Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Very Cool!!!

Boring, long, and too preachy.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Bat Masterson was born in Illinois in 1855. His real name was William Barclay Masterson. His brother Ed was two years older. Eventually they would have two more brothers and two sisters. The family eventually moved to Kansas, where they built a farm in Sedgwick County. Bat and Ed were close and often went hunting and fishing together. He didn't think much of book learning and would sneak out of the schoolhouse whenever he could.He got his first job at seventeen. He and Ed graded railroad bed for the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe railroad. Shortly afterward, he became a buffalo hunter supplying meat to the railroad crews. His headquarters was a small community called Adobe Walls, Texas. He was there when Indians led by Comanche war chief Quanah Parker, attacked the town on June 27, 1874.Bat and friend Billy Dixon were just getting ready to leave when theHe dabbled in politics over the next few years and became closer friends with Roosevelt. He and promoter Tex Rickard even sat down with him one day to discuss military strategy for the upcoming fighting in World War I. Roosevelt became ill from a fever contracted in a South American jungle and died on January 6, 1919. Bat was quite broken up over the death of his friend.Bat spent his last years writing his columns and visiting gyms. He was always very active in the fighting business. On October 25, 1921, he went to work as usual. But right in the middle of typing his article, he died of a sudden heart attack. His wife died in 1932.Please go to: http://hometown.aol.com/gibson0817/bat.htm and read his "Real Life" It is even better than the series.

Of all the so-called adult westerns that hit the tube in the mid to late 50's, "Bat Masterson" was one of the best. Gene Barry played his historical character with just the right amount of seriousness and lightness to make what could have been a cardboard creation viable. "Adult westerns" back in those days when the TV west was young meant more talk and less action with stories that supposedly dealt with mature subject matter where characters were not just all good or all bad. In the "Bat Masterson" series, usually there would be a fair amount of action with Bat whipping the meanies with his cane and using his gun only when absolutely necessary.Another improvement in the TV western wrought by the "Bat Masterson" series was a weekly change of scenery (in reality, all the shows were shot on the same Hollywood lot), not just in Dodge City, Tombstone, or Abilene. "Incident in Leadville" is a good example. Leadville, now a Colorado tourist mecca, was then a silver mining town with its share of claim jumpers and bushwhackers. Bat rides into Leadville to clear his name. It seems that the lady who runs the local printing press, Jo Hart (Kathleen Crowley), has slandered Bat by lumping him together with notorious outlaws such as King Fisher, a cameo by the fine character actor, Jack Lambert. The local city boss, gambler Roy Evans, portrayed by future "Get Smart" chief, Edward Platt, also has an ax to grind with Jo Hart but wants to put her out of commission permanently. Evans decides to terminate Bat in the process, a notion not to the liking of the man with the cane and derby hat.All the shows were similar in format. Fans could be assured of being entertained for thirty minutes. The "Bat Masterson" theme song was an added treat, with catchy lyrics and a hummable tune.

I remember this series fondly but even as a kid wondered why Gene Barry did not sport the moustache that Masterson wore almost all of his adult life and did (if I remember correctly) as portrayed in at least one episode of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. As an adult I have read almost everything written about Masterson, seen as many motion pictures as possible, and find the gambler, sportsman, writer and sometime lawman fascinating. Masterson did carry a walking stick, wore a bowler in at least one famous photograph, was a townsman and loyal friend, was involved in boxing and by all accounts was a cheerful and well-liked man - a lot like Gene Barry. Was this TV series always historically accurate? Not in the slightest! But it did capture something of the real man, a certain insouciance and worldliness lacking in the run-of-the-mill TV cowboy or lawman. 'Tis rather too bad that they never had an episode set later when Masterson was an apparently happily married man and sports writer for a New York newspaper. And yes, I frequently carry a walking stick today and fondly recall "Back when the West was very young/There lived a man named Masterson/ He wore a cane and derby hat/ They called him Bat, Bat Masterson...."

I had to respond to that post. This WAS cool, unlike almost all the the westerns on television, and this child badly wanted (and received) a bat like Bat Masterson or his birthday. Gene Barry had the cool sure arrogance in this character that America was later to see in Burke's Law and the Name of the Game. In a different area of the country, this character would have been a great robber baron or 15 years ago,a great merger and takeover artist!This was fun - and Barry was a sort of James Bond (Roger Moore variety) in the Old West.