The Rousters
| The Rousters | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Action / Tongue-in-cheek humor |
| Written by | Terrence McDonnell |
| Directed by |
Dennis Donnelly Joseph Pevney |
| Starring |
Hoyt Axton Chad Everett Timothy Gibbs Mimi Rogers Maxine Stuart Jim Varney |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Editor(s) | John Elias |
| Running time | 1 hour |
| Production company(s) | Stephen J. Cannell Productions |
| Distributor | NBC |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | October 1, 1983 – July 21, 1984 |
The Rousters is a 1983 NBC television series about a group of modern-day bounty hunters who are descendants of legendary lawman Wyatt Earp. Despite advertising claims that this series would "sink The Love Boat" in the ratings, it was canceled in mid-season after only 6 of its 13 episodes had aired, with the remaining shows being burned off during the summer of 1984.
Premise
Wyatt Earp III (Chad Everett) works as a bouncer for the traveling Sladetown Carnival, run by "Cactus Jack" Slade (Hoyt Axton). Wyatt doesn't care for his embarrassing name or the legacy it represents, but his shotgun-toting mother Amanda (Maxine Stuart) wants to carry on the "family tradition" of keeping law and order through bounty hunting.
Wyatt's brother Evan (Jim Varney) has a penchant for con artistry and bungled repair-work; this character is mostly comic relief. Slade's lion-taming daughter Ellen (Mimi Rogers) is dating Wyatt and tutoring his teenage son Michael (Timothy Gibbs).
Episodes
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Production code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Marshal of Sladetown" | E.W. Swackhamer | Stephen J. Cannell | October 1, 1983 | 3000 |
| During a very busy week at Sladetown, Wyatt has to bring down a trio of armored-car-heisting brothers; help a woman find her daughter, who's run away because her mother's drunken boyfriend is physically abusive; put a stop to both an insurance defrauder's bogus claim that he hurt his neck after falling off one of the carnival's merry-go-rounds, and to Evan's own money-making scams; and locate Mickey the lion after he gets loose from his cage. | |||||
| 2 | "The Carnival That Ate Sladetown" | Joseph Pevney | * | October 15, 1983 | 3101 |
| 3 | "Finders Keepers" | Dennis Donnelly | * | October 22, 1983 | 3102 |
| 4 | "A Picture's Worth a Thousand Dollars" | Arnold Laven | Babs Greyhosky | October 29, 1983 | 3103 |
| 5 | "Eye Witness Blues" | Ron Satlof | * | December 20, 1983 | 3112 |
| 6 | "Everybody Loves a Clown" | Guy Magar | Frank Lupo | December 27, 1983 | 3104 |
| 7 | "Never Trust a Crystal Ball" | Barry Crane | Terrence McDonnell | June 9, 1984 | 3105 |
| 8 | "Two and a Half Days of the Condor" | Bruce Kessler | * | June 16, 1984 | 3108 |
| 9 | "Slade vs. Slade" | Guy Magar | Babs Greyhosky | June 23, 1984 | 3106 |
| 10 | "Snake Eyes" | Sigmund Neufeld Jr. | * | June 30, 1984 | 3110 |
| 11 | "Cold Streak" | Georg Stanford Brown | Jim Carlson, Terrence McDonnell | July 7, 1984 | 3107 |
| 12 | "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Twelve of Us" | Guy Magar | Mark Jones | July 14, 1984 | 3111 |
| A band of thieving Gypsies are tossed out of the circus. Evan, Amanda and Wyatt go after them because one of the hubcaps they swiped contains a hidden microchip containing the design of a high-tech toy. | |||||
| 13 | "Wyatt Earp to the Rescue" | Arnold Laven | Jeff Ray | July 21, 1984 | 3109 |
* Unknown