Watch Tales of Wells Fargo

TV-14
1957
6 Seasons
7.9 (1,033)

Tales of Wells Fargo was a western television series that aired on NBC from 1957 to 1962. The show followed the adventures of Jim Hardie, a special agent for the Wells Fargo stagecoach company. The character was played by Dale Robertson, who also served as the show's co-producer. Set in the 1860s, the show was set against the backdrop of the American frontier, and each episode saw Hardie traveling the country to deliver mail, protect gold shipments, and apprehend criminals. The show was notable for its attention to historical accuracy, with many of the stories based on actual events. In addition to Robertson, the show also featured a talented supporting cast, including William Demarest as Jasper "J.P." Morgan, the owner of the Wells Fargo company, and Virginia Christine as his secretary, Christine Johnson. Jack Ging played a recurring role as the deputy marshal, Clay Morgan. The show's format was similar to other westerns of the time in that it followed a case-of-the-week format. However, what set Tales of Wells Fargo apart was its attention to the details of the Wells Fargo company, and the role it played in the settlement of the West. The show's writers did extensive research into the workings of the company, and often used real-life incidents in their stories. One recurring theme of the show was the conflict between law and order and the individual's desire for freedom. Hardie often found himself caught in the middle of these conflicts, as he tried to bring criminals to justice while also respecting the rights of those he encountered. His character was often torn between his loyalty to the law and his admiration for the resourcefulness of the criminals he pursued. Another theme of the show was the role of technology in the settlement of the West. Wells Fargo was known for its use of the telegraph, which allowed it to quickly and efficiently communicate with its agents and customers across vast distances. This technology was often a key element of the show's stories, as Hardie and other characters used it to track down criminals and stay one step ahead of them. Despite its focus on historical accuracy, the show was still a product of its time, and some aspects of it may seem dated to modern audiences. For example, the show's portrayal of Native Americans was often stereotypical, and the show's treatment of women was often limited to traditional gender roles. However, these issues are balanced by the show's strengths, including its strong writing and performances, its historical accuracy, and its attention to the details of the Wells Fargo company. The show remains a classic of the western genre, and a valuable document of the role that Wells Fargo played in the settlement of the American West.

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34. Vignette of a Sinner

June 2, 1962

Jim Hardie finds his life's love in the series finale.

33. The Wayfarers

May 19, 1962

Hardie tracks two bandits fleeing to Mexico with $10,000 belonging to Wells Fargo.

32. Don't Wake a Tiger

May 12, 1962

Two vengeful brothers hold their former jailer captive in a barb-wire enclosure.

31. The Gold Witch

May 5, 1962

Hardie hires The Great Reardon, a mind-reading act, to serve as the entertainment at Wells Fargo's 15th anniversary celebration. Reardon's act always involved trickery, but now he plans to use his wife's "powers" to swindle a mine owner out of $10,000 by claiming to be able to reveal the location of a missing vein of gold ore.

30. Royal Maroon

April 28, 1962

Hardie concludes that a woman found wandering who has amnesia is a witness to a stage coach robbery. He takes her to the scene of the robbery, hoping she'll regain her memory.

29. The Angry Sky

April 21, 1962

A mule driver's wife and child are kidnapped by outlaws.

28. Remember the Yazoo

April 14, 1962

Sam Heffridge, a gunman, has been bailed out of jail by a robber seeking an ally in New Orleans where Hardie and Jeb are visiting and Hardie soon learns about a plot against Wells Fargo.

27. End of a Minor God

April 7, 1962

After Billy Trent murders a townsman, Hardie escorts him out of town on the stage with men in pursuit.

26. To Kill a Town

March 31, 1962

Jim Hardie is taking Lou Reese in for robbery. However, not all goes as planned. Normalie Hall once was nearly hanged because of betrayal by Reese, and Hall wants to take Reese away from Jim and hang him in revenge. Jim can't give his prisoner up, so he and Reese move into the mountains to a town where Reese is known and revered for heroism in an Indian attack. Jim keeps a low profile, not revealing his identity as a Wells Fargo agent in a town favorable to Reese. Hall and his men block the pass and pin Jim down. Hall comes to Reese by night with a deal to let him go ...

25. Who Lives by the Gun

March 24, 1962

In a sudden move to protect his own life, Jim Hardie has to wound -- mortally -- a young hellion of the town who has participated in a Wells Fargo stage holdup. Hellion or no, the youth is well-liked and his mother is influential and wealthy. Jim comes under some odium for the shooting and in the town there's talk of lynching him. When the boy dies, his mother's foreman comes to kill Jim with his bare hands. They struggle, Jim knocks his assailant out, but finds himself 'roped' by the townspeople who have found the courage to hang him then and there.

24. Chauncey

March 17, 1962

Tina is attracted to a gun thug. Even though everyone else sees his true nature, she is blinded by love until she too sees his violent nature firsthand.

