26 Men is a syndicated American western television series about the Arizona Rangers, an elite group commissioned in 1901 by the legislature of the Arizona Territory and limited, for financial reasons, to twenty-six active members. Russell Hayden was the producer of the series and the co-composer of the theme song. The series aired between October 15, 1957 and June 30, 1959, for a total of 78 episodes.
26 Men (Season 2)
The Glory Road (Episode 1)
Air date: 1958-10-07
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A preacher with a past is blackmailed into helping a murderer escape from jail.
Show of a Doubt (Episode 2)
Air date: 1958-10-14
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A green ranger, accused of cowardice by his fellow lawmen, must lead his compatriots in a desperate attack on an Apache camp to rescue a young captive.
Man in Hiding (Episode 3)
Air date: 1958-10-21
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A miner (Harry Shannon) informs the Rangers that a wanted killer is in hiding---but he won't say where.
Cross and Doublecross (Episode 4)
Air date: 1958-10-27
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: The wary Rangers allow an outlaw to lead them to a den of thieves.
The Last Rebellion (Episode 5)
Writer: Samuel Roeca
Air date: 1958-11-04
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: When an Apache inadvertently kills an elderly chief, the Rangers set out to defend him against his Apache accusers.
Brief Glory (Episode 6)
Air date: 1958-11-11
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A meek, hen-pecked bank teller is accused of complicity in a bank hold-up when he is the only employee in the bank when an outlaw gang robs the Bisbee bank. The teller is so taken with the attention and publicity his case is garnering that he refuses to admit that he had nothing to do with the crime. Rynning is convinced of the man's innocence and grants the gang's leader a 24-hour immunity to testify at the man's trial.
Dog Eat Dog (Episode 7)
Air date: 1958-11-18
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: The people of Durando are caught in a power duel between their marshal and their sheriff.
Judge Not (Episode 8)
Air date: 1958-11-25
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A rancher recently released from a mental hospital avenges himself upon the men who committed him.
My Brothers Keeper (Episode 9)
Air date: 1958-12-02
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: When two of his sons return from Cuban POW camps after the Spanish-American War, a rancher decides it's time to reopen a feud between his kin and a rancher who purchased most of his land when he failed to pay his real estate taxes.
Run No More (Episode 10)
Air date: 1958-12-09
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: With only hours left before a hanging, Rynning desperately seeks evidence that might stay the accused's execution. Meanwhile the real murderers threaten the life of the witness whose perjured testimony sent the wrong man to the gallows.
Manhunt (Episode 11)
Air date: 1958-12-16
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A poker game in Nogales, Arizona turns sour when one of the participants is accused of crooked dealing. After the accused shoots the accuser and makes off with all the cash, the manhunt for the perpetrator quickly leads to an arrest - the real killer's identical twin brother. The rangers desperately search for murderer before a lynch mob hangs an innocent man.
The Avenger (Episode 12)
Air date: 1958-12-23
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A young man joins the Arizona Rangers and dedicates himself to becoming a quick draw artist. Rynning learns that the new lawman forged his letter of introduction and is only interested in avenging himself upon the man who killed his outlaw father - Clint Travis.
False Witness (Episode 13)
Air date: 1958-12-30
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: When a wealthy land owner accused of murder can't bribe the circuit judge, he turns to witness intimidation to escape conviction. The judge requests Capt. Rynning to protect those called to testify.
The Torch (Episode 14)
Air date: 1959-01-06
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: When teacher after teach is run out of a small gold mining town, Rynning is order to investigate. His first day in the schoolhouse involves some two-fisted lessons.
Trail of Revenge (Episode 15)
Air date: 1959-01-13
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A murderous escaped prisoner returns to his ranch and finds his wife has departed. He forces one of her old friends to find her while he holds the friend's wife as a hostage.
The Hellion (Episode 16)
Air date: 1959-01-20
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A young man, recently found not guilty of being a thief, is framed for the murder of his girlfriend by a romantic rival.
Ranger Without a Badge (Episode 17)
Air date: 1959-01-27
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A card shark agrees to help Rynning and Travis break up a gang of sheep rustlers.
Showdown (Episode 18)
Air date: 1959-02-03
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: Ralph Kincaid, a wealthy rancher, catches his son, Juro, stealing money from his desk so he can pay his gambling debts and brutally beats him. The next day, the father is found murdered and the evidence seems to point to his son as the killer. During the trial, Captain Rynning discovers incontrovertible that the young man was incarcerated in another town at the time of the murder after suffering from a blackout. The ranger thinks the explanation is too pat, though, and searches for Juro's murderous accomplice.
Long Trail Home (Episode 19)
Air date: 1959-02-10
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A convict breaks out of Yuma prison and offers to help Captain Rynning round up the rest of his outlaw gang.
Death in the Dragoons (Episode 20)
Air date: 1959-02-17
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: Rynning must make a difficult decision when he learns that the woman he rescued is wanted for murder.
