The 44 hour long episodes (all in B&W) of the adventure series "Riverboat" ran from 1959- 1961 on NBC. If you wanted to see a lot of boats in those days your choices were "Tugboat Annie" and "Riverboat". Set in the 1840's, the title character is "The Enterprise" (a pre-Star Trek version), a 100-foot paddle wheel steamer on the Mississippi River. The Captain is Grey Holden (Darren McGavin) who won the boat in a poker game. Bert Reynolds, fresh off the Florida State University football team, plays the ship's pilot Ben Frazier. Apparently their work together on this series made McGavin and Reynolds lifelong enemies and poor Burt was replaced by Noah Berry (Rockford's dad and Davy Crockett's sidekick) after the first season. The 15 episodes on this DVD release (which is viewable but not of great quality) are a mix of the two seasons and have some notable guest stars. Each episodes title, original air-date, summary, and notable guest star(s) are detailed below.Season #1A Race to Cincinnati: 4 October 1959 Three ruthless men try to block the Enterprise's path so a farmer's crop of peaches will spoil and he won't be able to make the last payment on a valuable plot of land (Anne Baxter). The Unwilling: 11 October 1959 Even though Dan Simpson (Eddie Albert) lost his last cargo, he refuses to give up his dream of building a general store in the West. The river pirates that made $20,000 stealing his merchandise the first time are planning to stage another robbery, in spite of Ben Frazer's precautions (Debra Paget). The Fight Back: 18 October 1959 Seeking cargo for his riverboat, Captain Holden docks in the town of Hampton and discovers that Fowler, the town boss, won't allow the farmers to ship their crops. Desperate for work, Holden agrees to host the wedding of a local townsman. When Fowler's brother dies trying to kill the groom, the boss leads a lynch mob against Holden and his ship John Ireland, Joan O'Brien). Escape to Memphis: 25 October 1959 A woman (Jeanne Crain) kills her brutal husband (Claude Akins) in self-defense and flees her plantation, with the husband's ne'er- do-well brother in pursuit. She takes passage on the Enterprise and meets with an unscrupulous man who has stolen a fortune from his wife and wishes an accomplice to help him evade police pursuit. Witness No EvilA Night at Trapper's Landing: 8 November 1959 The U.S. Army plans to commandeer The Enterprise to launch a punitive expedition against the Indians and avenge the loss of Lieutenant Devereaux (Ricardo Montalban) and his men. Frazer tries to convince the army brass that the local Indian agent and his men are the cause of the Indian uprising. The Boy from Pittsburgh: 29 November 1959 Holden agrees to ship a box full of valuable diamonds, not realizing a pickpocket has already switched the box with the real stones for worthless paste. Complicating matters are a beautiful widow and a young stowaway who wants to become a riverboat pilot. The Blowup: 17 January 1960 A woman (Whitney Blake) with a load of unstable, experimental, gunpowder connives to draw Holden and his men into a barroom brawl and then agrees to bail out the entire crew from jail if the captain will agree to ship her volatile cargo to her father's diamond mine. Path of the Eagle: 1 February 1960 A wealthy but inexperience party of pioneers (Dianne Foster) hire Captain Holden to transport them to Independence, Missouri, so they can join a wagon train for California. One of the group's organizers connives with river pirates to hijack the riverboat and rob the party before they can reach their destination. The Fight at New Canal: 22 February 1960 Charged with building an canal that would shorten the river voyage and avoid rapids, Captain Holden runs into murderous opposition from the freight and stagecoach line that hauls cargo and passengers along the proposed route (Jean Allison). Fort Epitaph: 7 March 1960 In the absence of Captain Holden, Captain Brad Turner takes a cargo of military supplies to an outpost on the Little Missouri River - in the middle of Sioux country and must use the cannon he is delivering to disperse an Indian attack. He discovers the once peaceful Indians have been driven to the warpath by the actions of the fort's commander - a martinet who commandeers "The Enterprise" and its crew to fight the Sioux. The Quick Noose: 11 April 1960 Someone has stabbed the son of Judge Wingate in the back with Carney's knife and unless Captain Holden can find the real murderer, Carney will hang for the crime (Nan Leslie).Season #2The Two Faces of Grey Holden: 3 October 1960When a pretty Cajun girl (Suzanne Pleshette) catches Captain Holden's eye, he's naturally interested in a bit of romance, until he learns that the young lady thinks he is her fiancée, who was killed in a riverboat explosion over a year before. Trunk Full of Dreams: 31 October 1960 Captain Holden fishes a pair of actors out of the river and soon the Enterprise is fitting out to become a floating theater (Mary Tyler Moore). Devil in Skirts: 21 November 1960 Knowing Holden is desperate for a cargo, Colonel Ashley offers a profitable load if the Captain of the Enterprise will agree to take along a woman (Gloria Talbott) his son is smitten with. Listen to the Nightingale: 2 January 1961 Desperate for passengers, Holden and Blake agree to transport an opera singer and her musicians (DeForest Kelley) to New Orleans for a share of her concerts' gate receipts.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

This was a very good series. In each town the riverboat stopped in, some little drama would take place, with crew members getting involved in the local intrigue. The plots were always watchable and interesting, with occasional but excellent humor, and the acting was first rate. Darren McGavin was dashing as the captain (think Kolchak minus fifteen years).Darren McGavin was the star of this series. Yet, on his page, he's credited with being in one episode, and on this page appears not at all. IMDb's television series pages used to be pretty accurate, now a lot of stars show as limited guests on their own shows. What happened?

I remember Darren McGavern speaking some decades later on two talk shows about this series. The series was based on the riverboat freight transport system that operated in the New Orleans and Lousiana area during the late 1800's.Mc Gavern stated on at least two occasions that there was great disharmony among the writers and producers because, he said, the network and the sponsors didn't want any Black people in the show.Rightly so, McGavern thought this restriction stupid, since at that time in that area depicted in the series, the majority of the laborers on the docks and piers were Black and Creole.Then again, it was the late 50's to early 60's and such was the policy of the networks.

I remember that the name of the Riverboat was the "Enterprise". The only episode I can recall is one that involved a young lawyer named Abe Lincoln defending a bridge builder that Capt. Holden's Enterprise damaged. I believe Lincoln won the case. The "Star Trek Enterprise" series left out the "Riverboat Enterprise" in their opening credits when they featured other Enterprises, (sailing ships, aircraft carriers and shuttles, etc.)I always thought it was unfortunate it was left out... Riverboat was a show that I've been trying to recall for some time. I believe that it was on Sunday nights. Will miss you Darren Jerry 2/26/05.