The Adventures of Jim Bowie
The Adventures of Jim Bowie is an American Western television series that aired on ABC from 1956 to 1958. Its setting was the 1830s-era Louisiana Territory. The series was an adaptation of the book Tempered Blade, by Monte Barrett. The series stars Scott Forbes as the real-life adventurer Jim Bowie. The series initially portrayed Jim Bowie as something of an outdoors-man, riding his horse through the wilderness near his home in Opelousas, where he would stumble across someone needing his assistance. He was aided by the Bowie Knife, his ever-present weapon. He designed it in the first episode, The Birth of the Blade.
Seasons
1. The Birth of the Blade
Air Date: 1956-09-07
How Jim Bowie came to invent his famous Bowie knife
2. The Squatter
Air Date: 1956-09-14
Bowie tries to talk a neighbor out of throwing a couple of penniless German squatters off her land.
3. An Adventure with Audubon
Air Date: 1956-09-21
Bowie assists legendary painter/naturalist John James Audubon avoid French forces that are hunting for him.
4. Deputy Sheriff
Air Date: 1956-09-28
Volunteering as a temporary deputy to guard a prisoner, Bowie comes to believe that the young man may be innocent.
5. Trapline
Air Date: 1956-10-05
A fur company is apparently trying to keep the Cajun fur trappers in line by killing anyone who trades with an independent dealer - like Jim Bowie.
6. Broomstick Wedding
Air Date: 1956-10-12
A trade of horses leads to an angry father mistaking Bowie for his neighbor, the potential object of a shotgun wedding.
7. Natchez Trace
Air Date: 1956-10-19
A group of travelers ask Bowie for help against a rumored highwayman on the trail to Natchez.
8. Jim Bowie Comes Home
Air Date: 1956-10-26
On returning from a trip, Bowie finds that the town near his home has been taken over by a gang of young hoodlums.
9. The Ghost of Jean Battoo
Air Date: 1956-11-02
Bowie encounters a group of farmers who are being duped into paying protection money to an old woman against the ghost of a famous Louisiana pirate.
10. The Secessionist
Air Date: 1956-11-09
Bowie finds that a friend of his has been asked by President Andrew Jackson to try to talk a group of French planters out of seceding from the Union.
11. Land Jumpers
Air Date: 1956-11-16
Just when Jim and his brother try to sell a large tract of land, a Frenchman shows up claiming to have the proper title to the property, which is verified by a local judge.
12. The Select Females
Air Date: 1956-11-23
Bowie encounters the headmistress of a school for young ladies, and she tells him that one of her students has been kidnapped.
13. Bowie and His Slave
Air Date: 1956-11-30
Bowie comes to the aid of a former slave who he had freed, but who has been captured and is being sold again at a slave auction.
14. Outlaw Kingdom
Air Date: 1956-12-07
Bowie goes after a gang of river pirates who have stolen his cargo.
15. The Swordsman
Air Date: 1956-12-14
Bowie runs into trouble when an attractive woman in New Orleans, where he has gone to purchase an estate, turns his head.
16. The Return of the Alcibiade
Air Date: 1956-12-21
Bowie goes after the thief who stole an expensive Christmas gift he bought for his mother.
17. Monsieur Francois
Air Date: 1956-12-28
Bowie comes to the aid of a French boy and his aunt, newly arrived in New Orleans, who are the victims of confidence tricksters.
18. A Horse for Old Hickory
Air Date: 1957-01-04
Bidding for a racehorse to present as a gift to President Jackson, Bowie finds that he is up against Sam Houston.
19. The Beggar of New Orleans
Air Date: 1957-01-11
Bowie tries to help a former champion fencer who has become a street beggar.
20. Osceola
Air Date: 1957-01-18
Bowie comes to the aid of the native Seminoles, whom the army is trying to move from their traditional home to a tract of less desirable land.
21. Master of Arms
Air Date: 1957-01-25
An expert French swordsman sells Bowie a lottery ticket, but then after Bowie wins he decides that the winings should belong to him and comes after Bowie.
22. Convoy Gold
Air Date: 1957-02-01
Bowie tries to get a gold shipment safely through to New Orleans.
23. Spanish Intrigue
Air Date: 1957-02-08
Bowie meets Simon Bolivar, who wants to liberate all of Latin American from the yoke of Spanish rule.
24. Bayou Tontine
Air Date: 1957-02-15
Naturalist Audubon returns to ask Bowie for help in protecting a young girl whose life is in danger after she inherits a fortune.
