Review of Buckskin

This show was one of the rarest of rarities - a summer replacement series that proved so popular it was picked up the following year to replace one of the fall season's first casualties, with new episodes being filmed. It actually had an extremely long run, despite the fact that only 39 episodes (ordinarily a single season) were shot, because it could be played either as an evening western or as a kiddie show on Saturday morning. This had to do with an interesting innovation - whereas most westerns (ever since the classic movie SHANE) had a little boy in a supporting role, this was the first TV series to actually tell the story of the old west from a child's point of view. Luckily, they had a fine young actor in Tommy Nolan, who lived in the small town of Buckskin with his Mom. As she ran a boarding house, all sorts of odd and interesting characters passed by, and each of their story's was depicted as to its impact on the child as he gradually grew up. In a way, it resembled the original LASSIE (with Jeff, not Timmy), only shifted back in time and taken from the midwest to the north west. And without Lassie, of course. There was a solid, decent town marshal, but again, we only saw him as the child saw him. There was a warmth to this show that was missing from many of the other TV westerns of that time. And while it never made a big splash, it does hold a nice nostalgic place in the memories of those who remember catching it.