Going over the various shows he’s created, one theme I see Larson returning to is redemption, stories where criminals go straight and sometimes even become crimefighters themselves. The oldest creator credit I can find (if IMDB is right it’s the third thing he did) was Alias Smith And Jones, two bank and train robbers who never shot anybody. When one of their operations goes horribly wrong, Hannibal Heyes (Pete Duel) and Kid Curry (Ben Murphy) agree to the governor’s amnesty plan (as there are more crooks than the law can handle, lesser criminals are granted amnesty if they stay clean for one year). And with the banks and railway companies not on their side they take the names Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones respectively. But can they keep their noses clean?
This is the pilot, showing how Heyes and Curry became Smith and Jones. This is from a time when Westerns were still allowed to be fun and directors still believed in letting people know sunshine existed. Nowadays it’s all dark and gritty unless it’s a comedy. And even some of them. I was never big into Westerns (although like cop shows sometimes an episode grabs me) but nothing about modern Westerns impress me enough to spend time and/or money on them.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/2701#i0,p0,d0
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