About this season
Northwest Passage is a 26-episode half-hour adventure television series produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer about Major Robert Rogers during the time of the French and Indian War. The show derived its title and the main characters Rogers, Towne, and Marriner from the 1937 novel of the same name by Kenneth Roberts, and from the 1940 MGM feature film based on the novel. The scope of the novel was much broader than that of the series, and the second half of the book included an historically based attempt by Rogers to find a water route through North America as a "passage" to the Pacific Ocean. This attempt, lending its name to the novel and used by Roberts as a metaphor for the questing human spirit, is referenced in the first episode. One of the earlier series telecast in color, Northwest Passage aired new episodes on NBC from September 14, 1958, to March 13, 1959. Keith Larsen played the lead role; Buddy Ebsen, later the star of CBS's The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones, appeared as Sergeant Hunk Marriner, and Don Burnett co-starred as Ensign Langdon Towne.
Episodes (26)
1. Fight at the River
Aired 14 September 1958
An escape is made from a French Prison Camp with the news that the French Army is planning a major attack.
2. The Red Coat
Aired 21 September 1958
3. The Gunsmith
Aired 28 September 1958
4. Surprise Attack
Aired 5 October 1958
5. The Bound Women
Aired 12 October 1958
6. Break Out
Aired 19 October 1958
Major Rogers, Hunk Marriner, and Langdon Towne fall into the hands of the French who imprison them in a stockade. During the day this trio, and other captured rangers, are forced to build a road through the forest. By night, using stolen tools, Rogers begins to dig a tunnel under the stockade wall.
7. Court Martial
Aired 26 October 1958
8. The Hostage
Aired 2 November 1958
9. Sorrow Song
Aired 9 November 1958
10. The Assassin
Aired 16 November 1958
11. The Long Rifle
Aired 23 November 1958
12. War Sign
Aired 30 November 1958
13. The Traitor
Aired 7 December 1958
14. Vengeance Trail
Aired 21 December 1958
15. The Vulture
Aired 28 December 1958
16. The Counterfeiters
Aired 2 January 1959
17. The Secret Of The Cliff
Aired 9 January 1959
General Amherst believes that a British captain named Stoddard has found a way to climb the 200-foot-high ""Heights of Abraham"" which shield French Quebec from a surprise attack. Amherst sends Major Rogers to make contact with a party in Quebec who might be able to contact Stoddard who's now being held (and tortured) in a French fort. The party proves to be a pretty woman named Audrey Bonay. She helps Rogers contact Stoddard by means of an arrow shot through the bars of the prisoner's cell. Rogers now returns to General Amherst with word of the location where the cliff might be climbed, but Audrey stays in Quebec to be with her mother.
18. Dead Reckoning
Aired 16 January 1959
19. Death Rides The Wind
Aired 23 January 1959
20. The Fourth Brother
Aired 30 January 1959
21. The Ambush
Aired 6 February 1959
22. The Witch (aka Witchcraft)
Aired 13 February 1959
23. Stab In The Back
Aired 20 February 1959
24. The Deserter
Aired 27 February 1959
25. Trial By Fire
Aired 6 March 1959
26. The Killers
Aired 13 March 1959