Based on the 1962 film by the same name, the series - How the West Was Won - focuses on the Macahan family, which includes James Arness playing a mountain man, and uncle of the younger members of the family. Eva Marie Saint plays his sister-in-law, who has raised her family alone after her husband was killed in the Civil War. Bruce Boxleitner plays Luke, her oldest son, who is on the run after deserting from the Union Army. The setting is the post-war period, as the family moves West toward Oregon. Although I had seen the movie, directed by John Ford, with an all-star cast that included John Wayne, James Stewart, and Gregory Peck, Karl Malden, Henry Fonda, George Peppard, Debbie Reynolds, Richard Widmark, Walter Brennan, Andy Devine, Agnes Moorehead, Harry Morgan, and Spencer Tracy, I had missed the series, probably because I was busy earning a living and raising a son when it aired, but I have it on DVD now. I've just finished the first DVD in the first season. There are three seasons but, for some reason, the 2nd season is much longer than the first or third. There are six discs in it, and only two for the 1st and 3rd. While the series doesn't have such a renowned cast as the movie, I am liking it so far. When I am through with it, I guess I'll go back and finish the Daniel Boone series. I liked it well enough but that was a long series to binge-watch.
Have seen that movie and what a cast...…..super! I'm a real Western buff anyway. I have a Lone Ranger movie, in color. The Gambler Returns (Luck Of The Draw) that has numerous old tv Western celebrities in it. And, The Magnificent Seven with Denzel Washington. A couple of documentaries: The Sioux Indian Nation and History of the Winchester Rifle.