Ken MayerFilmography

Bonanza: Thornton's Account

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Gregory Walcott, Carl Reindel

Synopsis: Far from the Ponderosa, Ben Cartwright is badly injured in a fall from his horse. Seeking help in a nearby town, Ben's son Joe finds himself in the middle of a range feud, with no one willing to come to his assistance-except for an enigmatic stranger named Thornton (played by frequent Bonanza Read More

The F.B.I.: The Target

Synopsis: Enemy agents hope to persuade defecting cabinet official Victor Dorman (David Frankham) to return to his own country--or, failing that, they plan to have him killed. For this purpose, the bad guys engage the services of Nicholas Blok (Eric Braeden), a coldblooded troubleshooter who specializes in Read More

Bonanza: The Clarion

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Phyllis Thaxter, Simon Oakland

Synopsis: Phyllis Thaxter guest-stars as widowed newspaper publisher Ruth Manning, yet another old friend of Ben Cartwright. Ben comes to Ruth's assistance when her newspaper is targeted for extinction by ruthless town boss Judge Seth Tabor (Simon Oakland). Featured in the cast are William Jordan as Leek Read More

Bonanza: Clarissa

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Nina Foch, Roy Roberts

Synopsis: Nina Foch guest-stars as Clarissa, Ben Cartwright's snooty Eastern cousin. Swooping down upon the Ponderosa, the well-meaning but insufferable Clarissa manages to alienate all of the Cartwrights' friends-and even worse, causes ranch cook Hop Sing to tender his resignation. It has been suggested Read More

Bonnie and Clyde

Actors: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Gene Wilder

Synopsis: Producer/star Warren Beatty had to convince Warner Bros. to finance this film, which went on to become the studio's second-highest grosser. It also caused major controversy by redefining violence in cinema and casting its criminal protagonists as sympathetic anti-heroes. Based loosely on the true Read More

The Andy Griffith Show: The Barbershop Quartet

Actors: Howard McNear, Jack Dodson

Synopsis: Andy hopes to beat his longtime rival Sheriff Blake (Ken Mayer) at the Mount Pilot Sheriff's Annual Barbershop Quartet Sing-Off. Unfortunately, on the eve of the contest, Mayberry's star tenor Howard gets laryngitis. A desperate Andy finds an unexpected replacement in the form of golden-throated Read More

Lost in Space: West of Mars

Synopsis: This classic episode can be described as an outer-space western, as cowardly Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) comes face to face with his coldblooded lookalike Zeno (also Jonathan Harris), a notorious intergalactic gunslinger. Forced to trade his clothes with Zeno's, Smith is arrested by the Law, who Read More

Bonanza: The Last Mission

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, R.G. Armstrong, Brendon Boone

Synopsis: R.G. Armstrong guest-stars as Colonel Keith Jarell, Ben Cartwright's old comrade in arms. Arriving at the Ponderosa, Jarrell asks Ben to join him in his efforts to secure a lasting peace with the Paiute Indians. But the General is hiding his true agenda-one involving that deadly new weapon of Read More

Bonanza: The Jonah

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Andrew Prine, Angela Clarke

Synopsis: Andrew Prine guest-stars as George Whitman, a self-proclaimed "jinx" who inadvertently leaves disaster in his wake wherever he goes. Over the protests of the Ponderosa ranchhands, Whitman is hired by Hoss Cartwright, who is determined to prove that George's hard-luck reputation is undeserved. But Read More

One Way Wahini

Actors: Joy Harmon, Anthony Eisley, Adele Claire, David Whorf, Edgar Bergen

Synopsis: Set in Hawaii and featuring a mixture of thrills, comedy and tropical splendor, two young women on vacation find themselves entangled with a scheme to rob a pair of bankrobbers of their loot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

My Favorite Martian: Go West, Young Martian, Part 1

Synopsis: My Favorite Martian launches its third and final season with its first color episode, and its first (and only) two-part story. In his efforts to return to the moment just before he crash-landed on earth in 1963, Uncle Martin (Ray Walston) deploys his Cathode-Ray Centrifugal Time Breakascope--which Read More

Branded: A Proud Town

Synopsis: Elderly tailor Julius Perrin (Ludwig Donath) establishes a home for the orphans in his community. A few days before Christmas, the townsfolk try to force Perrin out of town, accusing one of the orphans of killing the son of Martin Stoddard (Ken Mayer), the community's leading citizen. It is only a Read More