23. Winter Storm

March 3, 1962

A blizzard forces the stagecoach in which Jim, Jeb and Tina are traveling to seek shelter in a ghost town. Investigating a light shining in the building that formerly served as the town's hotel, the passengers discover the town's last two residents barricaded against the expected onslaught of an escaped prisoner who is out for revenge.

22. The Traveler

February 24, 1962

Gloribee has a new schoolteacher named Brad Axton - a good man with a dark past that finally catches up to him.

21. Hometown Doctor

February 17, 1962

Cattle drovers waiting to deliver their beef to the railhead at Gloribee are making life miserable for the townspeople, but Jim Hardie won't accept the stock until they're cleared by a veterinarian. The local doctor died under suspicious circumstances and Hardie convinces his son, also a vet, to examine the stock and help solve the older man's death.

20. Portrait of Teresa

February 10, 1962

Hardie investigates a stagecoach hold-up and discovers only a single letter was stolen. He learns that the letter was sent from a woman who fled an arranged marriage with a brutal land baron to an itinerant painter. The two men race to find the woman first - the painter to marry her and the land baron to disfigure his ex-fiancÃ©e.

19. Incident at Crossbow

February 3, 1962

An ex-convict burning with the desire to avenge himself upon a judge who he insists falsely convicted him takes over a way-station and hijacks the stagecoach that Jim Hardie and an assortment of passengers are traveling in.

18. Assignment in Gloribee

January 27, 1962

Writer Katherine Anne Murdock, on her way to Gloribee to do a story about the West, meets gunman Nathan Chance on the train. Just as they're about to get better acquainted, bounty hunter Jeelo Curran gets the drop on them, Nathan kills him.

17. Reward for Gain

January 20, 1962

Jeb's brother, Sergeant Gaine, discovers that three of his men have been falsely convicted in a drumhead court-martial for desertion to cover up for their commanding officer's illegal attack on a band of Piute Indians that resulted in the deaths of Wells Fargo stagecoach passengers. Hardie and Prentiss, the governor's agent, must act quickly to save the condemned men before Colonel Bledsoe can silence the potential witnesses against him by executing the soldiers.

16. Return to Yesterday

January 13, 1962

An old flame of Jim Hardie's, now a famous concert singer, returns to California on a concert tour. The singer's father knows his daughter still carries a torch for Hardie and wants her to decide once and for all whether she'll be a chanteuse or a rancher's wife. Meanwhile her maid plots to steal her employer's fabulous collection of jewelry.

15. Money-Run

January 6, 1962

A former governor of a Mexican province flees to San Francisco with his family's money to buy guns for the revolutionaries. A gang of former Mexican soldiers operating with stolen papers plan to steal the money with the unwitting assistance of Wells-Fargo.

14. Trackback

December 30, 1961

Frank Lambert is furious when his kid brother, Wally, rides into his camp asking that the older man return the money he stole from Wells Fargo. He becomes even angrier when he learns that Jim Hardie followed Wally to arrest him. Meanwhile, Jeb Gaine becomes upset when his friends and neighbors lavish affection on him on his 60th birthday.

13. New Orleans Trackdown

December 23, 1961

Hardie tracks a gentlemen thief to New Orleans who stole a diamond necklace during a stagecoach robbery.

12. A Killing in Calico

December 16, 1961

Jamie Coburn, a member of Birch Morgan's notorious outlaw gang, agrees to turn himself in and help capture Wells Fargo capture the outlaw leader. Hardie allows the gunslinger to visit his ailing mother, but when Jamie returns home he learns his mother has died and his wife wants nothing to do with him in spite of the hefty reward Wells Fargo has paid for Jamie's assistance.

11. Kelly's Clover Girls

December 9, 1961

Three dance hall girls are being transported to Nevada to serve as witnesses in the murder investigation of a Wells Fargo agent. The subject of the investigation has no desire for the girls to testify and goes to great lengths to see that they don't arrive, including raiding Jim Hardie's ranch where the women are staying pending suitable escort.

10. Man of Another Breed

December 2, 1961

A veteran Wells Fargo stationmaster, about to retire, never gets the chance when two thieves stab him in the back and ransack the safe. Hardie suspects the killer is a part-time employee who disappeared after the robbery; Caleb Timmons and his sons want to find the man, too, since he ran off with Caleb's wife.

9. Defiant at the Gate

November 25, 1961

Hardie and McCloud capture Matt Blackner, an aging outlaw who is suffering from heart disease. He agrees to turn the money he stole from a Wells Fargo stagecoach if he's allowed to visit his wife and daughter before he's thrown in prison. Blackner's last days aren't to be happy ones - his wife is dead, his daughter despises him and his former gang members are trailing him to get their share of the hidden loot.