25. German George
Air Date: 1957-02-22
Bowie goes after the gambler who cheated and then killed Bowie's friend and partner.
26. An Eye for an Eye
Air Date: 1957-03-01
Trying to stop an Indian uprising, Bowie only gets into more trouble after telling a native Cherokee princess the story of John Smith and Pocahontas.
27. The Captain's Chimp
Air Date: 1957-03-08
Bowie goes after a thief who has trained a chimpanzee to climb up through people's windows.
28. Jackson Assassination
Air Date: 1957-03-15
Bowie is duped into helping a group that is plotting the President's assassination.
29. Rezin Bowie, Gambler
Air Date: 1957-03-22
Unaware that it is a setup, Jim's brother wins big and decides to become a professional gambler.
30. Thieves' Market
Air Date: 1957-03-29
When Bowie escorts his young French friend to the notorious thieves' marketplace in New Orleans, they are set upon by - thieves.
31. The Pearl and the Crown
Air Date: 1957-04-05
After a newspaper prints a poem about him, Bowie confronts the editor, who is later found murdered.
32. The General's Disgrace
Air Date: 1957-04-12
Bowie suspects a connection between recent holdups and the heavy gambling losses of a general's son.
33. The Lottery
Air Date: 1957-04-19
Bowie organizes a lottery to help an orphanage, unaware that the men he has hired plan to fix the drawing so that they will collect the winnings.
34. The Intruder
Air Date: 1957-04-26
Bowie tries to help a young burglar who was caught robbing his friend Francois.
35. Country Cousin
Air Date: 1957-05-03
Bowie gets into trouble with his relatives when he cuts his visiting cousin in on a deal that turns out to be a hoax.
36. The Bound Girl
Air Date: 1957-05-10
Bowie resolves to help an indentured servant girl from Ireland, whose unwilling services have been purchased by a mean widower.
37. Bounty Hunter
Air Date: 1957-05-17
When Bowie and his newspaper friend unwittingly help a fugitive from justice, a bounty hunter pursues them all.
38. Gone to Texas
Air Date: 1957-05-24
As if his passport difficulties weren't enough, when Bowie crosses the border into Texas he finds out that someone is trying to kill him.
1. Epitaph for an Indian
Air Date: 1957-09-06
When Bowie goes to his dead Indian friend's home town to deliver the news to his father, he finds that the father has just been shot.
2. Flowers for McDonough
Air Date: 1957-09-13
A wily Scotsman gets the better of Bowie on an important real estate deal.
3. The Irishman
Air Date: 1957-09-20
A indentured servant, whose contract is purchased by Bowie, deludes an innkeeper that he is the master and Bowie the servant.
4. Counterfeit Dixie
Air Date: 1957-09-27
Bowie solicits the help of a former pickpocket and a former horse thief to defeat a gang of counterfeiters.
5. Bullet Metal
Air Date: 1957-10-04
Bowie tries to purchase a lead mine, but the pacifist owner refuses to sell it to him if the metal will be used to make bullets.
6. Quarantine
Air Date: 1957-10-11
Bowie risks his life to recover a stolen shipment of desperately needed smallpox vaccine.
7. A Fortune for Madame
Air Date: 1957-10-18
When Bowie finds that he cannot purchase some land because the owners have just been swindled out of it, he decides to help them recover it.
8. House Divided
Air Date: 1957-10-25
Recovering from a gunshot wound in a fancy mansion, Bowie is asked by a young woman not to identify the person who shot him.
9. The Whip
Air Date: 1957-11-01
While on his way to inform the authorities of a plot to misuse the labor of prisoners, Bowie is trapped in a warehouse and attacked by a whip-wielding stranger.
10. Pearls of Talimeco
Air Date: 1957-11-08
When Bowie and an Indian friend make up a story to send an annoying acquaintance on a wild goose chase, it comes back to haunt them.
11. Charivari
Air Date: 1957-11-15
Bowie becomes suspicious when an elderly man dies abruptly on the night of his wedding.
12. Hare and Tortoise
Air Date: 1957-11-22
Bowie uncovers a plot to increase the value of some land upriver by moving the state capital there.
13. The Bridegroom
Air Date: 1957-11-29
In order to hide from a waterfront gang, Bowie has to pretend to be a prospective bridegroom at a French home.
14. The Alligator
Air Date: 1957-12-06
Inside a doll he bought as a birthday gift, Bowie finds a clue to a homicide plot.
