Here's a big thanks to Bill Crider for pointing out that Davy Crockett was born on this day in 1786 in Tennessee, so I wanted to wish the frontiersman a hearty 220th birthday.
Several actors have played Davy Crockett on Television (no need to concern ourselves with those in the movies), but all of them might as well be relegated to alternate dimensions of Toobworld. That's because there's only one actor who embodies the figure of the man and the legend: Fess Parker.
Walt Disney produced a series about Crocket starring Parker which was filmed to be only three episodes in length. Apparently, nobody had any idea how popular the character would prove with the children of the 1950s. Otherwise they would have kept the series running indefinitely, rather than airing the episode which definitely killed off his character at the Alamo.
The producers of future TV shows learned a valuable lesson from that, and fictionalized the adventures of legendary real-life characters in their productions. And I think the public became so accustomed to it that they rose up in anger when David Milch followed historical fact and killed off Keith Carradine's portrayal of Wild Bill Hickcock in the fourth episode of 'Deadwood'.
Those viewers who complained are just stupid c***suckers, as Al Swearengen might point out.....
Disney went on to produce two more episodes about Davy that would have to be inserted into the middle of the show's timeline. Both dealt with river life and also featured another figure out of America's tall tales - Mike Fink.
(Fess Parker crossed over into the "Cineverse" as Davy Crockett in the Bob Hope movie, "Alias Jesse James".)
Davy Crockett was the fifth of nine children and it's possible that Davy's televersion could be the great grand plus uncle of Sonny Crockett of 'Miami Vice'.
His mother's maiden name was Rebecca Hawkins. So it's possible that a male relative passed down the family name so that Davy Crockett is distantly related to Billy Jim and RJ Hawkins, a lawyer and his cousin who was a private investigator. ('Hawkins On Murder')
His legend might have not survived, however, had the family kept its original Huguenot name of "de Crocketagne". Well, maybe on BRAVO. But the legend endures and will do so hundreds of years into the future of Toobworld.
How can we be assured of that? Because Dr. Julian Bashir and Chief of Operations Miles O'Brien often recreate his adventures in the holosuites of 'Deep Space Nine'.
TELEVISIONS OF DAVY CROCKETT
Johnny Cash (I) (Elder Davy Crockett)
. . . "Disneyland" (1954) {Davy Crockett: Rainbow in the Thunder} TV Series
Mac Davis (I) (Davy Crockett)
. . . "Tall Tales and Legends" (1985) {Davy Crockett} TV Series
Tim Dunigan (Davy Crockett)
. . . "Disneyland" (1954) {Davy Crockett: A Natural Man (#33.8)} TV Series
. . . "Disneyland" (1954) {Davy Crockett: Guardian Spirit} TV Series
. . . "Disneyland" (1954) {Davy Crockett: Rainbow in the Thunder} TV Series
Fess Parker (Davy Crockett)
. . . "Disneyland" (1954) {Davy Crockett Goes to Congress (#1.14)} TV Series
. . . "Disneyland" (1954) {Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (#2.13)} TV Series
. . . "Disneyland" (1954) {Davy Crockett at the Alamo (#1.18)} TV Series
. . . "Disneyland" (1954) {Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race (#2.10)} TV Series
. . . "Disneyland" (1954) {Davy Crockett: Indian Fighter (#1.8)} TV Series
John Schneider (I) (Davy Crockett)
. . . Texas (1994) (TV)
Jack Watson (Davy Crockett)
. . . "Into the Labyrinth" (1981) {Alamo (#2.3)} TV Series
Scott Wickware (Davy Crockett)
. . . Dear America: A Line in the Sand (2000) (TV)
Richard Young (Davy Crockett)
. . . "Amazing Stories" (1985) {Alamo Jobe (#1.3)} TV Series
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
Miles O'Brien was a Chief, not a Commander.
ReplyDeleteThat'll teach me not to be so lazy that I can't just reached for the ST Encyclopedia here to my left.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Will. I'll fix it now.
Using the IMDB references might makes things a little confusing, as Tim Dunigan was Davy in the flashbacks from "elder Davy Crockett" Johnny Cash in the late 80s/early 90s Disney show on Sunday nights. Lightning failed to strike for this one, so we never got to see Congressman Crockett played by Cash at the Alamo.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you included Into the Labyrinth, a great fantasy series from Britain I first saw on Nickelodeon. Although Crockett didn't appear, the Alamo was featured on Time Tunnel, with Jim Davis as Jim Bowie.
I don't know the DS9 episodes you're talking about though.
Hugh Davis