8. A Fistful of Pride

November 18, 1961

The estranged wife of a washed-up boxer returns to Gloribee to obtain custody of the couple's only child. Needing quick cash for legal fees, the boxer challenges the Frisco Kid, an up-and-coming pugilist, to a fight and wins, only to discover that the fight was fixed so that the Kid's crooked manager and his stooge could clean-up on side bets.

7. Jeremiah

November 11, 1961

Jeremiah Logart, a former friend of Hardie's, is prevented from robbing a Wells Fargo office by Jim and his men. After a gun battle, Jim and Beau pursue of the remaining gang members and trail Jeremiah to the remote ranch of a widow and her two young children.

6. Mr. Mute

November 4, 1961

Two gunmen rob a Wells Fargo train compartment and then hide the money in the baggage of a fellow passenger, a clown who stage name in Mr. Mute. When the clown unexpectedly decides to disembark from the train in Gloribee to perform at the town fair, the criminals must scramble to retrieve their ill-gotten loot before the money bags are discovered.

5. Tanoa

October 28, 1961

Hardie negotiates a new stagecoach route through Indian land with the local chief who is satisfied with the outcome. The tribe's young men, led by the warrior Red Knife, are looking for an excuse to return to the warpath.

4. Death Raffle

October 21, 1961

Ex-convict Davey Hewitt is thrown off the train in Gloribee. He meets two members of his old outlaw gang who try to convince him to join them in robbing a bank that contains a large gold shipment for Wells Fargo. Meanwhile Jessamie, the handicapped daughter of Hewitt's new employer tries to convince him to go straight.

3. Treasure Coach

October 14, 1961

Acting on a tip that an outlaw gang may attack a gold shipment, Hardie and McCloud try to persuade group of stagecoach passengers to take the next stage so they can better protect the cargo. Each passenger has their own reasons for continuing the dangerous journey, and Hardie fears that the reasons of more than one are highway robbery.

2. The Dodger

October 7, 1961

A man sentenced to a ten-year prison term has released and is out to avenge himself upon the man who put him there - Jim Hardie.

1. Casket 7.3

September 30, 1961

Jim and his foreman, Jeb Gaine, are busy moving onto the ranch purchased from Ovie and her two lovely daughters when the Wells Fargo agent is called back to service to retrieve plates used to counterfeit bonds. Hardie learns the plates were stolen by a group of former Confederate soldiers who plan to print enough worthless bonds that the United States economy would fall into shambles.

167. Ep 167 - Luke Frazer

January 1, 1961

While tailing a gunman, Hardie meets the outlaw's kid brother, who plans to turn gun fighting into a family business.

Description

Set in the 1860s, the show was set against the backdrop of the American frontier, and each episode saw Hardie traveling the country to deliver mail, protect gold shipments, and apprehend criminals. The show was notable for its attention to historical accuracy, with many of the stories based on actual events.

In addition to Robertson, the show also featured a talented supporting cast, including William Demarest as Jasper "J.P." Morgan, the owner of the Wells Fargo company, and Virginia Christine as his secretary, Christine Johnson. Jack Ging played a recurring role as the deputy marshal, Clay Morgan.

The show's format was similar to other westerns of the time in that it followed a case-of-the-week format. However, what set Tales of Wells Fargo apart was its attention to the details of the Wells Fargo company, and the role it played in the settlement of the West. The show's writers did extensive research into the workings of the company, and often used real-life incidents in their stories.

One recurring theme of the show was the conflict between law and order and the individual's desire for freedom. Hardie often found himself caught in the middle of these conflicts, as he tried to bring criminals to justice while also respecting the rights of those he encountered. His character was often torn between his loyalty to the law and his admiration for the resourcefulness of the criminals he pursued.

Another theme of the show was the role of technology in the settlement of the West. Wells Fargo was known for its use of the telegraph, which allowed it to quickly and efficiently communicate with its agents and customers across vast distances. This technology was often a key element of the show's stories, as Hardie and other characters used it to track down criminals and stay one step ahead of them.

Despite its focus on historical accuracy, the show was still a product of its time, and some aspects of it may seem dated to modern audiences. For example, the show's portrayal of Native Americans was often stereotypical, and the show's treatment of women was often limited to traditional gender roles.

However, these issues are balanced by the show's strengths, including its strong writing and performances, its historical accuracy, and its attention to the details of the Wells Fargo company. The show remains a classic of the western genre, and a valuable document of the role that Wells Fargo played in the settlement of the American West.

Tales of Wells Fargo is a series that is currently running and has 6 seasons (330 episodes). The series first aired on March 18, 1957.

Where to Watch Tales of Wells Fargo

Tales of Wells Fargo is available for streaming on the NBC website, both individual episodes and full seasons. You can also watch Tales of Wells Fargo on demand at and Tubi TV.