My Favorite Martian: Go West, Young Martian, Part 2

Synopsis: In the conclusion of My Favorite Martian's two-part Season Three opener, Martin (Ray Walston) and Tim (Bill Bixby) are still stuck in the West of 1849, still endeavoring to return to the 20th century via their "CCTBS" time machine. Joining a wagon train headed for California, they are victimized Read More

The New Interns

Actors: Michael Callan, Dean Jones, Stefanie Powers, Barbara Eden, Telly Savalas

Synopsis: Two years after the success of The Interns (1962) came this follow-up tale of medical interns during their first year working in a hospital. Ranging from comedy to melodrama, three main stories are woven around the principal characters. Functioning as the group's advisor, Dr. Alec Considine spends Read More

Spencer's Mountain

Actors: Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, James MacArthur, Donald Crisp, Wally Cox

Synopsis: For a family picture, not to mention a story that later became the old-fashioned-values-affirming series The Waltons, Spencer's Mountain sure has a lot in it about sex. Henry Fonda gives an interesting portrayal in one of his more unusual roles, as Clay Spencer, the hard-drinkin', hard-livin' Read More

Bonanza: Rich Man, Poor Man

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, John Fiedler

Synopsis: Perennial loser Claude Miller (John Fiedler) becomes a winner overnight when he strikes a rich silver lode. Determined to get even with the people who had previously subjected him to ridicule, Claude buys out his tormentors' mortgages. Alas, once a loser, always a loser: Claude's plans for revenge Read More

Black Gold

Actors: Philip Carey, Diane McBain, James Best, Fay Spain, Claude Akins

Synopsis: A group of wildcatting oil drillers battle an Oklahoma oil baron for the rights of a potentially high yield field. The roughnecks fight on the job and in the saloons while hoping for the big gusher that will make them all rich. A catastrophic accident threatens to wipe out the hard work of the Read More

Jack the Giant Killer

Actors: Kerwin Mathews, Judi Meredith, Torin Thatcher

Synopsis: Nathan Juran, director of The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, tries to make the magic happen again on a much more attenuated budget in Jack the Giant Killer. Torin Thatcher, another Sinbad alumnus, plays a wicked wizard who kidnaps toothsome-princess Judi Meredith. Kerwin Mathews, still another Read More

Bonanza: The Dowry

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Luciana Paluzzi

Synopsis: The Cartwrights take a hand in matters when bandits reportedly steal the $100,000 dowry intended for the wedding of Michele Dubois (Luciana Paluzzi), the daughter of self-proclaimed land baron Alexander Dubois (Steven Geray). While the Cartwright sons stand guard over the injured DuBois during his Read More

The Clown and the Kid

Synopsis: In this sentimental crime melodrama, an ailing clown dies while trying to take his son to a Texas convent school. The orphaned lad then hooks up with a fugitive who dons the late clown's make-up as a disguise. At first the boy doesn't know that he is traveling with an escaped convict, but when he Read More

Maverick: Maverick at Law

Synopsis: Riding out of a small town, Bart (Jack Kelly) is surprised to find that his saddle bag is bulging. And no wonder: the bag is stuffed with money stolen from the town's bank. Accused of being a thief, Bart is determined to prove that the real culprit is banker Cyrus Murdock (Tol Avery)--but first Read More

You Have to Run Fast

Actors: Craig Hill, Elaine Edwards, Grant Richards, Shepherd Sanders, John Apone

Synopsis: This is a competently put-together "B"-grade film starring Craig Hill as a doctor who in the process of trying to save a man badly beaten by two gangsters, identifies the culprits to the police. When their victim dies and the charge becomes murder, the doctor hightails it to the far woods where he Read More

Gun Fight

Synopsis: In this western, a discharged cavalry soldier rides a stage to his brother's cattle ranch. En route he meets a dance hall girl. Later he saves her from an outlaw's unsavory advances during a heist. When he gets to his brother's ranch he soon learns that his brother makes his real living by Read More

Frontier Uprising

Actors: James Davis, Nancy Hadley, Ken Mayer, Nestor Paiva, Don O'Kelly

Synopsis: Jim Stockton (James Davis) leads a group of pioneers into California and trouble in this routine western by director Edward L. Cahn. Stockton gets caught up in the battles and grievances between the Mexicans, white Californians, and Native Americans that rage during the 1840s -- the Read More

