Daniel Boone (TV Series) - Background

Background

Daniel Boone was one of two iconic historical figures played by Fess Parker. He previously appeared as Davy Crockett in a series of episodes of the Walt Disney anthology television series, to considerable acclaim amidst the launch of a national craze. For his role as Boone, which lasted much longer but had far less impact, Parker again wore a raccoon-hide coonskin cap, which had been popularized years earlier by the Crockett shows. Daniel Boone's headgear was even mentioned in the show's theme song: "From the coonskin cap on the top of ol' Dan....". Efforts had been made to secure the rights to Crockett from Walt Disney but he refused to sell, so the series wound up being about Boone instead.

In contrast, Parker's Boone was less of an explorer and more a family man than Parker's Crockett. Parker as Crockett also generally wore a light beard, whereas his Boone was predominantly clean-shaven. Boone's wife Rebecca (played by Patricia Blair) and son Israel (Darby Hinton) were often featured in the stories. In reality, Boone had ten children. During the first two seasons, his daughter Jemima was shown (played by Veronica Cartwright), but she disappeared with no explanation toward the end of the second season. Western actor Chris Alcaide appeared twice on the series, once as an Indian, Flathead Joseph. Walter Coy made his last major television appearance in 1970 on Daniel Boone in the role of Chief Blackfish.

The series was set in the 1770s, just before and during the American Revolution, and mostly centered on adventures in and around Boonesborough, Kentucky. Some aspects of the show were less than historically faithful, which at one point led the Kentucky legislature to condemn the inaccuracies.

Inconsistencies included episodes such as "The Aaron Burr Story", a second-season episode in which the former Vice President of the United States visits Boonesborough. The episode was based on Burr's raising an armed group, allegedly to commit treason, in 1806, while another episode in the second season hinged on allegations that the Boonesborough settlers were planning insurrection against the British Crown, prior to the American Revolution. Still other episodes took place during the Revolution. No explanation was made for the 30-year discrepancy.

The character Mingo was half-Cherokee and highly educated, somewhat in the Tonto mold but with updated sensibilities and without the broken English. (A graduate of Oxford University, Mingo passed as a British officer in at least two episodes, and sang opera in another.) In reality, the Mingo were a small group of Natives (and not one man) who were related to the Iroquois. (However, from the native perspective the word Mingo is a word for "chief" in the Choctaw Indian's native language; and in Chickasaw minko is the word for "chief"). Ames also portrayed Mingo's evil twin brother, Taramingo in "My Brother's Keeper". His role as Mingo led to an famous tomahawk-throwing demonstration on The Tonight Show, that was rerun on anniversary clip shows for decades afterward, in which Ames threw a tomahawk at a target of a man and the hatchet landed between the cutout's legs, much to host Johnny Carson's amusement.

The show's main title featured three versions of the theme song written by Vera Matson and Lionel Newman. The third "groovy version" was sung by The Imperials.

Another television treatment of the life of Daniel Boone appeared on the Disney anthology series in 1960, with Dewey Martin starring as Boone. This four part series did not have remotely the same impact as the Crockett shows. Unsurprisingly, Fess Parker's Daniel Boone is much better remembered today than Martin's.