Ricochet (Episode 21)
Air date: 1959-02-24
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: Three wild brothers who were driven out of town years ago return to warn the citizens of an impending attack by a gang of outlaws, but their warning isn't believed when one of their bullets ricochet's off a church bell and kills a man.
House Divided (Episode 22)
Air date: 1959-03-03
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A man whose wife was killed during an Indian raid is incensed when his brother takes an Apache woman to be his wife and encourages other Indians to settle in the town of which he is one of the founders. The man takes his racial prejudice so far as to hire a gang of gunslingers to drive the Indians from the town and his brother's wife along with them.
Profane Masquerade (Episode 23)
Air date: 1959-03-10
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: An outlaw's girlfriend convinces her sister, a nun, to lend her a habit so she can travel to Nogales to be with him.
Dead or Alive (Episode 24)
Air date: 1959-03-17
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: Rynning runs into unexpected trouble while investigating a murder.
The Has-Been (Episode 25)
Air date: 1959-03-24
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: The territorial governor orders Rhynning to clean up prize fighting in Arizona. The Ranger captain focuses his attention on Barker, a promoter who offer $500 to anyone who can stay in the ring for four rounds with his champion. The problem is that, while suckers throw their money away betting on the challenger, there's nothing illegal about the promoter's activities.
The Unwanted (Episode 26)
Air date: 1959-03-31
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: The economic recession afflicting Arizona after the Spanish-American War hits the young veterans returning to civilian life the hardest. A young veteran, his sister and three friends try to make a go of farming by squatting on land claimed by other homesteaders resulting in bloodshed. The sister decides to become a dance hall girl to raise enough money for the group to eat with only to find out that the hall's owner is interested in more than her ability to dance the Can-Can.
Live and Let Die (Episode 27)
Air date: 1959-04-07
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: An ex-convict, declared legally dead by his wife when he went to prison under an assumed name, returns to Yuma to kill her new husband, a former partner-in-crime who has reformed.
Trial at Verde River (Episode 28)
Air date: 1959-04-14
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A young lawyer returns home to litigate water rights controlled by a crooked businessman and learns his senior partner has been bribing witnesses to aid the company he is representing.
Scorpion (Episode 29)
Air date: 1959-04-21
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: Ben Haddock, a recently hired trail boss, is fired by Red Emerson for dating his daughter. The two men have an argument over the money owed to the foreman resulting in the Ben shooting Red and taking the money he feels he is owed. Travis rides out to arrest Haddock but is stung by a scorpion and cowhand flees leaving the ranger to die.
The Last Kill (Episode 30)
Air date: 1959-04-28
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: While Travis tries to convince a representative from Washington that Arizona no longer subscribes to gun law, Rynning tries to prevent an ex-convict from exacting revenge upon a Yuma businessman whose perjured testimony sent him to prison.
Redskin (Episode 31)
Air date: 1959-05-05
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A decorated Indian war hero becomes involved with a quack who's selling phony cure-alls after he finds his own tribe will have nothing to do with him.
Cave-In (Episode 32)
Air date: 1959-05-12
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A crusading editor learns that funds for mine safety equipment have been embezzled.
Terror in Paradise (Episode 33)
Air date: 1959-05-19
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: Two saloon girls witness a prominent business man murder his partner. After giving evidence at the coroner's hearing, an agent for the accused tries to bribe them to leave town. When they refuse, the agent hires a gunman to kidnap the women so they can't testify at the trial.
Fighting Men (Episode 34)
Air date: 1959-05-26
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: Rynning offers Vin Carter, Tucson's tough and honest marshal, a position in the Rangers, but Vin turns him down because of his sour relationship with the town's business community. When Carter's fiancée is seriously injured and desperately needs an operation, Vin begins to reconsider his stance on integrity.
Tumbleweed Ranger (Episode 35)
Air date: 1959-06-02
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: Rynning orders Frank Seldom to meet a stagecoach heading from New Mexico to Wilcox, Arizona to ensure its cargo of six lovely mail-order brides arrive unscathed. Seldom has his hands full fending off marauding Apache Indians, crooked stagecoach drivers and an outlaw gang who intends to kidnap the women and sell them to white slavers in Mexico.
The Tiger (Episode 36)
Air date: 1959-06-09
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: When a gang of American outlaws takes over a Mexican border town, Colonel Kesterlitzky aka 'El Tigre' of the Mexican Rurales requests the assistance of Captain Rynning to recapture the town.
Abandoned (Episode 37)
Air date: 1959-06-16
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: One of Kelton's riders reports that his son has been abducted by a group of Apaches led by Cochise himself. Rynning quickly organizes a posse to pursue the renegades, but their rescue mission is dogged by misfortune and, eventually, murder. The rangers begin to suspect that a member of their posse is in cahoots with the abductors, who may not be Indians after all.
Bandit Queen (Episode 38)
Air date: 1959-06-23
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: Rynning and his rangers try to outwit a beautiful, clever outlaw.
Refuge at Broken Bow (Episode 39)
Air date: 1959-06-30
Runtime: 30 min
Overview: A young boy must choose between respect for the law and loyalty to his two outlaw uncles.
