About this season
Bat Masterson is an American Western television series which showed a fictionalized account of the life of real-life marshal/gambler/dandy Bat Masterson. The title character was played by Gene Barry and the half-hour black-and-white shows ran on NBC from 1958 to 1961. The series was produced by Ziv Television Productions, the company responsible for such hit series as Sea Hunt and Highway Patrol.
Episodes (34)
1. Debt of Honor
Aired 29 September 1960 • 30 min
Bat grubstakes Cactus Charlie, an elderly prospector searching for a gold strike. Charlie finds gold, all right, the proceeds from a recent robbery and the crooks who buried the loot will stop at nothing to recover their ill-gotten gains.
2. Law of the Land
Aired 6 October 1960 • 30 min
Working again for his friend Hugh Blaine, Bat is hired to investigate the theft of barbed-wire fencing that prevents cattle from climbing onto a railroad's right-of-way. Question is whether Bat wants to tackle the five to one odds.
3. Bat Trap
Aired 13 October 1960 • 30 min
Midas Creek hires Bat to run their annual shooting contest. The council believe that the local bully will generally do anything in his power to win the contest. When the local gunsmith wins, it's the thug's rifle vs. Bat's pistol.
4. The Rage of Princess Anne
Aired 20 October 1960 • 30 min
Bat has an interest in a mine in Colorado and discovers its conditions are unsafe, but the general manager is forcing the miners to work in it anyway. He decides to convince the other owners including its pretty namesake to improve safety.
5. The Hunter
Aired 27 October 1960 • 30 min
An Englishman has a theory that accuracy is more important in a gunfight than speed or size of the ammunition. When he kills a bully with his specially designed rifled pistol, the Englishman decides he's ready to take on his goal - Bat.
6. Murder Can be Dangerous
Aired 3 November 1960 • 30 min
When Bat catches his gambling casino partner embezzling money, he kicks the man out, telling him never return unless he brings $25,000 to buy Bat's interest in the business. The partner plans to get control of Bat's half by killing him.
7. High Card Loses
Aired 10 November 1960 • 30 min
After a bank robbery Bat finds himself broke so he accepts an offer from a friend for a job. When his friend is murdered, Bat agrees to undertake his unfinished business - delivering three mail-order brides to their new husbands.
8. Dakota Showdown
Aired 17 November 1960 • 30 min
Bat rides to the assistance of his friend, a sheriff, but arrives after the Dakota boys gun him down. The president of the town council asks Bat to step into the office, but Bat decides the job should go to another person.
9. Last of the Night Raiders
Aired 24 November 1960 • 30 min
Bat is asked by a woman to help her and her young son escape the deadly Doolin gang who Bat has tangled with before. She wants to return to St. Louis with her son to her parents but her son wants to stay knowing only the gang as family.
10. Last Stop to Austin
Aired 1 December 1960 • 30 min
Bat thinks a young gunfighter might be the son of a man with whom he fought at the Battle of Adobe Wells. He plans to appeal to the governor for a pardon for his crimes because of the unrewarded service of his father.
11. A Time to Die
Aired 15 December 1960 • 30 min
Bat returns to Casper, Wyoming to testify at a murder trial. He learns that all the other witnesses are either dead or are afraid to testify and the father of the man under arrest intends to eliminate the last witness
12. Death by Decree
Aired 22 December 1960 • 30 min
Bat inherits a casino from an old enemy and soon discovers why. Upon arriving in town, he learns that the casino is $3000 behind in its mortgage payments and the previous owner was killed by the town marshal who owns the mortgage.
13. The Lady Plays Her Hand
Aired 29 December 1960 • 30 min
An eastern gambler playing a "system" breaks the bank at Bat's casino, putting the dapper Masterson out of business. Bat wonders if the "system" didn't have more than a little help from his pretty dealer.
14. Tempest at Tioga Pass
Aired 5 January 1961 • 30 min
When a old miner refuses to allow a road to be built through a high mountain pass he owns, the California Governor asks Bat to intervene. Bat finds the holdout to be an old friend Soda Smith and all is not as the Governor thought.
15. The Court Martial of Major Mars
Aired 12 January 1961 • 30 min
The stagecoach in which Bat Masterson, Major Mars and pretty Lottie Tremaine are traveling is waylaid by a vengeful gang led by an Indian whose family was slain when the Major's men wiped out a village. Bat is forced to defend the Major.
16. The Price of Paradise
Aired 19 January 1961 • 30 min
Pat arrives in Paradise, Colorado to collect a gambling debt from a crooked casino owner who doesn't like to pay his debts. He also doesn't like to pay his taxes - until Bat accepts an appointment as the new county tax assessor.
