You probably remember the 1972 John Wayne flick. It's a classic. But when people start digging into The Cowboys TV series cast, things get a little bit muddy. There is this weird, short-lived pocket of television history from 1974 that most people have completely wiped from their memory banks. It only lasted 13 episodes. Honestly, it’s one of those "blink and you'll miss it" moments in Western media, yet the people involved were actually quite a big deal in the long run.
Most folks assume if a show dies after one season, the talent wasn't there. That's just wrong.
The 1974 series was basically a direct spin-off of the movie. Same premise: a bunch of young kids forced to grow up fast on a cattle drive. But here’s the kicker—they actually managed to keep several of the original "boys" from the film. That almost never happens in TV adaptations from that era. Usually, the network just guts the budget and hires cheaper lookalikes.
The Core Players: Bringing the Movie to the Small Screen
If you're looking at the heavy hitters in The Cowboys TV series cast, you have to start with Jim Davis. He stepped into the massive, dusty boots of Wil Andersen. Now, replacing John Wayne is a suicide mission for any actor. You just can't win that comparison. But Davis was a seasoned pro. He had that gravelly, no-nonsense authority that eventually made him a household name as Jock Ewing on Dallas. He didn't try to be "The Duke." He just played a rancher who was tired, overworked, and responsible for a bunch of teenagers.
Then you’ve got Diana Douglas as Annie Andersen. If that name sounds familiar, it should. She was Kirk Douglas’s first wife and Michael Douglas’s mom. She brought a certain grit to the role that kept the show grounded when the scripts got a bit too "family-friendly" for a Western.
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The Original Boys Who Stayed
This is where the show gets its street cred. A handful of the young actors from the 1972 movie actually reprised their roles. It’s rare. It gave the show a sense of continuity that most 70s TV lacked.
- A. Martinez: He played Cimarron. A. Martinez is basically a legend in the industry now, especially if you follow daytime soaps or Longmire. He was the "bad boy" of the group, the one with the chip on his shoulder.
- Robert Carradine: He played Slim. Yes, the Revenge of the Nerds Robert Carradine. He was just a kid here, lean and looking exactly like a young man who belonged on a horse.
- Sean Kelly: He returned as Bob.
- Pritchard Thomas: He stayed on as Weedy.
It’s kinda wild to see them in the TV version because they look noticeably older than they did in the film, even though only two years had passed. Puberty hits hard on a cattle drive, apparently.
Why the Casting Was Controversial (and Why It Failed)
Network TV in 1974 was a strange beast. ABC wanted a "family" show. They wanted Little House on the Prairie but with more cows and fewer haylofts. The problem is that the original movie was pretty dark. In the movie, the kids literally become killers to avenge their mentor. You can't really do that on 8:00 PM television in the mid-seventies without the censors having a collective heart attack.
So, the writers softened the characters. This did a massive disservice to The Cowboys TV series cast. They were capable of grit, but they were given fluff.
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Moses Gunn played Nightlinger, the cook. In the movie, Roscoe Lee Browne played that role with a sophisticated, Shakespearean weight. Gunn was a fantastic actor—he was in Shaft, for heaven's sake—but the TV scripts turned the character into something much more conventional. It felt like a waste of his range. The chemistry between the boys and the adults felt forced because the stakes were lowered. If the kids aren't in real danger of dying or becoming outlaws, the tension just evaporates.
The Forgotten Names You Should Know
Beyond the leads, the guest stars were a revolving door of "who's that guy?" actors who defined the decade. You’d see character actors like Jack Elam or L.Q. Jones popping up. These were guys who lived and breathed Westerns.
Wait, did you know David Huddleston was involved? He played the barkeep in the movie but didn't make the jump to the series. Instead, the show relied heavily on the ensemble of the seven boys. The younger ones, like Clint Howard (Ron Howard’s brother), weren't in the TV show, which changed the dynamic. In the series, the "boys" were more like "young men," which changed the parental vibe Jim Davis was supposed to project.
Tracking the Legacy of the Cast
If you look at where these people ended up, it’s actually impressive.
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A. Martinez became a massive star. Robert Carradine became a cult icon. Jim Davis became the patriarch of one of the biggest shows in TV history (Dallas). Even the minor kids found work in the industry for years. The failure of The Cowboys wasn't a talent issue. It was a timing issue.
Westerns were dying. The public was moving toward gritty urban police dramas and sitcoms. The "Oater" was out. By the time the show premiered in February '74, the writing was on the wall. It was canceled by May.
How to Find the Series Today
Trying to watch this show is a bit of a nightmare. It’s not on Netflix. It’s not on Max. You can occasionally find bootleg DVDs or grainy uploads on YouTube from someone who recorded it on a VCR in the 80s.
The rights are a mess because it was produced by Warner Bros. but aired on ABC, and the music rights for these old shows are often what kills their streaming potential. If you do find it, watch it for the performances. Don't expect the cinematic sweep of the movie. Expect a stage-bound, 70s-filtered version of the frontier that somehow manages to be charming despite its flaws.
Actionable Steps for Western Fans
If you're a completionist or just obsessed with the 70s Western era, here is how you should actually approach this:
- Watch the 1972 Movie First: You cannot appreciate what the TV cast was trying to do without seeing the John Wayne original. It provides the DNA for every character choice Jim Davis makes.
- Look for A. Martinez’s Early Work: If you want to see a masterclass in how to transition from a "teen star" to a serious actor, follow his trajectory from The Cowboys to Santa Barbara and Longmire.
- Check Archive.org: Sometimes the 13 episodes of the TV series surface there under public domain or "fair use" uploads. It’s the only way to see the chemistry of the boys in their later teenage years.
- Compare the Portrayals: Pay close attention to Moses Gunn versus Roscoe Lee Browne. It’s a fascinating study in how two different Black actors navigated the "Western Cook" archetype during a period of massive cultural shift in Hollywood.
The show might be a footnote, but the people in it were the real deal. They represented the end of an era for the TV Western, a final gasp of the old-school ranch drama before the world moved on to sci-fi and detectives. Don't let the short run fool you; the talent was there, even if the scripts weren't.