This isn't a very clear copy but it's the only one around…the opening to Yancy Derringer, a western series that was on for one season back in 1958. I didn't see it then but it reran a lot on local TV in later years and I was a big fan of it when I was around ten or eleven…and I don't think I've seen one since.
Jock Mahoney played a gentleman adventurer…a former Confederate Officer who returned to New Orleans after the Civil War and began acting as a kind of special agent for an official in the city government. His base of operations was his riverboat and his sidekick was a mute Indian named Pahoo. Pahoo was played by an actor named X. Brands, and there was a great deal of publicity about his odd name and about the fact that he co-starred in this TV series but never had any lines.
It was a half hour show and I recall each episode being jammed pack with unexpected twists and turns and clever storylines. I hope when I finally get to see a couple again, they're still that way. In 1975, Mr. Mahoney was a guest at the San Diego Comic Con (that's what they called it then) and I got to have lunch with him and tell him how much I enjoyed this show. Everyone at the con was asking him about his work on Tarzan movies — he played the villain in one, Tarzan in another — and he was happy that someone remembered ol' Yancy.
Here's the opening. Actually, I recall that there were two openings — some episodes had a different theme song, one with lyrics. This is the one I remember best…