17. End of the Line
Aired 26 January 1961 • 30 min
Bat's lucrative contract to build a railroad in Colorado is in jeopardy. His crew is menaced by natural disasters and then wagon loads of equipment are lost. Just when things it seems things can't get worse, Bat is arrested for murder.
18. The Prescott Campaign
Aired 2 February 1961 • 30 min
Bat's old friend from Dodge City, Marshal Ben Holt, asks him to help fight a scheme plotted by the power-grabbing land baron General Silas Guild. When he arrives, Bat isn't sure that the Marshal is on the side of law and order.
19. Bullwhacker's Bounty
Aired 16 February 1961 • 30 min
Bat's plan to journey to Cheyenne for a big poker game are disrupted when the cavalry escort for a vital load of gunpowder is wiped out and the only men available to drive the wagons to the supply starved Fort Stewart appear unreliable.
20. A Lesson in Violence
Aired 23 February 1961 • 30 min
In response to an urgent telegram offering a large salary, Bat rides to a remote Texas ranch where he is to drive a herd of 2000 cattle to Abilene. As he arrives he finds that the Grant family believes he's a hired killer and pays for it.
21. Run for Your Money
Aired 2 March 1961 • 30 min
Saloonkeeper Crimp Ward challenges a local bank to back up it's gold certificates.
22. Terror on the Trinity
Aired 9 March 1961 • 30 min
Bat wins a mining claim in a lottery, but a huge bearded man attacks Bat when he tries to find it. He throws Bat into the Trinity River and Bat floats downriver finding his companion Bob Bradbury dead on the other side of the river.
23. Episode in Eden
Aired 16 March 1961 • 30 min
When gunslingers employed by Sam Shanks terrorize the small New Mexico town of Eden, Bat is drafted to serve as a special prosecutor when one of Shank's men is to be tried for murder and the expected result is a not guilty verdict.
24. The Good and the Bad
Aired 23 March 1961 • 30 min
A gang of outlaws tries to take a Medal of Honor from a woman whose husband gave his life for it. Bat offers a $100 in exchange for the medal, but the gunman escapes with Bat's money, cane and the medal of honor with Bat in hot pursuit.
25. No Amnesty for Death
Aired 30 March 1961 • 30 min
Bat's riding rescues three men from the gallows - he bears an amnesty for all combatants in the Lincoln County War. The three gunmen soon return to their criminal ways and Bat must help the local marshal hunt down the recently freed men.
26. Ledger of Guilt
Aired 6 April 1961 • 30 min
Bat rescues a woman from three men trying to grab her and her carpet bag. The woman tells Bat she and her father were the prisoners of a gang of outlaws who rode with Jesse James and she has the evidence to prove it.
27. Meeting at Mimbres
Aired 13 April 1961 • 30 min
Several Indian tribes claim that white men are kidnapping their women and children to be sold for slaves or held for ransom. In order to prevent an all-out war with the local tribes, the U.S. Army sends Bat Masterson to investigate.
28. Dagger Dance
Aired 20 April 1961 • 30 min
A wounded and fainting Bat delivers a message to a Major at Fort Logan ordering the Colonel to skip a meeting with the Indians. However, the Major believing the Colonel is impeding his political career doesn't deliver the message.
29. The Fourth Man
Aired 27 April 1961 • 30 min
Bat rides into town to meet a young friend. He arrives too late - the young man was killed when he accused three wealthy ranchers of cheating at cards and the sheriff refuses to arrest the men responsible for the murder.
30. Dead Man's Claim
Aired 4 May 1961 • 30 min
When a new silver strike is made in Monument City, Nevada, Bat returns to the former ghost town to check on his four year old claim and finds two claim jumpers are prepared to shoot first and ask questions later.
31. The Marble Slab
Aired 11 May 1961 • 30 min
Pinkerton hires Bat to get evidence against a gang that is terrorizing a town. Bat goes undercover as a marble salesman to convince the leader that so prominent a citizen should have a statue in his honor erected in the town square.
32. Farmer with a Badge
Aired 18 May 1961 • 30 min
Bat is ambushed in the desert by two men, his horse and water stolen. Left to die he is rescued by a farmer who is now the town marshal. Bat is determined to help the young lawman gain confidence in his ability to keep the peace.
33. The Fatal Garment
Aired 25 May 1961 • 30 min
Bat is hired to serve as a bodyguard at Wyatt Earp's El Paso casino, but the two of them can't prevent a robbery which costs Wyatt Earp $13,000 as he won't bank his money. The robbers use a costly shirt as a gift to distract Bat.
34. Jeopardy at Jackson Hole
Aired 1 June 1961 • 30 min
Bat is called upon by the daughter of an old friend to investigate his murder in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The family runs a freight and stage line there but the drivers are being killed for some reason and the line is nearly bankrupt.