The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin

Rusty and his dog, Rin Tin Tin (Rinty), are the only survivors of an Indian raid on their wagon train. The boy and his dog are adopted by the 101st Cavalry at Fort Apache, Arizona, where Rusty is commissioned as an honorary corporal. Throughout the series, Rusty and Rinty help the cavalry and the nearby people to establish order in the American West. == Cast ==

• Lee Aaker as Corporal Rusty "B-Company" • James Brown as Lt. Ripley "Rip" Masters • Rin Tin Tin IV/Flame Jr. as Rin Tin Tin • Joe Sawyer as Sgt. Biff O'Hara • Rand Brooks as Corporal Randy Boone • William Forrest as Major Swanson • Hal Hopper as Cpl. Clark • John Hoyt as Colonel Barker • Harry Strang as Sheriff • Dean Fredericks as Komawi • Mildred von Hollen as Mrs. Barrington • George Keymas as Black Billy • Ralph Moody as Silas Gunn • Tom McKee as Capt. Davis • William Fawcett as Captain Longey/Marshal George Higgins • Morris Ankrum as Chief Red Eagle • Lane Bradford as Barrows • Ernest Sarracino as Hamid Bey • Jack Littlefield as Karl • Dehl Berti as Katawa • Bill Hale as Cole Hogarth • Steven Ritch as Lone Hawk • Lee Roberts as Aaron Depew • Larry Chance as Apache Jack • Charles Stevens as Geronimo • Gordon Richards as Hubert Twombly • Pierre Watkin as The Vet • Tommy Farrell as Carpenter • Harry Hickox as John Carter • Andy Clyde as Homer Tubbs • Ed Hinton as Seth Ramsey • Patrick Whyte as McKenzie • Stanley Andrews as Ed Whitmore • Abel Fernandez as O-ye-tza • Louis Lettieri as Chief Pokiwah • Jan Arvan as Chief Running Horse • William Henry as Bill Anderson Guest stars Robert Fuller appeared as Stan in the 1958 episode "The Epidemic". Harry Cheshire appeared as Silas Mason in "The Misfit Marshal" (1959). Brad Johnson (1924–1981) appeared in the role of John Quinn in the episode "The Iron Horse" (1955). Robert Knapp was cast in the role of Allen in the 1955 episode "The Guilty One". William Fawcett played an elderly marshal in four episodes, including the 1955 episode "Higgins Rides Again". Rico Alaniz appeared twice, as Big Elk in "Rin Tin Tin Meets O'Hara's Mother" and as Don Valdez in "The Invaders" (both 1956). Other guest stars included Roscoe Ates and Dean Fredericks in six episodes. John M. Pickard appeared three times. Others included Ron Hagerthy, Ewing Mitchell, Ed Hinton, Lee Van Cleef and Harry Dean Stanton. == Episodes ==

Development Producer Herbert Leonard got the idea for the show while shooting at the Corrigan Movie Ranch. He had taken his lunch at the Fort Apache set and got the idea for the entire format, but he needed to convince "Rinty" owner Lee Duncan to get the rights. The other dog used was an unrelated dog named Flame, Jr. Due to Rin Tin Tin IV's poor screen performance, the character was mostly performed by Flame, Jr. The show's troupe of twelve character actors was often required to play multiple parts in the same episode, sometimes to the point of one actor fighting himself, wearing a cavalry uniform in one shot and an Apache outfit in another. == Themes ==

As a show targeting the youth audience, it not only displayed stories with action, but also included moral lessons. Actor James Brown explained, "Our stories simply taught that right was right and wrong was wrong." ==Broadcast==

The show ran for five seasons on ABC on Friday evenings from October 1954 to May 1959. ABC reran the series on late afternoons from September 1959 to September 1961. Reruns ran on Saturdays on CBS from September 1962 until September 1964. A new package of reruns was shown in 1976, and continued into the mid-1980s. The original black-and-white prints were tinted sepia with new opening and closing segments filmed in color in Utah. Due to poor scheduling practices of local stations, the rebroadcasts were not successful. Modern syndication includes remastered episodes produced by Cerulean Digital Color and Animation, with lines redubbed for some scenes using actors other than those from the original series cast, with a different generic theme song. == Reception ==

Critics were generally positive, with TV Guide calling it "crammed with action, gunplay and chase scenes," and that it "makes fine viewing for kids and nostalgic viewing for grownups". Variety, however, was much more critical, calling Aaker "precocious" and "not helped by the direction", and that "the dog does nothing exceptional either". ==References==