Bonanza: Denver McKee

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Franchot Tone

Synopsis: B-picture auteur Jacques Tourneur served as director for the October 15, 1960 Bonanza episode "Denver McKee." The title character, played by Franchot Tone, is a former lawman who wants to give his beloved daughter Connie (Natalie Trundy) everything that money can buy. To that end, McKee has Read More

Maverick: The Saga of Waco Williams

Synopsis: Wayde Preston took a break from his starring duties on the Warner Bros. western series Colt. 45 for a guest stint in this episode of Maverick. Preston is cast as Waco Williams, a trigger-happy gent who manages to get into trouble even when he goes out of the way to avoid it. Riding into Bent City Read More

The Miracle of the Hills

Actors: Rex Reason, Theona Bryant, Jay North, Gilbert Smith, Tracy Stratford

Synopsis: Miracle of the Hills is a melodramatic, standard western with two ostensible "enemies" that fuel the plot: a decent town preacher, Scott Macauley (Rex Reason) and an "indecent" former prostitute, Kate Peacock (Betty Lou Gerson). The preacher is on his way to cleaning up his parish and the town but Read More

The FBI Story

Actors: James Stewart, Vera Miles, Murray Hamilton, Larry Pennell, Nick Adams

Synopsis: If Warner Bros.' pageantlike The FBI Story resembles an episode of Jack Webb's Dragnet at times, it's probably because the screenplay was by veteran Dragnet scrivener Richard L. Breen. The film meticulously details the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, from its formation in 1924 to Read More

Ambush at Cimarron Pass

Actors: Scott Brady, Margia Dean, Baynes Barron, William Vaughan, Ken Mayer, Clint Eastwood

Synopsis: Despite the glut of TV westerns in 1958, 20th Century-Fox's Regal Films subsidiary continued grinding out profitable sagebrushers. In Ambush at Cimarron Pass, cavalry sergeant Scott Brady is ordered to escort a prisoner through treacherous Indian territory. A diehard Union sympathizer, Brady is Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Protégé

Synopsis: A perennial victim of bullying, shy young Kurt Sprague (Peter Breck) hires Paladin (Richard Boone) to teach him how to use a gun. Paladin proceeds according to plan, but when it becomes obvious that Kurt enjoys the prospect of shooting down other men, he is told to "take that gun off and forget Read More

The Adventures of Superman: The Brainy Burro

Synopsis: In the first of three Adventures of Superman episodes directed by series star George Reeves, reporters Lois (Noel Neill) and Jimmy (Jack Larson) are enjoying a working vacation in a tranquil Mexican village. When Lois sends back a dispatch to the "Daily Planet" about a local burro named Carmelita Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The O'Hare Story

Synopsis: In one of his final performances, Oscar-winning character actor Victor McLaglen is cast as Mike O'Hare, the two-fisted engineer overseeing the construction of a new dam. Insisting that the dam will seriously endanger the local water supply, wealthy landowner Henry Ritchie (Herbert Rudley) hires Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: A Matter of Ethics

Synopsis: Riding into the Wyoming town of Bender, Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired by accused murderer Bart Holgate (Harold J. Stone). Though willing to answer for his crimes, Holgate is terrified that he will be lynched before he ever reaches the courtroom, thus he agrees to pay Paladin to keep him alive Read More

Gunsmoke: Sweet and Sour

Synopsis: Much against her better judgment, Kitty (Amanda Barnes) hires dewey-eyed Rene Decker (Karen Sharpe) to work at the Long Branch. Matt (William Conrad) is rather touched by Rene's naivete, and is certain that Kitty will be able to keep the girl on the straight and narrow. What Matt doesn't Read More

Tight Spot

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson, Brian Keith, Lucy Marlow, Lorne Greene, Katherine Anderson

Synopsis: Tight Spot is based on Leonard Kantor's novel Dead Pigeon, which in turn was obviously inspired by Virginia Hill's appearance before the Kefauver Committee. Ginger Rogers plays hard-boiled model Sherry Conley, who is serving a prison term for a crime she didn't commit. Sherry is offered her Read More

Space Patrol [TV Series]

Actors: Ed Kemmer, Lynn Osborn, Virginia Hewitt, Nina Bara, Ken Mayer