Seasons
McCord escapes his captors after finding out that the President will be poisoned by a performer at a costume party that night. Jason runs into Ashley and knocks him out, taking his costume and invitation. McCord saves the President in front of most of Washington and his Grandfather, erasing most people's notion that he was ever a coward.
McCord returns to Washington once again only to find himself in the middle of a plot to assassinate the President. McCord discovers the plot only to wind up unconscious and captured by the assassins.
The crisis averted and Custer's political ambitions quelled for now, McCord and Custer part ways as Custer tells his friend he is on his way to a place called Little Big Horn.
Jason McCord is sent undercover by the President to gain information on a potential Presidential bid by General George Armstrong Custer. Because McCord and Custer are old Academy buddies, President Grant hopes that Jason can uncover information on a plot to incite an Indian war that will place Custer in the Oval Office.
A feud between two wealthy and powerful ranchers reaches a new level when one of them (McCord's friend) imports barbed wire from the East and plans to use it to fence in his herd. The other rancher, believing in the open range and gathering up as many unbranded "mavericks" as possible en route to market, sets up a stampede to wipe out the new fence, and who cares about the consequences. Sherry Jackson plays the young daughter of the friendly rancher who takes matters, literally, into her own hands with near-disastrous results.
McCord in awakened by a messenger from President Grant, bearing a bottle of whiskey. McCord remembers a chance meeting during the Civil War with the future President when they were both captured by Confederate soldiers.
McCord happens across a young Indian woman and a dead companion while traveling. He tries to help the women only to run afoul of a trio of wolf trappers, one of whom has taken the Indian as his own. Classic 60's Bruce Dern psycho performance.
McCord is picked up by a group of soldiers who say they will try him not only for cowardice in the deadly Indian raid that killed everyone but him, but for complicity in planning it! However, the action is a ruse set up by President Ulysses S. Grant himself (Grant and McCord's father are longtime Army buddies and Grant believes in McCord).
McCord's skills as a fighter cause him to turn down an offer from P.T. Barnum. Barnum uses McCord's name and the massacre at Bitter Creek as the basis for his new Wild West Show, which irritates McCord. To get Barnum to drop the Bitter Creek reenactment, McCord engineers the merger between the Barnum & Bailey circuses.
Another flashback episode, McCord stops off at the grave of a friend and remembers the incident that brought them together. Both captured by Indians, the Chief makes the coward and the Black soldier fight to the death.
McCord saves a man who claims to have witnessed the massacre at Bitter Creek. The witness agrees to testify to the Army that McCord didn't run out on the battle but something about the story doesn't seem to ring true for Jason.
McCord is paid to survey the newly acquired US possession of Alaska, where he finds evidence of gold and oil in abundance. But others want to steal the report to monopolize the find for themselves.
McCord gets caught up in a land use battle revolvoing around the seemingly orphaned son of an old friend. When the boy's estranged Uncle shows up to take the boy and the land rights he now owns, it's up to McCord to get the boy's Indian housekeeper, Neela, to speak up about her connection to the boy and his father.
A drifter robs McCord,stealing his horse. When he strolls into a saloon looking for trouble, the bandit winds up getting killed. After finding a letter addressed to Jason in the dead man's belonings, the town turns the young man who killed Jason McCord into a hero. That is, until the real Jason McCord shows up and wants his name back.
Description
Branded is an American Western series which aired on NBC from 1965 through 1966, sponsored by Procter & Gamble in its Sunday night 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time period, and starred Chuck Connors as Jason McCord, a United States Army Cavalry captain who had been drummed out of the service following an unjust accusation of cowardice.
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Genres
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CastChuck Connors
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Channel
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Premiere DateJanuary 24, 1965
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Rating6.6 (17)
