Alias Smith and Jones

Not to be confused with Alas Smith and Jones.

Alias Smith and Jones is an American Western television series that originally aired on ABC from January 1971 to January 1973.

Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones title card
Genre	Western
Created by	Glen A. Larson
Starring	Pete Duel Ben Murphy Roger Davis
Narrated by	Roger Davis Ralph Story
Theme music composer	Billy Goldenberg
Composers	Billy Goldenberg Robert Prince Pete Rugolo John Andrew Tartaglia
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	50 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Roy Huggins
Producers	Glen A. Larson Jo Swerling Jr.
Cinematography	William Cronjager Gene Polito John M. Stephens
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	45–48 minutes
Production companies	Universal Television Universal/Public Arts Production
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	January 5, 1971 (1971-01-05) – January 13, 1973 (1973-01-13)
Related
The Young Country

Left to right: Pete Duel, William Windom and Ben Murphy in Alias Smith and Jones (1971)

Plot

Cast and characters

In the early morning hours of December 31, 1971, series star Pete Duel died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 31. He was reportedly suffering from depression and had been drinking heavily when he shot himself. Upon learning of Duel's death, executive producer Jo Swerling Jr. initially wanted to end the series, but ABC refused.^{[1]: 27–28} Swerling later stated:

ABC said, "No way!" They said, "You have a contract to deliver this show to us, and you will continue to deliver the show as best you can on schedule or we will sue you." Hearing those words, Universal didn't hesitate for a second to instruct us to stay in production. We were already a little bit behind the eight ball on airdates. So, we contacted everybody, including Ben (Murphy), and told them to come back in. The entire company was reassembled and back in production by one o'clock that day shooting scenes that did not involve Peter — only 12 hours after his death.^[1]: 28

Series writer, director, and producer Roy Huggins contacted actor Roger Davis (who provided narration for the series, and who had also appeared in episode 19 "Smiler with a Gun") the day of Duel's death to fill the role of Hannibal Heyes, and actor/voice man Paul Frees came in to loop Duel's unfinished ADR on "The Men That Corrupted Hadleyburg".^[2] Davis was fitted for costumes the following day, and began reshooting scenes Duel had previously completed for an unfinished episode the following Monday. According to Swerling, the decision to continue production so soon after Duel's death was heavily criticized in the press at the time.^{[1]: 29–30}

Production

Joan Hackett played a character called Clementine Hale; a character with the same name appeared in two Alias Smith and Jones episodes, played by Sally Field.^[3]

Universal contract player Ben Murphy was offered to the producers because he was considered a Paul Newman lookalike.^[4]

Parts of the television series were filmed at Castle Valley and Professor Valley in Utah.^[5]

Episodes

Main article: List of Alias Smith and Jones episodes

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	15		January 5, 1971 (1971-01-05)	April 22, 1971 (1971-04-22)
2	23		September 16, 1971 (1971-09-16)	March 2, 1972 (1972-03-02)
3	12		September 16, 1972 (1972-09-16)	January 13, 1973 (1973-01-13)

Home media

The entire series has been released on DVD.^[6]

DVD set	Episodes	Release date	Company
Alias Smith and Jones: Season 1	15	February 20, 2007 (2007-02-20)[7]	Universal Home Video
Alias Smith and Jones: Seasons 2 & 3	35	April 13, 2010 (2010-04-13)[8]	Timeless Media Group
Alias Smith and Jones: The Complete Series	50	October 19, 2010 (2010-10-19)[9]	Timeless Media Group

Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the complete first season of Alias Smith and Jones in Region 2 on June 11, 2007.^[10]

Original tie-in novels

References in other works