elk and a few of his men go with them for the peace talks.

When Little Elk's son Yellow Lance leads a band of renegades against a wagon train, the colonel decides to evacuate the women and children from the fort. He also takes Little Elk prisoner and threatens to hang him if the others don't surrender. The evacuees are set upon by Yellow Lance who takes the colonel's daughter Kathy and Cheyenne hostage to trade for Little Elk. However, once the trade is made, he intends to attack the fort. Cheyenne is left behind when Yellow Lance rides to the fort to make the exchange. Cheyenne must get word to the fort about Yellow Lance's plan. Little Elk's daughter frees Cheyenne but the only horse left in camp is Glory. Cheyenne rides Glory 100 miles back to the fort, where Glory collapses, dead.

In the end, Cheyenne must kill Yellow Lance. The colonel realizes that Little Elk is not just a savage and agrees to send a report which recommends that the Comanche be allowed to remain where they are. Jed seems set for a happy career in the army. Glory although dead, has died with - glory.

NiteOwl Review: This was our favorite of Peter's three pre-Lawman appearances on Cheyenne. All three of those coming-of-age characers showed a little youthful cockiness but Jed had some charm and sweetness as well.

This episode shows the difficulty of dealing with Indians in these old westerns. (The term Native American did not exist then.) They made natural bad guys, but even in the 1950s and 1960s there was some recognition of how badly the Indians had been treated. This episode followed a common pattern. Cheyenne's character is accorded respect as an honorable friend to the tribe, but he has to answer to soldiers or politicians who think of all Indians as savages. The chief is a wise leader who wants peace. The Indians who do the killing are young warriors who rebel against the chief and become renegades. The local situation is usually resolved honorably, with a peace agreement or renewal of a fair treaty. Episodic television was incapable of dealing with the big picture because each episode required a happy resolution of all conflicts.

Official Peter Brown Fan Site