Bat Masterson is an American Western television series which showed a fictionalized account of the life of real-life marshal/gambler/dandy Bat Masterson. The title character was played by Gene Barry and the half-hour black-and-white shows ran on NBC from 1958 to 1961. The series was produced by Ziv Television Productions, the company responsible for such hit series as Sea Hunt and Highway Patrol.
Episode 1
Bat responds to cry for help when a friend's small gambling house is threatened by rival casino owned by Big Keel Roberts. Roberts suggest that he and Bat play one hand of poker, with the winner gaining ownership of both casinos.
Episode 2
A vicious night rider reacts with murderous intent when he thinks Bat is flirting with his girl, pretty saloon girl Molly Doyle. Everyone tells Bat to leave town to save his life but Bat not wanting to be told what to do decides to stay.
Episode 3
Bat wins a herd of cattle in a card game in Laramie and discovers that in order to convert them into cash, he'll have to fight his way past a rancher determined to only allow his cattle to be sold in Cheyenne.
Episode 4
Bat encounters a group of wranglers who are stealing horses. A old flame of Bat's asks him to rescue her current beau, accused of murder and shackled to a tree by a lynch mob led by the slain man's brother who leads the wranglers.
Episode 5
Bat arrives in Silverton, Colorado and gets involved with a crooked fight promoter. He saves the day for a young bareknuckle fighter.
Episode 6
Bat is hired to guide a hunting party to Canada. The sheriff suspects that the three are wanted for robbery and murder but he needs proof. When Bat discovers the truth, he is roped to a tree as bait for the bears by them.
Episode 7
While on his way to break his brother out of jail for a crime he did not commit, Ben Thompson saves Bat Masterson's life, but is wounded in the process. Bat agrees to undertake the hazardous mission of saving Ben's brother from the noose.
Episode 8
When a bully threatens two youngsters if they won't sell the hardware store they inherited, Bat helps. He teaches the man how to defend himself with a gun, but the student shoots his antagonist in the back and then goes after his teacher.
Episode 9
Three cousins inherit pieces of map describing the location of their uncle's buried treasure. Not trusting each other, they hire Bat to guide them to the place where the money has been hidden - a place known as "Worry Hill".
Episode 10
Bat is hired by John Conant to discover if his daughter's fiancée cheats at cards. Bat discovers the crooked card sharp is really a powerful cattle baron who plans to kill Bat before he can tell anyone else.
Episode 11
President Hayes is coming to Dodge City accompanied by General Sherman during an election stop. The Marshal will protect Hayes but he asking Bat to become a deputy to protect General Sherman in a town full of southern cowboys who hate him.
Episode 12
Bat recommends himself to be a wagon guide to cross the desert after a wagon guide is brought in dead with bullets in him. Three wagon trains have been lost that summer to a trail pirate. The woman leading the next train doesn't trust Bat.
Episode 13
When Bat learns that a man sporting a derby and a cane and claiming to be "Bat Masterson" has set himself up as sheriff of Trinidad, Colorado, he immediately rides there to investigate to protect his name.
Episode 14
While leading a trail drive, Bat is confronted at a town by a gang who tries to extort money from him before they allow his cattle to pass. Bat refuses to pay and discovers the gang is backed by the mayor he decides to boot from office.
Episode 15
Pawnee renegade Stone Calf and his braves have taken two white girls captive in a raid. The Army is leaving to back up Custer so Bat is asked to rescue the sisters. He reluctantly agrees to do it when his female friends pressures him.
Episode 16
Outlaw Bailey Harper steals Bat's horse, gun and money. Bailey laughs when Bat tells him he'll get all of his property back. He tells the gambler that no one will help him. Bat's plan is to court Bailey's girl and force Bailey to find him.
Episode 17
Bat sees a poker game break up when a player accuses the dealer of cheating. Bat learns that all the games in town are rigged with the Sheriff collecting a payoff so Bat tries to start an honest game but he is jailed and banned from cards.
Episode 18
A casino owner hires a marksman with money problems to kill Bat to whom he is deeply in debt. When the man's pregnant wife convinces him to renege on the agreement, the casino owner hires two hard cases to force the confrontation.
