| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
| Genre: | Western drama |
| Composer: | Don Costa |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Director: | Bill Bixby |
| Opentheme: | "Oregon Bound" performed by Danny Darst |
| Company: | Universal Television |
| Network: | NBC |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 13 (7 unaired) |
The Oregon Trail is an American Western television series aired on NBC from September 21 until October 26, 1977, except for its pilot episode that aired the previous year. The series was filmed in the Flagstaff, Arizona area.[1]
In the pilot, Evan was recently widowed and remarried. Evan's father was also recently widowed. Beginning with the series, the second wife was too dead; Evan's love interest is now Margaret Devlin. The father character was dropped, and the scout character (Luther Sprague) was added.
Terry Wilson (Bill Hawks in Wagon Train) served as production supervisor on the series, and series stars Rod Taylor and Charles Napier co-wrote the theme song, "Oregon Bound", with singer Danny Darst.
The budget for the series was a reported $380,000 an episode.[2]
NBC cancelled the show after six episodes, but the remaining seven episodes were later aired on BBC 2 in the UK,[3] and the entire series was shown in the UK on BBC1 from November 1977 to January 1978.
NBC broadcast a single, 90-minute pilot episode in 1976. The series then ran 13 episodes during the 1977-1978 season.
On April 13, 2010, Timeless Media Group (TMG) released the show on six DVDs, running 750 minutes. The set includes 14 original episodes, including the feature-length pilot and the six episodes that did not air on NBC.[4]