| Genre: | Western |
| Creator: | Samuel A. Peeples |
| Composer: | David Buttolph |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 26 |
| Camera: | Single-camera |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
| Channel: | CBS |
Frontier Circus is an American Western television series about a traveling circus roaming the American West in the 1880s. Filmed by Revue Productions, the program originally aired on CBS from October 5, 1961, until September 20, 1962. It was also shown on the BBC in England.
The show's setting was the T & T Circus in the late 1800s in the American Southwest. Colonel Casey Thompson, played by Chill Wills, and Ben Travis, played by John Derek, were the co-owners. Richard Jaeckel portrayed Tony Gentry, the circus's scout.[1]
Episodes depicted interactions of circus personnel with each other and with outsiders whom they encountered as they traveled from one town to another via wagon train. (The TV series Wagon Train provided inspiration for Frontier Circus.[2])
Frontier Circus was produced by Calliope Productions, Incorporated, and filmed by Revue Productions, Incorporated. Samuel A. Peeples created the show and was the producer, and Richard Irving was the executive producer. Directors included Don Weis, William Witney, and Sydney Pollack. David Buttolph and Jeff Alexander composed the music.[6]
Interior shots were filmed on the back lot at Revue's studio. Exterior scenes were filmed at a variety of sites in Nevada and California.
Frontier Circus initially was broadcast from 7:30 to 8:30 Eastern Time on Thursdays. In February 1962 it moved to 8-9 p.m. ET on Thursdays. In September 1961 it returned to the original time slot.[7]
Richard F. Shepard, writing in The New York Times, described the initial episode as "a cross between an adult Western and a horse-drawn study of mental cases."[8] Noting that the episode dealt with one lion tamer who was an alcoholic and one who was sadistic, he wrote, "If frontier circuses ran on and on like this, it's small wonder that the rodeo caught on out West."
A review of that same episode in the trade publication Variety commented, "The sawdust-and-sagebrush saga is strictly a potboiler, and its only saving grace is that it doesn't pretend to be anything more."[9] It noted the similarity of the show's concept to that of Wagon Train but added, ". . . the similarity ends where script quality begins. This is pure escape stuff . . .".
Timeless Media Group released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 on April 20, 2010.[10]