Episode 19
A gang of river pirates take over the paddle-wheeler Dakota Queen and relieve the passengers of jewels and furs and Bat of $10,000. Bat uses a barrel of rare cheeses to trap the gang's gluttonous leader to recover the items.
Episode 20
When an old railroad boss refuses to pay Bat the salary owed him, Bat decides to work for his competitor. Both men are racing to build a railroad through a canyon. Although behind, Bat has an idea on how to win the race for the canyon.
Episode 21
Bat is cheated at cards by a town boss with the cooperation of the local sheriff. When he meets a brother and sister who were cheated in a land swindle, they three plot to get their money back and bring the crook to justice.
Episode 22
Bat rides to Leadville, Colorado to confront an editor that wrote an article describing him as one of the West's most ruthless gunfighters. The editor learns of Bat's true nature when he defends the paper against a crooked civic leader.
Episode 23
Bat agrees to escort a murder suspect to trial, but he escapes with the help of his girl friend. Bat decides to take the woman to Fort Smith to stand trial for jail-breaking with the hope that he might capture the suspect along the way.
Episode 24
Bat buys a boxing club in Denver. When he arrives he sees that the police have posted "Property Condemned" signs on his building. He soon discovers that the town councilors have plans to raze his gym and erect a casino on the spot.
Episode 25
Two gunmen steal the horses from the stagecoach in which Bat and Lorna Adams are riding. Bat trades his cane for a horse so Lorna can get to Austin to present evidence that will save a man from the gallows but the thieves have other ideas.
Episode 26
Bat follows his favorite tailor to a New Mexico town to order custom made suits. Bat's order is put on hold when the crooked casino owner orders the tailor, a town-leader, kidnapped before he can organize a town counsel to fight his gang.
Episode 27
On his way to build a gambling casino in a boomtown, Bat is confronted by an inept robber - an Austrian nobleman who has been cheated at a crooked saloonkeeper's roulette table who is in love with a dance hall girl.
Episode 28
During a high stakes poker game Bat agrees to accept one-half of a lottery ticket as payment for a gambling IOU. His trouble starts when his ticket is declared the winner but the other owner is found dead without the half of the ticket.
Episode 29
Bat returns to the small mining town Bonanza, Colorado to withdraw his earnings from a cattle drive. He discovers he is dead and buried and his "widow" has probated his will and withdrawn the entire $20,000 from his account.
Episode 30
Bat is undercover to break up a gang of highly respected businessmen in Cheyenne. He has to work himself into their group to be the fall guy. His task becomes dangerous when the only man who knows of his assignment dies of a heart attack.
Episode 31
Bat is kidnapped and asked to become the bank president in a town consisting entirely of former outlaws, because the former crooks don't trust each other. He is to keep the money safe while a blonde beauty handles the books.
Episode 32
Bat is asked by a woman to prevent a false story from being printed in a Cheyenne newspaper supposedly written by John Surratt, one of John Wilkes Booth's confederates for the Lincoln assassination. She says her uncle is dead.
Episode 33
Bat has discovered that John Watson, a bartender, posed as another man in order to sell a scandal-ridden story to a newspaper. After the discovery, Bat finds Watson dead and realizes that his own life is in danger.
Episode 34
Bat is hired to join a man in jail to gain his confidence and help him escape. The hope is the man will lead Bat to a string of black pearls he stole a train's express box. Bat's job is complicated when the man's sister shows up.
Episode 35
Two Dutch treasure hunters search for a legendary Spanish galleon that sank in the Colorado River. Bat attempts to rescue the unwary pair from a desert sandstorm and two crooks who are out to steal the jewels if the ship is found.
Episode 36
After Bat rescues an old gypsy from a brutal rancher, the old man offers him many valuable gifts, including a beautiful girl. When Bat learns she is not a gypsy but found near a wagon train massacred by Indians, he decides to take her.
Episode 37
Bat agrees to substitute for a bully as the leader of a party of buffalo hunters into Indian territory, but the man he supplanted stirs up trouble by killing a Sioux Indian brave and framing Bat for the murder.
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