Nick Adams, who died under unusual circumstances in 1968, starred in this Western that aired for an astounding 76 episodes between 1959 and 1961. He played the one and only character in the series, the wandering Johnny Yuma, who moved from town to town, episode after episode, meeting interesting people and helping out folks in need. Johnny Cash sang the theme song, “The Ballad of Johnny Yuma.”

Actor Nick Adams, who spent the mid-to-late 1950s working consistently in movies and on television in primarily small roles, rose to prominence in 1959 due to his role in ABC’s half-hour Western The Rebel. He created the series with Andy Fenady and Irv Kershner (the closing credits listed Adams and Fenady as creators) [1]. Initially, Adams decided not to take on the title role, having too much on his plate in early February of 1959 [2].

In May, however, The New York Times reported that Adams would be starring in The Rebel (apparently, many of the other roles he was up for never materialized) which was given the Sunday 9-9:30PM time slot on ABC. The series would be produced by Goodson-Todman Productions and sponsored by Procter & Gamble and L & M Cigarettes [3]. The series would have just one recurring character.

“It is frankly designed to appeal to a young audience–to be a show that teenagers will dig,” explained Cecil Smith, writing in The Los Angeles Times in July of 1959 [4]. He continued:

This is even contained in the title–The Rebel. Although the characters Adams plays, Johnny Yuma, fought for the South, the designation “reb” goes deeper than this. He is a symbol of rebellious youth–a loner, seeking something to hang his life on, wandering through the clapboard towns of the West of a century ago. Incidentally, he fought his war with no interest in the causes, no southern bone to pick. [5]

While promoting the series in 1959 ABC referred to Johnny Yuma as “a Reconstruction beatnik,” setting the tone for the series [6]. Following the end of the Civil War, spent a year roaming the former Confederacy before eventually returning to his hometown. He found it overrun by ruffians, his father killed, and most of the town’s residents ready to pack up and leave — if they hadn’t already. After cleaning up the town and visiting his father’s grave, Yuma left.

Johnny Yuma in The Rebel

With nothing to tie him down anymore Yuma became a loner, roaming from town to town helping out folks in need. He kept track of his exploits in his journals, carried with him alongside his guns and saddle wherever he went.

The Rebel premiered on Sunday, October 4th, 1959 at 9PM, sandwiched between a returning series, half-hour The Lawman, at 8:30PM and another new series, the hour-long The Alaskans, from 9:30PM to 10:30PM. Two other returning shows, Colt .45 and Maverick, kicked off ABC’s Sunday schedule at 7PM, which was made up of a three-and-a-half hour block of Western action-adventure capped off by Dick Clark’s World of Talent at 10:30PM. Opposite The Rebel was G.E. Theater on CBS and The Dinah Shore Chevy Show on NBC.

Although he admitted to having a personal connection to The Rebel, Cecil Smith was high on the series even before it began. Smith and Adams were quite friendly; Adams shared his idea for The Rebel with Smith in 1958 and it was in Smith’s living room that Adams decided not to star in the series in February of 1959 [7]. Writing in July, Smith proclaimed “I’ll climb far out onto a limb and predict [The Rebel] will be a major hit” [8].

In October, after the series had premiered, Smith lavished it with accolades:

“It may be my basic unmathematical romantic nature, but I can find parallels for Johnny Yuma’s search for meaning in the slum kid heading out into the streets of the city, aimlessly walking, seeking, or in young David with his slingshot walking toward Goliath.

“Speaking practically, the format of the series, which Nick Adams created with writer Andy Fenady and director Irvin Kershner, is ideal — limitless in scope. But as an impracticable person, it is the romantic idea of the young man on the move — Candide or Johnny Yuma — that appeals to me. I wish I were young enough to join him.” [9]

Seymour Korman, in The Chicago Daily Tribune, was less effusive but still mostly positive: “As each western is projected for the home screen its star insists it will be different from the others. Sometimes it is, sometimes it is of a trite pattern. The Rebel definitely is different as it deals not with a town or a symbol, but with a young man battling a world he does not understand, seeing a love, a family, a life, and writing–always writing–in his journal” [10].

The New York Times lumped The Rebel together with The Lawman and The Alaskans. John P. Shanley wasn’t kind, calling The Lawman “the best of a poor trio last night” and ending his review by writing that “the total effect of the three programs was almost as numbing and unpleasant as a hangover” [11].

As the only actor to appear in every episode, Adams was relied upon heavily to give excellent performances week after week. Guest stars were a secondary concern. Adams managed quite well, bringing an intensity to the role that was somewhere between brooding and simmering. In each episode, Johnny Yuma came upon a town or a group of people in need of saving — typically from a band of thieves or other criminals — and would do what he could to make things right.

Not every episode focused on violence. There was intolerance as well, distrust and simple greed, confusion and revenge. Although a rebel in every sense of the word he respected law and order; abuse of power, though, rubbed him the wrong way. Just as he traveled alone, Yuma usually worked alone, often because he was the only one willing to stand up to the bad guys.

