TV WESTERNS
THE OUTCASTS
Jemal David and Earl
Corey. One black, one white; one an ex-Union soldier, one an ex-Confederate
officer; one an ex-slave, one an ex-slave owner. Together, they are the
Outcasts...Thus began a somewhat controversial post-Civil War Western
following the contentious relationship between bounty hunter Earl Corey (Don Murray)
and ex- slave Jemal David (Otis Young). The two men despised each other, but
they are forced to stay and work together for survival in the hostile, cold, brutal,
and unforgiving environment in which they find themselves.
Earl Corey is hair-trigger tense, having been forced into this
new Western paradigm. He resents everything and everyone. Jemal David, however,
is comfortable with his new life as a free man. Thing are still tough, but they
will never be as tough as his past. As the two are forced to travel together a grudging respect develops and their
relationship evolves from contempt to tolerance to cautious trust. Eventually, when
asked about Jemal, Corey loosens up enough to reply, “We ride together.”
In 1968, Don
Murray was an established movie star, earning an Academy Award nomination as Best
Supporting Actor for his debut role in Bus
Stop opposite Marilyn Munroe. Unlike today, in the ‘60s moving from film to
TV was considered a career killer.
However, Murray felt the role of Earl Corey had the emotional weight he was
looking for in a lead role. The Outcasts
only lasted one season, but despite being unable to reestablish himself on the
big screen, Murray went on to an extensive career in made-for-TV movies.
Raymond St Jacques had broken the TV Western color barrier in
1965 co-starring on the final season of Rawhide.
It took three years before Otis Young (who was an unknown at the time) became the
second African-American actor to co-star in a TV Western. Young’s biggest role
after The Outcasts was in The Last Detail playing opposite Jack
Nicholson. He later became an ordained minister and theater teacher at Monroe
Community College in Rochester, New York.
The up-front racial component of The Outcasts appealed to both actors. Murray though the premise was
socially important, and Young was gratified as, “For the first time in American
television they didn’t deny that when a black man went into Western towns he
was going to run into trouble.”
With its Spaghetti Western vibe and candid depiction of the
unapologetic racism of the era, The
Outcasts was unlike any other TV Western of its era. The depiction of the
post-bellum West was an obvious metaphor reflecting the racial inequities of
the 1960s. The series, however, was neither preachy or a mismatched partners
comedy. It was much more The Defiant Ones
played out across a Western landscape.
In 1973, Murray and Young reunited for a film adaptation of
the play Call Me By My Rightful Name,
which was about a white man and a black man in love with the same woman. Murray
produced the film and convinced his former partner from The Outcasts to play opposite him again. The two remained good
friends until Young’s death in 2001 at age 69.
After recently binge watching the series, I remain impress
with the concept of the show. Its complex agenda faced an uphill battle against
prevailing social attitudes in a time when the term woke was a long way from becoming part of the public lexicon. The
show’s cutting against the grain of the traditional western also made network
executives nervous. These were both factors which more than contributed to the
show’s cancellation after one season.
For my part, I believe the intentions of the show were genuine,
and despite the fickle filter of network television censors (who approved the
show for airing then gutted the scripts of any social value), it achieved some
limited success by publicly acknowledging there was more than one side to racial
tensions. Your mileage may vary from mine, however, as known curmudgeon Harlan
Ellison excoriated the show in his review for The Los Angeles Free Press,
claiming the writers and producers were so out of touch they were incapable of
portraying black people as they really were.
I don't think that they really despised each other. They were both victims of the times and system. Corey at least had redeeming qualities. He was a work in progress.
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