This month’s spotlight features NBC’s short-lived 1974 adventure series Sierra, from Jack Webb’s Mark VIII Limited. It was the first cancellation of the 1974-1975 season, after just four episodes had aired. The network was kind enough to allow all 11 produced episodes to air — as well as the original pilot telefilm, in an unusual scheduling move — before replacing it with The Mac Davis Show.
The series starred James G. Richardson and Ernest Thompson as Rangers Tim Cassidy and Matt Harper, who worked for the United States National Park Service and were charged with protecting the fictional Sierra National Park. The series was actually filmed at Yosemite National Park.
Critics were pretty brutal in their reviews of the series and ratings were brutal, too. One episode featured a crossover with Emergency!, another Jack Webb series. I don’t believe the series was ever syndicated in the United States but was aired internationally (in Germany, for example).
Read the full spotlight here.
Ernest Thompson eventually became a playwright and writer of screenplays. On Golden Pond was his first and biggest success.
Does anyone have any of these episodes?