15. Country Girl
Air Date: 1957-12-13
Bowie and his brother's fiancee are duped by swindlers claiming that a relative has been unjustly imprisoned in Mexico.
16. Mexican Adventure
Air Date: 1957-12-20
Bowie and his pirate friend Jean Lafitte, attempting to rescue a U.S. ambassador who has been captured by revolutionary forces in Mexico, take refuge in an inn at Christmastime.
17. Silk Purse
Air Date: 1957-12-27
When a hillbilly puts up his daughter as a stake in a poker game, Bowie goes along with the idea to teach him a lesson, and then decides to send her to a finishing school to become a lady.
18. Choctaw Honor
Air Date: 1958-01-03
When Jim Bowie is robbed, he learns that the man who robbed him is also wanted by an Indian tribe for murder.
19. Close Shave
Air Date: 1958-01-10
An assassin after Bowie kills an innocent man instead, but that doesn't stop him.
20. Pirate on Horseback
Air Date: 1958-01-17
Bowie tracks down an outlaw gang when he finds out that one of them is using his name.
21. Curfew Cannon
Air Date: 1958-01-24
When Bowie and his brother learn that the bank they own in New Orleans is being robbed, they try to keep the thieves from getting away by using the city's signaling cannon.
22. Home Sweet Home
Air Date: 1958-01-31
Bowie learns that foul play may be attempted at a concert arranged by his friend at the newspaper for composer John Howard Payne.
23. Deaf Smith
Air Date: 1958-02-07
Now in Texas, Bowie encounters famous scout Deaf Smith while on the trail of an outlaw gang.
24. Ursula
Air Date: 1958-02-14
While negotiating with Mexican government officials to build a cotton mill in Texas, Bowie is attracted to the daughter of one of them.
25. Apache Silver
Air Date: 1958-02-21
Bowie gets a lead on the location of the lost silver mine of the Apaches, but both hostile Apaches and Mexican officials make it difficult for him to follow it up.
26. A Grave for Jim Bowie
Air Date: 1958-02-28
Bowie comes to the aid of naturalist Johnny Appleseed, who has been captured by criminals who think that the riches in the ground he talks about are buried treasure.
27. Up the Creek
Air Date: 1958-03-07
When Bowie solicits help from his cousin after being swindled by a group of good-natured hillbillies, he almosts gets the poor fellow married to one of them.
28. The Lion's Cub
Air Date: 1958-03-14
Bowie manages to get back across the border into Texas by signing on as an Englishman's valet, but then the pair are attacked by both outlaws and Comanches.
29. Horse Thief
Air Date: 1958-03-21
Bowie almost loses the friendship of the Mexican governor of Texas when an old friend turns out to be a horse thief.
30. Jim Bowie, Apache
Air Date: 1958-03-28
Bowie becomes the blood brother of an Apache tribe whom he believes know the location of the lost silver mine he has been searching for, but discovers that his old friend has done the same thing with a tribe of Comanches who also know the secret.
31. The Brothers
Air Date: 1958-04-04
When young Jefferson Davis wants to join Bowie in his search for the lost mine, his older brother objects and challenges Bowie to a duel.
32. Patron of the Arts
Air Date: 1958-04-11
Looking for an investment for his mother, Bowie considers purchasing artwork instead of another plantation.
33. Bad Medicine
Air Date: 1958-04-18
At the President's urgent request, Bowie guides a doctor to a Choctaw village to cure a sick boy, only to discover that the doctor is an inexperienced youth fresh out of medical school.
34. A Night in Tennessee
Air Date: 1958-04-25
Bowie decides to run for Congress from Louisiana, and meets another frontiersman who did the same thing from Tennessee, Davy Crockett.
35. Bowie's Baby
Air Date: 1958-05-02
In Natchez, Bowie tries to find a new home for an infant who was the sole survivor of an Indian attack, but has trouble with the sheriff.
36. The Cave
Air Date: 1958-05-09
Bowie tries to find out what happened to his cousin's bride, who disappeared on her wedding day after being seen with a hypnotist.
37. Man of the Streets
Air Date: 1958-05-16
Owed a lot of money by a man who has no cash, Bowie makes him an offer for his land in New Orleans, and we learn the origin of some of the street names there.
38. The Puma
Air Date: 1958-05-23
Jess Miller, in Texas to collect some money for his friend Bowie, is mistaken for Bowie by the Mexican army, who try to take him prisoner.
Select an episode to start watching
Rating
3.7/10
Release Date
1956-09-07
Episodes
76 (2 seasons)
Status
Ended