In one episode, for example, after proving his own innocence, Yuma has to prove the innocence of another man accused of stealing. In another, he comes face to face with the man who tortured him while he was a Union prisoner during the Civil War. Other episodes saw Yuma helping to protect Jefferson Davis from an assassination attempt, teach at a local school, return cherished heirlooms to relatives of his deceased friends, play an important hand of poker and escort a prisoner to jail.

Dan Blocker in The Rebel

Several famous (or soon-to-be famous) actors appeared on The Rebel during its two-year run, including Soupy Sales, Tex Ritter, Leonard Nimoy, Victor Buono, Robert Vaughn, Dan Blocker and Johnny Cash. Actress Carol Nugent, who was married to Nick Adams at the time, appeared in a handful of episodes in small roles as did their infant daughter, Allyson Lee (she was paid scale) [12].

A total of 36 episodes were produced during The Rebel‘s first season, which ended on June 12th, 1960. For its second season the series retained its 9-9:30PM time slot and produced another 40 episodes; season two ran from September 18th, 1960 to June 18th, 1961. Production on The Rebel either shifted to the Fed-Mer-Ada Company or was shared by both the Fen-Mer-Ada Company and Goodson-Todman Productions [13].

After two seasons and 76 episodes The Rebel came to an end. Exactly why it was canceled is a bit of a mystery. In mid-April of 1961 The Los Angeles Times reported the cancellation, stating that “shows of the nature of The Rebel, which had high ratings and was, generally, a well-made, intelligent program, are not dying because of the decline of the west — they’re moving aside for the general trend in television — particularly on ABC — toward hour shows” [14].

A month later, however, Val Adams of The New York Times revealed that ABC had initially planned to broadcast an hour-long version of The Rebel — called The Rebel and the Yank — from 7:30-8:30PM on Wednesdays during the 1961-1962 season (replacing Hong Kong). But the opportunity arose to showcase Steve Allen in an variety show [15].

According to The Los Angeles Times, The Rebel and the Yank would have been, as the title suggests, “a graft of the current Rebel half-hour with Nick Adams onto a show called the Yank” [16]. The paper noted that as counter-programming to NBC’s Wagon Train, The Rebel and the Yank wouldn’t have been any better than Hong Kong; a variety series with Steve Allen, though, might be able to do just that [17].

Confusion over the fate of The Rebel at the end of May led Hedda Hopper, in her “Looking At Hollywood” column, to report that the series had been canceled (and also that Colonel Tom Parker had helped Nick Adams get the series due to his friendship with Elvis Presley) while Larry Wolters in his “TV Ticker” column reported that The Rebel might expand to an hour during the next season [18, 19].

The true reason behind The Rebel‘s cancellation may have been revealed by The New York Times in June of 1961. In an article discussing the Senate testimony regarding television and crime, Tom Wicker reported that The Rebel was one of the most popular shows among youngsters at the Federal Youth Center in Ashland, Kentucky and National Training School in Washington, D.C. (according to the director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, James V. Bennett) [20].

Furthermore, according to Thomas W. Moore, ABC’s vice president in charge of programming and talent, the network would be cutting its number of action/adventure programs; The Rebel was being canceled even though “it captures about 35 per cent of the Sunday evening audience in its time slot and has sponsors clamoring to back it” [21].

Thus, it seems that although ABC considered renewing The Rebel for the 1961-1962 season by expanding it to an hour, the opportunity to bring Steve Allen to the network and the problem of violent action/adventure ultimately led to the cancellation of the series despite its popularity in the Nielsen ratings. From June to September of 1962 NBC aired episodes of the series as a summer filler show.

Johnny Cash sang the show’s famous theme song, “The Ballad of Johnny Yuma,” which was written by series co-creator Andrew Fenady and Richard Markowitz, who also composed and conducted the rest of the show’s music. According to the closing credits the song was titled simply “The Rebel.” During the opening credits only a few bars of the song are heard; the closing credits include several verses.

Here are the lyrics:

A slightly longer version was released as a single by Johnny Cash.

Following the cancellation of The Rebel, Nick Adams starred in Saints and Sinners on NBC from 1962 to 1963 (it was canceled after less than twenty episodes). In 1963 he was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in Twilight of Honor but lost. Soon thereafter, unfortunately, his career took a nosedive. Nick Adams was found dead in his home in Los Angeles on February 7th, 1968. He was thirty-six years old.

Nick Adams in The Rebel

A coroner’s report determined that he either intentionally or accidentally overdosed on medication for treatment of nervous disorders and alcoholism [22]. The inquiry over his death was closed on March 2nd, certified as “accidental-suicidal and undetermined” [23]. Some 2,000 mourners were at his funeral in Berwick, Pennsylvania where he was given a military funeral (Adams had served in the Coast Guard) [24].

Due to his role in Rebel Without A Cause, Adams is sometimes listed alongside James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo as victims of a “curse” relating to the film. All four died relatively young and under “mysterious” circumstances — Dean was killed in a car crash, Wood in a drowning accident, and Mineo was stabbed to death [25].

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Last Updated April 26th, 2009