Cade's County

Cade's County
Genre	Western Action Crime drama
Created by	Rick Husky Anthony Wilson
Starring	Glenn Ford Edgar Buchanan Victor Campos Taylor Lacher Peter Ford Betty Ann Carr
Theme music composer	Henry Mancini
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	24 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Gerber
Running time	60 mins.
Production company(s)	David Gerber Productions 20th Century-Fox Television
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	September 19, 1971 (1971-09-19) – April 9, 1972 (1972-04-09)

Cade's County is a modern-day Western/crime drama which aired on CBS during the 1971–1972 television season. There were 24 episodes.

Synopsis

Cade's County starred well-known Hollywood actor Glenn Ford as Sam Cade, the sheriff of the fictional Madrid County, a vast and sparsely populated desert area that was apparently located well inland in the American Southwest. The state in which it was located was never mentioned; it could have been California (where much of the location filming took place), Utah, Nevada, New Mexico or Arizona. Cade made occasional references to going to "Capital City" for hearings and meetings. There is a town named Madrid, New Mexico, however, it is pronounced "MAD-rid", and is not a county seat.

Cade's character was complex and interesting, though never fully developed. He came from a socially prominent and well-to-do family in the county, had served in the U.S. Navy as a fighter pilot — there was one reference to the Korean War — and had been an FBI agent, after which he returned to Madrid County to become sheriff. There were no references to a wife or close family in the series.

His chief deputy was J. J. Jackson, portrayed by the character actor Edgar Buchanan. While Cade had traveled the world, and had modern law enforcement training, Jackson had apparently spent most of his life and career in Madrid County. Writers avoided the stereotypical combination of "resistant-to-change veteran" and "newly hatched expert" – Jackson was a capable and competent right-hand man, Cade firmly in control but trusted by his people, who called him "Sam".

Together they fought to maintain law and order against violent miners, cattle thieves and other lawbreakers who, for the most part, would have seemed at home in Westerns set in any era. Cade usually drove a jeep, as many of the roads in his jurisdiction were apparently little more than tracks across the sand.

Several of the characters, including some of Cade's deputies, were native Americans. Another deputy was played by Ford's son, Pete (also the name of his character).

After summer hiatus, Cade's County was replaced in the 1972–1973 fall TV season by a new series titled M*A*S*H. A feature-length movie assembled from several episodes of Cade's County was released in 1991 in VHS format under the title Sam Cade — Marshal of Madrid. A two-part episode, Slay Ride, was released as a television feature film, occasionally broadcast by independent television stations.

The musical theme for the show was composed by Henry Mancini. The title music appeared in an expanded version in the album Big Screen, Little Screen.

Cast

• Glenn Ford - Sheriff Sam Cade
• Edgar Buchanan - Senior Deputy J.J. Jackson
• Taylor Lacher - Arlo Pritchard
• Victor Campos - Rudy Davillo
• Peter Ford - Deputy Pete
• Sandra Ego - Joanie Little Bird
• Betty Ann Carr - Betty Ann Sundown

Episodes

References

• Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows

External links

• Cade's County at the Internet Movie Database
• Cade's County at TV.com