Broken Wing

💡 Did You Know?

Guest star Steve Forrest's tour de force performance as Marshal Crown's crony from 'the old days' in Kansas, Wyatt Earp - yes, THAT Wyatt Earp - was sabotaged by a skittish network executive who insisted CBS programming maintain the true-life peace officer's / murderer's / pimp's / horse thief's / faro dealer's / saloon owner's / adulterer's / brothel owner-operator's Boy Scout image. Unless one had read "Cimarron Strip" creator and producer Christopher Knopf's 2010 autobiography, "Will the Real Me Please Stand Up," and now this fascinating, factual tidbit, one wouldn't know because CBS's Mike Dann 'had a cow' with the less-than-pristine portrayal of Wyatt Earp, 'warts and all.' In his colorful memoir's chapter devoted to "Cimarron Strip," Knopf praises this story's author, Harold Swanton, for "accurately portraying Wyatt Earp as a product of his own invention . . . creating anarchy and then 'heroically' setting about to resolve it. Mike Dann had cats when he saw that one. . . . He made us loop every reference to Wyatt Earp with Wiley Harpe." Viewing the story now knowing the man who dresses in black, is super fast on the draw, and reminisces about Earp's past towns like Abilene, Dodge City and Tombstone (site of the territory of Arizona's iconic Gunfight at the O.K. Corral with principals on one side being the Earp brothers and their good friend, Doc Holliday) elevates it to a new level. Fortunately, the regular and guest cast all 'deliver.' A pity Stuart Whitman could not have retrieved the original dialogue tracks for a bonus presentation, in addition to his eight-minute reminisce, on the series DVD set.